The One Horse Open Sleigh (James Pierpont)--repost from 2011

Christmas Eve, and no word from Best Buy, which is allegedly transferring data from my deceased PC (the motherboard is "crap," said the tech) to my new laptop.   I'm currently on an ancient Lenovo (c. 1912-1913), and it's taking years to do anything.  But it's an old PC, so I shouldn't speak too unkindly of it.  It's a miracle that it runs at all.  Yes, I feel like tossing it down the bank, but that's my German and Irish blood speaking.

Anyway, on this creaky relic I found a zip file containing my 2011 self-recording (on my Casio WK-3800) of Jingle Bells in its original version.  This version is from the William B. Bradbury tunebook, The Victory (1872; above).  I'd wanted to do a new scan, but this... thing won't allow my Epson to do anything.  It detects the device, but that's about it.  Kudos to the machine for at least knowing that a scanner was plugged into it.

Anyway, this is what Jingle Bells initially sounded like, and I'm glad it was revised.  It's arranged for solo-and-accompaniment, and then for the chorus it goes into SATB harmony.  This raises the fascinating possibility that the chorus was intended to be sung a cappella.  That's my guess.

The chorus presented a music-reading challenge, since (in typical fashion for a 19th-century choral book) the tenor is notated at the top in the treble clef (and meant to be sung one octave lower).  But I soldiered through.  And the outlets in this room lost power a few minutes ago, and I had to flip the breaker switch off and on.  Somebody (or something) doesn't want this post to happen.  (Theremin music: Oooooo-weeeee-oooo.)  Merry Christmas, anyway!

The One Horse Open Sleigh.mp3





Lee

From 2020: A Pickwick, SPC, and Spear Records Christmas!

 So, before I could ask, "What else can go wrong?" my main desktop PC (the one set up for track-ripping, editing, etc.) conked out--and it's currently at Best Buy, getting fixed.  Well, I hope, anyway.  That is, I hope it's a fixable issue.  Naturally, I have yet to receive a progress report...

Meanwhile, on this sluggish but still-working downstairs PC, I discovered a handful of Christmas zips that I had, for some reason, downloaded here.  This is one of those zips, which was twice deleted by Workupload.  At least two repeat tracks, but...

Four Pickwick LP tracks, followed by various 45 rpm singles and EPs.  Now, let us travel back to 2020 (echo: 2020, 2020, 2020, 2020...).

This time, more kiddie stuff, some of it performed by kiddies, including three Pickwick tracks which appeared on both Playhour Records (in mono) and on this two-record set (in stereo):

The Joyous Season was a Pickwick special, by which I mean it was Pickwick at its... Pickwick-est.  Not only are there no artist credits to be found, there isn't even a label name--that is, unless The Joyous Season was supposed to pull double duty as both the set title and the label name.  With Pickwick, any act of cheapness is possible.  By the way, my copy made it to Goodwill with only one record in the fold-out packet, so I guess I could call mine The Semi-Joyous Season.  Miraculously, the single, sleeveless record is in like-new condition.  Except for the missing record, someone took good care of this.  (Maybe they never played it.)

Anyway, we get stereo versions of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Up on the Housetop, and--especially for Bryan--The Twelve Days of Christmas.  All appeared on Pickwick's Playhour label in mono mixes, and I've included the mono mix of The Twelve Days.  What's cool about this is the novelty of hearing a Pickwick children's track in actual stereo, and you can hear how the mono mix gives the voices a more strident quality.  If Pickwick had never issued The Joyous Season, we might never have had the chance to hear any of the group's kiddie efforts in stereo, so... this is cool.  It rocks my world, anyway.  My therapist told me, "Whatever excites you--so long as it's legal."

Next, Spear Records, which Discogs tells us was connected to Spear Products.  Going to Spear Products, we learn that Spear Products was connected to Spear Records.  Going to Spear Records, we learn that Spear Records was connected to Spear Products.  So, going to Spear Products, we... (Somebody stop me... Help!!)  Whew.  And, so, we--or, at least, I--know zilch about Spear Records, except that it was a very, very cheap operation which managed to convince some talented folks to record for it, which only goes to show that there are more talented people than labels to feature them.  Something like that.  The Spear sides are fun and short.  Their 45s were co-released with six-inch 78s in the manner of Golden Records.  Which was connected with Golden Products, which was connected with Golden Records, which was connected with... just kidding.

Spear's choral direction was by Hugh E. Perette, who also recorded for Mayfair and Mercury.  One of his Mayfair sides was Kiddie Konga, on which he backed June Winters (left), who was married to Hugo Peretti, one of the writers of Elvis' Can't Help Falling in Love.  What stories these cheap labels tell.

Then, Laura Leslie--who recorded Baby, It's Cold Outside with Don Cornell on RCA Victor--somehow finds herself at SPC (Synthetic Plastics Co.), recording charming but poorly pressed Peter Pan Records sides like Sleigh Ride, which I really love in this version.  Actually, I love it in any version.  I'll have to jump down so I can combine the label image with text.  Here I go.

What a cool pic label.  And someplace, buried or tucked away in all my stuff, is the cool pic sleeve for this side.  I'll have to swipe the Discogs image and see if I can coax over here, on this side. 

Well, I almost did it.  There it is, directly below.  Note the cruder but fun "period" art.  Then, one of my all-time favorite low-budget kiddie holiday sides, Sing a Kris Kringle Jingle, written by none other than J. Fred (Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town) Coots.  According to the seven-inch Peter Pan 78 I ripped, the singer is Bobby Stewart.  According to the 45 rpm edition, the singer (who gets one or two short solo spots) is Gabe Drake.  I'm going with Drake, because it's clearly the same guy who did the Prom fake-hit version of Rock Around the Clock--the best of the RATC fakes--though this assumes he was actually named Gabe Drake.

Next, La Dee Dah and Love Is Strange.  And what are these two numbers doing in a holiday playlist?

Simple--they were both issued by SPC with Christmas art on the labels.  I have no idea why.  Logic would suggest that SPC simply screwed up, or... that it ran out of regular labels and decided to use a stack of leftover Christmas-themed labels (waste not, want not).  As I'm always saying, the cheapie labels saved money on quality control by not having any.  Very clever strategy.  See labels below.

On Peter Pan, Gabby Dixon and the Crickets (pre-Buddy Holly?) give us When Santa Claus Gets Your Letter, a fairly well known song by Johnny (Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer) Marks.  And I guess I figured that Pickwick had trademarked "Crickets" and all variations thereof (Cricketones, etc.), but I'm looking for order in the cheap-label world, and I already know there's none to be found...

And here are four later (post-1950s) SPC efforts, from an EP whose sleeve art makes me cringe.  I don't know why.  Rudolph is supposed to look cute, but... I don't know.  Something's wrong with the art.  For one thing, he doesn't look like a reindeer.  Maybe that's it.  And did I say post-1950?  Yes, except for the same ol' Johnny Kay version of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, which likely showed up in so many different issues, someone could write a book about it.  Or at least a long chapter in Johnny Kay--a Discography. Kay was the SPC singer with Perry Como's voice but not his looks--he looked more like Johnny Desmond, but with less sex appeal.  Not knocking his looks--Kay had nothing to worry about in that department, but we all know that singing stars need more than excellent pipes if they're going to make it big.  Oh, and Rudolph's Christmas Party may not set new standards for terribleness, but then again... Other than Kay (who, of course, is not credited), the artists on Rudolph are the usual unknown kid singers.  We have to wonder if there was a special musician's union for uncredited artists.  

Then, we hear what I regard as the second-best recording of Carol of the Drum, under its much better known stolen title (not quite sure how to put that), The Little Drummer Boy.  This is allegedly by the Peter Pan Caroleers, but this sounds very recorded-in-Europe, and the choir is simply too good to be Peter Pan regulars.  Otherwise, I can't figure how such a superb rendition would end up on the cheapest of the kiddie labels.  It has a fairly cool picture sleeve.  Well, actually, it's not very good, really...

DOWNLOAD:  SPC, Pickwick, Spear Records Christmas.zip




Lee

Merry Christmas to All: New High Fidelity recordings of popular Christmas Hits (Audition AUD 33-5945)

 

"New High Fidelity recordings," claims Audition (Waldorf).  Well, that depends on our reading of "new."  In fact, all but one of these tracks originally appeared on two 1955 ten-inchers-Christmas Holiday and When Christmas Comes to Our House--on the Waldorf Music Hall label.  And this LP appears to be from 1959, given that Waldorf catalog numbers typically included the two-digit year.  Audition and Colortone releases tend to be from the late 1950s.

And, speaking of Colortone, the Colortone Christmas Holiday Time for Children recycled (re-recycled?) seven of these tracks, and so the sell-the-same-material-over-and-over-again train continues.  (My thanks to dc_animal for alerting me to that release.)  But, it's how the cheapies survived.  As for label head Enoch Light taking songwriting credit, along with Lew Davies, for The Night Before Christmas and Jolly Old St. Nicholas, this was standard procedure across the industry when it came to P.D. material--crediting the arranger or producer, and not the actual author and composer.  In fact, the lyrics for Jolly Old... date back to 1865.  They're by Emily Huntington Miller.  So there.  Meanwhile, Christmas Has Come Again is an old Scandinavian number called Nu är det jul igen.  On this LP, it is presented without an attribution.  Still cool.

The performers include Artie Malvin, Dottie Evans, and (of course) Enoch Light, but for this LP, the credit goes to "The Audition Studio Orchestra and Chorus."  Similarly, for the Colortone LP, the artists are (who else?) "The Colortone Studio Orchestra and Chorus."  But I've listed the actual artists in my sleighlist below, save for those of Winter Wonderland.  I can't trace the source for that recording.  There was an earlier Waldorf release of the number, but it's not the same performance.

Terrific audio quality, but cut-rate vinyl.  Still, a good rip.  And I wish they'd included that all-time classic, Santa Claus Is Flying Thru the Sky, but maybe Enoch had lost the recording rights.  Nope, nope... wait a second.  Enoch reissued it on Fairyland Records (a subsidiary of Corona Records Inc.) at around the same time as this LP, or a bit later.  So, he must have retained the rights.

Anyway, enjoy!

DOWNLOAD: Merry Christmas to All.zip

Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town--The Brigadiers Quartet, With Michael Stewart, and Enoch Light and His Orch.

Frosty the Snowman--Mike Stewart

The Night Before Christmas--Artie Malvin

Winter Wonderland--Unknown

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer--Artie Malvin

Jolly Old St. Nicholas--Michael Stewart, With Enoch Light and His Orch.

White Christmas--Waldorf Music Hall Orchestra and Chorus

Let It Snow!  Let It Snow!  Let It Snow!--Artie Malvin

When Christmas Comes to Our House--Dottie Evans With the Brigadiers Quartet

Jingle Bells--The Brigadiers Quartet and Orchestra 

Christmas Has Come Again--Enoch Light Orch. and Chorus

Lee

Christmas in one key: "Original Music Box Favorites, Volume Two" (Pickwick, 1980).

 

A pleasant group of holiday numbers played on a Regina Style 50 Music Box--from vintage music-box discs, we can assume.  And the fidelity is amazing, and not just for Pickwick--this may have been digitally recorded, especially given the release year (1980).

Howard Brinkman's liner notes are unusually elegant for this label group, even if they're the standard content hype.  Er...  Well, actually, his prose is pretty clunky.  When I first skimmed it, it seemed fancier than usual for a cheap-label essay, but on closer examination... ugh.

For instance: "The idea of authentically reproducing music and other sounds, not just mechanically producing music, is what really fed the phonograph market, not any qualitative preference."  That reads nicely, but it doesn't make much sense.  Of course, Brinkman--who wrote the liner notes for at least seventeen Pickwick albums (mostly rock)--was filling space with words on the back of a Pickwick cover, so we can excuse the nonexistent grammar of that sentence.  But can the early-20th-century public truly be faulted for preferring early sound reproduction, which only provided a rough replication of vocal and instrumental sounds, over the "crystalline voice of music boxes"?

A question we've all struggled with at some point in our lives, I'm sure.

The way I see (or, rather, hear) it is that even a crude reproduction of "real" sound (and I love early 78s to death, so please don't get me wrong) was epically more interesting and exciting than tunes played on a musical comb.  (See below.)

Which is not to dis music box technology--it was pretty amazing as a pre-recording medium.  Regina boxes sounded gorgeous, as this LP demonstrates.  But music boxes couldn't provide the sheer range of sounds, however crudely replicated, that the phonograph provided: singing voices (solo, quartet, choral), bands (marching, concert, dance), and, to an extent, authentic percussion.  As in, sort of'/kind of authentic, at least prior to electrically recorded audio.  Even a horn-recorded cymbal crash gives us a record (literally) of that audio event, whereas the bells, drums, etc. of carousel organs are mere special effects.  And I'm starting to sound like Brinkman...

It's true that, in the beginning, the phonograph couldn't yet match mechanical music for a vivid and immediate musical experience, but it offered a far greater variety of sounds, however muffled.  1905 concert band recordings, for example, sounded more like real concert bands than the fanciest carousel organ could ever approximate.  They were analog: I.e., analogous to the real-world source.  And what the heck am I babbling about?

Music boxes had a gorgeous sound, but it was the same sound from one perforated disc to another.  Also, it would seem from this set of selections that music boxes had a limited range of pitches.  Which is to say, all twelve of these selections are in the same key: F-sharp (or, if we're thinking "down," G-flat).  While ripping these, it occurred to me midway that "Hey, these all sound like they're in the same key."  Because, as I realized upon review, they are.  At first, I used a Youtube Middle C video for a reference tone, and I determined a tritone (three whole steps) difference between Middle C and the key of the Regina.  (I don't have perfect pitch, but my relative pitch is good.)  Plugging in my Casio WK-3800 (which, despite the brand, is a fine synth), I confirmed the key--F-sharp.  Or G-flat.  A weird default key for a music box, but then why not?

It's not a cut on mechanical music devices, which were state-of-the-art tech for their day, to note that the phonograph had more to offer.  Just as TV has more to offer than radio.  Then again, radio has made a comeback by way of internet radio and digital music streams (analogous to radio playlists), so maybe mechanical music will stage a comeback.  The probability seems low, but what do I know?  Hey, that rhymed...

DOWNLOAD: Original Music Box Favorites Vol. One.zip

O Holy Night

Christians Awake

Cloister Bells

Come Hither Ye Children

Under the Mistletoe Bow (Mother Goose Song)

On the Christmas Tree the Lights Are Burning

Holy City

Song of the Virgin Mary

Still Night Holy Night

Monastery Bells

Good King Wenceslas

Skaters Waltz

Lee

"Christmas Favorites," from Promenade. Or, what do MINT SPC pressings sound like?

 

This is complicated.  This four-EP Promenade set, wherein most of the sides are titled Christmas Favorites, is a fascinating hodgepodge of Lord-knows-what-source-LP-or-EP-set selections, with Santa Claus himself (sounding like Art Carney with a respiratory virus) turning up on the A side of the fourth EP to narrate the story of Christmas.  A quick Discogs search failed to reveal the original source for this track--or any of the others.  And, as usual, the audio quality is quite good, for the most part (though several selections are accompanied by annoying hum, which I didn't try to suppress, since doing so detracts from the fidelity), but the pressings are garbage, basically.  I previously described the sound-editing hassle involved, and so I won't say anything more about the hideous, day-ruining, "I'd love to smash these things into tiny particles" frustration I endured.  No point in revisiting that sheer Hades-on-Earth experience.  From which I'll never fully recover, probably.  But no point in describing it.

  
And now Blogger is creating larger-than-usual paragraph breaks. What the...?  It already decided to divert this blog's comments to my gmail account, and after informing me that I had turned off the comment notification feature (I had not).  And, on line, there is an explanation of this action on Google's part.  Essentially, the idea is to inconvenience its users for the sake of "security."  "We'll make this service more secure by not allowing you to utilize it."  I tend to doubt that inconveniencing customers does anything to hamper the efforts of hackers.

Anyway, the topside sleeve/mailing wrapper/envelope, which is for a completely different EP set, was used by the eBay dealer who shipped these mint-in-sleeves records.  And I had to wonder, did the mismatch originated with SPC?  In fact, did this EP set ever have its own sleeve?  Or any sleeve, period?

And, after searching eBay and Discogs, it does appear that these were released without a mailing envelope/sleeve, which seems hugely improbable, but then we're talking about a famously ultra-cheap label group.

Though mint, these discs feature all the pressing flaws we expect from the Synthetic Plastics Company of New Jersey, which I won't go into.  Except to note the following: Loud surface noise at the close of each track, pressing faults which necessitated umpteen file splices to remove, and... so on.  But these are stressors to be removed from my memory.  No point in dwelling on the visit-to-Hades nature of this audio-rescue effort.  So I won't.

But, despite all these things (which I refrained from noting), this is a hugely fun set.  The performances are mostly fine, and as noted above, the fidelity WOULD be terrific if not for the vinyl issues.  And I find these Franken-presentations perversely gratifying.  The let's-just-cobble-something-together aspect of budget collections is kind of endearing, I think.  Yes, the budgets all lied and claimed to offer a superior product, but what's a little truth-flipping?  As far as that goes, what IS truth?  We want to regard truth as an empirically testable feature of the natural world, but it's undeniably also, to a degree, something intangible.  But we won't discuss this.  I don't want to sound like I'm professing any version of, "Reality is simply what we perceive it to be."  Then again, what if that's the case?  But I won't go there...

DOWNLOAD: Christmas Favorites--Promenade EP set.zip

Santa Claus is Coming to Town; Jingle Bells; Adeste Fideles--Promenade Orch. and Chorus

Winter Wonderland--Billy Reed, Promenade Orchestra

Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer; Deck the Hall; Good King Wencelas (sic); God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen; Joy to the World--Promenade Orchestra and Chorus

Home for the Holidays--Frank Moon With the Promenade Orchestra

White Christmas; Silent Night; O Little Town of Bethlehem--Promenade Orch. and Chorus

Nuttin' for Christmas--Bob Stain With the Promenade Orch. and Chorus (originally credited on the Peter Pan single to "Bobby Stewart")

Frosty the Snowman; It Came Upon a Midnight Clear; Away in a Manger; The First Noel; Hark the Herald Angels Sing--Promenade Orch. and Chorus

Sleigh Ride--Laura Leslie With the Promenade Orchestra

Lee

A Christmas without Line Material... cannot be allowed. A re-re-re-repost.

1949 sleeve (above) and disc (below)

My latest re-re-re-repost of these marvelous sides, which are quite probably the best company-giveaway holiday singles of all time.  (That should be a Grammy category...)  Here goes:

Here's info on Line Material , if you want to read about the company.  (Or maybe not, since the site seems to have changed.)  I'm sure there's more material (no pun intended) out there regarding LM, but for our purposes, what matters are the marvelous Christmas sides they produced as giveaways for their employees, starting in 1957 and ending in 1962.  I'm also including a giveaway from 1949, with narration by Jim Ameche, though it's a very standard affair and nothing remotely like the elaborate, joyous productions to come.  Also, their 1956 The Magic of Christmas (kindly donated by Ernie), which isn't all that bad, and which ends this playlist. I didn't want to place it first, since it hardly compares to the 1957-1962 efforts, which were arranged by London-born John McCarthy (1919-2009), best known for his Ambrosian Singers Christmas sides.  I wonder if the superbly professional singers on these 45s are those same folks.  From 1961 to 1966, the Ambrosian Singers were known as the London Symphony Orchestra Chorus, and it's possible their services exceeded the holiday give-away record budget of LM at this point, since the last McCarthy LM side is the 1962 Let's Trim the Christmas Tree.  It could have been recorded the year before.  It's interesting that the Singers' increased status corresponds with the end of McCarthy's services to LM.  I feel bad for all the kids who, after six years of enjoying Christmas giveaway sides of a major-label quality, had to go without.  That must have been a bummer.

These are new rips (note: as of 2019).  I had been reposting my c. 2007 rips, but these should be an improvement, as I used my 1.0 mil mono stylus and VinylStudio declicking.  I've also acquired clean copies of every side but the 1962 title, which isn't all that nicked up--just moderately.  Nearly all its surface noise is no more.

If you haven't heard these before, you'll very possibly be surprised by the stunningly good quality of performance and production.  I consider it highly improbable that any other company's holiday sides came anyplace near these.  Oh, and, "Merry Christmas... from Line Material.  Merry Christmas... from Line Material. (Repeat till fade)."

UPDATE: And the King of Jingaling has the 1956-1962 LM accompanying-book scans here (save for 1957): LM books. Many thanks to Brad!  Happily, the link still current (as of 12/4/2024).

And, last year, Ernie posted the 1964 Line Material release (or the Canadian LM release, anyway) at his blog: The Story of Santa Claus.  Not on a par with the John McCarthy classics, but what is?  Probably a letdown to the kids who grew up on the 1958-1962 giveaways.  (Son or daughter of LM employee: "Where's the 'Merry Christmas from Line Material'????")  Interesting, nevertheless.

DOWNLOAD: Line Material Christmas sides.zip 1949-1962.

Santa's North Pole Band, 1957
The Sounds of Christmas, 1958
The Kinds of Christmas, 1959
Santa's Factoree, 1960
The Day That Santa Was Sick, 1961
Let's Trim the Christmas Tree, 1962

Keeping Christmas--Don Amache, 1949.
The Magic of Christmas, 1956


Lee

Carol of the Little Drummer Boy (repost from 2021)

At the moment, I'm doing a re-rip which has proved to be a tremendous sound-editing challenge. Had I known ahead of time what I was in for, I'm not sure what I'd have done with the four 45-rpm EPs. Tossed them down the bank? Hammered them into small pieces on the studio workbench? Used lighter fluid and a match? (No--I don't want to risk a fire.)  At any rate, they'll serve as an ample tribute to SPC's epic lack of quality control.  Like most cheap label groups, SPC saved on quality control by not having any.  (That'll do it!)

In the meantime (assuming I ever finish that project), a repost of the actual/factual/true/I-took-the-time-to-verify-the-details history of The Little Drummer Boy, which was plagiarized from Katherine K. Davis' 1941 Carol of the Drum--though, the last time I checked, Wikipedia was still getting the story incorrect. It's not rocket science. And, currently, Wikipedia gives the correct background for the number, only it has Simeone "popularizing" it in 1958.  I prefer to call theft "theft."  Or robbery, stealing, snatching, thieving, swiping, appropriating, etc.  Anyway, my 2021 essay:

Above is the original manuscript of Katherine K. Davis' 1941 choral piece Carol of the Drum.  Davis' song was stolen by Harry Simeone in 1958 and retitled The Little Drummer Boy.  As you can see below, Simeone initially attempted to take sole credit for it:

Classy.  Then things got even classier when Henry Onorati, the 20th Century-Fox Records head, decided he wanted a piece of the song, too, and so his name was added to Simeone's.  Now, the various on-line Drum accounts that I've read (say that ten times in a row) tiptoe around the issue in a rather inane fashion, as if reluctant to accuse Simeone or Onorati of theft, maybe because--I don't know--maybe because it might upset people who grew up thinking that The Little Drummer Boy was a 1958 original.  And so they soft-pedal the history.  Not sure.  It could be a case of not wanting to shatter people's illusions.  Or of bowing to common bias.  Or, simply, not giving a holy hoot.

What I do know is that, if you take something you didn't create and treat it as your own creation, you have committed an act called plagiarism.  Period.  It doesn't matter if Wikipedia or some other source wants to pretend that Simeone's record is merely a different version of Katherine K. Davis' song (!!), because suppose you or I decide to take the Beatles' Hey Jude, retitle it Make It Bad, throw in a few original guitar licks, and claim it as our own?  What do you think would happen?  Do you think we'd get co-composer credit with John and Paul?  No, I very seriously doubt that would be the result.

But, I guess, when two musical powerhouses decide to help themselves to someone else's work, it's somehow a different matter.  At any rate, Katherine Davis sued, and she retained partial ownership of the song, though she clearly should have gotten back the entire thing (plus the title).  

To make things less rational, I guess, Wikipedia and other sources seem to be operating under a very weird notion that major changes have been made to Katherine's original work over the years (in the choral realm, that is), but that's utter nonsense, at least when we're talking Soprano/Alto/Tenor/Bass settings.  First of all, four-part harmony is four-part harmony, whether it's sung by four people or forty, and whether it's done in SATB or "close" harmony fashion.  It's true that the Trapp Family Singers' 1951 version utilizes three voices for the women, with the female leads moving in triads rather than in a duet fashion, but I regard the addition of a fifth voice to be an embellishment of four-part harmony, not a new type or texture.  Katherine's setting is the template for all the standard choral versions.  All of them.  Period.

The Trapp Family's 1952 recording is the earliest I (or apparently anyone else) is aware of, and it's clear that, come the late 1950s, the work was turning into a standard holiday choral item, given that it enjoyed at least three 1957 recordings--those of The Jack Halloran Singers, The Testor Chorus, and The Moody Chorale.  Compared to the quiet but lively Trapp version, Halloran's arrangement is something closer to a dirge, and I much prefer a faster tempo.  Both the Testor Chorus and the identified singers on the lone "fake hit" version I've located (which was released by at least three different budget label groups) speed things up like they should, but Halloran's treatment, which was swiped by Simeone along with Davis' tune, is the standard, draggy one.  Maybe that's why so many people pan this Christmas standard--it seems to take forever to get to the "smiled at me" part.  I've included two recordings of the lone "fake" version, one in stereo, and the other in mono, and both mastered at different pitches.  (Not by me, I should note.)

The Trapp Family, of course, was the super-talented group whose story was fictionalized in The Sound of Music.  The true vs. invented details make for some hilarious reading.  By the way, the family's 1952 recording was reissued as a single by Decca in 1959 (left--image swiped from Discogs).  1959 was the year The Sound of Music opened on Broadway, and I'm pretty sure that explains the release.

Anyway, Davis, a profoundly gifted composer whose specialty was choral pieces for children--girls, especially--certainly didn't deserve to be treated like this.  I mean, it must be nice to have one of your works become hugely popular, but not so nice to have to share it with two thieves.

A question that always comes up is how to classify Drum/Drummer--as in, what specific Christmas song tradition does it conform to?  That's easy. Generally speaking, it belongs to the longtime Christmas carol tradition of treating the Nativity as a current event, in a "You Are There" fashion (e.g., Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella).  More specifically, it belongs to the popular "What gift can I give?" tradition--as in, what gift do I have to give the baby Jesus?  The all-time great example of same has to be the 1872 masterpiece, In the Bleak Midwinter: 

What can I give Him, 

Poor as I am? — 

If I were a Shepherd 

I would bring a lamb; 

If I were a Wise Man 

I would do my part, — 

Yet what I can I give Him, — 

Give my heart.

The same sentiment is expressed, in a slightly different way, in Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne, in which the no-room-at-the-inn situation is ingeniously answered:

O come to my heart, Lord Jesus 

There is room in my heart for Thee

And so the drummer boy, who is poor like the Baby Jesus, wonders what gift he can give.  Answer: the drum.  So, the drummer boy gives the baby his drum, and the baby smiles at him.  A lovely touch, and one that appeals to children.  My late foster mother Bev, the English prof, felt that it takes a special genius to speak to children in art.  In this case, that genius belonged to Katherine K. Davis, and not to the two guys who shoved their way into the song credit.

A big thanks to Ernie, who ripped his Jack Halloran track for me from the hard to find Christmas Is A-Comin' LP of 1957, on which Davis is listed as the arranger, kind of ironically.  (The "Arr." part could be a typo--dunno.)  Halloran was the honest guy out of the three.  So, naturally, he ends up as a footnote.

DOWNLOAD: Carol of the Little Drummer Boy.zip

Carol of the Drum (Czech Carol, Katherine K. Davis)--The Trapp Family Singers, 1952
Carol of the Drum (Katherine K. Davis)--The Testor Chorus, C. Dr. Harry T. Carlson, 1957
Carol of the Drum (Katherine K. Davis)--The Moody Chorale, Dir. by Don Hustad, 1957
Carol of the Drum (Arr. K.K. Davis)--The Jack Halloran Singers, 1957
The Little Drummer Boy (Same as SPC and other budgets)--The Broadway Pops Orch. With Featured Vocalists and Chorus (Tiara TST 105, Record 2)
Little Drummer Boy (Same as SPC, etc.)--Unknown choir, from Tops in Pops (Ultraphonic 5020L).

Lee

A single which merits its own post, and with a three-paragraph backstory

 

DOWNLOAD: Bob Ellis 1955.zip--Santa Claus (Bob Ellis) and Bob Ellis Jr., Elector Records MC-1000-45; 1955.

And, wow!  Blogger is now allowing the post-search function.  There's hope for us all.

Regarding the backstory for 1955's Santa's Sleigh, by Santa Claus (aka Bob Ellis) and Bob Ellis Jr., all  can say is... hoo, boy.  Maybe grab a stiff drink before continuing.

Bob Ellis was the stage name of Raymond Asserson, Jr., the great-grandson of Rear Admiral Peter Christian Asserson. Raymond was the fourth husband of Christine "Cee Cee" Cromwell, daughter of American diplomat James H.R. Cromwell and Dodge Motor Company heiress Delphine Ione Dodge. Christine got none of the Dodge fortune when her mother Delphine died in 1943, whereupon it was discovered Delphine had disinherited James H.R. Cromwell (after their divorce, I'm guessing) and anyone related to him, which meant "Cee Cee" and her half-sister Anna Ray "Yvonne" (Baker) Ranger. But it doesn't sound like Christine was without dough....

And, in 1970, Christine survived a plane crash--get the whole story here.

Back to the backstory, this record was made during Bob's (Raymond's) marriage to Christine. when he was co-managing her night club in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. You never know what kind of history is going to pop up behind a thrift and/or eBay acquisition.  And, 

Now, I hate to describe as awful any recording by someone who might be reading this post, however low that probability may be.  In which case, it can come across as a personal attack.  But since Bob Ellis Jr. didn't pen this thing, I'll go ahead and pronounce the melody uninspired and the words terrible.  At this point in his development, Bob Jr. could not sing.  We don't expect expert vocalizing from children, but...

I want to question whether Santa might have changed his mind, after hearing this record, about letting Bob Jr. drive the sleigh.  And an inexperienced magic-sleigh driver?  Sorry, doesn't wash.

Anyway, Bob Ellis makes one terrible Santa.  Any successful SC imitation requires more than a mock-bass voice and echo-enhanced "Ho Ho Ho!'s.  Santa has to sound boundlessly generous.  A less than sincere Santa is a logical contradiction.  A successful Santa is all about giving, not posturing.  Despite the red suit, the fancy sleigh, and so on, Santa is a refreshingly humble icon.  His flashiness speaks to the many legends randomly combined into his person: Norse sky god Thor (bearing gifts at Christmas and entering homes via their chimneys, plus his chariot and goats which fly the night sky), the Christkind or Christkindl (the gift-bearing Christ Child, aka Kris Kringle), Father Christmas, St. Nicholas, and who knows who (or what) else? 

This is one of the perfect holiday novelties.  How can I be sure?  Because I don't know whether I'm doing a service or disservice to the celebration.  Probably both.  Thus, the ideal novelty!

And why is Santa's Sleigh placed in quotes on the B side?  I have no idea.  For that matter, why isn't the name of the label (Elector) on the label?  Which is where we'd logically expect to find it.  These are the questions which haunt us as we hike through life, tripping over fallen branches and random rocks.

Lee

Parade Christmas Sampler

 

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Well, if I have to check online to see my comments, no problem.  Meanwhile, in addition to sending me that weird message (that I had somehow, in some neighboring multiverse, disabled comment moderation) and the accountably revised Comments Setting page, the post search feature isn't even working!  When Blogger goes belly up, it sets new standards.

By/on request, Parade's Christmas Sampler, a collection which ironically (and vividly) offers, more than anything else, a sampling of SPC's policy of ineptitude.  I mean, what can we say about a sampler that doesn't even identify the performers, beyond showing some album jackets on the front?  Is the goal to promote SPC's stable of artists by not naming them?  All told, this promo item is a splendid example of standard rack-jobber inattention to detail.  Worker #3: "This isn't ready for release."  SPC supervisor: "Don't worry about it.  Just get this to the racks."

I didn't go to the trouble of guessing the artists, save for Perry Como-soundalike Johnny Kay, who was re-re-re-re-released for something close to eternity across both SPC and other budget lines (in any word-association exercise, "Johnny Kay" would have to be answered with, "Shameless recycling."  If Johnny's contract called for a check every time his material was reused (and fake-stereo-ized, retitled, reattributed, etc.), he'd have been one wealthy person.  But, somehow, I doubt this...

So, cute concept.  With an artist listing, this might have more closely resembled an actual LP.  "Come, check out these tracks.  But we're not about to disclose the artists behind them.  Just buy anything with 'Parade' stamped on it."

Of course, I'm simply assuming that this post will actually post.  At the moment, I can't be certain of anything, Blogger-wise. As for Microbrain's Support person's suggestion (re my OneDrive cloud service), I don't see how I can possibly be utilizing "any company's main office network" (VPN?) by signing onto MY OneDrive account and linking to MY files.  I'm living in a 19th-century farmhouse in the middle of rural central Ohio.  It's not as if I'm anywhere close to downtown Columbus.

 

DOWNLOAD: Parade Christmas Sampler.zip

O Come All Ye Faithful
The Night Before Christmas
White Christmas
I Heard the Bells (Longfellow-Marks)
Jingle Bells
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Away in the Manger
When Santa Claus Gets Your Letter
Hallelujah
Every Valley Shall Be Exalted
As With Gladness
Joy to the World
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
The Twelve Days of Christmas

Parade Christmas Sampler (Parade XSP-419)

Lee

Beyond human belief

 Along with Microsoft Support providing incomprehensible instructions re OneDrive (the techs seem to think I'm using an improper VPN, a concept I barely understand), I've suddenly been alerted by Blogger that I have shut off comment notifications.  I DID NOT SHUT OFF this feature.  But, just off the bat, suddenly a "You have shut off this feature" notification.  What the heck?  Did I do this during a shot period of lost time?

Attempting to adhere to the useless online instructions, I am unable to access options allegedly contained within my settings.  Those options are NOT THERE.

I'm utterly confused.  Is this just another Blogger We-forgot-how-to-keep-this-service-going software snafu?

What SHOULD I be seeing in the Settings section in regard to comments?  And why is at least one useless online tutorial referring to the Settings icon as Options?  Is Google not familiar with its own programs?  Frankly, this wouldn't surprise me.  (At this point, I'm confusing MS with Google.  A mind is a terrible thing to lose.)

Lee

Confusion reigns with my file-sharing service

 Greetings.  Please let me know if you're able to successfully download my two recent zips.  I have set them to "view only" for the OneDrive sharing link, but OneDrive is telling me that neither zip has yet been shared.  (????)

Still working out issues with OneDrive.  Microsoft Support wants me to share by email only, but that's ridiculous--I should be able to share with whomever, a la a blog link.  An option possible at my online OneDrive, and which thus should present no problems.  But there's that word: "should."

The online/VPN? file links are set by default to "edit" status, so that anyone with the link can edit the file.  However, this option is easily changed, as noted, to "view only."  Thus my links are view-only.  Which should avoid any security issues.

I get the distinct impression that Microsoft Support has failed to understand the circumstances at hand.  Namely, while I can share from the VPN (?), or the online version of the cloud, I cannot mass-share from my personal OneDrive.  This is what I conveyed to M., but so far their instructions aren't consistent with what I'm trying to accomplish.

And I'm not about to collect 200-plus email addresses for file sharing.  Excuse me, please, while I scream.  (AIEEEEEE!!!!!!)  Thanks.  I'm better now.  I mean, is the concept of sharing from a site/page/blog/etc. a new one to Microsoft??

Lee