"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
6 comments:
Too hard to follow the chain of custody for these tracks, which I guess is how they wanted it.
Ernie,
It was all part of the plot. But it's kind of ironic: Waldorf was probably the classiest budget group, but it used the sneakiest repackaging tactics of all the rack-jobber outfits. Or, at least, the most calculatedly sneaky methods. SPC and Record Corp. of America weren't nearly as organized that regard.
YAY!! A Christmas album featuring the mid-'50's Waldorf Music Hall regulars. Looking forward to listening to this one. Thanks for sharing.
musicman1979,
Sure! It was a slight letdown to discover that all of these selections were re-recycled, but actually, that's part of the fun of "junk" label collecting--the intense detective work involved! And these are marvelous "period" performances, and on a par, quality-wise, with the legit labels. Enoch Light's productions were amazing (even the second, third, or fourth time around!).
That is probably why Enoch Light literally moved onto to bigger and better things with the founding of Command Records at the beginning of the early Stereo era.
Thanks! Looking forward to hearing clearer version of the songs from Christmas Holiday Time as well as the other tracks.
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