Johnny Zell, solo trumpeter on The Lawrence Welk Show--"Heralding Christmas" (1979)

 

I have to thank Johnny Zell for making two of my least favorite Christmas standards likeable, at least in his versions: Do You Hear What I Hear and The Christmas Song (Chestnuts).  I'll have to say that the second title works very well as an instrumental--maybe it's the lyrics which leave me flat.  Well, that's my problem, anyway.  My verdict is not likely to affect the continued popularity of either number.

Because Johnny was with Lawrence Welk, we already know he was top-flight, and, sure enough, he's superb on these tracks.  And we get his wife, Laura, on some keyboard-solo tracks.  These are the usual holiday titles--save, maybe, for Come on, Ring Those Bells, which is (or was?) something of a minor standard, it seems.  A Google search brought up many instances of it.

The notes are by Welk's "Champagne Lady" Norma Zimmer, who of course praises the two musicians.  And they fully deserve the praise--this is some of the most pleasant, easy-listening-y (easy-listening-y?) Christmas music you're going to encounter, and... what the heck is up with Blogger's spell checker?  I just fumble-fingered "Christmas," and instead of bringing up the correct spelling, Blogger offered to search the internet for other instances of my mistyping.  What a right handy feature!  It also underlines words just for the heck of it--some kind of grammar check, maybe.  Would Blogger please stop making changes to itself?  I ask, because the changes never turn out to be useful.

Enough about the (ahem) improved Blogger.  Back to topic, I give this fine effort a solid A for its over-the-top pleasantness, its attractive cover, its fine 1979 stereo fidelity, and for being a trumpet Xmas LP.  Always nice to showcase one of Lawrence Welk's fabulous musicians, too.  He hired the best.  Oh, and Zell utilizes original I Heard the Bells... melody, which I find far more pleasing than Johnny Marks' newer strain.  I've been waiting for the original melody to pop up...

DOWNLOAD: Johnny Zell--Heralding Christmas (Manna Records MS-2065; 1979)

O Holy Night

What Child Is this (Greensleeves)

Away in a Manger

Do You Hear What I Hear (Shayne)

The Christmas Song (Chestnuts) (Torme-Morris)

Come on, Ring Those Bells (Culverwell)

Medley: I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day/Hark, the Herald Angels.../Angels We Have Heard on High

O Little Town of Bethlehem

Silent Night

White Christmas (Berlin)

Heralding Christmas--Johnny Zell (Manna Records MS-2065; 1979)

Lee

Santa and the Touchables/North Pole Rock (1961)--Dickie Goodman

 

Dickie Goodman's records are dumb--stupid at times, even.  They're also hilarious and very expertly done.  Dumb humor is a type of humor, and no one had Dickie's knack for same.  Partly, it was his genius for using song snippets on his "break-in" discs--an early kind of sampling.  It may sound like something anyone with a tape splicer can pull of in twenty minutes or less, but I've heard a number of imitation-Goodman "break-in" discs that simply don't work.  I've heard some that are flat-out terrible.  There was an art to making these things, and Goodman had mastered it.

"The Touchables," of course, refers to the Robert-Stack-as-Eliot-Ness TV series The Untouchables, and the whole plot of Ness (or Press) rescuing Santa Claus from the Moon (where he has been kidnapped by Moon Men) is typical Goodman insanity.  Totally pointless, and little more than an excuse to insert song snippets, but so ingeniously timed and relentlessly silly, it's worth several listens--or more.  I don't know why Goodman's sides are so funny--I'm just grateful he made these things.

DOWNLOAD: Dickie Goodman (Rori R-701; 1961)

Santa and the Touchables--Dickie Goodman

North Pole Rock--Dickie Goodman and the Polar Bears

(Rori $-701; 1961)

Lee

"Dame Get Up and Bake Your Pies," and other holiday hits--Emil Cote Glee Club, 1960

 

This LP of carols, which has no catalog number (just the matrices LNY-12-4536/4537 in the runoff area) was also given to Stroh Brewery employees in 1965, only with a different cover--flashy, but not as mind-bending.   This cover states, "Produced by the E.F. MacDonald Company for Christmas 1960."  And this is my first time encountering Dame Get Up and Bake Your Pies and, oddly enough, my first time finding the popular Boar's Head Carol on vinyl.  I've known the latter forever as part of a piano folio, but it had eluded me on disc.  The other carols include frequently recorded titles like Deck the Halls (it should be Hall--argghh!); Wassail, Wassail; The First Noel; and of course, Silent Night.  

And you've gotta (or should, imo) love the psychedelic jacket and labels, from years before the psychedelic era.  And, really, if you stare good and hard at that kaleidoscopic image, you'll either get dizzy, say "Wow, man!" or both.  It's cool how the track titles were placed in the uppermost circle.

That's something to think about--i.e., the fact that kaleidoscopes predate the era of "Far out, man!"  In fact, Wikipedia reports that "Multiple reflection by two or more reflecting surfaces has been known since antiquity."  So I guess that kaleidoscopes epically predated that era.  A concept which had been going around (pun intended) for a very long time.

So, what about the music?  And the choir?  Both very good, with the pressing not the very best (despite its near-mint condition), but I guess we can't expect a primo pressing on a company give-away (though the classic Line Material sides were superbly stamped).  And try saying "Primo pressing" over and over while staring at this image.  Then again, don't.  Simply thinking about that has my sinuses acting up.  I'll get motion sickness if I keep this up.

I wish the excellent Emil Cote Glee Club had dug out a few more carols along Dame Get Up... lines, but maybe Emil figured that one 👀 title was sufficient.  And a quick check turned up no biographical info for me on Cote--feel free to contribute what you know.  As for the E.F. MacDonald Company, a 1962 New York Times pieces described it as "a sales incentive and trading stamp company with headquarters in Dayton (Ohio)."  And a Discogs entry on the company's record releases has Laurence Olivier in an adaptation of A Christmas Carol.  Far out.

You know, this could have passed for a rock LP jacket in 1967 or 1968...

DOWNLOAD: Christmas Carols--Emil Cote Glee Club (E.F. MacDonald Company, 1960)

O Come, All Ye Faithful

Wassail, Wassail

Boar's Head Carol

Dame Get Up and Bake Your Pies

Good King Wenceslas

Deck the Halls

The First Noel

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear

O Little Town of Bethlehem

Silent Night

Joy to the World

Christmas Carols--Mil Cote Glee Club (E.F. MacDonald Company, 1960)

Lee

Remember Pearl Harbor (Reid-Kaye)--Swing and Sway With Sammy Kaye, 1941

 

Remember Pearl Harbor (Reid-Kaye)--Swing and Sway With Sammy Kaye, 1941

Coming in on a Wing and a Prayer (Adamson-McHugh)

DOWNLOAD

Lee

Christmas record cards, 1948-?--Hawthorne House greeting card discs, Gulf Dealer, Pampers, L&M, more!

 

A repost of Christmas record cards (original post, 2017--links long gone).  All, save for one, are re-rips.  Most consist of slim vinyl records (either 78 or 33 1/3 rpm) glued to cardboard backings, typically given as freebies by various companies.  Exceptions: two greeting card records made by Hawthorne House (the first, Jingle Bells, from 1948), in which case the discs were carelessly (and ineffectively) partially attached to a non-solid backing.  Those were unplayable as is, so in order to have any possibility of getting a rip, I removed the discs and taped them to 45 rpm discs for a solid backing.

As for the postcard-style cards, I taped these to 78 rpms (of the unwanted variety), either temporarily or permanently, to flatten the playing surfaces.  I kind of overdid it on a few of them, with too much Scotch tape--I wish I'd gone the easier route of simply taping the corners.  But maybe I had tried that, and it wasn't enough.  A few of the cards are pretty warped, so maybe the extra Scotch tape was necessary.  Record card saving can get complicated.  Lots of hairy decision-making involved.

I stole the phrase "record card" from one of the Hawthorne House greeting cards, as it serves nicely as a catch-all term for these.  Given the difficulty of getting these things to play, I imagine a lot of record card recipients didn't bother to try--that, or else, they tried, listened to the tonearm skipping across the warped surface, then decided it was the thought that counts.

Scans are included in the zip file--each mp3 has a pic, too.  I think I finally figured out how to attach images ("art") to individual files (as opposed to albums) in my media player.  The trick, apparently, is not to enter an album title.  That way, the player treats each track as an individual one, as opposed to part of an album.  Makes sense.

You'll be hearing the Pickwick Carol Group, The L&M T.V. Quartet, and a host of anonymous choirs.  Sound quality varies from okay to decent, with the 1948 greeting card disc offering surprisingly good, vivid sound.  Oh, and there's a Gulf Dealer disc that was given out by the very gas station we lived next to in Toledo, Ohio--1918 Wayne Street was their address, which means the disc is pre-Airport Highway.  I remember the street name change, but not the year.  Beringer's Gulf Service, it says.  That name, I don't remember, so I dunno if it was still Beringer's when we moved there.  The card is pre-ZIP code ("Toledo 9, Ohio").  I remember the pre-ZIP code days--my dad was a mail carrier at the time.

To the record cards...

DOWNLOAD: Christmas record cards

Jingle Bells--Sommerfield Musical Card (Hawthorne House, 1948; 78 rpm)

Season's Greetings--Your Neighborhood Gulf Dealer (1918 Wayne St., Toledo 9, Ohio)

Frosty the Snow Man; Santa Claus I Coming to Town--Pampers (Free record with one package of Pampers, any size)

Recording of your favorite Christmas Carols as sung by your L&M Quartet (Liggett& Myers, 1960)

Christmas Greeting--A Christmas Medley (Sapphire, 78 rpm)

Santa Claus Is Coming to Town--Photo of two kids in front of Christmas tree

Jingle Bells--Photo of two kids on Santa's lap

Joy to the World--The Pickwick Carol Group (Hawthorne House Record Card; 78 rpm)

Lee