The Singing Angels go to Japan

I forgot I had this.  I spotted it a couple days ago on top of one of my record crates, and I said, "I forgot I had that."  It's a seven-inch Japanese Christmas EP I bought while serving in Yokosuka, Japan, so it must be 1983-ish.  No year given--none I can read, anyway--and I can't read the logographic Chinese characters called Kanji, so let's just call this The Singing Angels in Japan.  It's the worst I can do on short notice.  An on-line translator tells me that "Singing Angels" is "Utau tenshi-tachi" in Japense.

This runs at 33 1/3, so there's about 18 minutes of music.  I can identify all but the last two titles.  If anyone recognizes one or both, please leave a comment.

The arrangements are very good, the stereo sound is nice, and did I mention that I'd forgotten I had this?  Oh, and though this is stereo, we almost got it in mono.  I did a dumb thing and downloaded the update for my VinylStudio software (made by AlpineSoft), and of course it has glitches, one of which is to check the "Mix down to mono" box for me.  I'm not doing it, so it must be the software.  Luckily, I caught it this time before I exported the tracks (another glitch has made exporting an issue, too), so we have stereo.  I prefer my stereo in stereo, anyway.




To the Utau Tenshi-Tachi:  Japanese Christmas EP




Jingle Bells
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
Silent Night
Joy to the World
?
?


Victor KVC-213

Second sackful of singles!

Well, Not all of these are singles.  Actually, only four singles were played in the production of this playlist.  When I'm ripping individual tracks from LPs, I call them "singles," as in single selections, I guess.  I don't know how my mind works.  Anyway....

The Trapp Family Singers, of course, were the subject of the apparently highly fictionalized The Sound of Music.  These TFS selections are from what I deem to be a reissue of their 1953 LP, Christmas with the Trapp Family Singers (Decca DL 9553).  Carol of the Drum, as ever, is the 1941 Katherine K. Davis song stolen in the late 1950s and retitled The Little Drummer Boy--as far as I know, this was the first-ever recording.  It really zips along, and it's the only arrangement I've heard which features three parts instead of two for the female voices.  I've ripped four other selections from this wonderful album, all superb.

Next, and from an actual single, we have Jim (Green Door) Lowe performing two of his own compositions, Santa Claus Rides a Strawberry Roan and Prince of Peace.  Then Carol of the Drum returns, this time by St. Patrick's Cathedral Choir, and from a an actual single.  (I don't tolerate fakes.)  The single and LP came out in 1959, according to every source I've found, but the label says 1958, and I put 1957 on the 45 sleeve, meaning I may have discovered recording-year info at one time that places it at 1957.  If I did, I didn't make notes.  So 1959 it is, with the label telling 1958.  I hope that's clear as crystal.  Two more singles--Larry Kinnamon singing The Miracle of Christmas and Ho-Ho, the latter by Larry himself.  I found no year for this 45 on line, though I found listings for other singles on the same label (Audan), including titles by the Gaylads and Lavinia Lee.  Our single looks to be from about 1961.  You would think, as I did, that Ho-Ho, being the flip side of The Miracle of Christmas, would be about Santa Claus, or at least about the holiday.  Nope.

No year for the Dalton label single featuring Buell Thomas (My Christmas Star) and Jean Doran (Shepherds and Kings), though I'm guessing 1960-ish.  I really like Shepherds and Kings, despite some awkward lyrics, and you'll notice the label was signed by Jean Doran herself.  I like Jean's voice, too, which is very good, though with a slightly weird edge.  But weird is good.  Everyone doesn't have to sound the same.  If we all sounded the same, then we'd... we'd all sound the same.  So there.

One more actual single to come, but first, selections from the superb 1957 Word LP, The Moody Chorale, which feaures... the Moody Chorale.  Coincidence?  The chorale gives us our third Carol of the Drum version, and, like the Trapp Family's, this is pre-1958, and therefore pre-theft.  The best of the three Moody tracks, though, is Handel's And the Glory of the Lord, from (you guessed it) Messiah.  Then three album tracks, the Urania label's 1957-ish Silent Night, featuring Barron Smith at the John Wanamaker Organ in Philadelphia.  Specifically, "the mammoth Wanamaker organ installed in the beautiful and specious Grand Court of the John Wanamaker store in Philadelphia"--Back jacket notes.  Fidelity is superb, and we have our yearly repeat of Ferde Grofe's charming 1934 Christmas Eve.  Here's the Christmas Eve run-down, scanned from the jacket:



Christmas Eve shows up on Youtube, and the poster gives this LP a year of 1956.  Highly possible.

The St. Patrick's Cathedral Choir returns with Carol of the Bells, and the sackful of singles and single selections runs out with Ryan Parrish's Crickett's Christmas.  Crickett is a hound who runs the reindeer--makes them go.  I don't know enough about dogs to know exactly what that means, but I always thought Santa's team was as motivated as any team could be, especially with Rudolph in the lead.  Why is Crickett needed?  And this could get into an ugly chain-of-causation deal, with another character required to get Crickett going, and a character required to get it going, and so on.  "Roll, roll, roll 'em on, Cricket, over the pines and the fields and the swamps and the thickets; Lots of toys for the good little girls and boys; Roll 'em on."  I'm sure Rudolph sometimes wishes he'd never been added to the Santa Claus narrative--new characters are showing up in town every week, itching to outdraw Rudy.  What on earth am I talking about?  To the music....




Click here to hear:  Second sackful of singles




Carol of the Drum (Davis)--The Trapp Family Singers
Shepherds Come a-Running (Polish Carol)--Same
Deck the Hall--Same
A La Nanita Nana (Spanish Carol)--Same
Born Is Jesus, the Infant King (French Carol)
Santa Claus Rides a Strawberry Roan (Lowe-Arbogast)--Jim Lowe and the Dream Dusters, 1956
Prince of Peace (Lowe)--Jim Lowe and Jack Halloran Singers, 1956
Carol of the Drum (K.K. Davis)--St. Patrick's Cathedral Choir, 1959
Miracle of Christmas--Larry Kinnamon w. the Andy Charlton Singers
Ho-Ho (Kinnamon) Larry Kinnamon w. the Andy Charlton Singers
My Christmas Star--Buell Thomas w. Chapman College Madrigal Singers
Shepherds and Kings--Jean Doran, Soprano, w. Chapman College Madrigal Singers
And the Glory of the Lord (Handel)--The Moody Chorale, Don Hustad, Dir.
Carol of the Drum (Davis)--Same
Hallelujah Chorus (Handel)--Same
O Tannenbaum--Barron Smith, John Wanamaker Organ, Philadelphia
March of the Three Kings (Grieg)--Same
Christmas Eve (Grofe)--Same
Carol of the Bells--St. Patrick's Cathedral Choir, 1959
Crickett's Christmas--Ryan Parrish, 1990


Lee

Thank you

I couldn't believe it, and almost still can't, but I'm very grateful.  My pastor called and said a number of blog readers and Facebook people have contacted her expressing concern about me.  About my mental state.  I've been talking suicide with at least one person--about lying down in the woods and not coming back out.  Anxiety has been torturing me even worse than usual for the past week--the holidays are always rough for me.  For anyone with Major Depressive Disorder, really.  And I'm alone this time around.

I thought I was pissing in the wind, more or less.  What could anyone do for me?  And then people take the time to find out who my pastor is and to contact her.  Thank you.  Thank you.

I didn't know people cared that much.  I'm so very grateful for your kindness and your concern.  And your friendship.  It means a lot.

Lee

Rat Pack

On line, where questions pop up when you do a search for something--those questions the almighty Google wants (or expects?) us to ask--there's "How old was the Rat Pack when they died?"  My major wasn't in English, but "How old were the Rat Pack members when they died?" sounds better to me.  After all, they didn't all die at the same age, unless they had a suicide pact going.  I'm not aware that they did.

"How old was the Rat Pack when they died?"  Let me see--three?  Maybe four.  Yeah, I'll go with four.

Ohhhhhh, wait.  Their physical age.  My bad.  Got it.



Lee

finally it's Christmas with the Singing Angels (1977)

finally it's Christmas with the Singing Angels was someone's idea of clever, and that's all that matters.  Don't capitalize anything but the proper nouns--what an artistic touch.  And, heck, why capitalize those?  Why no finally it's christmas with the singing angels?  They didn't have the guts, I guess.

And what's with "finally it's..."?  Finally what?  Christmas?  Or Christmas with the Singing Angels?  It could be either or both.

Fear not--the notes explain "finally": "Your friendly, neighborhood Professional Florist, a Member of The Florists Association of Greater Cleveland, Inc., suggests that, it's about time the Singing Angels made a Christmas Album...and here it is, a fabulous collection of beautiful music forever yours."  And maybe it's, about time, our friendly, neighborhood Professional, Florist, learned to, write.  Or at, least, punctuate.  And why are florists always friendly?  Are they, in fact?  There must be unfriendly florists.  Fawlty Florists.

Anyway, this LP wasn't forever the owner's, else it wouldn't have ended up in a Columbus Goodwill for me to finally get my mitts on.  Such a promising start--what is virtually guaranteed to be a fun version of Leroy Anderson's Sleigh Ride, and it's obliterated by clueless arranging.  I was never a fan of the trumpet whinny at the end, but it makes PBS "Pops" audiences happy ("Trumpet sounds like horse.  Ha, ha"), so what the heck.  And it works when played as intended--namely, trumpet whinny, tonic chord with whip crack.  The end.  Corny but ingenious.  There's no other way it can be done, but here the hotshot arranger has the singers slow down just before a rushed rendering of the trumpet effect, and then the kids do a LOUD unison, pitch-drop "WHOOOOOOOOOAAAA!!!!!" that belongs in a Twilight Zone episode, not a Kitschmas concert.  Maybe this was the moment the previous owner decided this was not to be forever his or hers, and into the "To go to Goodwill" bag it dropped.

Do things get worse?  No, but only because worst has already been reached with that "WHOOOOOOOOOAAAA!!!!!" ending.  Not that the arrangers are in a hurry to atone for their sins.  In the followup track, Coventry Carol, the harmonies are wrong, and I don't know how that's possible.  How to mess them up, I mean.  I'm not simply talking about the usual choral-style dressing up--the progressions of the first four bars are flattened out in a way that would embarrass the least adept, non-music-reading doo wop group of 1953 trying to do Stardust.  The writing is so bad, there's no conceivable excuse.  At least it doesn't end with a "Bye bye, lully, lul-LAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!"  Not sure how they missed that opportunity.

The rest is tolerable, and the arrangement of Let There Be Peace on Earth manages to not ruin this moving standard. Someone must have shamed the staff into erring on the side of respect for the material.  Meanwhile, Winter Wonderland is Barbershop a cappella, and you know I was never in a singing group, despite literally everyone's insistence I have a great voice (my ears don't detect it), because Barbershop always sounds to me like singers drifting on and off pitch.  Just use a dang piano and keep the vocalists on key.  Singers and singing groups always act like they, and they alone, understand how music works, and I'm like, here's the piano and a book of Chopin Etudes--give it your best shot, all-knowing sorts.  Show me how it's done, because I don't know music.  Meanwhile, my respect for Les Brown has dropped 40 elevator floors now that I know he's responsible for the slice of tripe known as We Wish You the Merriest, whose lyrics were hopefully penned by one of his grandchildren, which is the only possible excuse that comes to mind.  The words, to use the term loosely, are the stupidest, the stupidest, the stupidest.  Yes, the stupidest.  I imagine it all started with someone, maybe Les, realizing that "Yule cheer" rhymes with "New Year."  Except that it doesn't.  "Yule cheer"--"New Year."  These jazz folks trashed rock and roll for its idiotic lyrics and repetition.  Okay for them, not for the young kids entering the charts--their charts, thank you.  What's with these younger artists daring to have hits?  We'll sic Stan Freberg on them.  Shame them out of the business.

No, I'm not auditioning for the Grinch's spot this Yuletide....




DOWNLOAD: finally it's Christmas




Sleigh Ride
Coventry Carol
We Need a Little Christmas
Merry Christmas, Darling
White Christmas
Let There Be Peace on Earth
Christmas Was Meant for Children
Winter Wonderland
Caroleer Medley
We Wish You the Merriest
finally it's over

finally it's Christmas with the Singing Angels (SRS 1000; 1977)


Lee