Merry Christmas America From the Radio City Music Hall (Continental CR-1009; 1972)

 

After so far ripping a number of budget Christmas classics--finally, a non-cheap release for the season, and pretty obviously a Radio City Music Hall giveaway.  Either that, or an issue only sold on site.  (Hm--the notes call this a preview.)  Anyway, I thought I'd start with this classy release.  And you know you've always wanted a track featuring the rhythms of the Rockettes, and now you've got one--I refer to Side 2, track 4 (Jingle Bells).

The listings are murder on this one, so I think I'll forgo naming the artists--I'll just stick to the titles. (The mp3 ID thingies have all the details.)  Things start out with a medley called The Nativity, and so we know we're hearing from an era that was less uptight about holiday/religion separation.  Superb musicianship throughout, of course--as we'd expect.  You just know that everything's going to be top-flight in that regard, and it is.

Have fun reading the lengthy notes--something I didn't do, since they're all mostly hype--and enjoy the cool pictures.  Again, this rip is coming on the heels (no Rockettes pun intended) of four cheapie rips (to be featured soon), so the contrast is kind of surreal.  And, speaking of the notes, The Happy Wanderer 1) is not a folk song, old world or otherwise, and 2) is not, to my knowledge, called He Is the Happy Wanderer, and 3) I forgot what else I was going to say.  So, Wikipedia says the text is from (looks like) the 19th century, while the tune was composed following WWII, and all I know is that I got really tired of it as a kid, and that would be either because it was played too often on TV or (more likely) because I had a grade school teacher who insisted on playing it on the school phonograph.  No, wait--now I remember.  It was in high school, in German class.  We probably sang along in German.  But the melody gets old pretty fast with repetition, imo--unlike, say, Jingle Bells.  And when did Happy Wanderer become a Christmas number?  I mean, even if the Radio City Music Hall elects to characterize Santa Claus as a wanderer (not quite the right word), isn't it kind of a stretch?  Besides, Santa knows where every chimney in the world is located--he doesn't need to wander.  ("Hey, why's that sleigh and eight reindeer going in circles?"  "Oh, Santa's wandering.  He might need a few extra nights this year.")

This is a Christmas show "for the whole family," and isn't it funny how it's always "the whole family," and not, say, 9/12ths of the family?  Or half of the family?  "Great music for 1/3 of the family!"  That's a plug we're never going to hear.

Organist Richard Leiber makes an appearance, predictably, and music director Paul Lavalle does the conducting throughout.  The coolest credit is the LP's producer: one Neely Plumb, one-time fake-hits orchestra leader on the budget labels Music Masters and Ace-Hi.  He came a long way in the biz.  Rockettes director is Emilia Sherman.

To the music hall:

DOWNLOAD: Merry Christmas America From the Radio City Music Hall (1972)

"The Nativity" Medley
Nutcracker Suite (Excerpts)
Medley: Oh Little Town of Bethlehem/Deck the Halls/It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
Nutcracker Suite (Excerpt) Waltz of the Flowers
He Is a Happy Wander (Sigismund-Möller)
Medley: Good King Wenceslas/O Christmas Tree--Richard Leibert, Organ
Carol of the Bells
Ave Maria (Schubert)--Solo: Sandra Darling
Jingle Bells (Rhythms of the Rockettes)
White Christmas
Medley: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, etc.

Merry Christmas America From the Radio City Music Hall--The Music Hall Symphony Orchestra and Chorus--Paul Lavalle, Conductor (Continental CR-1009; 1972)

Lee

Christmas blogging begins at MY(P)WHAE!

 

Christmas blogging starts here at MY(P)WHAE--I've heard rumors to that effect, anyway.  Such an amazing holiday, really, and quite old--about 1700 years or so.  And it's presently the biggest shindig on the planet, holiday-wise, with at least two billion people observing it.  Christmas has come a long way.  Humans dig it.

Each "season," I like to point out that Santa Claus, as many of us already know, is quite a composite figure--part Father Christmas, part Saint Nicholas, part Norse god Thor (bright red suit, white beard, tendency to travel down chimneys), part gift-bearing Christ Child (aka, Christkind/l, aka Kris Kringle), and who knows who else?  Well, part Edmund Gwenn, too.  The cool thing about mythology is how it all glops together like a ball of Play-Doh, with no attempt to logically explain all the (at times) conflicting details.  Oh, and Santa's reindeer, far as I know, were originally goats.  None of whom had red-lightbulb noses.

Anyway, hope you enjoy my offerings this time around.

Lee

Current Hits Volume No. 13--Dawn, Please Please Me, My Bonnie, more! (Hit Records HLP 413; probably 1964)

Volume 13, already!  And we're only at the starting point of the Top 40 British Invasion, so you know Hit Records was really churning these things out.  Given that most of these fake hits were rush jobs, they're generally highly energic and catchy--these musicians took their task seriously.  And some titles capture the sound of the originals quite well (e.g., Navy Blue, See the Funny Little Clown), while others capture, not so much the exact sound, but the exuberance of the official hits--I'm thinking especially of the "Jalopy Five" treatment of Fun, Fun, Fun, which I love in this version, despite the slightly rough harmonies and a few stumbles in the lyrics (they fumble "she walks, looks, and drives like an ace, now," for instance).  But it has to be said that the Beach Boys' harmonies were (imo) the toughest to emulate, at least in 1964--even tougher than the classic McCartney, Lennon, and Harrison blend.  And I doubt the Hit Records gang had a generous rehearsal schedule--I'm sure it was more like "Do these.  See you in a couple hours."  Anyway, the Carl-Wilson-imitating-Chuck-Berry opening guitar is memorably faked here.

By far, the LP's most spot-on imitation--perhaps with even more drive than the original, if that's possible--would have to be My Bonnie, possibly my favorite Hit Records fake of all time.  It's a killer cover, and the history of the original is probably known to most of you, but it's worth reviewing: recorded in 1961 in Hamburg, Germany, then released in 1962, making a decent showing on the German charts.  Tony Sheridan is the lead singer, backed by "The Beat Brothers" (guess who). The U.S. co-release, on Decca, didn't do so well, far as I know.  Come 1964 and Beatlemania, the single was reissued on MGM in the U.S., credited to "The Beatles with Tony Sheridan," and it obviously charted well.  (MGM even put out an LP featuring all the Hamburg Sheridan/Beatles tracks, with filler by "The Titans."  A downright budget-label thing to do.)  Anyway, the Hit Records My Bonnie rocks the needle out of the grooves--this version still amazes me, ever since I thrifted my first VG-- thrift copy.

Dawn (Go Away), my favorite Four Seasons track, is given a not-too-shabby treatment here, and while the vocals wobble (weeble?) here and there, the overall production sounds fabulous--beautifully engineered and produced.  Similarly, the other two Beatles tracks (She Loves You and Please Please Me) won't have you mistaking the singers for John, Paul, and George, but in terms of capturing the vitality of the originals, these succeed very nicely.  Compare (if you dare) these versions to the tired-blood fakes featured on the dreadful Palace label LP, Beatle Mash (by "The Schoolboys," to whom Palace simultaneously assigned two other group names!), featured last year in April at this blog.  May I be forgiven in the afterlife...  

The Dave Clark Five's Glad All Over was apparently easier to fake than the Fab Four and BB sides, though the engineers should have added a couple extra layers of echo to make things sound more authentic.  The final two tracks--Columbus Stockade Blues, and Saginaw, Michigan (is that Bobby Russell on the latter?)--are expertly done, and they initially appeared on the Country & Western Hits label, a Spar sublabel, of course.  And this was a gift from Diane, who found a number of Hit Records LPs on the cheap after I'd mentioned my continuing search for these LP comps.  Thanks, Diane!

Oh, and no artist listings on the labels, but it was easy enough to locate the original credits (mostly fictitious, of course) via Discog's section of Hit Records singles.  I included these on the mp3 tags and down below.

DOWNLOAD: Current Hits, Volume No. 13

Dawn (Go Away)--The Chellows

She Loves You--The Bugs

Please Please Me--The Boll Weevils

My Bonnie--The Boll Weevils

Navy Blue--Connie Dee

Stop and Think It Over--Dotty and Dan

See the Funny Little Clown--Bobby Brooks

My Heart Belongs to Only You--Bobby Brooks

Fun, Fun, Fun--The Jalopy Five

Glad All Over--The Jalopy Five

Columbus Stockade Blues--Jack Bond

Saginaw, Michigan--Jack White

Current Hits Volume No. 13 (Hit Records HLP 413;  Probably 1964)

Lee

Hallowed Moments--Ralph Carmichael Choir and Orchestra (Sacred 8010; 1959)

I was a little surprised when I checked into my blog history and saw that I haven't presented much in the way of sacred choir music (save for Christmas).  With this post, I will start on the path to correcting this oversight.  (Whatever I just typed, there.)  And, when you see Ralph Carmichael's name on a gospel LP, you know you're going to hear some superbly professional singing and playing--and that's just what we get on this 1959 effort from the Sacred label.  Spectraphonic high fidelity, no less, from the "world leader in religious records."  The back cover has a little box which explains "Spectraphonic Sound," and I'm sure everyone will be rushing to the scan (included in the zip) to find out more about this fascinating process.

Nearly all of these twelve selections are "standard" hymns--that is to say, no There Is Power in the Blood or He Will Set Your Fields on Fire in the playlist.  More mainline Protestant classics, and all excellent.  The liner notes, however, divide the numbers into three categories: 1) Simple hymnals (hymnals?)--When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, This Is My Father's World, Ten Thousand Times Ten Thousand, and In the Cross of Christ I Glory; 2) Anthems as used on Sunday mornings--All Creatures of Our God and King, A Ballad of the Trees and Master, For All the Saints, and Now Thank We All Our God; and 3) Gospel songs (capital G) with string background--The Old Rugged Cross, Wonderful Peace, Ivory Palaces, and I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say. 

Well, I've never regarded Now Thank We All Our God as an anthem, though For All the Saints definitely qualifies.  But why didn't they do Saints in choir-and-organ hymnbook fashion, following Ralph Vaughan Williams' magnificent setting as written?  A big missed opportunity, there.  The Old Rugged Cross has since graduated to the ranks of standard hymns, though I'm not sure about Ivory Palaces.  Depends on the mainline denomination.  And mainline hymnals are becoming more inclusive by the year, so... And, for some reason, I thought I Heard the Voice... was in our main UMC hymnal, but I guess not.  (Okay, I'm remembering all the way back to my Presbyterian days--it was, and maybe still is, in that hymnal. But with a different tune for the words.)  And I'm sure this internal dialogue is totally fascinating.

Some superb music and singing for the first phase of Operation Post More Sacred Choir Fare.  Nice to have such a distinguished example to start things off.  Oh, and on the MP3 tags I did some corrections on the author/composer credits, which mostly involved including the names of the former (the text writers).  Additions and a couple of corrections.  To the Sunday sounds...

DOWNLOAD: Hallowed Moments--Ralph Carmichael Choir and Orchestra (1959)

The Old Rugged Cross
All Creatures of Our God and King
A Ballad of the Trees and Master
For All the Saints
Ivory Palaces
Now Thank We All Our God
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
This Is My Father's World
Wonderful Peace
Ten Thousand Times Ten Thousand
In the Cross of Christ I Glory
I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say

Hallowed Moments--Ralph Carmichael Choir and Orchestra (Sacred 8010; 1959)

Lee

Pops for America (aka, 18 Top Hits)--Enoch Light, Vincent Lopez, Artie Malvin, and the rest (1956 or 1957)

 

Pops for America--isn't that a snazzy jacket?  (Seriously--it rocks.)  Another used-vinyl gift from Diane, this Grand Award fake-hits comp is kind of an upscale 18 Top Hits.  In fact, 18 Top Hits is (by no coincidence) this LP's subtitle.  In addition, this fancy-looking package uses a stock Waldorf image (the girl and jukebox), but here the pic is better lit and more detailed than usual.  And the border (with its "World's Greatest Music/Art" brags) really adds something in the way of class.  However, this is basically a spruced-up regular release, the tracks all having appeared on 18 Top Hits EPs and various Waldorf Music Hall LPs.  None of which, far as I know, claimed to be the "world's greatest."  But you've got to love the extra care in packaging.

At first glance, I calculated that I'd already posted most of these, but it turns out I've pre-posted fewer than half--44.444... percent, to be exact.  The new-to-the-blog numbers include You Don't Know Me (Bob Eberly), Don't Be Cruel (Loren Becker), Happiness Street (The Brigadiers), and six more.  No individual artist credits, for some reason, but the names were easily tracked down using Discog's 18 Top Hits listings.  And, I should note, even if most of these had been repeats, I'd have posted this anyway, due to the incredibly attractive packaging.

I'm guessing (and it's purely a guess) that our LP hails from 1956 or 1957--it doesn't have a standard Grand Award catalog number, which might mean... mail order, perhaps?  As ever, we get to hear the teen pop hits of the 1950s in much slicker, more pop-conventional arrangements (though, to be fair, at this time the label was gradually moving toward truer-to-r-and-r fakes).  The previously posted Stranded in the Jungle is almost humorous in its contrast to the raw original, especially with the Lawrence Welk style vocals, but there's nothing inherently wrong with big band-style teen pop; and, in fact, Jungle manages to rock pretty effectively, despite the clean-cut sound.  And, again, we're about a year away from Waldorf finally fully giving in to the r&r sound.

The liner notes are the usual why-this-is-a-great-deal type of essay, but we do get priceless info about the top-flight musicians who backed the singers.  Best of all, we learn that the man responsible for those great guitar solos was George Barnes, who had a genuine feel for r&r guitar.  Read the notes (included in the zip) for info on the other big names, all of whom seemed to be having a good time.

And a note about my use of "Waldorf" (and/or "Waldorf labels") as a catchall for Enoch Light's early stuff: There is disagreement between two major discographical sources, Discogs and Both Sides Now, over the (what's the best term?) label order when it comes to Enoch Light.  For instance, Discogs doesn't even connect Grand Award with Waldorf (Correction: It states that GA started out as Waldorf Music Hall--my bad), whereas Both Sides Now lists Audition, Colortone, Command Performance and Waldorf Music Hall as subsidiary labels of Grand Award.  Maybe there simply wasn't any logic or order to this stuff.  It's very possible, since budget labels existed solely to move product by any means possible, which inevitably resulted in a confusing organizational scheme.

Fine, highly entertaining material here, and some of the less effective tracks are actually pretty charming in their less-effectiveness.  I refer, for example, to Jerry Duane's inadequate vocal on Rip It Up and Artie Malvin's spirited but missed-the-boat vocal for Hound Dog (though the cheery, squeaky-clean arrangement is probably the main issue--few songs lend themselves less to Dixieland treatment than this Leiber/Stoller classic, made famous, of course, by Big Mama Thornton and Elvis P.).  Not to knock Artie Malvin, by any means, who often did great work (for instance, When My Dreamboat...).

As for Somebody up There Likes Me (from the Paul Newman flick), it's nice to have the Waldorf knock-off, but it ranks with my least favorite Perry Como hits--and I'm a Como mega-fan.  Just saying.  This version is well done, as far as that goes.

A word on my Sunday posts--I'll be getting back in gear the next Sunday after tomorrow, but I've been feeling under the weather this week, which has me running behind.  That'll happen.

Don't forget--these were all acclaimed by music critics, approved by music educators, and treasured by music lovers.  Just Grand Award's subtle and very humble brand of self-praise.

DOWNLOAD: Pops for America (aka, 18 Top Hits) (Grand Award G.A. 33-POP 5; 1956/1957)

Canadian Sunset--Enoch Light and His Orch.

You Don't Know Me--Bob Eberly

Rip It Up--Jerry Duane and the Rhythm Rockets

Friendly Persuasion--Mike Stewart

Song for a Summer Night--Enoch Light and His Orch.

Don't Be Cruel--Loren Becker

Happiness Street--The Brigadiers

After the Lights Go Down Low--Artie Malvin

Hound Dog--Artie Malvin

Somebody up There Likes Me--Loren Becker With Enoch Light and His Orch.

Love, Love, Love--Rhythm Rockets

Soft Summer Breeze--Vincent Lopez and His Orch.

Stranded in the Jungle--The Rhythm Rockets

Tonight You Belong to Me--Dottie and Lois

Honky Tonk--Vincent Lopez and His Orch.

When My Dreamboat Comes Home--Artie Malvin

The Fool--Loren Becker With Vincent Lopez and His Orch.

When the White Lilacs Bloom Again--Vincent Lopez and His Orch.

Pops for America (aka, 18 Top Hits)--Various (Grand Award G.A. 33-POP 5; prob. 1956/1957)

Lee