A Christmas Yuleblog

A few blog entries ago, I reviewed this album that I originally discovered at Ernie's blog last year. At that time, I announced I had found the STEREOPHONIC version of this album. I then posted a poll at FaLaLaLaLa.com asking one and all whether or not they would love to hear this version. Seven people voted. Five said yes. Two said no. It took me over two hours to get Blogger to post a photo this morning. They knew this album was on its way and did its best to stop it. This isn't exactly the way I wanted to end "Christmas In July" but a promise is a promise. Woody The Woodchuck - Christmas Sing Song (STEREO) Happy listening... Capt

I was originally planning to post a stereo version of " Woody The Woodchuck - Christmas Sing Song " today, ending my Christmas in July celebration. However, the album you are looking might be my vinyl find of the year. It carries much significance because it was much sought after (by me at least), involves our good friend Ernie (not Bert), and in ways crystalizes what our royal highness, the King Of Jingaling, wanted to do when he started FaLaLaLaLa.com . You might be scratching your head wondering what I'm talking about but go with me here... read on and all will be revealed. Ethel Smith was a graduate of Carnegie Tech who majored in music and language (she was fluent in French, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and German) whose talents at the piano led her to movie houses, theaters, then vaudeville tours. Along the way, she worked at department stores demonstrating organs and became so proficient that she strictly played the organ from then on. Around WWII, she tour...

The stack of CDs that I acquired from Ernie's blog late last year is getting smaller and smaller. Here's another one that I'm just getting around to reviewing. From judging the comments related to Ernie's blog entry of this album, this was a well loved album by many in their youth. Back in my youth, there was a radio station in Chicago simply called "FM 100" that played "beautiful music". Remarkably, many of these "beautiful music" stations thrived across the USA throughout the 1960s and 1970s, stocking itself with lush compositions from Jackie Gleason, Ray Conniff, The Living Strings, Percy Faith, and one Hugo Winterhalter. Winterhalter was involved in the music industry for nearly 30 years and was a main purveyor of beautiful music during this time. He also helped several artists along the way: Eddie Fisher, The Ames Brothers, and Kay Starr. This album was released in 1958 and the Winterhalter formula was firmly in place. Or w...

Here's one of my last offerings for FaLaLaLaLa 's Christmas in July celebration. I was going to hold onto this one until Christmas but moved it up since it's so... well... funky! This album was released at Christmas, 1976 on Cotillion Records, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records. This label had an impressive roster of artists that included Jean Knight, The Fatback Band, Stacy Lattislaw, and even the Velvet Underground (before they imploded in the early 1970s). Two of its major finds were Sister Sledge (of "We Are Family" fame) and a three member group by the name of Luther. Take a real good look at who's sitting behind the piano... Yep, that Luther! Each artist listed on the cover above get two tracks each on this album and clearly the best cuts on the album ("May Christmas Bring You Happiness" and "At Christmas Time") are from Vandross and company. However, leave some room for the other artists. John Edwards shines, Willis Jackson ...

Guess where I found this album?  That's right... over at the blog of Ernie (Not Bert).  Please forward all e-mails and comments to Ernie, not ME!  But I digress... Long before 98 Degrees, the Backstreet Boys, N'SYNC. Take 5, and Boyzone... Long before Hanson, The Moffats, Boyz II Men, New Edition, and New Kids On The Block... there was a boy band named for a Mexican soup. Started in Puerto Rico in 1977, Menudo was the biggest selling act in Latin music throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Menudo has had more members than any other band (including the Grateful Dead and the Beach Boys) thanks to its policy of "you're out of the band when either you reach 16 years old or your voice changes". If you think you can handle the full history of this band, click on this Wikipedia link . We wish you luck. This album was released at Christmas, 1983 - six months before they recorded the title track to "Cannonball Run II" (a career highlight for sure) and o...

As FaLaLaLaLa's Christmas In July celebration slowly winds down, I'm offering this special Christmas promo 45 to all those people (like myself) who create annual Christmas compilations and search for those unique sound clips that you can use as a bridge between songs or use them as a stand alone track on the CD. In my opinion, the best year during the entire decade of the 1980s was 1983. "M*A*S*H*" finally went off the air, Stephen King wrote "Christine" and "Pet Sematary", and radio gave us Duran Duran, Michael Jackson, Culture Club, Prince, and a slew of memorable 80s one hit wonders. I'll stop now - I've been known to babble about why this year was the best. The US Government may very well be the largest distributor of Christmas promotional albums and singles of all time. Since WWII and the V-Discs, they have released almost on a yearly basis promos for each branch of the military, VA hospitals, US Savings Bonds, the Post Office, y...

"This is an album I downloaded from Ernie (Not Bert)'s blog last year..." "Here's an album that Ernie offered at his blog late last year..." "My friend Ernie had this album to share at his blog during the 2005 download season..." Pick one of those and let's get going... This is a very interesting album because 1.) where it came from and 2.) I can't find anything online about the artist. Lifted from the very blog entry via Ernie: "The original release is seen above (at Ernie's blog - it might be above or just to the right for my blog), as credited to The Ralph Hunter Choir. The second time around, RCA decided that old Ralph wasn't drawing enough attention so they called it 'Living Voices Sing Christmas Music'.  "And that release spawned a whole series of albums by any number of different groups as Living This or Living That. ... And, oddly enough, the record you see above (at Ernie's blog and, by now,...

There hasn't been a rush of children's Christmas albums this summer. So I decided to unveil this little pink gem. This is our second album that we're offering as part of FaLaLaLaLa 's Christmas In July celebration. This album comes from the good folks at Kid Stuff Records, a label that sprouted up back around 1982 and released strictly kiddie fare for a full two years then prompty disappeared. Strawberry Shortcake, The Care Bears, Masters Of The Universe, and the like weren't good enough for these hardy fellows. They soon began released kiddie records based on video games as well: Missle Command, Asteroids, Yars Revenge, and Pac-Man (whose Christmas album I did share late last year over at FaLaLaLaLa.com). Does anyone know more about Kid Stuff Records? Was it another name or separate branch for Peter Pan Records? How about that label that released all those Caroleer Singers albums back in the day? I don't particularly like kiddie Christmas albums. I ne...

This is another album from Ernie's blog from last year... get use to that statement folks because I have about another 20 albums or so to go that I downloaded from him and yet to review! At first glance, you might think this is a Haight-Ashbury poster and the music within would be classic guitar-driven rock or some trippy acid rock. Then you notice the Santa hat perched atop the title and realize it must be Christmas related and then really begin to wonder. You then listen to the album and hear a choir singing Christmas carols beautifully with no loud feedback or drug inspired songs or lyrics ("Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer" is not about a drunk reindeer, thank you). I give you Thurlow Spurr & The Spurrlows. Thurlow Spurr is a deeply devoted Christian man who has been involved with gospel music since 1959 - the very year he formed the Spurrlows. Performing across the country, Spurr caught the eye of the Chrysler Corporation who needed a group to promote car ...

Here is the next review... Not only is this yet another album I downloaded from Ernie at his blog last year, but I have I been obsessively listening to this album for the past week. I'm hoping that this spasm of typing will get this album out of my system. I fear it won't. It will be like any other addiction - you go cold turkey, it gnaws at you, you crave the fix, and eventually you give in. Up front: This was one of my favorite albums downloaded last year. Now you may be asking to yourself "Who is Pete Fountain?". Others might be asking "Okay, is this a hypothetical question or just a segue into today's history lesson?" In any case, Pete Fountain is one of the premier clarinetists of this or any era. Born in 1930 in New Orleans, Fountain was surrounded by Dixieland from the cradle to his formative years. This was the era of Benny Goodman and Irving Fazola , a New Orleans clarinetist who greatly influenced the young Pete. Fountain quickly de...

An often told joke during the 1950s and 1960s amongst the music industry: First session musician: I'm doing an album next week with Ray Charles. Second session musician: Which one? The blind one or the deaf one?" He's actually the one in glasses on the cover of this album - one of two albums by the Ray Charles Singers that Ernie (not Bert) offered at his blog late last year. The other Ray Charles has had quite a full career. During the 50s and 60s, Ray and his singers put out dozens of albums in their own right while being the house orchestra and chorus for Perry Como - a job they held from 1950 to 1985! Ray also was the choral arranger on the TV version of "Your Hit Parade" from 1950 to 1957 and worked with many famous names on various TV specials such as Bing Crosby, Julie Andrews, Glen Campbell, Bob Hope, Gene Kelly, and Frank Sinatra. If you're still not impressed, here are three facts that prove the other Ray was hip: 1.) He wrote the song...

This is my first offering for FaLaLaLaLa 's Christmas In July - an album that I first learned of there, sought out, and discovered at a vinyl swap meet just last month. It's not the best Christmas album in the world, but there's a lot going on here that make it pretty unique. First, the cover. If you look very closely in the bottom left hand corner, you'll see the signature of Amos Sewell . Sewell was one of the legendary Saturday Evening Post cover illustrators during its heyday along side of J.C. Leyendecker and Norman Rockwell. If only real Christmas get togethers looked this good... Second, the musical director. Henri Rene was born in Germany and trained at Berlin's Royal Academy of Music. During the 1920s, he emigrated to the U.S. where he played in a number of orchestras before returning to Germany in the early 1930s. However, he fled again as the Nazis rose to power and became the head of RCA-Victor's international arm in 1936. After serving with th...

This may come as a shock... but here is an album that I DIDN'T get from Ernie at his blog! Take a moment - let it sink in and we'll proceed... Several weeks ago, I celebrated my 37th birthday and a few of my family members gave me various gift cards to purchase Christmas CDs. They gave up trying to purchase Christmas CDs for me years ago - wonders why... There were several Christmas CDs I wanted to choose... but there were several DVDs that I've had my eye on for quite some time. A good portion of the gift cards went for DVDs and what remained was used for two CDs. This is the first to arrive. About two years ago, I was searching for a specific song (more on the song later) which led me to a fellow Christmas music collector who had it. It turns out it was from this very album. We quickly set up a trade and presto! I had the CD! What I didn't have was the artwork - the trader didn't have a scanner. Luckily, I found a JPEG of the cover online and I had...