A Christmas Yuleblog

In 1981, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra had a huge #1 hit across the world with their " Hooked On Classics " single. While compiling 1980s music (both Christmas and non-Christmas) for my 20th anniversary CD , I discovered this single on eBay. When it arrived, I placed it on the turntable and gave it a listen - I deemed it not Christmas enough for my CD and it got bumped off the playlist. In two days, I'll be serving up my 2008 Yuleblog Sampler and one of the selections on it was this obscure single I picked up five years ago. That is until I read this from a new member at FaLaLaLaLa.com : Quote from: roje on December 09, 2008, 08:23:17 AM: First-off, I have to admit that having stumbled across this website where there's clearly a true celebration of Christmas music, is most enriching, particularly with our world in its current state. Christmas music is, quite simply put, the exact equivalent of happiness, period. Now, there is a 7-inch vinyl which I hav...

This is the last of three Christmas singles that I had time to transfer, digitally restore, scan, zip, and upload (sounds cruel when it's put that way, huh?). Two weeks ago, Kevin Killion contributed to Otis Fodder's amazing 365 Days project a selection of assorted singles from his college radio days. Among these was the A side of long forgotten Christmas novelty single from 1969. I found the radio station copy you are looking at on eBay earlier this year and immediately began searching for any clues on Rocki Lane, Jerry Gross, and The Gross Group via the almighty Google. There was one website for a Jerry Gross who claims to have been born "with the gift of leaving the body at will." Considering the times and the subject matter of this Christmas single, this very well could be him! Side one begins with Santa Claus stating "I am the oldest and original hippy and I want to know..." Cue Rocki Lane & The Gross Group who sing the rest of the que...

This is the second of three Christmas singles that I had time to transfer, digitally restore, scan, zip, and upload (sounds cruel when it's put that way, huh?). I found this on eBay the very first week of January this year. There was a ton of Christmas music just lying there online with no takers - timing is everything! What caught my eye was the description: "Also included is a letter to prospective radio stations by the artist himself." When the package arrived, I quickly found the letter (dated October, 1987) and read a request to play the record for their radio audiences. The letter also included his home address and phone number. I broke down and called the phone number included - to get the full story of the artist and the song. I only got a befuddled woman who didn't know what I was talking about. I examined the record - side one is the vocal version of the song (copyrighted both in 1984 and 1986) while side two is oddly labeled "Instrumental versio...

This is the first of three Christmas singles that I had time to transfer, digitally restore, scan, zip, and upload (sounds cruel when it's put that way, huh?). I found this on eBay and thought "gee, what a find!" A rare single, a picture sleeve, luscious red vinyl, and in MINT condition! I reached for my Goldmine Christmas Record Price Guide after I had won the auction. What I found was only mildly disheartening. This was originally released by the Manhattans in 1966 (on the Carnival label - Carnival 524). The copy I had won (and what you see before you) is a reissued version on the Star Fire label from 1979. Some quick research tells us that The Manhattans were formed in 1962 in Jersey City, New Jersey. After graduating from high school and serving in the military, the five members won a recording contract with Carnival Records two years later. Between 1965 and 1968, they recorded for Carnival and had five Top 25 singles on the R&B charts. During the m...

Our family weekend in Chicago was a blast - it brought back many great memories for my wife and myself, added new ones to our collection, and a brand new mess of memories with our kids for their folder. As a kid who grew up in the Chicago area, I have memories so thick dealing with Christmas and Chicago radio that you'd need a whole new blog to catalog them all in. WGN-AM (720 on your radio dial) is known as "Chicago's hometown radio station". It began broadcasting its 50,000 watt radio signal in 1924 - on clear nights, its signal can be heard as far away as South America! Even though it pioneered the "news/talk" format long ago, the staggering variety of radio shows hosted on WGN is legendary - sports, news, cooking shows, radio dramas, you name it. Since 1960, Orion (Oh-REE-un) Samuelson has hosted the farm report for WGN - helping the Midwest's farmers with crop prices, hog futures, and other agricultural news. In this day and age of instan...

Whew... give me a second... I'm shortwinded from typing out that title! This Christmas single comes to us from across the pond - a British single that made the rounds back in 1981. Fogwell Flax was (still is) a comedy performer / impressionist whose big break came on the now legendary British kids show " Tiswas " in its final year of 1981-1982. For more on this anarchic, pie-flying, and show, check out " Tiswas Online " Looking at the picture sleeve seen here, Mr. Flax is holding a CB radio surrounded by some of the ankle biters. So that should give you an idea behind the title of "One-Nine For Santa". My first reaction was: "Why did Flax release this CB radio themed Christmas song so late?" By 1981, the CB craze was all but dead in America. Not so in England. Their craze occurred for several years in the early 1980s. There are picture sleeves and there are picture sleeves . You can probably tell which category this one falls into...

This little gem was found on eBay earlier this year. At first, I didn't know anything about it because the auction description was vague at best but the scan of the label is what caught my attention. I placed a bid and did a Google on "CLM Industries". I scrolled down on the first page of results and it came back: CLM Industries - Maker of Toronto and Chicago warning sirens during the Cold War. One was most famously featured in the 1980 film "The Blues Brothers" used as a vehicle mounted PA system. So this record had that going for it. The eBay auction ended without a whimper and several days later I received the record. The flip side was "The Sounds of Christmas" - reprinted from their 1959 Christmas brochure. It sounded very familiar and I began wondering why it did. Earlier this month, our neighbor Lee at his blog posted six Line Material 45s released through the years. And those record label scans he posted looked awfully familiar. T...