Mary Mayo - The Magic of Christmas
I found this album at Musicstack listed for $85 - a dealer was offering the LP and a CD transfer. The cover artwork grabbed my attention but eighty-five bucks? Luckily, this copy from eBay didn't cost as much. Mary Mayo first got started as a radio singer in North Carolina just after the end of World War II. Gifted with a four-octave range, she was spotted by Tex Beneke, who was leading the post-war version of the Glenn Miller Orchestra. While singing with Beneke, she married Al Ham, an arranger and bass player in the band. With the birth of their daughter Lois-Marie (the little girl on the cover), the couple settled in New York. Ham joined Columbia Records and became a producer while Mayo recorded dozens of albums as a faceless singer on "original cast" albums of numerous Broadway musicals. She released a couple of singles for Columbia in the 1950s, but none even came close to the charts. LeRoy Holmes was the house arranger and conductor for MGM Records in the ...