A Christmas Yuleblog

In a previous post , I talked about the great website that is FaLaLaLaLa.com and mentioned several of the people I've met there. In today's post, we get to look at not ah-one, but ah-two Christmas cardboard flexis that were submitted by two longtime FLLLL members. The first flexi was posted by Shemp at the Members Share forum of FLLLL. This was downloaded by me on November 28, 2006 at 3:25 PM. Recorded especially for GM employees by GM employees, The General Motors Chorus was established in 1933 as one of the earliest employee activities within General Motors. I'm assuming this flexi was given to file and rank employees as a Christmas bonus. Or perhaps they were played in the background throughout GM lunchrooms and UAW halls at Christmas time. In any case, you get a medley of standard Christmas carols on each side - all accompanied by a lone organ. The voices blend terrifically, the organ isn't too intrusive, and the end result is pleasing to the ear. I...

As far as I can remember, I've always had an affinity for Hawaiian music. Somewhere among my archives is a picture of me in a fourth grade school play where I play an obnoxious tourist flying to Hawaii. If that ever surfaces (think Jimmy Hoffa), I'll be sure to post it... Some time in high school, I began actively searching out Christmas music. I cannot recall what was the very first Hawaiian Christmas music album in my collection but I was hooked, lined, and sinkered onto that genre. I tried to find as much Hawaiian holiday hulas as I could find. When the smoke cleared, it emerged as the largest sub-genre of my collection (until Christmas organ overtook it last year). These sat on my upgrade list for quite awhile until two wonderful people named PDMan (from the FaLaLaLaLa community) and Ernie (of Ernie (Not Bert) ) came through in a big way last year. The first album (pictured above) by the Paradise Islanders was offered by PDMan at FLLLL.com back last December...

Many moons ago, this elegantly lush album was offered at Christmas time at Basic Hip - one of the first vinyl sharity sites. It was a good rip of the mono version of this album, with a good scan of the front cover only. (BTW, they still offer a great deal of rare, exotic, and incredibly strange albums via their Basic Hip Digital Gold service where I picked up the soundtrack to "Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls"!) I searched high and low, both on the Internet and off, to find a copy of this album so I could acquire the back cover or perhaps (dare I say it) a stereo version! Late last November, a member of the FaLaLaLaLa community named PDMan (he was once a program director in radio, hence PD, man!) stunned everyone when he shared a pristine copy of the STEREO version of this album with complete artwork! The "Idol Of The Air Lanes" aka Jan Garber would have been mighty proud. Born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1894, Garber studied music at the Combs Conser...