A Christmas Yuleblog

Dear readers of the yuleblog, For the past few months, my somewhat usual schedule has been turned up, down, and every which way but Saturday. This can be attributed to a great number of reasons (stay-at-home dad duties, school activities with the kids, involved with several theater productions, travelling between Chicago and Cincinnati to watch the Cubs play great baseball) that has pulled my focus away from the computer. In late March, I reached my peak and was posting two reviews a day. Since the beginning of April, my daily output here has trickled to an anemic one post a week. How bad has it gotten? We've now reached mid-September - the month I usually have reserved to create and produce my annual Christmas CD for family and friends for the past nine years - and I'm two weeks behind in that regard as well. I still have about 100+ albums that I downloaded last year that I haven't reviewed (or even burned and added to my permanent collection). I have approxima...

At first glance of this album cover, the gentlemen seated on the couch looks more like a high school principal or shop teacher than a world renowned orchestra leader. Nevertheless, these two fantastic offerings were presented last year at Ernie (not Bert)'s blog within a two day span of time. I juggled my schedule of downloads around a tad bit to feature both on the same day. Today is Mr. Swing And Sway Day! The first album, " Christmas Day With Sammy Kaye ", was offered on November 25, 2006. It was originally released at Christmas, 1960 by Decca Records. The second "album" (pictured to the right) is actually a collection of 45 singles from 1951 and boxed up in a festive cover entitled " Christmas Serenade " by Columbia Records. Not bad for a guy who received a degree in civil engineering while playing in small time bands throughout college. After Sammy left college with his degree, he found his true calling in music. He quickly began h...

From an infamous Kermit Schaefer blooper: "While our game is being temporarily delayed, let us listen to our organist in the center field stands as he entertains you while diddling on his organ." Back on November 26, 2006, our friend Ernie posted this one at his blog under the title "Better Layton Than Ever". After downloading this and having the album sit on my hard drive for nearly a year, I'm finally listening to it and writing about it! And after doing some quick research on Eddie Layton, I'm ready to play ball! Layton was born in Philadelphia in 1925, studied music as a child, and was studying meteorology in college when World War II broke out. Enlisting in the U.S. Navy, Eddie was assigned to the Naval Air Station in Lindhurst, New Jersey. A chance encounter with a Hammond organ would soon change his life forever. After World War II, he fell in love with the Hammond organ and soon began studying under the tutelage of the one and only Jes...

In our last post, I explained how FaLaLaLaLa has brought thousands of Christmas music enthusiasts together to read, listen, learn, and even contribute anything Christmas to the site. I had this album in my collection (mono - badly scratched) and wasn't planning on sharing it out. However, FLLLL community member Voldar had a STEREO version and shared it on November 26, 2006 at 9:25 AM - great post V! This wasn't the first time I obtained a copy of a Billy Vaughn Christmas album. Several years ago, I traded for a Canadian CD copy called " Christmas With " that featured an exact budget number ten songs. Are they both and the same? To let the suspense build, here's some information on the artist in question. Born and raised in Kentucky, Billy Vaughn was only three years old when he taught himself the mandolin after contracting measles. As he matured into adulthood, he joined the United States National Guard in 1941 for a one-year hitch. That changed wh...

Our next album comes to us from the wonderful online kingdom known as FaLaLaLaLa . The King of Jingaling, FLLLL's gracious, generous, and benevolent ruler featured this album. (I was awake at 1:30 AM on November 24th, 2006 when I found this online. Many times throughout the downloading season, I'll find myself staying up later, even waking in the middle of the night for 30 - 45 minutes searching for new stuff. I really need to learn how to do RSS feeds!) The King has shared many fantastic albums over the years at FLLLL. While I offer gems like Alex Houston & Elmer , he offers gold. Not fool's gold. Real gold. His albums are always a cut above the rest because of the immensely intriguing stories behind the albums themselves. Last month, The King offered the famous "NORAD Tracks Santa" LP, released at the height of the Cold War. Several years ago, it was The Rhodes Kids whose album was produced by a bonafide porn peddler. At first glance, you...

Finally, after nearly two years! Way back on December 15, 2005 , Ernie (of Ernie Not Bert) first posted this album at his blog. How I missed it the first time, I'm not sure but I spent a few days smacking myself in the head over my failure to download. Ernie reposted the album (you da man, Ern!) and I got my copy last year on November 23rd, 2006. For those who only Buck from his days on " Hee Haw ", here's the quick story: Born Alvis Edgar Owens, Jr. in 1929, he grew up on a Texas farm whose family mule was named Buck. At the age of three, he announced to the family that his name was Buck too. No one thankfully objected. While working as a truck driver in the late-1940s, Owens found himself driving through the picturesque San Joaquin Valley in California on his way to Bakersfield. The beauty of the land convinced Buck that this was the place where he wanted to settle down and did so in 1950. Meanwhile, up in the state of Oregon, a girl named Susan Raye...

On first glance, this album has potential (any album with the RCA " Living Stereo " banner is a plus). As you look down, you'll notice the song titles, the cute Christmas graphics, but not one artist listed on the cover - a sure sign of trouble. If you're too lazy to check the back cover, you probably wouldn't have purchased the album. Thankfully, Ernie (from Ernie Not Bert ) studied this album carefully and with his keen collector's eye saw the gold within and posted it on November 23, 2006 . As Ernie explained in his original post: "The only problem is that parts of this record have been released on CD. Several years ago, they took the Esquivel solo tracks, as well as the tracks on which he backs the Skip-Jacks, mixed in some LP tracks that had a holiday theme, added a rather merry non-holiday B-side, a couple of tracks by a famous swing-revival DJ featuring a voice-over from the bed-ridden Esquivel, and called it an Esquivel Christmas album . ...

It's not often you see a Christmas album adorned by imitation passport stamps (see the top right corner) or a piñata for that matter but... This intriguing album was downloaded on November 21, 2006 at 12:43 PM from our friend Bongo over at BongoBells (great find, Bongo!). Google picks up a myriad of stuff concerning Hermanos Zavala. The laughable AOL Music site claims you can find Zavala photos, songs, live performances, even music videos. Umm, yeah. Other sites found include " The One Hundred Voices of the Hermanos Zavala " and " Mariachi Los Hermanos Zavala ". The rest is just recycled hash which is a pity. This album is the Spanish equivalent of a Mitch Miller album! A soft rendition of "The Christmas Song", followed by a raucous version of "Sleigh Ride", then a very reverent "Adeste Fideles" sung beautifully in Spanish. It gets better. "Rodolfo el Reno de la Nariz Roja" takes on elements of The Thre...

This one almost had me in its tentacles. eBay had several copies tempting me to spend $20 or more to get my own LP. Thankfully, I checked out the cool wax. Brainwerk runs the fun sharity blog entitled " Check The Cool Wax " whose great Christmas comp I reviewed here earlier this year. Last November, he posted this album and I was able to scratch this one off my list. By the looks of the cover, it promises to be a fun, fun album. Fast Freddy Flintstone on the stalagmite organ, Snagglepuss pickin' the bass, Huckleberry Hounddog on the chimes, and don't forget Magilla Gorilla on the triangle! But we're putting the cartoon horse before the cartoon cart. We have to go back to 1939 for the beginning of this story. On the backlot of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer stood the animation studio where William Hanna and Joseph Barbera first met. They had an instant rapport and set to complete their first collaboration - a 1940 cartoon called "Puss Gets The Boot"...

Today starts a look back at the 125+ Christmas albums (yes, 125 plus!) that I downloaded during the 2006 holiday downloading season. Some will get serious looks. Others will get thumbnail sketches. Will I get to them all? Only time will tell. This was the first full album I clicked. Even wrote down the date, the place, the time, and from who - November 18, 2006 at 9:03 AM from FaLaLaLaLa community member Inkydog . If you look closely at the bottom right hand corner of the album, you'll notice that this is from Design Records , a budget budget division of the budget label Pickwick International. Design Records are the same folks who brought you wonderful Christmas albums like " Dennis Day Sings For The Family ", " Christmas With The Happy Crickets ", and probably the greatest budget Christmas release ever: " Tijuana Christmas " by The Border Brass. Not much info is out there on the Cricketones. But the music is festive, fun, and very ligh...

Several weeks ago, I posted a yuleblog entry about electronic music, the theremin, and the Moog. To quote from that entry: " Any other Christmas Moog albums out there that I missed? I know of one which I found sealed in a Chicago record store that I'm planning on sharing next month... " Well, here it is. My final offering for my Christmas in July celebration. Guess I saved the best for last. There's not much out there on Douglas Leedy. According to a rather meandering Wikipedia entry, he was born in 1938, studied many varied styles of music all over the world, and has been composing and conducting music for most of his life. He eventually ended up in Brentwood, California at UCLA. It was here that he founded UCLA's electronic music studio and specialized in the Moog and Buchla synthesizers and an electronic gizmo named the Ognob Generator: (Click on image to enlarge) Being so close to Hollywood, the good folks at Capitol Records soon came ca...

Here's the final batch of 2006 albums I've just pulled and reposted from the oven: Bowen & Csehy - Christmas Steepletime A Country Christmas DeWayne Fulton - Christmas Greetings From Earl Grant - Winter Wonderland Jim & Tammy - Christmas With Sy Mann & The Malvin Carolers - Let's All Sing Christmas Carols The Bob Mantzke Choralaires - Christmas Songs Pat O'Brien - A Quiet Christmas The Piano Rolls & Voices - All Time Christmas Hits Bob Ralston - Christmas Hymns & Carols Happy listening... Capt

I've gone back and answered comments left here at the yuleblog for the past two months. If you've left a comment here during that time, the answer now awaits you at the post you left it at. Or simply click on the link: Zube has left a new comment on your post " JohnsCDs 2006-1172-001 - A Sleigh Full Of Joy: Sharity Rarities 2006 ": Love your site, have been enjoying it for some time. I would love to have a copy of this CD, but I can't make it work for me. I have dialup at home and the download never finishes. I have some blocking at work so fileshare is off limits. Would it be too much of an imposition to get you to upload this CD to filehosting.cc? That one I can download at work without problems. Thanks, Zube Anonymous has left a new comment on your post " April 2007 ": All right Captain. You do deserve a break! In fact, you deserve a raise! Thanks for all the elbow greese on the keyboard! I have enjoyed the ride immensely! Jonatha...

Earlier this year, I travelled solo to Chicago and raided every thrift store, Salvation Army, Goodwill, and vinyl record store in search of new and exciting Christmas albums. The trip yielded quite a harvest and this little nugget was one of my finds. The Beverly neighborhood in the southwest corner of Chicago is a blue-collar, middle-class neighborhood that has flourished over the years. While other parts of Chicago look like Baghdad, this part of the city prides itself on its work ethic, family principles, and an urban sense of community that never went out of style back in the late 1960s like it did throughout the entire country. Back in 1967, John Dreznes decided to buy a record store on South Western Avenue for his wife Christine. Christine wanted a positive place for neighborhood kids to visit, get after-school jobs, and a place where "Mrs. Dee" could keep an eye on her friends' kids. Her choice of name for this place? Beverly Records. As the business to...

I'm still hustling here... here's some more goodies from last year freshly updated: Jimmy Dean - Jimmy Dean's Christmas Card Pete Fountain - Candy Clarinet: Merry Christmas From (STEREO) Will Glahe & His Orchestra - Christmas Greetings From Germany Shirley & Squirrely - Christmas With Happy listening... Capt

Wow... time has certainly had its way with me over these first few weeks of July. Between the T-ball games of my oldest daughter, chaperoned day care outings, theater obligations, travels to Chicago to see my family and my beloved Cubs, I have had zero time to do anything Christmas related. Especially when the kids don't want to play in the hot Indiana summer and rather play computer games. And the scary thing is... my family and I are about to head to Chicago (again) and the rest of my July is booked solid. The silver lining around this is between today and Wednesday, I have a window to actually work at the computer (since I've hidden all my kids CD-ROMs but you didn't read that here). My original plans were to share out around eight new Christmas albums and any re-link requests you submitted. Due to all my activities with the family, these have been scaled back. Not as bad as you think, though. There will be four new Christmas albums to offer... and I'm wor...

Dear readers of the yuleblog, If you haven't noticed, there hasn't been much activity around here for a while. It seems just as I'm ready to get into a flow, a routine, a schedule that I can follow to crank out some reviews, the fates conspire and I find myself back at square one. About a week and a half ago, the play I was involved with since the beginning of March of this year ended, leaving me with actual free time to devote to whatever I wanted. This is also where my summer began. The house & yard needed attending, the kids were thrilled to have their daddy back, we all travelled to Chicago to take in a Cub game and some museums, and the wife needed some much deserved time with all of us and by herself. Yesterday was the first time I sat down in front of my computer in over a week. I was planning on working here yesterday and today but the backlog of e-mails from family and friends, and the yuleblog backlog of questions and comments still need to be addre...

Three years ago, The King of Jingaling at FaLaLaLaLa.com offered one of the greatest Christmas albums of all time. Two years ago, I downloaded not one but two fantastic albums from our friend Ernie (not Bert) (which were re-offered last year). These three albums were recorded by the late, great Eddie Dunstedter and I never reviewed these albums at the yuleblog. I promised Ernie that these albums would be the first ones to get the yuleblog treatment after my return from acting. However... the almighty Google keeps referring to Ernie's posts when you enter the name of Eddie Dunstedter and there is surprisingly little about the man online for research. The few online facts that I found? Dunstedter discovered the vocal group The Merry Macs back in 1926, was the musical director of several radio shows back in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and has one movie credit to his name - the music score for the 1953 schlock horror movie " Donovan's Brain " (with futu...