We're hurtling towards Christmas here, so I guess I should step on the gas a bit and offer another album.
This one is The Little Drummer Boy by The Living Voices and just happens to be my personal favorite album this year. Why? Well, to me it's just perfect Christmas music: the mixed vocals are in that mid-'60s stylization, and the orchestral accompaniment is light -- there's nothing on this album that will add stress to the hectic time that leads up to the big day. Add to that faithful (but unique) arrangements (by Anita Kerr) and you've got a heart-warming and upbeat album. Perfect!
Highlights include "Be A Santa", a song I was unfamiliar with before this LP, and now love, "What Are You Doing New Years Eve" and the real show-stopper, the ultra-tranquil, incredibly beautiful "Do You Hear What I Hear", perhaps the greatest performance of this very non-secular Christmas classic. I get chills from this track and to me it's never sounded better. Eat your heart out, Engelbert!
Please enjoy: The Little Drummer Boy
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57 comments:
Thanks for posting this one, I love the whole series of Living Voices yet find it difficult to obtain them in mp3 format so this is indeed a treat. I appreciate your generosity.
Merry Christmas!
Great album. Here's an alternative cover:
http://flickr.com/photos/falalalala/22882476/in/set-527076/
Thanks to you this LP is getting a ton of airplay in my household! One of my faves this year. Thanks so much for sharing this gem.
I remember listening to this as a boy in the 1970s. Finding it on your site made my day.
Another album that would be nice to see is Andy Williams and The Williams Brothers Christmas album from the 1970s.
Wow. I can't believe it!
I used to listen to this as a boy in the 70's as well. We lost the album and I thought I'd never hear it again. Thanks SO much. :-)
I saw the album cover image and nearly broke into tears. It was one of my family's favorites when I was just a toddler.
Thanks a bunch!
Wow, I love to read comments like that. It makes it really worthwhile. Thanks for visiting and your kind comments.
"Little Drummer Boy" by the Living Voices Orchestra is my favorite Christmas recording of all time. I remember listening to it when it first came out in the 1960's. I have been unable to find a quality copy of it on CD or preferably cassette tape. If anyone knows where I can purchase a copy please let me know. 10/26/07
You have made a 30-something gal very happy! My husband couldn't understand why finding this post would make me cry! This is one of the albums that my mom and I used to listen to over and over again when I was a child in the 1970s. I have managed to acquire our other Christmas favorites in CD format and "The Little Drummer Boy" was the only one I couldn't find anywhere. THANK YOU SO MUCH!
I love reading these comments. Christmas is only two months away. More albums to follow!
THANK YOU SO MUCH for this!! I've been searching for this for literally years!!! You made my year for sure!!
Thanks Again!!
All the best to you!
I can't even see my computer screen well because of my happy tears upon hearing my mom's favorite Christmas album (and, now mine). My mom is ill now, and this album brings back such happy memories of better times, of when Mom was young and healthy. She loved the Christmas season and always made it so special and filled with music and laughter for us when we were little. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for your kindness and generosity in sharing your music. Have a very Merry Christmas!
Like everyone else, I've got to add my thanks for posting this. While growing up, this really was my favorite Christmas album.
As a kid, a couple of the songs like "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve" made me feel like I was taking a peek at what it was like to be a grown-up!)
Just last year, I found someone selling a copy on Ebay. I won the bid and got it about four days before Christmas.
Love it, love it, love it.
I cannot thank you enough for posting this album. I have been searching for it for years. I would listen to this as a kid every christmas on a cassette tape, and since cassette players are obsolete I tried to search for the CD, but no luck. Thank you so much for posting this, it made my day!!!
Oh my gosh! This was my favorite Christmas Album as a child. Alas, our family copy was ruined in a flood. THANK YOU for posting! I am sitting hear relishing years of memories now. Merry Christmas, one and all!
Wow!! Like everyone else thank you thank you thank you!!!! This is so awesome. I looked for it last Christmas with no luck. My parents also had this album while I was growing up in the 70's, and I'm sure I wore it out. I looked for it last year, with no luck, and can't tell you how happy I am to find it. I've already put it on my niece's Ipod we got her for Christmas. She's 7 years old, and I'm sure she's going to love it.
Oh, *sob*! I LOVED this album, and just this morning I was singing "Pine Cones and Holly Berries" while I was making cookies!
Thank you so much!
You have no idea how long I've been looking for this album! My family has it on LP, and my sister lost her taped version. This has been a family tradition for over 30 years (even before I came around) - we always wake up Mom and Dad to "Jingaliiiing!" cranked full blast :).
Thanks so much!
Beginning on Dec. 1st, my mom would wake us up on school mornings with "Ching-a-ling" as we have always called it. Now that we are grown, she calls (all over the country) on Dec 1st so that her kids & grandkids can hear it! This is a favorite of the Moore Family! Thank you so much!
You are my hero! My turntable died years ago and the cassette player in my car hasn't worked for the last few Christmases. This is my absolute favorite Christmas album. When my mom cranked it up I knew it was really the Christmas season. Thank you!
Like other posters here, I'm very grateful to you for posting this!
Around 10 years ago, my apartment was burgled, and the thieves stole hundreds of my cds, the Living Voices disc among them. I too used to listen to this on vinyl when I was a kid in the 70s and Christmas music hasn't been the same without this record. I've tried finding in countless stores since then, to no avail. You've truly made my day, possibly my Christmas.Thank you, Ryan.
Thank you SO much! I can't believe it. This was THE Christmas album that we listened to when I was little. It brings back so many memories. I didn't think I'd ever find it again, much less in mp3 format! What a wonderful and unexpected surprise. Thanks so much for your efforts and your generosity!
Ohmigod!!!!!! I bought this when I was just a kid and couldn't afford it...then loved it until our family house burned down.
Where, where, how, how can I find it to buy? I've been searching for years!
Wow...real hope at last, and howabout that "Blue Christmas!" Best version ever. This brings back WHOLE big part of my life.
Thank you, and would really love more info...
Miz B
Thank you, thank you, thank you!! This is absolutely my favorite Christmas album of all time! Listening to this album was one of our biggest family traditions--no Christmas was complete without it! Many years ago, I recorded the album onto a cassette tape. However, by the time I recorded it onto that tape, the album was full of pops and scratches. So...as you can guess, finding your download of this wonderful old album "all cleaned up" was one of the best Christmas presents ever!
Thanks again, and a very Merry Christmas to you!!
Yay! I love this album. It was my favorite Christmas album as a child. I searched and searched for this music as an adult, especially the song Be A Santa, but I could never find it. Til now!!! I used the music you shared with me to create this video Christmas card for my friends: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-od1_M42UmI&feature=related
Thank you. I never could have done this without you. It's made me happy and it made a bunch of other people happy too. Peace and love and happy holidays to you!
I have been searching for this album for decades. My parents played this on our Motorola stereo console !
This will bring me back to my childhood Christmas! Only wish my parents were still around.
Just can't believe I'll be hearing it again. This is my *all time favorite Christmas album*. Thank you for posting it.
Well, your hard work was certainly appreciated by my family this holiday season. Everyone was thrilled to hear our childhood favorite brought back to life. I was asked to inquire, any chance you could bring the Living Strings "I'll Be Home for Christmas" to us for next year? Thanks again for the holiday cheer. HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Like so many of the other posts I want to say this is my all time favorite Christmas Album. I grew up with this record at Christmas during the late 60's. It always gives me such a wonderful feeling. I haven't gotten to hear it for many many years and look forward to hearing it again. Thank you for that. By the way, since so many people enjoy this album, do you know if it will ever be put on cd? I also believe I once read that this record was in the Guinness record book for the best Christmas record ever? Thanks once again for the music.
This was the first Christmas album I ever heard when I was in my comfortably naive childhood years. The decorations had no life without that music giving them the third dimension that made the holiday so emotionally magical. Thank you so much for putting an end to my quest for this ever elusive masterpiece.
Like all of the others, this was a great memory from my 60's childhood.
And, like a lot of the other posters, it tears me up, since it's so associated with those who have gon on - my Mom, my Grandparents.
Thanks for posting it.
Holly Cow! I thought I was the only person who even knew about this album. Here's all these people that have all the same experiences as me! My folks still have this LP at their house. I made a cassette tape of it when I moved out...complete with pops, hiss, and skips. Every year when I was a kid in the late 1970's and early 1980's we would decorate the tree to this album. We usually played it twice.
Thank you so much....now I can play this every year for my new son for many years to come.
Eric
You have made this Christmas very special. This was an album that my wife and I grew up to listening at Christmas. It was an album we wanted for so long to be placed on a CD format. Your effort to make a beautiful copy has made my wife's dreams come true. Thank you for being so thoughtful and selfless.
Thank you, thank you for posting this. I could not believe it was here, and called my children in from playing to listen to these songs with me. This was my favorite Christmas album as a child. I am so excited that my children can share this Christmas music and my childhood memories with me. I am so grateful. You made my Christmas so very merry!
I have the original 1965 album, and it still plays beautifully. However, I can't take it with me in the car or play it on my iPod. I bought a cassette version in the early 90's, but had to return it due to it being barely audible. I thought I would never find a clear version for CD use, and now I have! My Mom bought the album for the family those many years ago, and we played it every Christmas. She has now passed away. I am going to make copies for my 2 sisters to enjoy. Your putting it here for all of us to share brings the true meaning of Christmas. Thank you for this gift.
I, too, am astonished that so many people feel the same way as I about this album. Surely if it were released on CD, SOMEONE would make money! Thank you so much for posting it on here!!! I still have the vinyl in excellent condition, but no way to play it!!!
Wow, who would have known! Other 'Living Voices, Little Drummer Boy' fans! Nothing says Christmas to me like this album, which brings me back to simpler times and Christmases past, complete with the smell of my mother's fruitcake baking (which no one liked, but Christmas would not be complete without at least two marathon baking sessions to produce many loaves of this inedible brick!) My entire immediate family - Mom, Dad and my sister, who was my best friend - has been taken from me by cancer, and listening to this music really warms my heart and brings them back to me. I'm 44, but feel 10 years old when I listen to this classic music!! I found the vinyl a few years back, and transferred it to CD. It sounds FANTASTIC, and I've loaded it on my iPod so I can listen to it anytime! Sappy, I know... but had to share! To fellow fans, Happy Holidays!!
It is not Christmas without hearing this Living Voices CD. It really takes me back to my childhood - my entire family still adores this CD. Thank you so much for getting this online - Happy Holidays!
this album is by far the most amazing chrissy album for me (and for alot of others after reading these posts)
thanks for offering it up...my 4 mth old will grow to love it as much as i do.
merry chrissy 2008
Thank you, thank you, thank you! My cassette tape I got for Christmas back in the 80's finally broke beyond repair. This beats any other sounds for the holidays for me.
Bless you! This is one of my favorite Christmas albums and my LP player is in storage because I don't have room for it now.
If anyone has a copy of this they would like to let go, I would be interested. Our family copy got broken long ago, and I really miss it now that my mom has passed on. It breaks my heart to think that I will never hear this album again. please contact me, this username at gmail.
Happy holidays, world, Peace on earth for real!
saneTV, you don't need the album if you download the file!
You managed to extract some very ancient memories from the far recesses of my mind tonight. I haven't heard this since the early 70's (I remember listening to it every Christmas from the year it came out). This album and the Firestone series of records (that you could buy at the gas station!) occupied our turntable for most of the Christmas seasons back then!
Yea for Little Drummer Boy fans! I have become so used to the skip in the "Pinecones and Hollyberries" on my parents album, I'm not sure I would recognize it any other way. I have been looking for this album as well and I am SO excited to find it. This is my #1 favorite xmas album.
The fact that someone took the time to record and clean up this LP is wonderful and amazing. I never heard it sound so good. It was the album my sister and I played in the 70's while we were decorating the Christmas tree as children. I've tried to find it everywhere and gave up, until this. Amazing work by a talented and generous person. Thank you so much for making this special album available again for so many of us!
Bless your heart! I've been searching for this. I lost the tape a long time ago. We used to listen to this ablum every year as we decorated the house and tree.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR POSTING THIS!!
I have my old album from the 70's but no record player. This was a holiday staple for our family, it wasn't Christmas without the Little Drummer Boy, Christmas on the Ponderosa, and a Country Christmas. I have found the first two, but have yet to find the Country Christmas one.
The memories that go with the sound are amazing, I am sending it off to my sister!
Merry Christmas to you and yours!
Last year, I left you a note thanking you for posting this album. I am still so grateful. I love it. I made my video Christmas card with it and, since then, many people have contacted me asking for info on it and relating the stories of how it affected them and their families. I always direct them to you and this post. You have touched a lot of lives with this post.
My dad is the one who bought this album. He died in 1970. My family listened to it while doing the tree and during all the holidays (and sometimes even after) and it will always remind me of the times when my dad was still alive and we were all together. Gosh, it's making me weep thinking that. And it also reminds me of the years after when I would play it just so I could feel that again. I hear these songs and love for my family and gratitude and joy well up in me. And sometimes tears too but always with smiles. It means a lot to me. And it means a lot to other people too. Thank you again.
I especially love the song Be A Santa. I can't believe more people haven't covered it. I guess I did in my own way. It's such a great, happy song. I've never seen the film it's from but I can just picture the scene -- all these Santas, dressed and trained, heading out to spread Christmas cheer.
So, again, thank you, thank you, thank you. You have made yet another Christmas for me and for so many others as well. Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!!!
Thank you so much for posting this! I also listened to it growing up in the 70s. I have the album, but it doesn't play very well anymore. I've been searching for a new copy and have not been able to find one. It is my absolute favorite Christmas album and it brought back so many memories.
My mom used to play this in the morning to help us wake-up with a better attitude and it worked! I have many fond memories associated with this album and for years I've been checking out the bins to see if anyone had brought this back as a cassette and then as a CD. Every year it was the same thing, nothing. I couldn't believe that the record companies were letting this one lay idle while they put out such junk.
Thank you, thank you for this great Christmas gift.
I cannot tell you what it means to me to be granted the possibility of this lovely little walk down memory lane. This was one of my favorite Christmas albums as a child, and I listened to it over and over until it popped, crackled and scratched. In fact, there was one spot on the jingle bells medley that I was so used to skipping, that to hear it not skip was a little shock at first!
Thank you again.
Phil Adams
"Strange Bird"
http://pcadams.wordpress.com
Thank you for making this wonderful album availale to all of us. We have the LP and used to play it every Christmas but no longer have a player. I could not find a CD on line so you saved us.
Thanks again
Amazing to see how many others grew up listening to this album, and how fond of it we still are. It brings back so many memories and feelings. Thanks for posting.
My mother, who died in 2008, and I used to sing together to this album when I was a child. Being able to listen to these songs (I've long lost the LP) was a sweet blessing. Thank you ever so much.
The memories of listening to this album are so precious! My mother bought it for us at the Piggly Wiggly store in Chattanooga, Tennessee when I was a little kid.I never thought I would find this album online. The song "Be a Santa" is so rare now but I loved that song as a little girl, and Little Drummer Boy is my favorite Christmas album of all time. They re-issue so much junk at Christmas, why not his album? I would buy multiple copies if they did. Thank you so much for writing about it!
~Jeanne
I was so excited when I found your post, I grew up listening to this every Christmas. It brings back so many memories for me. Thank you SO much, I've been looking for this album for years and years and now I can share it with my children. Thank you!!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I have been looking for this for a couple of years, and now I know why I couldn't find it! Now my kids can grow up with the same wonderful music that I loved! This is THE ultimate Christmas album! Thank you!
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