Johnny Cole (aka Johnny Kaye, aka The Voices of Christmas, aka...!) must have been a workhorse for Crown Records. Under a number of guises he churned out a handful of Christmas albums for the label , including Wishing You A Merry Christmas. All while while channeling his very best Perry Como.On Wishing You..., Johnny's sleepy tone is backed by his enthusiastic chorus. It's not the pinnacle of the Christmas music art form (kind of like the cover art - quaint, chintz), but there are some goodies, like "Jingle Bells", with slip-sliding choral harmonies and jaunty organist accompaniment. Though thinking about it, it's hard to do "Jingle" wrong.
I'm not sure what particular vintage this pressing of Wishing You A Merry Christmas is, as it appears another Johnny Cole album with the same name (but different contents and cover) was released by Crown Records in 1959. You can grab it at Christmas Forever.
If you like what you hear, download the remastered tracks with a subscription or free trial from emusic.com.
Please enjoy: Wishing You A Merry Christmas
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5 comments:
I'm a bit confused.
I downloaded an album that sounds identical to this called "Christmas Songs For Young Hearts" by Gene Martin & The Arthur Carre Orchestra.
I'm not sure which blog I downloaded it from but I think it's the same recording with two less songs.
Looks like there's another alias to add to the Johnny Kaye, Johnny Cole, The Voices of Christmas! Yes, this music seems to have been repackaged over and over with different artists credited.
Is Johnny Cole, or Johnny Kaye still alive and does anyone have any contact info for him.
Thanks,
Anchor
I don't know if anyone would have contact info for Johnny Cole/Kaye, as I believe both are aliases. A bit of info on the Crown Records label can be found here:
http://www.bsnpubs.com/modern/crown.html
There is another alias on iTunes for Johnny Cole/Kaye called The Peter Pan Caroleers! What's the deal? In Joel Whittburn's book "Christmas in the Charts", There is an entry for a hit he had as Johnny Kaye in 1963 called 'A Christmas Love' with the Monty Jay Orchestra backed with a song called "Christmas in Paree". The serial number of the 45RPM is Legend 45-127. There's a brief discription of who he is that says this: "Born John Kaminsky in Chicago, Illinois. Adult Contemporary Singer; similar in style to Perry Como."
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