Just checking in...

Hi folks, seems like there's people visiting here even as the temperature rises outside and Christmas is a distant memory.

I'm checking in to let you know there's more music to come. I've been recording a lot of LPs over the past month, some gems, some less so! Please stop by every once and awhile and hopefully you'll find something you like.

The Christmas Album - Paul Mauriat

Regretfully I've been so busy with work that I haven't had the opportunity to post as many albums as I'd like before Christmas. So I'm going to add one today - Paul Mauriat's The Christmas Album - and one tomorrow to make up for it.

This is a top-notch offering from Mauriat, for full orchestra and wordless chorus. There's the old favourites here: "Jingle Bells", "White Christmas", "Silent Night", plus lesser-known titles like "Entre Le Boeuf Et L'Ane Gris" (aka "Among The Cattle and The Grey Donkey" - a Mauriat original?) and "Il est ne Le Divin Enfant" ("The Divine Infant Is Born"). All arranged and performed for maximum festive impact!

This album was re-issued on CD in a less complete form. That CD is now out-of-print. (and note: argh! "Trois Anges Sont Venus" ("Three Angels Appeared") plays twice in this file - once right after "White Christmas", so they're the same MP3 file. Quality control has been fired for this!)

Shell's Wonderful World of Music - Longines Symphonette Society

A double-LP set deserves a long title, and this one has one! This is Shell's Wonderful World of Music: Special Christmas Edition by the Longines Symphonette Society. According to Wikipedia, The Longines Symphonette Society was a record label created by the watch company Longines. Makes perfect sense.

Here are 20 carols performed in the wholly inoffensive choral/orchestral tradition ("Little Drummer Boy", "White Christmas" are highlights), with arrangements that are clean and straightforward. This is great background listening for Christmas gatherings where you don't want bombastic, jazzy or swinging variations to overload your celebratory subconcious.

Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer - As Told by Paul Wing

As I write this, Christmas is just 29 days away. Wow, it seems like I was just putting up an album in July!

Seasonal sharity is in full swing so I figured I'd get my butt in gear and join in. My first album of Christmas '07 is the kiddie-centric record Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer and Rudolph's Second Christmas, featuring two stories narrated by Paul Wing, written by Robert May, with music by Norman Leyden. There are also four delightful renditions of "Suzy Snowflake" performed by Dale Evans, "The Night Before Christmas Song" performed by Gisele McKenzie with Ray Charles' orchestra and choir, "Frosty The Snowman" performed by Vaughn Monroe and "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" from The Voices of Walter Schumann. What a line-up -- it's the Yuletide version of Circus of The Stars!

This recording comes from the Pickwick re-issue, which is presented as stereo, albeit processed from mono. I actually have two versions of this album, the aforementioned Pickwick issue and one from RCA/Victor (which features a better cover, see above). According to a recent eBay auction, the Paul Wing stories were also released on two 45rpm records in the 1950s.

This is a little gem of an album. You have two wonky stories to entertain the kids and four brilliant arrangements of familiar favorites.

The John Gary Christmas Album

John Gary wishes you a Merry Christmas! How do I know that? It says so, right on the back of this LP!

Who is John Gary? He was a versatile vocalist (3 whoppin' octaves), born in 1932 who passed away in 1998. While he never achieved the mainstream status of many of his contemporaries, he recorded 23 albums for RCA Victor (see more at Wikipedia), including this gem, The John Gary Christmas Album.

Featuring the soothing vocals of one John Gary, orchestra arranged by Peter Matz and background vocalists, this is a wholly enjoyable little Christmas album. Straight laced, and timeless in that early 1960s mode. All of the standards are here, with a few lesser-known titles like "Little Snow Girl" and "Sweet Little Jesus Boy", beautifully rendered by our new tree-gazing music friend, John Gary.

But wait! Wasn't this released on CD, you ask? It was. In 2000 on Restart Records and now languishing out-of-print. Plus, the version I've uploaded is in Mono (RCA also issued a stereo LP). Consider this the best way to hear this album without taking away sales of an album no longer on sale... (Got that?)

Update! — This album is now available - in stereo - on John Gary's official website. Buy it today!

Christmas Serenade - Sammy Kaye

Okay, let's get this party started. To celebrate Christmas In July, here's Sammy Kaye's Christmas Serenade a 10" LP from Columbia Records (CL 2541). I haven't been able to track down a recording date for this LP, but Ernie Not Bert's blog shared an album with the same name last year (though with different contents). That LP was dated 1951 (see link).

This is a mix of fun tunes with more serious choral renditions. I hope Kaye's variations of "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town", "Jingle Bells" and "Winter Wonderland" make it into your Christmas music rotation come November!

Christmas in July

Hi folks. It's July, and apparently the Christmas music blogs begin to wake up and add a few new albums to celebrate the halfway point between last Christmas and next Christmas. I too have a few classics I'll be adding to Hi-Fi Holiday over the next few weeks. Time to fire up the record player!

All of my previously shared albums are still available for download, so if you've been waiting (and why?) grab 'em!

Happy New Year

Well, it's 2007, and officially the end of the Christmas season. Thanks to everyone who visited, and checked out the music. Special thanks to those who posted their comments. You made it worthwhile!

I now have 12 months to get more Lps recorded, and cleaned and ready for next Christmas. I might add one to the blog here and there throughout the year, so check in every once and a while to see if something is new. It's never too early for Christmas music, is it?

Thanks again, everyone!

Best,

Ryan

Firestone Presents... Vol. 6 - Various

Okay, another album before Christmas... It's that time of the year... Wait, didn't Jack Jones sing that on Firestone's Your Favorite Christmas Carols? He did, and that's the latest album on the blog.

It's like Circus of The Stars: Jack Jones, the Vienna Choir Boys, and Roberta Peters all perform a mix of new, old and non-secular tunes arranged and conducted by Irwin Kostal.

The highlight is Jones' perf of "This Is That Time of The Year", so good it's lauded on the cover. This one could stand shoulder to shoulder quite nicely with Andy Williams' "It's The Most Wonderful Time of The Year" and Perry Como's "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas". Also new to this compilation is the sprightly "Dance of The Christmas Doll" by Edward Thomas.

The Little Drummer Boy - The Living Voices

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

This LP is now on CD and now available at Amazon.com.

Merry Christmas - John Clayton

Here's a nice little album from 1958, Merry Christmas (imaginative title, yes?) performed by John Clayton his Orchestra and Chorus. Who is John Clayton? Can't tell you. A search of Google only finds jazz arranger and band leader John Clayton, who is still very much alive and would have been just a few years old when this record was released. It's unlikely than that he was involved with recording it!

There are a couple of highlights on this album that I'd like to draw your attention to. "I'm Getting Nottin For Xmas", in what must be one of it's earliest recordings(?), the rollicking "Home For The Holidays", "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" and "Sleigh Ride". Why is it that "Sleigh Ride" is always the most interesting variation on every Christmas album?

The Sounds of Christmas

The first album I'd like to share isn't really comprised of the standard set of Christmas favorites. Instead it's a 1973 songs, sound and story album from Disneyland Records called The Sounds of Christmas, featuring Peter Renoudet (aka Renaday) singing and narrating his heart out. Renoudet sounds like a mock-sincere Will Ferrell character, and the album's twice-sung title track, "The Sounds of Christmas" is perhaps a little cheesy.

The story and sound effects are the real bonus here -- perfect for mixing into your annual Christmas compilation. If you have a sick and twisted sense of humor, you might find the part where Dad hauls in the Christmas Yule Log laced with innuendo.

Kicking off the Season

Hi all - and welcome to this new blog, devoted to the Christmas music of yesteryear. Please join me as I share some of the musty old LPs I've been lucky enough to discover these past few months.

What's with the URL? Well, I had some difficulties remembering my login/password for hifiholidays.blogspot.com, so when I went to re-register, half-paying attention, I typed in hif-fi-holidays. Let that be a lesson to all ye potential registrants with Blogger: pay attention!

I am humbled by the contributions found at the sites to the top right of this page. Their generous contributions to my own Christmas music collection has inspired me to do the same for others.

Hopefully I'll post some long out-of-print albums that will be good enough to make it into your Holiday playlist, warm your heart, and help spread some Christmas cheer.

If you like what you hear please leave a comment. Recording, declicking, editing and assembling these records takes a bit of work. Hearing from you makes it worthwhile!

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!