1975 I Believe In Father Christmas

.....Finding this song on CD is quite easy. Finding this version is trickier, but not impossible.

• 03:31 "I BELIEVE IN FATHER CHRISTMAS" (Greg Lake, Peter Sinfield)
• 02:25 b/w "HUMBUG" (Greg Lake, Peter Sinfield)
• performed by Greg Lake
• original source: 7" Manticore K13511 (UK) November 10th, 1975
• as well as this: 7" Atlantic 45-3305 (US) November 10th, 1975
• and my source: CDEP I BELIEVE IN FATHER CHRISTMAS Rhino R2 72242 (US) 1995

.....Originally intended for release in 1974, production would have needed to be rushed and the quality and promotional campaign both would have suffered, usually not a concern for Christmas-themed pop singles. Released the following year on Lake's 28th birthday, it seemed to have benefited from the preparation commercially, at least. According to Martin Strong's Great Rock Discography (7th ed.) it reached #2 in the UK, but only #95 in the US. Despite that, Lake has received flak for the song, criticizing what is clearly a sense of disillusionment pervading the lyrics. Most telling is that the closest line to the title actually says, "I believed [past tense] in Father Christmas". I would guess most people's confusion stems from Lake protesting both the over-commercialization of Christmas and the persistence of warfare in lieu of 'Peace On Earth'. Instead of focusing on one (as Jethro Tull had regarding commercialization) or the other (as John Lennon had with warfare) he conflated the two, reminding us that we would never have felt disillusionment so crushingly if we had not allowed ourselves to be sold easy answers and cheap gaudy violence when true beauty and true solutions were always available (it ends with the line "The Christmas we get, we deserve"). The promotional video clip (common on television and other venues in England and Europe long before MTV existed) featured Lake playing guitar in Israel while camels walk by in the background, superimposed with stock footage of warfare reportedly shot in Vietnam. It's not obvious whether this was a comment on violence in the Middle East specifically or on warfare generally with a locale associated with Christmas.

.....Greg Lake co-wrote and co-produced the single with his old King Crimson cohort Peter Sinfield. Sinfield also contributed to LP BRAIN SALAD SURGERY(1973), Emerson, Lake and Palmer's previous studio album. At that point King Crimson had already overhauled their line-up for LP LARKS' TONGUES IN ASPIC (1973) and Sinfield was moving on creatively and professionally. Lake, on the other hand, was squarely in his ELP element. Approached for comment on U2's 2008 cover of this song he explained that while the song's verse structure is simple and straightforward the musical structure integrates classical and popular/folk themes. [ The whole statement can be found at atu2blog.com/would-you-believe/1116/ .] Prominent among the classical themes is a portion of Sergei Prokofiev's "LIEUTENANT KIJE SUITE" (Op.60). Aiding and abetting to that end is Godfrey Salmon conducting The London Philharmonic Orchestra with The King's Singers. Lake performed bass, guitars and vocals and the whole thing was recorded at Advision Studios, London.

.....After an extended break from recording, ELP returned in 1977 with 2LP WORKS Volume 1 and LP WORKS Volume 2, collections of shorter unrelated pieces without the thematic links of some of their earlier albums. Volume 2 included a rerecording of "I BELIEVE IN FATHER CHRISTMAS", again produced by Lake and Sinfield but without performance credits. They have one other co-written co-production on the same album, a country-inflected love song "WATCHING OVER YOU". The other tracks are various combinations of composers and producers, drawing on the trio and a few associates. It doesn't seem likely that "WATCHING OVER YOU" was intended to be paired with the Christmas song to make a new single. They might have thought that releasing the song under the name ELP might improve sales in the US, but "WATCHING..." doesn't have the holiday appeal of the jaunty "HUMBUG", with what sounds like a glockenspiel and tuba. (For anyone who has never heard the original single, it should be pointed out that each side is in fact the opposite both of what it purports to be and of the other side. The A-side's singer does not believe in Father Christmas. The B-side does not take on the perspective of Ebeneezer Scrooge, dismissing Christmas as fluff and nonsense; it is fluff and nonsense, and a great deal of fun.) In any event, "WATCHING OVER YOU" was eventually paired with "HALLOWED BE THY NAME" from LP WORKS Volume 1 as 7" Atlantic K11061 (UK) Jan/78.

.....Although there were no performance credits for the second recording of "I BELIEVE IN FATHER CHRISTMAS", it's obvious that the orchestra and chorus are gone. Depending on the edit, it's also 10-20 seconds shorter. The ominous sounding echo effect on the last line is gone as well, and it sounds as though a synthesizer is being used to make up the loss of instrumentation previously provided by the orchestra. Still, there's no real change in the rhythm or melody and one would have to hear them back to back to notice many of the differences between them. Should anyone wish to make sense of the history, I have made an ELP Christmas Chronology for my own reference. Because their catalog was remastered nearly twenty years ago that means good news and bad news: the good news is that everything has been on disc; the bad news is that the cost of the remastering and repackaging has been recouped by releasing cheap, cranked out compilations that don't always correctly cite their sources. I'll mark the first appearance of a recording with a "♫" and cite what I can confirm.

• [♫] "NUTROCKER" (Kim Fowley; arranged by ELP) appears on LP PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION (Nov/71). It's a live recording from March 26, 1971, reworking Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite and originally recorded in the 1960's as an American studio project.
• 7" Cotillion 45-44151 (US) Mar/72-- "NUTROCKER" is paired with "GREAT GATES OF KIEV", also taken from LP PICTURES...
• [♫] "JERUSALEM" (music: Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, words: William Blake; arranged by ELP) appears on LP BRAIN SALAD SURGERY (Dec/73).
• 7" Manticore K13503 (UK) Dec/73-- "JERUSALEM" is paired with "WHEN THE APPLE BLOSSOM BLOOMS...", a non-album track.
• [♫] "I BELIEVE IN FATHER CHRISTMAS" b/w "HUMBUG", detailed above
• [♫] "I BELIEVE IN FATHER CHRISTMAS" (1977 version) appears on LP WORKS Volume 2 (Nov/77). The song "WHEN THE APPLE BLOSSOMS BLOOM..." also appears there, but since I've never heard the original vinyl version I don't know if it is another remake or the same recording as the 1973 B-side.
• "JERUSALEM" appears on LP THE BEST OF EMERSON LAKE AND PALMER (Nov/80)
• [♫] Keith Emerson releases his solo LP THE CHRISTMAS ALBUM Emerson Records KEITHLP1 (1988). The first track is "TROIKA", the fourth movement of Prokofiev's "LIEUTENANT KIJE SUITE" and the one which Lake used as the basis for "I BELIEVE IN FATHER CHRISTMAS".
• The original 7" "I BELIEVE IN FATHER CHRISTMAS" and "JERUSALEM" appear on 2CD THE ATLANTIC YEARS (Jul/92).
• There's a new vinyl pressing of "I BELIEVE IN FATHER CHRISTMAS" b/w "HUMBUG" released as 7" Atlantic A7393 (UK) (Dec/92) as a fund raiser for the charity Shelter. It has new, very different sleeve artwork by Catherine Brightly.
• [♫] A new, third version of "I BELIEVE IN FATHER CHRISTMAS" appears on the boxed set 4CD THE RETURN OF THE MANTICORE (Nov/93), released a month ahead of a reissue program on the Victory label in which the band's back catalog was remastered for the first time. The box also contained the 1973 "JERUSALEM".
• CD5 Victory/Polygram 383 483 004-2 (US) Dec/93-- a CD single containing three songs: "I BELIEVE IN FATHER CHRISTMAS" (1993 version), "JERSALEM" (1973 version) and "WHEN THE APPLE BLOSSOMS BLOOM..." (1977, which implies that the version appearing on LP WORKS Volume 2 is not the same as the 1973 B-side).
• The first of the redundant exploitation compilations appears, CD CLASSIC ROCK (Apr/95), containing "JERUSALEM".
• CDEP I BELIEVE IN FATHER CHRISTMAS Rhino R2 72242 (US) Nov/95-- This contains five tracks: "I BELIEVE IN FATHER CHRISTMAS" (7" A-side, 1975), "TROIKA" (from the Keith Emerson 1988 album), "HUMBUG" (7" B-side, 1975), "I BELIEVE IN FATHER CHRISTMAS" (1977 version) and "NUTROCKER" (from 1971). Strangely, Peter Sinfield's production credit disappears from the two 1975 tracks, but not from the 1977 one, although he's still acknowledged as co-author in all three cases.
• The 1975 original version of "I BELIEVE IN FATHER CHRISTMAS" is the last track on the new, radically reconfigured CD THE BEST OF EMERSON, LAKE AND PALMER (May/96) on Rhino, in conjunction with a second remaster program.

.....After that it would be ten years before another single-CD compilation included any version of the song, let alone the 1975 A-side. In 2001 a 1972 live version of "NUTROCKER" emerged in a multi-disc set and in 2007 early versions of "JERUSALEM" and "I BELIEVE IN FATHER CHRISTMAS" surfaced (or were buried, depending on your perspective) in 5CD/1DVD FROM THE BEGINNING (Sep/07).

.....The most convenient package is the 1995 CDEP. If you are lucky enough to find a copy, the 1993 CD5 is the only other Christmas-related item here and at that it is unessential and a rare collectible, probably not worth the cost or effort for a listening copy if your only interest is hearing the first song. Comparatively, the EP is more widely available, generally cheaper and has more material, including the only CD appearance of "HUMBUG" ever, to my knowledge.

.....This, I hope, will be the most thorough disambiguation I do for this blog. For February I hope to do shorter and more frequent postings. Between shoveling snow, I mean.

1993 Christmas Cards

.....The original song here is the B-side.

• 02:05 "O TANNENBAUM" (Traditional; arranged by They Might Be Giants)
• 02:32 b/w "CHRISTMAS CARDS" (They Might Be Giants/G.Maby/B.Doherty)
• performed by They Might Be Giants
• original source: 7" Elektra 7-64578 (US/C) 1993
• and my source: the same

.....The playing times are not printed on the record or the sleeve. The times I included above are from the band's wiki (distinct from their website, which is devoted to news, tour dates and merchandising). It provided a few more pieces of information, such as that the band is credited as their own producers and that Amy Sillman provided the sleeve art. There are a few others I'll get to later, but at the moment I want to reassert that the purpose of this blog is to document Christmas music written since the advent of recording technology. Obviously "O TANNENBAUM" doesn't fit that criterion, but because I'm writing up the B-side anyway, I felt this recording might make a good object lesson on exactly why disambiguation of classic carols can be such a headache.

.....The A-side was recorded at a sound check at Fairfax High School [per the wiki; the sleeve erroneously identifies the school as Hollywood High] in Los Angeles California on November 20th, 1992. It was recorded and mixed by [per sleeve] Paul Angelli or [per wiki] Pat Dillett. The line-up was as follows:

• John Linnell as lead vocalist [per wiki]
• John Flansburgh on guitar
• Kurt Hoffman on saxophone
• Tony Maimone on bass
• J.[Jonathan per wiki]D. Feinberg on drums

.....Only the first verse of the song is used and is sung in German. That's a nice touch in a field saturated by rerecordings of the same songs, but the writing credit isn't entirely accurate. The song has its origins in a German folk song "O DANNENBOM", combined with the melody from a student song known by the opening line, "Lauriger Horatius"/"Laurel-crowned Horatio". The melody became the basis for a popular song, "ES LEBE DOCH"(which, according to Babel Fish, means "It Lives, Nevertheless"; it's probably a colloquial term for "Life Goes On"), published in 1799. By the early 1800's it had already become a popular custom in Germany for Christian households to bring fir trees into their homes for Christmas celebrations, one of numerous practices that put touchstones of pagan life into Christian context. While these practices were banned in England (off and on with varying degrees of enforcement) at the time, the Prussians just went with the flow. In 1824 a Leipzig schoolmaster named Ernst Anschütz, probably recognizing the tune from his own days in college, rewrote the pagan rooted folk song "O DANNENBOM" to the sweeter, more modern melody of "ES LEBE DOCH" and voilá-- a brand new song we know as "O TANNENBAUM". Just as German families were taking the fir trees into their homes and Christianizing them, Anschütz taught his students a matching pagan song in a Christianized fashion to take home to their families. A key, but subtle, alteration was in the first verse. The first two lines are:

"O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum,

Wie grün sind deine Blätter..."

...which roughly means, "how green are your branches". The version used by They Might Be Giants actually says:

"O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum,

Wie treu sind deine Blätter..."

...which is more like, "how faithful are your branches". Although the reworking of the lyrics by Anschütz doesn't mention Christ explicitly, his aim was obviously to use the perennial nature of the fir tree (admired by the pagans) as a metaphor for the eternal nature of Christ. Hence, unchanging becomes faithful. Since they used the modern version, they should have credited Anschütz, although they aren't legally required to. And for the record, taking an arrangement credit is perfectly legitimate. And as long as we're credit where credit is due, I have to confess that the lion's share of the research behind that little history lesson was done by Ian Bradley in his invaluable "The Penguin Book Of Carols" (1999, second printing).

.....The B-side was recorded at Excello Studio, Brooklyn, New York on July 5th, 1993. It was recorded and mixed by Pat Dillett. The musicians were:

• John Flansburgh as lead vocal and guitarist
• John Linnell on accordion
• Graham Maby on bass
• Brian Doherty on drums

.....The song is actually a bit of a disappointment for the guys who gave us "SANTA'S BEARD" as an album track in 1988 and then no Christmas related songs since. After this, they started flowing a little more freely (more in future posts), but to my knowledge this was the one and only time they had a designated holiday 7" single. Even when they put together their compilation EP, HOLIDAYLAND, in 2001, they only included The A-side. In nearly twenty years this song has never made it to CD. Part of that may be because it's boring. The lyrics are repetitive and boil down to this: whenever I write out Christmas cards, someone steals them. I have no trouble with the lyrics being dark ("SANTA'S BEARD" being an obvious example of how that can work), I just wish there had been more of them. Here's hoping that they take this song's premise and expand on it. Maybe even include both versions on a full-length Christmas/holiday album along with their song for "OLIVE, THE OTHER REINDEER", only available as a limited edition flexi.

1968 Canned Heat/Chipmunks

.....In the early days of the CD, labels at first asked people to buy their new music in a more expensive but more durable format, then seemed surprised that those consumers most responsive to the promise of longevity wanted older material. Store bins became dumping grounds for hastily transferred albums lazily packaged. By the late 1980's we saw entire imprints created by labels to distinguish proper restoration and reissue projects from the flood of overpriced CD's offering albums that had never gone out of print on vinyl or cassette in the first place. Trips through the archives, once sneered at as a waste of personnel time better devoted to flogging Milli Vanilli singles, yielded gems the public probably would have asked for if anyone other than fanatical record fetishists had known they existed. Here's one.

• 02:59 "THE CHIPMUNK SONG" (Ross Bagdasarian)
• 02:34 b/w "CHRISTMAS BLUES" (Fito de la Parra, Skip Taylor, Henry Vestine, Alan Wilson, Larry Taylor, Bob Hite,Jr.)
• performed by Canned Heat (and the Chipmunks, side A)
• original source: 7" Liberty 56079 (US) November 1968
• and my source: VA CD LEGENDS OF CHRISTMAS PAST, A ROCK N' R&B HOLIDAY COLLECTION EMI Legends 0777-7-99987-2 2 (US) 1992

.....Despite the A-side's title and credit, this is actually not the recording, or in fact even the song, released ten years earlier, but a playful nod to it done with Bagdasarian's cooperation on the anniversary. Liberty Records was hurting financially in 1958 when producer and sometimes-artist Ross Bagdasarian,Sr. convinced them to issue a novelty song he recorded with variable speed vocals, called "WITCH DOCTOR". He used the same pseudonym, David Seville, he'd used a half-dozen times before without notice but scored huge. A few more such singles and he closed the year with a Christmas single in which a beleaguered 'Dave' tries to teach a cute innocuous holiday song to three singing chipmunks too hyperactive to stay on task. Ross named the chipmunks after two Liberty executives (Al Bennett and Simon Waronker) and an engineer (Ted Keep). He had been hoping to squeeze a few more miles out of the fad before it faded, but Alvin, Simon and Theodore gave him the start of a whole new franchise. The Chipmunks led to albums, merchandising, an animated television series (and the further merchandising tied to that) and more singles right up to 1965, when it appeared that even covers of the Beatles and "The Sound Of Music" weren't going to keep the idea going.

.....In the fall of 1968, Liberty act Canned Heat was in the process of recording their third album, LIVING THE BLUES, a double that would be half-live, half-studio. Producer Skip Taylor bumped into Bagdasarian and suggested that the Chipmunks be dusted off for their tenth anniversary in a way that would bring them up to date. The new recording opens as the original did, minus the Seville character's narration and about half the instrumental vamp that ran under it. The Chipmunks began singing as before but are interrupted by Canned Heat, who have booked the studio to record a song called "A CHRISTMAS BOOGIE". After some characteristically bratty behavior from Alvin, the groups end the song with a Canned Heat-style electric blues jam. At only three minutes, the whole thing manages to be cute without being corny.

.....Having found their A-side (recorded October 15th), they needed a B-side to match it. According to Taylor, Fito de la Parra come up with the basic tune on the piano while he himself wrote the lyrics. The rest of the band then jammed over the part part, which is probably why the song sounds vaguely like a Fats Domino number despite the fact that the recording is filled with electric guitars. "CHRISTMAS BLUES" was recorded October 17th. Except for whatever anonymous personnel made up Bagdasarian's source recordings for the Chipmunk voices, the line-up for both sides was:

• Bob Hite,Jr. on vocals
• Alan Wilson on vocals, harmonica and slide guitar
• Henry Vestine on lead guitar
• Larry Taylor on electric bass
• Fito de la Parra on drums (and piano, B-side)

.....Recorded in true stereo during the album sessions, these songs were mixed down to mono for 7" release to encourage AM radio airplay in 1968. The CD that I noted above as a source claims that they are presented in stereo there for the first time. Thereafter it would become easier to find them coupled on CD, at least it would if you lived in Europe. They appear on:

• CD BOOGIE WITH CANNED HEAT Magic Records 4980302 (France)1999-- Bonus tracks on a remastered CD of the group's previous, second album. The album contemporary to the single was a double, but unable to fit on a single disc. Why they weren't amended to the third album, I don't know.
• CD FUTURE BLUES Repertoire REP4889 (Germany) 2000-- Bonus tracks on a remastered CD of the group's fifth original album from 1970, not counting the compilation album and live album that followed the fourth. This album was even a different line-up, since Harry Vestine left shortly before the Woodstock concert and was replaced by Harry Mandel.
• 2CD FAR OUT Akarma AK 115/2 (Italy) 05/01-- A very well rounded compilation of the first few years of the bands recordings.
• CD CHRISTMAS ALBUM RUF Records RUF 1135 (US) 11/07-- A hybrid album of old and new recordings. The only member from the single's line-up to still be available for the new ones was Fito de la Parra. Check their website for details.

1966 "Sock It To Me Santa"

.....Today we have an A-side only.

.....Here's the rock archeologist's equivalent to a tip from Dick Tracy's Crimestoppers' Notebook: notice that the copyright date at the bottom of the label is 1963, in conjunction with the label's name, Cameo-Parkway. Notice also that the copyright date below the catalog number (right side, middle) is 1966, in conjunction with the publisher's name, Gear Publishing, Co. Was this song originally issued in 1963 and reissued in 1966? No. 1963 refers to the copyright of the graphic design of the label, which is itself intellectual property. Publishing copyrights don't change dates when new pressings are released. And when new recordings are released, their dates are noted with a letter 'P' in a circle, not a letter 'C' in a circle. This is where many databases screw up release dates of music and movies as well. Often if a vinyl album is reissued on CD with previously unreleased bonus tracks, the original album tracks are noted with a 'P' and their original release date, the bonus tracks with a 'P' and the reissue's date. The album art, if it needs to be reworked to reflect the different playlist, will be protected by a 'C' and the reissue date. Sometimes a sufficiently radical remastering job may justify the entire package being given a 'C&P' for the current date and that's where databases compiled on the fly by persons unfamiliar with the source material start disseminating misleading or outright false information. When I get information from something not in my hands (such as this super-rare label image from the indispensable folks at Soulful Detroit, posted November 20, 2008), I'll try to make a note of it. I can still make typos, of course, so call me out on those and any other gaffes in the comment section below.

• 02:13 "SOCK IT TO ME, SANTA" (Bob Seger, Dan Honaker, Carl Lagassa, Dave Leone)
• -N/A- b/w "FLORIDA TIME" ("Punchy" [probably Seger's manager Edward Andrews])
• performed by Bob Seger and the Last Heard
• original source: 7" Cameo C-444 (US) December 1966
• and my source: VA 4CD CAMEO-PARKWAY 1957-1967 ABKCO Music & Records OX01-92232 (US) May 17, 2005

.....Since the B-side is not a Christmas song, locating these two songs together isn't a priority for the purposes of this blog. The A-side has made a handful of appearances on CD, which is about right. Borrowing as it does from Gary Walker's James Brown pastiche "Santa's Got A Brand New Bag", it warrants less of a market presence than something purely original, such as Brown's own "Santa Claus Go Straight To The Ghetto". I've included it (A) because I hope to get around to everything eventually and (B) the enthusiastic performance makes up for the weak material. Yet, even though Seger's own song was derivative to start with in 1966, that didn't stop Bud Logan from releasing a second "Sock It To Me Santa" on 7" RCA Victor 47-9678 in 1968. That version was written by country-western session musician Thomas Bailey Keels. I haven't heard it myself, but Pete Bilderback (on his blog Flowering Toilet) contends "It's a totally different song."(Dec. 15, 2008) and I wouldn't doubt it. Still, it managed to confuse Howard Smiley and Bill Crowley, compilation producers for Polygram/JFC. They put together VA CD A ROCK'N'ROLL CHRISTMAS PolyGram Special Markets 314 520 244-2 (US) 1994, a budget release including the Seger recording, but with the song-writing credit "T. Keels".

.....Let's try to put together a timeline to help them out.

.....The phrase "sock it to [someone]" actually made it into print in the 1800's, meaning to make an impact on someone out of aggression or anger. The variant "Sock it to me", meaning to give me something so good or so true that it will impact me like a physical blow, probably came from black musicians in the 20th century. James A. Mitchell claimed in his Mitch Ryder biography "It Was All Right" that Ryder brought the phrase "to America"(?) with the LP SOCK IT TO ME! New Voice 2001(US) April, 1967. What makes that claim curious is not only that the album followed Seger's single in December 1966 but Ryder's own "Sock It To Me-- Baby!" single in January 1967.

.....Next came Aretha Franklin interjecting the phrase into her famous cover of Otis Redding's "Respect", recorded on Valentine's Day 1967 and released shortly thereafter. The television show "Laugh-In" debuted as a one-hour special in September and was brought back as an ongoing series in January 1968, turning "Sock It To Me" into an all-purpose non-sequitur. An appearance on the show by presidential candidate Richard Nixon in September 1968 is probably what precipitated the recording of the Bud Logan/Thomas Keels version.

.....The line-up for the Last Heard was:

• Bob Seger on organ, guitar and vocals
• Carl Lagassa on guitar
• Dan Honaker on bass
• Pep Perrine on drums

.....which was practically the Bob Seger System that signed to Capital in 1968. The single was produced by Doug Brown and Bob Seger and engineered by Les Cooley. The name from the writing credits I've not explained as yet is Dave Leone. Not a band member, but a partner with Seger's manager Edward Andrews. Together they ran the label Hideout. I'm not sure why he was given a songwriting credit and it seems neither was abkco. On the label retrospective boxed set cited above they removed his name from the credits in the booklet. I am not aware if they've been restored in their latest holiday collection, VA CD CAMEO PARKWAY HOLIDAY HITS Collector's Choice WWCL M21662 (US) November 23, 2010.

1953- "Just A Lonely Christmas"

.....Today I wanted to take a sample from a rich post-war burst of original Christmas pop music.

.....The Moonglows were a doo-wop group that grew out of a vocalese act. (In vocalese the members of the act would imitate musical instruments using only their voices. Unless you're Bobby McFerrin or The Bobs, the results are at best a short-lived novelty concept.) Another musician brought them to the attention of DJ Alan Freed, who invited them to use his radio station's studio's to record a single, released on Freed's Champagne label.

.....At about this time, Art Sheridan of Chicago's Chance Records was in the Ohio area looking to establish a new distribution company and found himself working with Alan Freed's brother, Dave. The association led to The Moonglows signing to Chance in the fall of 1953 in order to reach a wider audience. Since their name was originally coined as a variant on Alan's nickname, 'The Moondog', Alan sat in on their writing sessions and often got writing credits regardless of of his actual contributions (as evidenced by the label image above, from the collection of Victor Pearlin).

[A moment here to acknowledge that the image of the label and the majority of the recording information here was obtained from the excellent Chance Label page of the Red Saunders Research Foundation at Clemson University. Google it. And bring a sandwich; you're gonna be there a while.]

• 02:26 "JUST A LONELY CHRISTMAS" (Harvey Fuqua)
• 02:23 b/w "HEY, SANTA CLAUS" (Harvey Fuqua)
• performed by The Moonglows
• original source: 7" Chance CH-1150 (US) November 1953
• and my source: CD ROCKIN' LITTLE CHRISTMAS MCA Records MCAD-25084 (US) 1986

[I should also point out that before being consumed by Universal Music (UNI) MCA Records was notorious for falsifying copyright dates on its products, among other information. It is almost certain that the release date for the CD was at least two years after 1986, which is probably the release date of the vinyl counterpart.]

.....In later years The Moonglows would fall into the pattern of many doo-wop groups, having numerous changes in line-ups, but their membership was unusually stable during the 1950's:

• Bobby Lester (B-side lead vocal)
• Alexander "Pete" Graves (replacing Danny Coggins before the group recorded)
• Harvey Fuqua (A-side lead vocal)
• Prentiss Barnes

.....Their first session for Chance was on September 27, 1953 at the Universal Recording Corporation Studios. The producer isn't listed on any of the zillions of compilations these songs appear on, but it was likely label founder Art Sheridan rather than his partner Ewart Abner. Four songs were recorded, two of which were released as a single in October. The other two made this single. The "orchestra" was provided by the label:

• Red Holloway on Tenor Sax
• Louis Carpenter on Piano
• Hawk Lee on Bass
• Robert Henderson on Drums

.....The Moonglows kept plugging along to little reward when the label folded a year later. Sheridan went into real estate, Abner went to the Vee-Jay label and the Moonglows went to the Chess label, where they hit instantly with "SINCERELY" and went on to fame nationally. They never lost their association with Freed and appeared in his first "Rock 'N' Roll Christmas Spectacular" concert in 1958, but split shortly afterwards. By that time they had long been in the habit of recording side projects and Fuqua briefly formed a new Moonglows with Marvin Gaye. It was about that time Fuqua married into Berry Gordy's family and perhaps inevitably he and Gaye both went to work at the Motown group of labels.

.....One word of warning to collectors: "Pete" Graves also formed a Moonglows group, albeit in 1964, and rerecorded "JUST A LONELY CHRISTMAS" other doo-wop veterans Doc Green, George Thorpe and Bearle Easton. It was released on 7" Last Nite 275 (US) 1964?1965? and b/w "BABY, PLEASE".

.....The original pair has been reissued countless times, both together and separately. Another seven-inch pressing from the mid-1970's actually has the catalog number Mello 69 and may or may not be a rerecording, seeing as how the group reunited in 1972. Other recommended sources include

.....VA LP ROCKIN' CHRISTMAS THE 50'S Rhino Records RNLP 066 (US) 1984

.....VA CD BLUE CHRISTMAS Blue Moon BMCD 5003 (US) 1994

.....Ever spy them together yourself? Mention where in the comments.

1973- "Step Into Christmas"

.....A great way to cap off a very prolific period.

• 04:30 "STEP INTO CHRISTMAS"(Bernie Taupin, Elton John)
• 04:06 b/w "HO! HO! HO! WHO'D BE A TURKEY AT CHRISTMAS"(Bernie Taupin, Elton John)
• performed by Elton John
• original source: 7" Dick James Music [DJM] DJS290 (UK) November 26th, 1973
• and my source: 2CD RARE MASTERS Polydor 314 514 138-2 (US) 1992

.....After recording his first two solo singles and album at his publisher's studio (and an A-side at Olympic) in 1968-1969, Elton John settled into Trident Studios with producer Gus Dudgeon and proceeded to record the catalog that made years of struggle seem like an overnight success. In 1970 and 1971 he released five original albums, all recorded at Trident (except one recorded at a New York radio station, which was mixed at Trident). In 1972 both John and Dudgeon took the recording to Strawberry Studios at the Chateau D'Hierouville in France for the next three albums, including the double GOODBYE YELLOW BRICK ROAD. The relentless touring was starting to catch up with everyone; before recording in France, they would normally have two completed albums on the shelf awaiting release at any given time. But after recording GOODBYE... in May 1973 there was a gap of six months without studio work before this rush-release item. Back at home in Trident one last time before moving into their new studio in Caribou Ranch, Colorado in the US after the new year, the gang recorded this just weeks before its release date and the results were one of the catchiest A-sides and quirkiest B-sides in a career characterized by such combinations.

.....It's not too surprising that the B-side hasn't been reissued nearly as often as the A-side, which has appeared on dozens of various artists Christmas compilations internationally. What is curious is how rarely they occur together. The American counterpart to the DJM single was MCA 65018, released simultaneously. That 1973 pressing featured MCA's 'rainbow' label with a black background. The 1980 repressing has the same catalog number but a sky-blue background behind the rainbow. Also in 1980 the B-side showed up on the exploitation compilation LP LADY SAMANTHA DJM 22085 (UK) 1980, reissued on CD in 1998. Other than that, the B-side only seems to appear on RARE MASTERS in 1992.

.....The A-side, on the other hand, appears on both the US (1990) and UK (1991) version of the 4CD boxed set TO BE CONTINUED... (there are different track listings for some reason). It also appears as a bonus track on the remastered edition of CARIBOU in 1995 and the Pavarotti duet "LIVE LIKE HORSES" on the single CD5 Rocket Records LLHDD1 (UK) 1996. And as mentioned before, it certainly makes the rounds on holiday compilations.

1932- "Christmas Message To The Empire, 1932"

.....This first entry is actually a spoken word piece, but one with a strange pedigree.

• 03:06 "CHRISTMAS MESSAGE TO THE EMPIRE, 1932" (Rudyard Kipling)
• performed by His Majesty King George V (of England)
• original source: BBC Empire Service broadcast, 25th December, 1932
• commercial debut: 10"[78RPM] His Master's Voice R.B.S. 4359(UK) 01/33 [one-sided]
• and my source: CD THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS PAST Living Era ASV Ltd. CDAJA5178 (UK) 1995

.....The liner notes for the CD suggest that this item's catalog number is OB 4598-3, which I can't find listed on any website. I did find one auction house which described their copy as having a matrix number OB 4398 IIIIT3, so there may simply be a typo somewhere.

.....The BBC had been broadcasting domestically since 1927 when the Empire Service (today known as the World Service, I believe) commenced in December 1932. This would broadcast to member countries of the United Kingdom all over the globe. The participation of the King early on would inspire confidence in the ambitious project and Christmas or New Year's Day would seem the ideal special occasion to provide the maximum audience. The text of the address was provided by Rudyard Kipling:

....."Through one of the marvels of modern science, I am enabled this Christmas day to speak to all my peoples throughout the Empire. I take it as a good omen that wireless should have reached its present perfection at a time when the Empire has been linked in closer union, for it offers us immense possibilities to make that union closer still. It may be that our future will lay upon us more than one stern test. Our past will have taught us how to meet it unshaken. For the present, the work to which we are all equally bound is to arrive at a reasoned tranquility within our borders, to regain prosperity without self-seeking and to carry with us those whom the burden of past years has disheartened or overborne. My life's aim has been to serve, as I might, towards those ends. Your loyalty, your confidence in me has been my abundant reward. I speak now from my home and from my heart to you all. To men and women so cut off by the snows, the desert or the sea that only voices out of the air can reach them; to those cut off from fuller life by blindness, sickness or infirmity; and to those who are celebrating this day with their children and their grandchildren; to all, to each I wish a happy Christmas. God Bless You."

.....Records pressed of the recorded speech were sold after the New Year to benefit the "Wireless For The Blind Fund". George V made one more Christmas address in 1935. Both he and Kipling died the following year. Although successors to the crown continued the tradition of a Christmas radio address almost annually, not all were released commercially. The story behind the 1936 delivery begins with the motion picture "The King's Speech", soon to be in theaters.

Label Glossary

.....Transcribing my handwritten notes on Christmas music into blog form my be a fun hobby, but without labels it would just be turning a paper mess into an electronic mess. For my other blogs I've attempted to minimize the number of labels/tags so that the full list of labels isn't too intimidating to browse. For this blog, part of ascertaining which recording of a song is the original involves citing the date of recording and/or release. Therefore there'll be a label for each year. (Although, thinking practically, pre-WWI could be one category and the 20's and 30's could be grouped as five-year blocks. That would turn 100 labels into about 65.)

.....For readers (or myself) searching for a particular style of music, we'll have to ignore for a moment that in commercial circles at least all Christmas music is marketed as a distinct style of music all its own. Also, performers known for a given style in their own music will often approach holiday music differently. Given that it's only on sale for about 10% of the year, they may have chosen to record holiday music as a change of pace or even as a personal or professional challenge, a test of their craft. Still, by limiting myself to original 20th century compositions I can (in most cases) affiliate a given song with the closest approximate popular form. This is just the sort of thing I normally try to avoid when organizing my own records or CD's. It's easier to find things, especially in a large collection, if you simply refuse to parse everything into increasingly specific subcategories. Alphabetize; spell out numbers so that you don't have to remember whether you put numbers before or after letters. There are two kinds of music: classical and popular. Alphabetize popular by artist and classical by composer; organize each artist and composer by date. Organize anthologies by label and cast/soundtrack albums by title, then shelve both outside of the main body (or bodies). Done.

.....The reason my choice of organizational systems is so simplified (if not exactly Spartan) is because I used to work in a music chain store, many years ago when they were such things. Ask anyone old enough to have some experience in music chain retail and they'll confirm it: the more you love music, the more you will grow to hate the chains. And not just the one you have the misfortune of working for; you'll notice things in the competitors that would have previously struck you as brainless but innocent that will begin to take on sinister dimensions in light of what you have learned. I understand that there are entire websites devoted to unloading about such things, so I'll limit myself here to a few things I noticed relevant to labels and music categories. There were separate categories for rock and R&B in the chain where I worked. Generally, the determinations made sense: Led Zeppelin in rock, the Temptations in R&B. Yet, there were some that puzzled me. Jimi Hendrix, for instance, was in R&B. That's not really so crazy, since some of his posthumous releases were much bluesier than his standard albums. But then I noticed Hall & Oates were in rock, although they often charted as R&B. And the more I thought about it, Pink Floyd were much more consistently blues inflected than Hendrix was, yet they were shelved in rock while Living Colour were in R&B. Although it was never stated company policy, a close inspection made their reasoning obvious. "Rock" meant white to them, and "R&B" meant black. It was that simple and that ugly. There were a number of other questionable judgements but that one had a higher skin-crawl factor than the others and while I can't foresee myself making that particular lapse in common sense it made me wary of that thin line between subjectivity and prejudice. I decided that the human factor was something best indulged when listening to music and that we should defer to library science when filing it.

.....All of which makes it feel very strange now to introduce musical categories to a blog I'm writing. The only saving grace I can think of is that these are meant for individual songs and therefore avoids the odious practice of pretending that albums never blend musical styles. Here are the terms I anticipate needing to use:

• Avant-garde - Because I am restricting myself to the 20th Century there will be few instances of commissioned classical compositions of holiday music, as would have been more common during Handel's lifetime. If any come up I will lump them in here along with the neo-classical and (intentionally) atonal on top of anything experimental or exceptionally innovative, so much so that it doesn't meet the other categories.
• Children's - This category is less about style than about marketing.
• Humor - I had originally considered using the broader term 'novelty' until I realized that would describe everything in a Christmas music blog. Like Children's and Stage & Screen this would likely be combined with a more specific description of the music.
• Jazz/Swing - Depending on artists or arrangements, this may occasionally be used in combination with R&B-Blues .
• Punk/New Wave - The fact of this category will probably prompt some ruminations on deconstruction. There have also been those who contend that 'New Wave' doesn't exist except as a marketing term. It may ultimately prove more useful in identifying time periods than musical qualities.
• R&B-Blues - (see Jazz/Swing) Some selections may overlap with the various Roots designations.
• R&B-Motown - Oh, yes, the volume of Christmas music from the Motown family of labels (which includes the 'Motown' label proper as well as Gordy, Jobete, Tamla, etc.,etc....) more than justifies it's own sub-category.
• R&B-Other Soul - Musically not terribly different from Motown but often less polished. Sometimes that's an improvement, sometimes not. Think Atlantic, Atco, Stax/Volt, Buddha, etc.
• Rock-UK - Not really a style distinct from the US but a concession to nostalgia for readers and myself. Also, there's a mountain of material from the seventies.
• Rock-US - (see Rock-UK)
• Roots-Country - Covers both Nashville and Bakersfield as well as any 'alt-Country'/No Depression artists who aren't actually rock.
• Roots-Folk - Both the real stuff and the barbershop-type arrangements from the early sixties.
• Roots-Gospel - It might be tricky distinguishing the Christmas songs about Jesus from the other 364 days of songs about Jesus. Technically, "GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN" is lyrically a Christmas song. Musically it doesn't exactly remind me of pine and peppermint, but that's what this blog is intended to detail.
• Spoken Word - Stories, speeches, radio dramas and some interesting public service announcements. Trust me, they'll keep things more interesting than their descriptions imply.
• Stage & Screen - Cast albums and soundtracks, which may incorporate any or none of the above categories.

.....Of course, this doesn't preclude categories being added later.

Don't Rest Ye Just Yet

.....This year, 2011, is the 350th anniversary of a book. 1661 saw the publication of "New Carolls For This Merry Time Of Christmas-- To sundry pleasant tunes. With new additions never before printed, to be sung to the delight of the hearers." A recent search for a public domain online copy found nothing at Project Gutenberg and restricted access to copies at Hong Kong University and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. There is purportedly a microform copy in the National Library of Australia at Canberra, assuming that Canberra is not in that part of Australia currently under water at the moment.

.....The book followed closely after the Restoration of 1660, which lifted prohibitions against Christmas carols. Carols had their origins not as songs but as pagan dances that accompanied the change of seasons or fertility rites. The rhythms of the dances then became the basis for songs. Although early Christian leaders condemned the practice of carol singing, later attempts to convert pagan adherents to their faith included the practice (in Europe at least) of trying to convince the pagans that the trappings of their culture actually had Christian origins. This is why pine trees, holly and other decidedly non-Middle Eastern accoutrements have become associated with the birth of Jesus. But while the ruse succeeded in bringing on converts, church authorities continued to object to the assimilation of pagan practices. Christians, however, did not. Although not integrated into church ceremony, many pagan rituals and even day-to-day customs became a part of domestic life in Christian homes long after their true origins were forgotten. (Forget Christmas; Easter has become so saturated in pagan fertility symbols it should have an 'R' rating.) Bans against singing carols were alternately enforced and liberalized until the Restoration, after which only Puritans and various zealots continued to rail against them, to decreasing effect. Still, so soon after official reprieve the printer of "New Carolls..." identified themselves only by initials: "printed by H.B. for Andrew Kemb, and are to be sold at his shop near Saint Margarets Hill in Southwark". Why take chances?

.....New printings of the book appeared in 1670, 1681 and 1725. There was a relative flurry of new books collecting old carols in the 1800's, but in the intervening time many of the old favorites were kept alive by oral tradition with its inevitable tendency toward reinvention. The best single source for disambiguation of these variant versions I have found is "The Penguin Book Of Carols" edited by Ian Bradley(1999).[Bradley himself recommends the revised "New Oxford Book OF Carols" (1992) in his introduction.] I found the Penguin collection while trying to pin down the song-writing credits of Christmas carols in my rock music collection. Countless pop music performers have recorded Christmas music, some recording entire albums. Unfortunately, most of those albums have a token original number and are then fleshed out with 'the usual suspects'-- pre-1900 standards whose authorship, while established, is often ignored owing to their public domain status. No one will sue over zero royalties, so why bother to identify them? At some point I began putting together cassettes of as many holiday songs as I could to provide a counterpoint to the homogenized mall-music versions and faced the same predicament as anyone who makes this same innocent mistake: "Good Lord, how many versions of 'Silent Night' are there?" I resolved to limit myself to acquiring only those songs that debuted as recordings, ensuring that there at least could be an arguably definitive version. Then, realizing that with new songs being written every year that I would never live to see the end of this project, I chose the arbitrary cut-off point of the year 2000 for my search. That gives me roughly a century since the invention of the Edison cylinder in which to explore. I made that decision twenty years ago and have not come close to tracking down all the recordings I want. It's enough of a struggle just to organize what I've found. If you care to join me here, that's just what I intend to do.

.....This blog is the latest in a series of the Layman's Guide to Criticism, whose Mission Statement and other blogs are to be found on the list of links to the left. Tomorrow I will detail the tag categories that will be used here.