1963 Christmas Every Day

.....If Marvin Gaye recorded "THE CHRISTMAS SONG" (see previous post) close to the holiday, then Motown already had it's first full-length Christmas album in the shops at the time. A recent visit to the website Don't Forget The Motor City suggests that many of the recording dates and production credits I've read in liner notes are actually different, though, and I'm less certain of their relative order. Contrary to the liner notes from two sources, the website contends that the Marvin Gaye track was recorded live on December 16th, 1962, not 1963. But it also contends that half the material for the Miracles' Christmas album was recorded as far back as August 1962 and the other half a year later.

.....The object of this post is:

• 02:29 "CHRISTMAS EVERYDAY" (William 'Smokey' Robinson)
• 02:39 b/w "THE CHRISTMAS SONG" (Mel Tormé, Robert Wells)
• performed by The Miracles
• original source: LP CHRISTMAS WITH THE MIRACLES Tamla TM236 (US) 10/29/63
• as well as this: [promo] 7" Tamla EX-009 (US) Nov/63
• and my source: CD CHRISTMAS WITH THE MIRACLES Motown/MCA MCD09091MD (U) 1987

...which includes the album's sole original composition. I first heard "CHRISTMAS EVERYDAY" in the eighties and for someone hunting for original Christmas pop music it was a snow-glare intensity beam of sunshine in a hobby the requires slogging through the endless sleet of hundreds of iterations of "JINGLE BELLS" and "SILENT NIGHT". If this was in fact recorded in the summer of 1962, with plenty of time for preparation, packaging, promotion, etc., I can't imagine that Berry Gordy didn't have confidence in the recording. I suppose it's possible that he had his doubts about the market for seasonal novelties in general, given the failure of the previous year's single, "X-MAS TWIST".

.....According to DFTMC, the recording dates were as follows:

• Aug. 21: "THE CHRISTMAS SONG", produced by William Stevenson
• Aug. 21: "O HOLY NIGHT", produced by Ron White and Smokey Robinson
• Aug. 21: "CHRISTMAS EVERYDAY", produced by Smokey Robinson
• Aug. 23: "NOEL", produced by Smokey Robinson
• Aug. 29: "I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS", produced by Ron White

.....That last number brings to mind another problem regarding the chronology of this recording. The standard line-up for The Miracles' recordings was:

• William 'Smokey' Robinson
• Ronnie White
• Bobby Rogers
• Warren 'Pete' Moore
• Claudette Rogers Robinson
• plus Marv Tarplin on guitar
• all other instruments by the Funk Brothers

...but at some time before 1964, Pete Moore spent a year in the military. In fact, he's the only vocalist who doesn't appear in the album's original cover photo. Because the recording sessions for this album are about eleven months apart, Moore's service (and therefore his absence during recordings) almost certainly straddles one session or the other. I've looked around the internet for biographical information on Moore (at least 80% of which is just copied from Wikipedia) and while many sources corroborate the fact of his stint in the military I wasn't able to find specific dates for induction or release. For that matter, I'm only assuming that DFTMC is both authoritative and free of typos. I may have to track down a print biography of the group rather than rely on sources devoted to the label generally.