1963 Christmas With The Miracles side A

.....Assuming that the recording dates at the website Don't Forget The Motor City are correct, recording for the first full album of Motown Christmas recordings was completed by August 1963. The first five songs were recorded in August of 1962 and the previous post gives their producers and dates. The post also notes the question of Pete Moore's participation. Here, I'll list the songs from the July-August sessions of 1963, all of which were produced by Ron White:

• Jul. 17: "SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN"
• Jul. 17: "LET IT SNOW"
• Aug. 9: "WINTER WONDERLAND"
• Aug. 9: "WHITE CHRISTMAS"
• Aug. 9: "SILVER BELLS"

.....A close look at Tamla's catalog numbers reveals that the album LP CHRISTMAS WITH THE MIRACLES has a lower number than any other title from 1963, yet it was one of the last released that year. That doesn't prove, although it certainly suggests, that there were once plans to release it for the 1962 holiday season. With the recording completed in 1963, side one looked like this:

.....LP CHRISTMAS WITH THE MIRACLES Tamla TM236 (US) 10/29/63

• 01:55 "SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN" (Haven Gillespie, J. Fred Coots)- originally recorded in 1934 by Harry Reser, a band leader who used Tom Stacks as a vocalist. When I uncover that recording, it'll have it's own post.
• 01:42 "LET IT SNOW" (Jules Styne, Sammy Cahn)- Claudette takes the lead vocal on this; originally recorded by Vaughn Moore in 1945, this is more of a winter song than a Christmas song.
• 02:20 "WINTER WONDERLAND" (Felix Bernard, Dick Smith)- Several versions of this came out in a short period beginning in 1934. The first was likely Richard Himber, but the biggest hit version was by Guy Lombardo. Also not really a Christmas song.
• 02:29 "CHRISTMAS EVERYDAY" (William 'Smokey' Robinson)- The album's only original composition, and it's a good one. Oddly, off the top of my head I can think of four Motown various artists Christmas compilation albums to come out over the following forty years (including a double LP in 1973) that don't include this, despite drawing various other songs, many of them covers of old standards.
• 02:27 "I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS" (lyrics:Kim Gannon, music:Walter Kent, for legal purposes: Buck Ram)- OK, let me explain; after Bing Crosby scored a huge hit with the debut recording in 1943 there was a claim filed by Buck Ram, who had filed an identically titled song for copyright the previous year which the publisher sat on while circulating the Gannon/Kent song. In a sense, Ram was being cheated, albeit not in the conventional manner, and the compromise was for him to share the credit. Some covers will credit him and some won't.

.....Side two tomorrow.