A Pub Crawler's New Year's Eve

The indefatigable David Federman is at the door, inviting us to join him on his "Pub Crawler's New Year's Eve" for 2022.

"Baby, no matter how cold it is outside, we’re going out for New Year’s Eve (if only in our fantasies and dreams)," David writes in his notes. "Neither blizzard or plague can keep us from going down to dance at Clancy’s or getting up to dance at our friendly local tavern. We won’t put off Puttin’ on the Ritz."

Well, you may or may not be going out on the big day, but either way, David's playlist makes great accompaniment. It is, as always, eclectic and at times electric, starting off with the Rolling Stones, and then immediately whisking you back to 1935 for "I Want to Hear Those Old Time Melodies Again."

The 28-song collection includes such favorites as Cab Calloway, Louis Jordan, Ray Noble and Hoagy Carmichael, while also making room for everyone from Chubby Checker to Twink the Toy Piano Band.

So let's raise a glass to David and his compilation, and to each other as we send out a Happy New Year to all!

A Just-in-Time Christmas Music Delivery!

Old friend David Federman has just come down the virtual chimney with a "Just-in-Time Christmas Music Delivery."

It's 23 tracks of holiday goodness - with favorite artists such as Duke Ellington, Ethel Waters, Louis Armstrong and Judy Garland, plus many of his usual surprises.

Great stuff and just the thing for Christmas Day listening - or for enjoyment on any day, for that matter.

Thanks to David as always, and happy holidays to one and all! 

Julius La Rosa at Christmas

The terrific singer Julius La Rosa never made a Christmas album, so my pal Ernie and I are doing our best to fill the void. We've collaborated on a 15-song playlist of holiday tunes from the vocalist's long career.

This is an enjoyable listen - La Rosa was one of those singers who were excellent at the outset of their careers, and remained so for a long time. He was skilled at all types of material - from ballads to novelties - and had a beautiful voice, particularly so in the early years.

We start our collection with a Christmas EP from 1953, and end it with a single from 1981.

Christmas EP

La Rosa's first seasonal records come from the time of his early fame, 1953, and hit the market just after his feud with former employer Arthur Godfrey became a cause célèbre. Godfrey was the biggest thing on television at the time, and La Rosa was his star attraction. But Arthur ran his show a bit like a plantation. He thought that Julius was getting too independent - La Rosa had actually hired an agent! This made Godfrey's face as red as his hair, so he fired Julie - on the air. People took sides, and most were sympathetic to La Rosa.

Ironically, the singer's Christmas EP hit the shops at the same time as Godfrey's own holiday LP, which featured a song by La Rosa (discussed next).

La Rosa was already an established recording artist when the EP came out. He had become the first artist signed to the new Cadence label, set up in 1952 by Archie Bleyer, the bandleader on Godfrey's show. The two had immediate success with "Anywhere I Wander" and then with "Eh, Cumpari," the rare novelty that is actually memorable, mainly because of La Rosa's engaging performance.

The Christmas EP includes four of the most well-worn religious numbers associated with the season, freshened by La Rosa's strikingly good singing. He was assisted by the Columbus Boychoir in "Adeste Fideles." Bleyer conducted. This transfer is revamped from one I offered many years ago.

December 1953 - La Rosa 'hasn't changed'

The Christmas Song

Godfrey's Christmas LP was a purported family affair, with all his featured artists - the Mariners, Janette Davis, Lu Ann Sims, Frank Parker and Marion Marlowe, Haleloke and the McGuire Sisters, along with La Rosa and Bleyer leading the band. Note that Santa Arthur called his assistants the "Little Godfreys." 

La Rosa's number on the LP is "The Christmas Song," which he handles well.

Cadence Singles

La Rosa went on to record three songs for Cadence that could be considered holiday fare - the first only in the broadest sense. "The Big Bell and the Little Bell" is a children's fable so charmingly done by Julie that I didn't want to leave it out.

Cadence and La Rosa issued a two-sided Christmas single in 1955. "Jingle Dingle" is the tale of another one of Santa's helpers, who must number in the thousands by now. The second side, "Campanelle," is more interesting. As you may have guessed, "Campanelle" is "Jingle Bells" in Italian, with La Rosa singing in both that language and English. This is a much better record than it has any right to be - very joyful and fun.

October 1955

Winter in New England

After moving to RCA Victor in 1956, Julie had an opportunity to show off his considerable ability on a few romantic ballads, along with the usual novelties and quasi-rock numbers. "Winter in New England" is a superior song by Robert Arthur and Jack Wolf. Lyrically it is nothing new (the usual tale of going back home), but is sensitively handled by La Rosa and band leader Joe Reisman, aided by an mellifluous recording. Composer Robert Arthur was the longtime music director for Ed Sullivan's television show, where La Rosa regularly appeared. (The download has a Cash Box cover photo of Sullivan and La Rosa.)

We All Need a Little Christmas

By 1966, La Rosa had moved on from RCA, cycled through the Roulette and Kapp labels, and ended up with M-G-M. The next holiday item in this collection, "We All Need a Little Christmas," appears on his LP You're Gonna Hear from Me, titled for André and Dory Previn's song from Inside Daisy Clover.

"We All Need a Little Christmas" is from Jerry Herman's score for his big Broadway hit, Mame, where it was introduced by Angela Lansbury and company. Noisy and simplistic, the song is also catchy and amusing. La Rosa shows off his range through his commanding performance, but is let down by an awful recording, both boomy and indistinct, so different from the superior RCA product above. Don Costa conducted.

Sing Noel with the US Navy Band

Ernie contributed the balance of the program from his vast archive, starting with this rare program of Christmas songs with the United States Navy Band, produced for promotional purposes, likely in the 1970s. La Rosa was a Navy veteran - and in fact was discovered by Godfrey in 1951 when he was still in uniform and singing in officers' clubs.

The Navy LP is a high quality production with La Rosa featured on four songs. The record starts off with the self-explanatory "Julie's Christmas Melody," in a fine arrangement.

La Rosa also is heard in "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town," one of the few readings of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" that I can stand, and "Nature Boy," which I never thought was a holiday song, but who am I to argue with the Navy.

This is a well-performed and produced record, and Julie is in good form.

A Christmas Gift

Our program concludes with another rarity from Ernie's vast collection - "A Christmas Gift" from 1981. It's an unknown but lovely song, enhanced by an accomplished Torrie Zito arrangement.

The 45 label says the song is from a new LP, but I've never seen a copy of that album and wonder it ever was issued.

In addition to the songs described above, the download includes many ads, articles and brief reviews.

My thanks to Ernie for both contributing to and instigating this collection. (Make sure to visit his site for an overwhelming variety of Christmas music.) Let me note that some of the singles come from the vast Internet Archive.

I hope you will enjoy the La Rosa collection as part of your Christmas listening - and that you all have a wonderful holiday!

'Carols of Today' from Distinguished British Composers

In 1965, the Oxford University Press commissioned new carols from 17 of Britain's best composers, publishing the works in a volume called Carols of Today. The following year, the Argo record label recorded 14 of the works for an LP given the same name.

Today's post is devoted to that very good album and the delightful or at least impressive compositions it contains. The composers and their carols follow:

• William Mathias (1934-92) - Wassail Carol, Op. 26, No. 1
• Benjamin Britten (1913-76) - Jesu, as Thou art our Saviour
• John Joubert (1927-2019) - A Little Child there is yborn, op. 48
• Richard Rodney Bennett (1936-2012) - The Sorrows of Mary
• Alun Hoddinott (1929-2008) - What Tidings, Op. 38
• Peter Racine Fricker (1920-90) - In Excelsis Gloria
• Nicholas Maw - (1935-2009) Balulalow
• Peter Wishart (1921-84) - Alleluya, A New Work is come on Hand
• John McCabe (1939-2015) - Coventry Carol
• Alan Rawsthorne (1905-1971) - The Oxen
• Gordon Crosse (1927-2021) - Laetabundus
• Peter Maxwell Davies (1934-2016) - Ave Plena Gracia
• Phyllis Tate (1911-87) - The Virgin and Child
• John Gardner (1917-2011) - The Shout - An Easter Carol

The performers were the Elizabethan Singers, a group formed and conducted by Louis Halsey. This was the third seasonal recording that the ensemble had recorded for Argo, following Sing Nowell in 1963 and Sir Cristemas in 1965. The Singers also produced a number of other LPs with Halsey and other conductors into the 1972. Halsey went on to form the Louis Halsey Singers, also active in the studios.

The soloists on this recording were soprano Susan Longfield, tenor Ian Partridge and bass Christopher Keyte, all highly accomplished, as was Simon Preston, one of Britain's best known organists.

Simon Preston, Louis Halsey, Susan Longfield

While all the composers represented have passed on, Halsey, Partridge and Keyte are still with us. The sadly short-lived Susan Longfield died at age 35, and Simon Preston passed away earlier this year.

The music represents a few generations of composers from Alan Rawsthorne, Phyllis Tate and Benjamin Britten to John McCabe, Richard Rodney Bennett and others born in the 1930s. Those who have heard my recent posts of Britten and William Mathias will know of the expressive quality of their choral music; the others are of a similar standard. The three composers who contributed to the Oxford book of carols but who were not represented on the record are Imogen Holst, David Blake and Adrian Cruft.

Not all these compositions are Christmas carols: those of Richard Rodney Bennett and John Gardner were written for Easter. The settings are of generally of texts from the 11th to 16th centuries, with the exception of a Thomas Hardy setting and a 20th century text by Adam Fox, onetime Oxford professor of poetry and later Canon of Westminster Abbey.

The download includes scans and texts, as usual. The excellent recording comes from Holy Trinity Church in Kensington.

The cover above is one of the many that Arthur Wragg executed for Argo. Another cover for a Christmas disc, from the Choristers of Ely Cathedral, can be found on this blog. There are several other designs for choral music LPs and an extensive series for Shakespeare's plays. I'll post a link to my collection of these soon. The Carols of Today cover would seem to have been more influenced by the art of the French painter Georges Rouault than Wragg's other covers.

More from Jo Ann Greer and Vic Damone

Through the generosity of some good friends, we have more from the wonderful vocalists Jo Ann Greer and Vic Damone, both of whom were recently featured on this blog.

Jo Ann Greer

To add to the pile of Jo Ann Greer recordings, reader and benefactor lafong has come up with four more songs - "I Want to Be Happy," "Nice Work If You Can Get It," "Put the Blame on Mame" and "What Ever Lola Wants."

Also, an old friend of mine who simply describes himself as "a Spanish admirer of the blog" has assembled 10 video clips of film songs that Greer dubbed. On the screen you will see Gloria Grahame, June Allyson, Kim Novak, May Wynn, Rita Hayworth (five clips) and Susan Kohner, but the voice you hear will be Jo Ann's.

Many thanks for these thoughtful folks for passing this material along! Links are in the comments.

Vic Damone

My friend Ernie, the indefatigable Christmas record blogger, found time to send over four more Vic Damone Christmas songs not in my recent post. These are from two various-artists holiday LPs and one from the US Army Reserve. All four songs are excellent.

Ernie posted a link to these numbers in the comments to the original post; you can find it there or in the comments section here. Thanks again, pal!

The Two 'White Christmases'

That holiday favorite, White Christmas, is one of those films that doesn't have a soundtrack LP per se. But it does have two albums with some claim to authenticity because they separately feature the movie's biggest stars, Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney.

Bing and Rosie recorded for different companies (Decca and Columbia), each of which wanted its own product to capitalize on the popular film. So Decca assembled a 12-inch LP with Crosby and his co-star Danny Kaye, adding Peggy Lee to take over the Clooney spots. And Columbia came out with a 10-inch LP that had Rosemary singing eight of the songs from the film.

In this post, I'll discuss the Irving Berlin songs from that 1954 film, and assess the treatments found on the competing LPs. My presentation follows the order of the songs in the film. The download, however, keeps the two LPs separate and in their original running order.

White Christmas - The Old Man

The first song is, appropriately, "White Christmas," with Capt. Crosby singing to front-line troops who are about to get a new commander to replace the beloved Gen. Waverly (Dean Jagger). Bing's poignant rendition is interrupted by the appearance of the general himself. The troops serenade him with "The Old Man" (apparently carefully rehearsed for just such an occasion). The song has some amusing tongue-in-cheek lyrics such as, "We'll follow the old man wherever he may stray / So long as he stays away from the battle's fray."

A version of "The Old Man" is included on the Decca LP, where it was combined with "Gee, I Wish I Was Back in the Army," which appears much later in the film and will be discussed below.

Heat Wave - Let Me Sing and I'm Happy - Blue Skies

After the war, Crosby forms an act and then a production company with Kaye, who saved his life during the enemy attack that ended their Christmas Eve show. A montage shows them performing the Berlin oldies "Heat Wave," "Let Me Sing and I'm Happy" and "Blue Skies."

Once again, Clooney doesn't attempt these songs, but "Blue Skies" does turn up on the Crosby LP, yoked with "I'd Rather See a Minstrel Show" and "Mandy," which again are from much later in the film and will be discussed below.

Sisters

Clooney and Vera-Ellen were cast as a sister act. Bing and Danny catch them at a remarkable outdoor night club in Florida presided over by Herb Vigran, a character actor who seemingly appeared in every other film and television show for decades.

Trudy Stevens and Dick Stabile

The sisters perform "Sisters," appropriately, to the rapt attention of Crosby and Kaye. In the film, Vera-Ellen's singing voice was dubbed by Trudy Stevens, a very good vocalist who was the ex-wife of bandleader Dick Stabile - who himself appears in the film later on.

Rosemary and Betty Clooney

On the Columbia record, Rosie was joined by her sister Betty for the duet. The two had appeared together for years as the Clooney Sisters with Tony Pastor's band. Betty was to make a good number of records as a single, without achieving Rosemary's popularity.

The Decca LP also includes "Sisters," here given to Peggy Lee, at the time a Decca artist and someone who had been considered for the Clooney part. Lee's sister act consists of Peggy doing a duet with herself, seamlessly. Both versions are very good.

The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing

Still at the Florida club, Kaye and Vera-Ellen do a romantic dance to "The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing." Trudy Stevens again is the singing double for Vera-Ellen. As a dancer Kaye isn't terrible, and as a singer he isn't half bad, which is helpful because Decca had him do a solo for its LP.

The song also appears on the Clooney LP. She doesn't partake in the dance on film, except to sneer at the couple at the end. (Rosie's character is kind of a pill throughout a good part of the film.) Her version is quite good (as is her whole LP, for that matter).

Snow

The two couples end up on a train together heading to Vermont, where the sisters are booked at an inn. They look forward to the dubious delights of the winter weather in the song "Snow." (Berlin recycled this melody from a Call Me Madam outtake titled "Free.")

Peggy Lee

For the Decca record, Crosby and Kaye were joined by Peggy Lee and Trudy Stevens, who as mentioned above also dubbed Vera-Ellen's singing voice on the film soundtrack. Clooney did a very fine solo version for Columbia.

I'd Rather See a Minstrel Show - Mister Bones - Mandy

The gang shows up at the Vermont lodge only to find there is no snow and no patrons. In a remarkable coincidence, Gen. Waverly turns out to be the inn's proprietor. He insists on the sisters staying and performing, and the Crosby-Kaye combo come up with the idea of putting on their show at the inn to attract customers.

This provides a convenient excuse to bring in some musical numbers, starting with a minstrel show, an atavistic tendency in musicals that hadn't died out yet, but here thankfully does not involve blackface. The setting provides an opportunity for Berlin to bring in two of his songs from the Ziegfeld Follies of 1919, "Mandy" and "I'd Rather See a Minstrel Show."

In the film, Crosby, Kaye and Clooney sing in this sequence. On the Decca record, "Mandy" is yoked to "Blue Skies," as mentioned above, with "I'd Rather See a Minstrel Show" between the two, even though it is not listed on the LP's contents. It's been suggested that the Decca LP lifted these numbers directly from the soundtrack (sans Clooney) - I suspect that is the case.

On her Columbia LP, Rosie confines herself to a "Mandy" solo. She includes Berlin's original verse, which makes it clear that she is overhearing two lovers, not appealing to Mandy herself. The verse is not used in the film or on the Decca record.

Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)

Berlin's gorgeous ballad, "Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)," was the big hit from the film, and rightfully so. Crosby sings it incomparably, with such great feeling that it breaks through the reserve of Clooney. Their awkward kiss - interrupted by Waverly - nicely encapsulates both their relationship and Bing's ability to seem caressing in song and clumsy in the clinches. It's a wonderful scene.

Being the big hit it was, the number is done solo by Bing and Rosie on their respective LPs, which gives us two superior renditions.

Choreography

Back to the incipient stage show at the inn, we next have a specialty number for Danny Kaye, the clever but somehow distasteful "Choreography," in which Berlin and Kaye make fun of modern dance. ("Chaps who did taps / Aren't tapping any more / They're doing choreography.") In the film, Kaye's spoken intro is overdone, and on record his reading is even riper, if that's possible.

Robert Alton's choreography of this number is enjoyable, but you can't see that on the record.

"Choreography" seems tacked on to White Christmas to provide a specialty for Kaye, who was a last-minute substitute for Donald O'Connor. The latter would have partnered Vera-Ellen in the more intricate dance numbers. Those were beyond Kaye's ability, so the accomplished dancer John Brascia was pressed into service alongside Vera-Ellen for those spots.

It perhaps doesn't need saying that Clooney doesn't attempt "Choreography" on her album.

Love, You Didn't Do Right by Me

Through the intercession of the indispensable Mary Wickes, who plays the busybody major domo of the inn, Clooney thinks that Bing and Danny are going to use the general as to get publicity via a spot on the Ed Harrison (read: Sullivan) TV show. Disillusioned, she takes off for a solo engagement in a New York nightclub, leaving Bing and her sister behind.

At the Carousel Club, bandleader Dick Stabile talks her into doing her specialty "Love, You Didn't Do Right by Me," even though Crosby is in the house to patch things up. It's a very good number, although Berlin has her sing, "To send me a beau / Who had winter and snow in his heart / Wasn't smart," when the icy one is actually Clooney's character.

Clooney does the song beautifully, both in the film and on her LP. The Decca album assigns the number to her counterpart, Peggy Lee, who also handles the number well. However, her singing is too sophisticated for the character and abstracted for the situation, poking fun at Berlin's lyrics, "As they say in the song / 'You done me wrong'."

The dancer above with Clooney is George Chakiris, who went on to a notable career as an actor, singer and dancer on the strength of his success as Bernardo in the London cast of West Side Story and in the 1962 film version, for which he won an Academy Award. [Correction - loyal reader Geoconno points out that Chakiris played Riff in the West End production.]

What Can You Do with a General?

The weakest song in the score is surely "What Can You Do with a General?", which somehow reconciles Rosemary to Bing, even though it does just what she was afraid of - it exposes the general as a failure when Crosby sings it on the Ed Harrison Show. The song contains such lyrics as, "It seems this country never has enjoyed / So many one- and two- and three- and four-star generals unemployed" and "They're delighted that he came / But they can't recall his name." Waverly of course isn't unemployed - he is the owner of an inn large enough to stage a major show. Also, this is taking place nine years after the end of the Second World War. The generals are still unemployed?

The explanation in part is that Berlin recycled the number from an unproduced show. Crosby does do a version of the song for the Decca album. Clooney wisely ignores it.

Gee, I Wish I Was Back in the Army

Crosby and company end up putting on a major show at the inn for the general's benefit. One of the numbers is "Gee, I Wish I Was Back in the Army." An article on the National WWII Museum site observes, "The song 'Gee, I Wish I Was Back in the Army' highlights the mixed feelings of many war veterans... many veterans struggled to transition back into civilian life." The latter thoughts are true, but this jocular song hardly conveys that.

But the song is clever and well staged, and appears on both LPs. Crosby and Kaye handle the vocals on the Decca LP, with Clooney soloing on her record. The Decca LP, as noted above, combines this number with "The Old Man."

White Christmas

The film concludes with another presentation of "White Christmas." It's the high point of the show at the inn, and has the backdrop of a timely snowfall. "White Christmas" is essentially a solo song, so this ensemble version doesn't provide much of an emotional punch, and the staging is overdone, with kiddie ballerinas and unbecoming costumes. (Bing looks disconsolate above.)

The Decca LP replicates the ensemble approach, but Crosby's earlier solo performances are far superior. Clooney's version is one of the best things on her excellent record.

The Clooney album has backing by Columbia stalwarts Percy Faith, Paul Weston and Buddy Cole. Vocal support is by the Mellomen, a group that included the renowned studio vocalists Thurl Ravenscroft and Bill Lee.

On the Crosby LP, the chorus and orchestra are led by Joseph J. Lilley, a Paramount orchestrator who had worked with Bing as far back as 1942's Holiday Inn (which introduced "White Christmas").

In addition to the two LPs, the download includes scans of both covers, stills and discographical information. The sound is excellent on both albums. I transferred the Decca from LP; the Columbia came from the two-EP version of the 10-inch LP.

Sounds of the Season with Vic Damone

As far as I know, the exceptional singer Vic Damone didn't produce a Christmas album until 1981, relatively late in his career. So I decided to fill the gap by assembling Damone's seasonal recordings from his early years with Mercury through to a group of 1965 LP cuts.

I have to confess that I have defined "seasonal recordings" broadly, taking my cue from my pal Ernie, who has (and shares) more Christmas recordings than anyone I know. (Please check out the holiday offerings from Ernie - and my good friend Lee as well.)

This means I included a few numbers that strictly speaking are not Christmas songs. They do, however, include "December," "Angels" or "Bells" in the title, and fit in well with the genuine holiday selections.

All told, the collection makes a attractive playlist of 13 songs derived from the holdings at Internet Archive and from my collection.

Below are a few words about each number, as usual presented in chronological order of issue.

Damone's career took off when he was still in his teens, and he signed with Mercury Records when he was just 19. It wasn't long before the label had him record his first holiday single - "Silent Night" and the Bach-Gounod "Ave Maria." The so-called "Mercury Chorale" simulates a heavenly choir and the young Damone sounds suitably angelic. Tutti Camarata conducted and presumably arranged.

Later in the year, Mercury had Vic try out two current tunes. One was "Spring in December," an Italian song by by Vittorio Mascheroni and Gian Carlo Testoni, with English lyrics from Harold Rome. The other was "The Serenade of the Bells" from Kay Twomey, Al Goodhart, and Al Urban. Glenn Osser conducted. Both are enjoyable songs that became hits, although not so much for the young Damone. His versions are well worth hearing though.

The Mercury Chorale return for our next selection, Franck's "Panis Angelicus," as conducted by Mitch Miller. This was an early 1948 recording presumably issued in time for Easter, although the hymn was actually written for the Feast of Corpus Christi. As always, Damone's singing is strikingly lovely.

For the 1948 holiday season, Mercury had Vic take a shot at "White Christmas," which he does very well, with the assistance of an anonymous orchestra and choir. The backing was a more unusual selection, "Christmas Morn," by Hilliard, Lehman and Travers. Hilliard is presumably Bob Hilliard; not sure of the other two, but this may be a reworking of an older composition. It's an interesting song (Billboard proclaimed it as "not as bad as these things usually are") and Damone does it well, if a trifle cautiously. (It isn't easy to sing.) He sounds more like Bing than usual on this record - or more to the point, Bing's disciple Perry Como, who gave Vic his first break.

FYI - Mercury packaged three of the songs above with seasonal specialties from Frankie Laine and Eddy Howard for an LP you can find here.

Jumping ahead to 1950, the label had Vic do a version of one of the new Christmas songs for that year, "It's a Marshmallow World" from Carl Sigman and Peter DeRose. It's a jolly tune attempted by many of the bards of the time. The most popular version was from Crosby, but my favorite is by Johnny Desmond.

"Music of the Angels," also from 1950, is "Blues in the Night" in a a less cynical, more pious vein, with the accompaniment of a simulated heavenly host. The bandleader was George Siravo, called "Sirabo" on the label. (Mercury had a talent for this: it identified Ralph Marterie as "Ralph Martiere" on the "Marshmallow World" label and Glenn Osser as "Glen" Osser on "Spring in December.")

I don't have anything else for you until Damone's move to Columbia records in the mid-50s. In 1956, Vic was Young Scrooge in the televised production of The Stingiest Man in Town, with a score by Fred Spielman and Janice Torre. I posted the Columbia cast album of this musical back in 2011, and it's still available. Damone's two numbers are soaring operetta-style arias shared with the excellent Patrice Munsel, but neither have any seasonal flavor.

The following year, there was a televised musical adaptation of Junior Miss, which is set at Christmas. The Burton Lane-Dorothy Fields songs only rated an EP of cover versions by Columbia artists, with Damone handling the title song (which has no holiday content). I posted the EP many years ago; it is still available here.

In 1957, Damone produced another bell song - "The Legend of the Bells," with the ubiquitous celestial choir accompanying a supernatural tale of chimes and a mission. It's a nice if contrived outing that Vic makes great. The credits are "Vic Damone with Marty Manning," who must have been busy singing all the choral parts and playing all the instruments.

We again jump ahead, to 1965 when Damone recorded three Christmas songs. Two - "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" - were for a high quality album put out by the Firestone Tire Co., one of a series in the 1960s. The latter number is a brilliant Martin and Blane song written for Judy Garland and the 1945 film Meet Me in St. Louis. Damone is superb in both. Irwin Kostal, who won an Oscar for scoring The Sound of Music film adaptation that same year, arranges and conducts.

Our final selection is taken from the 1965 television show The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood, which starred Liza Minnelli as the title character, Cyril Ritchard as the Wolf and Damone as a Woodsman, the good guy in this tale. You can see all of them on the cover above, along with The Animals peeking out on the right.

"We Wish the World a Happy Yule" provides a brief coda to the proceedings. Most of the number is done by Minnelli, sounding like a combination of Shirley Bassey and Barbra Streisand, an unusual approach for Red Riding Hood, I'd say. Damone does get to sing a stanza and Ritchard makes a token appearance. It's pleasing tune by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill. Too bad it's not longer.

It's also too bad I don't have more Damone to share with you, but what's here is good! Hope you enjoy the songs and the holidays.

Addendum - Ernie has come up with a few more Damone holiday songs for us to enjoy. Please see his group of comments right below my first comment. His second link is the one that works. (It superseded his first link.) Thanks, pal! 

A Musical Christmas Tree from Morton Gould

Today's holiday offering is a circa 1968-69 recording of Christmas music arranged and conducted by the distinguished composer Morton Gould.

It's a good program that was essentially a stereo remake of a 1949 Gould set called Christmas Music for Orchestra.

The stereo version is dubbed A Musical Christmas Tree, which fir seems to be exploding on the cover above. 

Most of the stereo LP is devoted to Gould's "Serenade of Carols" and "Suite of Christmas Hymns," also found in the 1949 set. The suite is not identified as such on the later album and the various hymns are dispersed throughout the set.

The stereo album does include two items that were new to Gould's recorded canon. First is his composition "Home for Christmas," an attractive piece of Americana that dates from as long ago as 1939. Also new was "The Little Drummer Boy," a song first called "The Carol of the Drums" as written (or arranged) by Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941. Harry Simeone recorded the song to great success in the 1950s, attributing it to him and his producer, while replicating an arrangement previously recorded by Jack Halloran.

Morton Gould

Gould's stereo LP was split between the New Philharmonia Orchestra of London and the RCA Symphony Orchestra, a studio group. Although the album came out in 1969, it's not certain when the recordings took place. We can guess that the New Philharmonia recordings come from October 1968 and Walthamstow Town Hall, a frequently site of London recordings. That's the only Gould-New Philharmonia date in the orchestra's discography, which says the session was devoted to the music of Grieg. Even so, it's possible that the holiday songs were set down at the same time.

As for the RCA Symphony, Alan Rich's liner notes make reference to some of its recordings being made in "mid-summer." That presumably means 1968 or 1969, but more likely the former because Rich's note is dated July 17, 1969.

The RCA recordings are pleasing, and are recommended if you want stereo sound. But don't discount the excellent results that Columbia obtained in its 30th Street studio 20 years earlier. That mono LP is newly remastered and is available via the original post and the comments to this post.

Christmas Music by Vaughan Williams, Finzi and Rutter

To start off the holiday season this year, we have Christmas music from three favorite English composers - Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gerald Finzi and John Rutter. These come to us from a 1983 LP by Philip Brunelle and his Plymouth Festival Chorus and Orchestra.

The "Plymouth" in the title refers not to Massachusetts, but to Minneapolis' Plymouth Congregational Church, where Brunelle was and still is the choirmaster. Brunelle has had a notable career, making quite a few recordings, some of neglected operas (he was music director of Minnesota Opera for 17 years). I have in my collection his pioneering recordings of Britten's John Bunyan and Copland's The Tender Land.

In recent years, the Plymouth Festival Chorus has become known by the new-agey name "VocalEssence."

Vaughan Williams - Carols from The First Nowell

Philip Brunelle

Vaughan Williams' Christmas cantata Hodie is fairly well known, but his second effort at a holiday work, The First Nowell, much less so. In part this is because the latter is a very late work - so late that it was unfinished at the time of the composer's 1958 death. (Roy Douglas completed it.) But it is also because the music was written to accompany a nativity play, and is largely carol settings. Vaughan Williams arranged quite a number of carols through the years, so these are not unusual in his output.

Even so, these particular carols are treasurable pieces. Three are familiar - "On Christmas Night" (here in both orchestral and choral settings), "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen," and "The First Nowell." "How Brightly Shone the Morning Star" is based on a chorale that Bach used in his cantata BWV 140, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme.

Finzi - In Terra Pax

Gerald Finzi's In Terra Pax is, like The First Nowell, a late work, dating from 1954, two years before the composer's death. Similar to much of Finzi's music, it is both gorgeous and poignant. An article by John Bawden explains that "its genesis can be traced to an event some thirty years previously, when one Christmas Eve he [Finzi] had climbed up to the church at the top of his beloved Chosen Hill, between Gloucester and Cheltenham. The sound of the midnight bells ringing out across the frosty Gloucestershire valleys evidently made a lasting impression on him, retrospectively providing the idea for In Terra Pax, as he told Vaughan Williams."

The bells can be heard in the opening of the work, along with the melody of "The First Nowell." The words are a setting of Robert Bridges' "A Christmas Poem," dating from 1913, together with Biblical passages. (The texts can be found here.)

Brunelle and his choir

As Bawden writes, "Finzi, perhaps more than most, must have been aware of the terrible irony of Bridges’ reassuring Pax hominibus being swiftly followed by the outbreak of World War I, yet despite this, and despite his own terminal decline, In Terra Pax is a radiant, optimistic work of great beauty and sincerity; a miniature masterpiece that unites emotions, images and the familiar events of the Christmas story into a compelling musical narrative that is at once personal yet universal."

In Terra Pax is another English work that is in part a contemplation on the English countryside, a theme that flows through Vaughan Williams' work. On this blog, we have encountered this tendency most recently in his An Oxford Elegy.

Rutter - Carol Settings

Brunelle completes his program with the open rejoicing that John Rutter's contemporary carol settings represent. The conductor begins with "In Dulci Jubilo," another theme that was utilized by Bach, for both a chorale and chorale prelude.

Rutter also sets "Away in a Manger," "The Sans Day Carol" (which is related to "The Holly and the Ivy"), the French carols "Quelle Est Cet Odeur Agréable" and "Il Est Né le Divin Enfant," "Don in Yon Forest," and "I Saw Three Ships."

Philip Brunelle and John Rutter

These all display Rutter's gift for airy but satisfying settings, often flute-led, which are most appropriate for this joyous season.

Together with the Vaughan Williams and Finzi works, they make for a diverse but unified program that is a credit to this fine ensemble.

The sound as recorded was - as sometimes happened with early digital productions - both wooly and a bit strident, which I've addressed in the transfer. The result is very good.

The Marvelous Jo Ann Greer

Jo Ann Greer (1927-2001) was a talented artist whose work took place mostly behind the scenes - as a band singer and ghost vocalist for Hollywood stars. As such, she has never received the acclaim her skills should have ensured.

Today we have a good portion of the songs she recorded with several bandleaders, what may be her only single as featured artist, and several examples of her dubbing assignments for the movies. The single sides (and a few album cuts) number 19 in all, spanning 1952-55. These are supplemented by eight soundtrack vocals dating from 1953, 1957 and 1959.

I might as well state at the outset - as I sometimes do with these compilations - that Greer was not often given the best material. But even in the most ephemeral items, she shows remarkable presence, infallible rhythm and diction, excellent intonation, and a vibrato that she uses very effectively. Given good songs, she is extraordinarily impressive.

1952-55 Recordings

Jo Ann's recordings are almost all in a band context, where extroversion and projection were almost a necessity.

Her earliest records come from 1952 and the Sonny Burke band. The first item is "I Wanna Love You," a relentlessly repetitive riff that she shares with a pair named Hub and Hubbie, about whom I know nothing. (Update: reader lafong has discovered that the two were probably songwriters Don Raye and Gene De Paul.) 

The flip is "I'll Always Be Following You," an OK Bernie Wayne tune done in duet with Don Burke, an experienced band singer. Greer is confident and forthright even on her earliest records.

Sonny Burke and band

Burke was a mambo popularizer; his Mambo Jambo album has appeared here. Greer was the soloist on his "(Me with) Mambo on My Mind," built on a familiar riff. Hub and Hubbie assist.

The above records were for Decca, which soon had Greer record her first and (I believe) only solo single. For the plug side, she turned Kay Swift's rhythm number "Fine and Dandy" into an overwrought torch song, before increasing the tempo. "I Love to Hear a Choo Choo Train" is a novelty built on another familiar riff. It begins with the usual train effects. Peggy Lee's ex-husband, Dave Barbour, is the bandleader.

Jerry Gray

Jo Ann came into her own in two early 1953 songs with Jerry Gray, who didn't ask her to tackle novelties or mambos, or turn fast songs into slow ones. "My Heart Belongs to Only You" is a superb reading of a song that was making the rounds that year. "No Moon at All" is a great David Mann-Redd Evans song from 1947 that she does wonderfully.

At about the same time, Greer joined the Ray Anthony band for a short but productive spell. With her first number, "Wild Horses," she is back in novelty territory. The problem is not that she did this material poorly; rather, it's that it is poor material. The horse number is backed by "You're a Heartbreaker," a cover of a country ballad that's handled well.

Dick Stabile

Anthony recorded for Capitol, and while Jo Ann was on the rolls there, bandleader Dick Stabile borrowed her for his recording of "When My Sugar Walks Down the Street," which was Gene Austin's first hit, back in 1925. This is a beautiful reading, if you can tolerate Stabile's piercing alto. Coincidentally, Greer had dubbed the songs for Gene Austin's daughter, Charlotte, in the film Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder in 1952.

Stabile's recording credits go back to the 1930s, but most of his studio work was as the bandleader for Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. You may know him at sight; he plays the bandleader for Rosemary Clooney's number "Love, You Didn't Do Right by Me" in White Christmas.

Greer's final two recordings with Ray Anthony were her most successful on the charts. First was one side of a two-sided novelty smash. "The Hokey Pokey" and its discmate "The Bunny Hop," enlivened dances and wedding receptions for many years.  

Jo Ann's vocal charisma mightily contributes to the success of "The Hokey Pokey's" repetitive silliness. That's the bandleader calling out the bodily parts; his lack of presence sets off Greer's confident singing.

We're back in the 1920s for "That's My Weakness Now," which had been introduced by Betty Boop herself, Helen Kane. Greer could hardly be more of a contrast as she duets beautifully with Marcie Miller. This propulsive reading has a nice arrangement, too.

The Les Brown band with Jo Ann Greer, c1957

Later in 1953, Greer moved on to the Les Brown band, where she was to work for three decades. It's said that Sonny Burke recommended Greer to Brown. I believe that Jo Ann replaced the excellent Lucy Ann Polk, who has been heard on this blog with her family group the Town Criers and Kay Kyser.

Greer's first recording with Brown was Irving Berlin's "Sittin' In The Sun," which was written for White Christmas but not used. The song also was recorded by Frankie Laine at about the same time.

In September 1953, soon after Jo Ann joined Les' crew, the band recorded a live date at the Hollywood Palladium that Coral issued on two LPs, with one of her vocals on each disc. For the first, Brown programmed the oldie, "Back in Your Old Back Yard," scored by the talented Skip Martin. Les himself, along with his arranger Ben Homer, wrote the other song, "Sentimental Journey," his longtime theme that is also closely associated with his mid-40s vocalist Doris Day. Greer does it beautifully; she's a bit more extroverted than Day, as was her manner.

Let's move on the Les Brown singles from 1954. First is another train song, "Susquehanna Transfer," a very good swinger that Jo Ann does with a great deal of personality. Yet another is "Sentimental Train," a lovely tune once you get past the freight-train open, which arrangers seemed helpless to resist. The writer was Carroll Lucas, a former Sammy Kaye arranger.

"The Man That Got Away" is a Harold Arlen-Ira Gershwin song written for the latest iteration of A Star Is Born and made famous by Judy Garland, a star if there ever was one. Greer is not intimidated; she makes use of her vibrato here to give the song a great deal of passion. Band vocals don't get much better than this.

"Lullaby of Birdland" is a George Shearing standard from 1952 that the pianist wrote for the famous New York club. Shearing used the harmonies of Walter Donaldson's "Love Me or Leave Me." Brown's 1955 recording opens with an attractive sax chorus. Greer's vocals swing strongly. She could do it all.

Work for Films and Television

Jo Ann worked closely with Rita Hayworth on three films in the 1950s. In this set, we have recordings from two of them, Miss Sadie Thompson from 1953 and Pal Joey from 1957.

Jo Ann scaled her voice back when she did vocal doubling for the breathy Hayworth. Her projection is much less than she typically used in a band context, making her manner more confidential. "The Heat is On" in Miss Sadie Thompson and both of the Pal Joey tracks have voice introductions from Hayworth; you will notice how closely Jo Ann matches her voice to Rita.

The Sadie Thompson songs are good ones, written by Lester Lee and Ned Washington. The second is "Sadie Thompson's Song," sometimes called "The Heat Is On."

Pal Joey was a 1940 Rodgers and Hart show, recast as a Sinatra vehicle. Hayworth plays his foil Vera Prentice-Simpson, a former burlesque dancer, at least in the film adaptation. Hayworth's "Zip" number was inspired by the act of the "intellectual stripper," Gypsy Rose Lee. ("Zip! I was reading Schopenhauer last night. And I think that Schopenhauer was right.") "Zip" is mainly notable for its witty lyrics. The character's more enduring song is "Bewitched," which Greer sings wonderfully well.

In 1959, Jo Ann was enlisted for the vocals on an episode of a new televised crime drama, The Naked City. Her character is a young singer in New York; Greer dubs four George Duning songs with words by Ned Washington (again). The first two are good. "Somewhere, Wisconsin" provides the character's back story, and "Five Minutes After Forever" tells of her love for a young cowboy. The title of "Live Dangerously" provides all you need to know about it. And in the contrived "Solid Food, Solitude and You" she pledges to go off with the Westerner. All are nicely done, and Jo Ann, as always, is in great voice.

Jo Ann Greer

Elsewhere on this blog you can find the complete soundtrack LPs for Miss Sadie Thompson and The Naked City.

A few more Greer dubbing assignments, for Hayworth, June Allyson and Esther Williams, can be heard on YouTube, followed by a 1991 club appearance.

These recordings come from my collection and the Internet Archive. The sound is excellent in all cases. The download includes brief Cash Box or Billboard reviews of most if not all of the singles.