Gordon MacRae and Lena Horne Christmas Seals Shows from 1959

Following up on the previous set of Christmas Seals shows from Julius La Rosa and Jack Benny, here is an LP from 1959 featuring Gordon MacRae and Lena Horne.

Unlike the previous 16-inch record, which came from 1954, this LP was a 12-inch product and came in a sleeve. The cover is above, but I will confess I embellished it  -  the only thing in color on the original was the troupe of zombie children marching to the mailbox.

The other difference to at least the La Rosa program is that none of the musical specialties were recorded specifically for Christmas Seals. They all came from commercial LPs. The intros and spots, of course, were done for these programs.

Each program includes five musical selections, three Christmas Seals spots, and announcements. Here is a quick rundown of the selections.

Gordon MacRae Show

Gordon MacRae

Most of MacRae's songs came from his then-recent Capitol LP, The Seasons of Love - "It Might as Well Be Spring," "Autumn Leaves" and "It's Summer in Your Eyes." (There are no winter songs on that album, save for "June in January.")

Also on the Christmas Seals program were "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face," likely his 1956 recording, and "Count Your Blessings," from 1954. The latter is sometimes considered a Christmas song because it was introduced in the film White Christmas. Van Alexander leads the band on all these selections.

Gordon is a big favorite around these parts. Here are links to his recordings on this blog and the singles blog.

Lena Horne Show

Lena Horne

Lena Horne has appeared here only a few times, mainly because her recordings are widely available. I did transfer her first LP (on M-G-M) as a memorial 13 years ago, only to find that the songs were to be reissued the following week. And with her Black & White singles, those too have been reissued, as I discovered recently in preparing a post devoted to those early discs.

I've newly redone the M-G-M LP in ambient stereo for those interested.

Horne's Christmas Seals program starts off with a song that Billy Strayhorn wrote for her - "You're the One," a very good piece that surprisingly is otherwise unrecorded. 

The Strayhorn number, "You Do Something to Me" and "It's All Right with Me" come from her 1956 LP It's Love. "Just in Time" and "Baubles, Bangles and Beads" come from 1958's Give the Lady What She Wants. The orchestra is led by Lennie Hayton on all songs.

Happy holidays to all!

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