I am a sucker for obscure pop songs and singers, so today's Christmas offering will be in that vein. It is a 1956 recording on the King label by Chicago vocalist Lillian Brooks (below) called "Merry Christmas to Michael". The song is by Eddie Ballantine, the leader of the band on Don McNeil's Breakfast Club, a radio program that originated in Chicago, and organist Tommy Fairclow. The lyrics are a little clumsy, but Brooks, a big-voiced alto, puts them across with a lot of feeling, and that's what you want in your Christmas tunes, in my view.
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| Lillian Brooks |
King printed brief bio information on the labels of its promo records at this time. This one tells the tale of a lovely Chicago lass who achieved her dream of becoming a singer and was married, making her "permanent home" in Chicago. That home turned out to be not so permanent, however, for the following year she turned up in nearby Milwaukee, suing her husband for divorce, while calling him a drinker who "embarrassed her my remarking on her mental capacities." The husband promptly countersued, claiming that she was traipsing around the Midwest with a music impresario and "she permitted him to visit her alone at 'improper hours of the morning.'" This domestic drama comes to us from the archives of the Milwaukee Journal, which, however, does not tell us its ultimate outcome. Presumably it did not end well. Brooks went on to record a few other singles on small labels into the 60s.
Sorry I haven't been able to post as much as I usually do this time of year - ridiculously busy at work. The shares will start up again soon.
