Monday recording

it looks like many years ago I hit the jackpot on Christmas albums because the last few have been 25 cents from Vintage Stock. (wow, looking at locations, I had no idea there were that many. I was under the impression it was a local thing. huh.) anyway, on to the records

We Wish You a Merry Christmas - Ray Conniff and the Ray Conniff Singers: kind of an odd one in that each side has only three tracks. Four medleys o' Christmas music plus the Twelve days of Christmas and Ring Christmas Bells (which is just Carol of the Bells with some different, clunky lyrics) They keep things pretty peppy through the whole album. I've heard snippets of this one before on a few Christmas CD's I've got. (We Wish you a Merry Christmas and Hark! the Herald Angels Sing broken out of their medleys)

Christmas in Germany: lots of children's choirs singing German carols that I don't recognize, except Silent Night. But my favorite thing on here is Weisse Weihnacht (White Christmas) sung by Kenneth Spencer? (ah, quick googling and I'm fairly certain this is him) anyway, so I turn the album over for side 2 and go "whoa!" two tracks, one small one and the second one has no variation in it, guess you'd just have to see it, it's kind of unusual. so the second track is a medley of carols with church bells between each song.

The Spirit of Christmas vol. II: this one was distributed by TG&Y so it's a mish mash of artists, but not as jarring as some compilations can be. probably my fave track was I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day by Johnny Cash. Jingle Bells by Jim Nabors didn't annoy me as much as I thought it would and can Robert Goulet mess anything up? (God Rest You Merry Gentlemen)

Jingle Bells - The Mexicali Brass: honk-shoo. only White Christmas really stood out as having any rhythm and the rest was pretty straight forward. I guess Go Tell it on the Mountain is still sticking in my head right now..... which actually isn't on this album. bwah ha ha haaaaaa.

Calypso Noel - St. Peter's R.C. Church Choir from Pointe-a-Pierre, Trinidad: of all places I think i found this in an antique shop in OKC. So it's a nice record for what it is even with African Noel on it. They sound good for a small church choir. The album cover only lists the women, but I'm hearing some male voices so maybe they aren't regular members of the choir. who knows? I liked Jingle Bells Calypso, Ring Those Christmas Bells and the different descant on Silent Night.

Hawaiian Christmas - Noelani Kanoho Mahoe with the Leo Nahanahe Singers: a nice mix of traditional English (usually sung in Hawaiian) and Hawaiian tunes. They're accompanied by guitars, drums and "vibes" I just like the harmonies, the ladies blend well and the tempos and rhythms are a nice change on the English things (The Little Drummer Boy, Deck the Halls and Auld Lang Syne in particular). Oh, and they do Christmas Chopsticks!

Christmas Time - Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians: I took this one out of the sleeve and said, "ugh, what was I thinking?" it's in bad shape, surprisingly only one track skipped on the first side, the second side I'm not sure there's a track that didn't skip. my ears are tired. this one had some nice potential musically. liked, The Sleigh (Kountz) and the Alleluia by Liadoff-Gearhart. okay, sleepy time.