Old Enough to Forget

Man, the '60s were cool. I mean it seemed like you could package an album for just about anyone or anything. Case in point, take this 1969 release, Season's Greetings & Joyeux Noel To Canada From Barbra Streisand . At first blush this looks like a Christmas album by Barbra Streisand ... until you turn it over and see the ... and Friends. Those friends were Doris Day, Jim Nabors and Andre Kostelanetz. I doubt they met up to discuss the album. What made this so interesting, was that it was a Columbia Records special products release produced exclusively for Canada Dry. Yeah, Canada Dry . I wonder how you got the album? Did you have to send in bottle caps? Before Celine Dion, it was Barbra Streisand who had the pipes. While I was never really a fan, I will admit that as a little kid I did like some of her songs from the movies. It's interesting that of all the holiday standards I never even knew Babs recorded Christmas songs. Well of course she did. The songs included on t...

Here we have a Nana Mouskouri album ... finally. I mean this is a sort of big deal. She was always that singer who wore the big black glasses. I had no idea what she sounded like, but it's funny that we all knew who she was. I mentioned in another post I thought that she and Roger Whittaker were two sides of the same coin. I managed to find Roger Whittaker's Christmas album, and recently I was rummaging in the dollar bin for Christmas records and scored a really nice copy of Nana Mouskouri's 1972 album "Christmas With Nana Mouskouri."  Musically the songs hold up really well. I'm never quite sure what to expect with some of the stuff from the early '70s. The arrangements lean to the traditional, although there are a number of songs where there's a folky flavour. This was before adult contemporary was a thing, but I suppose it was always a thing just not a genre. So many things get shoehorned into a box after the fact, and I'm trying to see where th...

I found this one among my dad's old records. It always surprised me at how old my father's musical tastes were. I could never reconcile his taste in record to how old he actually was. Still, I suppose that was more to do with his strict upbringing and the near intolerance of all things secular that stemmed from his parents. Paul Mickelson (not to be confused with Phil) got his start in the '50s playing organ for Billy Graham crusades, and would later be an executive at Word records and would later start his own label, Supreme Records and a number of smaller subsidiary imprints. Christmas Concert at the Console was on Console Records, but there's no year on the jacket or record, and the only reference I can find states it was released in the '60s.  The album itself was recorded at the Console of the N.B.C. Pipe Organ in Hollywood. I actually love the cover photo, and wish there was a little more detail on the Console itself. I've always been fascinated by organs...

The '60s, baby they were the best of times, they were the worst of times. On today's instalment of what the fudge were they thinking , we have the Tijuana Voices Sing Merry Christmas an album that's deliberately packaged to make you think this is The Tijuana Brass, or a cheaper knock off of Julius Wechter and The Baja Marimba Band. The difference was that Julius was on A&M the home of the Tijuana Brass and Mr. Alpert was the A in A&M. Whereas the Tijuana Voices were on Pickwick/33 a budget label, known for repacking stuff at a discount. Yeah we have the pseudo Mexican moustaches and sombreros that screams '60s kitsch. You could be forgiven for thinking this was Herb Alpert, at least that's what I'm telling myself, because I feel like I got suckered. Except that it's exactly what I had hoped it would be, so I guess it all worked out in the end. For all that it was a dollar well spent. Like I said, this delivered exactly what I was expecting to hear. T...

I hated this song when I first heard it. It was a clunky, tone deaf bit of musical hubris that seemed entirely self serving. That and it featured a gaggle of singers I ... could ... not ... stand. Over the years the song has managed to worm it's way into my subconscious, and I will begrudgingly admit that there are some pretty catchy bits and I actually enjoy the song now. To the point where I look forward to hearing it over the holidays. It's still completely tone deaf, but now it just feels like something that was okay in the olden days, and a tad out of step today but that's okay. It's hard to imagine that it's been forty years. Good grief. Of course, to celebrate the occasion there's a 40th Anniversary remix that has managed to recreate all of the vitriol I felt when I first heard it back in '84. Now, it's not just a case of me being a borderline boomer, it really is a stinking piece of musical crap. Even my daughter who loves all things Christmas ha...

Over the years, I've gathered a wide variety of Christmas music—fun, kitschy, terrible, poignant, and glorious—to celebrate the holiday season. It all starts building up to Christmas Day, continues through New Year's celebrations, and finally winds down at Epiphany. After that, everything is packed away until the first Sunday of Advent—though we often start listening before the end of November. We love Christmas music, heck over the last couple of years I've dedicated December to writing about Christmas music, particularly old albums I'd pick up in the discount bins. This year was a little skinny, but like I said I have a lot of Christmas music, and I just figured I'd pull out one of my favourite CDs. David Edwards is an artist I first discovered back in 1981 when he released his self titled album. That album lived on my turntable for months. His cover of the old Paul Revere classic "Kicks" to me is the definitive version. It was so good but it wasn't ...

Here we go, another lush strings arrangement of some of the best holiday classics (best is subjective). I know I really shouldn't like this stuff as much as I do. This stuff manages to sit nestled in my sweet spot for all things nostalgic. I'm always reminded of the holiday variety specials I saw when I was a kid. This to me is the sound of Christmas. It makes me think of my mum, who loves strings. This collection touches all the sweet spots (that's twice, now I'm going to work in the hat trick before I'm done) okay, maybe not all, but it goes for the big ones. The album kicks off with "White Christmas" and includes "My Favorite Things" and "Do You Hear What I Hear" and "Little Drummer Boy" which are pretty solid. Actually as I listen more closely the album really does have quite a few sort of new to me moments, which was unexpected and a nice treat. Probably the oddest moment that caught me off guard and gave me a good giggl...

I found this one, and snapped it up. Sadly it looked to be in better condition than it actually was ... but I can stream it if I want to hear it without the Rice Krispie Players adding their own textures to the songs. It didn't matter, at least for the first few times that I played it in the basement. Don Ho, you know Mister Tiny Bubbles himself, was someone I knew of, more than I knew of. I always figured he was a one note joke and I didn't get the punchline. I had no idea what to expect, somehow in my mind I figured he'd be milking his 1967 hit, and signature song. "Tiny Snowballs" and the like. "Tiny Bubbles" from what I've read was originally penned for Lawrence Welk as a tie in to his champagne music. Mr. Welk passed, and Don Ho received it and scored a touchdown with it. Released in 1967 Do Ho nailed it with his easy listening collection of Christmas standards, "Silver Bells", "The Christmas Song", and a wonderfully slowed ...