This one is a relatively recent release, but even with that said it is nearly 20 years old. There are a lot of great jazzy Christmas numbers. The Harry Connick songs are great. These are from pretty early on in his career. At least for me this in when I first became aware of him. I bought my first Harry Connick, Jr. CD in 1990.
Better get this one fast, because it won't be up long.
Enjoy!
A Jazzy Wonderland.zip
01 This Christmas - Harry Connick, Jr. & Branford Marsalis.m4a 02 Santa Claus Is Coming To Town - Joey DeFrancesco & Dwight Sills.m4a 03 Silent Night - Nancy Wilson & Kimiko Itoh.m4a 04 Blue Christmas - Grover Washington, Jr.m4a 05 The Little Drummer Boy - Karl Lundberg & Full Circle.m4a 06 Some Children See Him - Branford Marsalis & Harry Connick, Jr.m4a 07 White Christmas (Feat. Dexter Gordon on Sax) - Tony Bennett.m4a 08 Winter Wonderland - Wynton Marsalis.m4a 09 Go Tell It On The Mountain - Kirk Whalum.m4a 10 This Christmas - Ellis Marsalis.m4a 11 Jingle Bells - Richard Lee.m4a 12 Christmas Trees - Fred Simon & Traut / Rodby.m4a 13 The Little Drummer Boy - Marlon Jordan & Delfeayo Marsalis.m4a 14 O Come All Ye Faithful - Monte Croft & Terence Blanchard.m4a
Starting off with White Christmas is quite appropriate because you can't get much more white bread than Andy Williams, "Mr. Moon River". Maybe Pat Boone could give him a run for his money. But look at that picture on the cover. You see that and you know what you are in for. The vocals are smooth and warm like wearing a snuggie, perfect for a cold Christmas night. Andy does a lot of standards here and nothing really stands out, except "It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year". The performance there shines above the others. When you hear it you'll probably recognize it because it shows up on Christmas CD's all the time and you'll hear it in the mall and grocery store for sure.
For more on Andy Williams and his career check out the wikipedia entry. One thing I'd like to note from wikipedia is that it say that one of his early breaks was performing on WLS radio in Chicago. I grey up in the Chicago area and listened to WLS as a kid. It was one of the stations that introduced me to pop and rock music in 5th grade. So that station has a bit of nostalgia attached to it for me.
I believe this is also his first Christmas record. Recorded in 1963 it is one of 8 Christmas records Andy has recorded over the years. I guess that would help support that his voice is meant for Christmas tunes.
Enjoy!
Andy Williams.zip
01 White Christmas.m4a 02 The Holiday Season.m4a 03 The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire).m4a 04 It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year.m4a 05 A Song And A Christmas Tree (The Twelve Days Of Chistmas).m4a 06 Kay Thompson's Jingle Bells.m4a 07 The First Noel.m4a 08 O Holy Night.m4a 09 Away In A Manger.m4a 10 Sweet Little Jesus Boy.m4a 11 The Little Drummer Boy.m4a 12 Silent Night, Holy Night.m4a
This is a decent Christmas compilation. Most of the songs are pretty enjoyable. The stand out track is the first track "Silver Bells" by Brenda Lee. I love Brenda Lee and I will forever connect her to Christmas songs growing up. I'm pretty sure this version of Silver Bells was on a record my parents played. For me it si kind of the definitive version that I hold up as the standard for other versions.
Enjoy!
We Wish You A Merry Christmas From.._ - 320K.zip
01 Silver Bells - Brenda Lee.m4a 02 Sleigh Ride - The Voices Of Christmas.m4a 03 I Wonder As I Wander - The Voices Of Christmas.m4a 04 Christmas Wishes - Lawrence Welk And His Champagne Music.m4a 05 Jingle Bells - Lenny Dee.m4a 06 The Little Drummer Boy - Pete Fountain.m4a 07 Deck The Hall - Fred Waring And The Pensylvanians.m4a 08 White Christmas - Wayne King And His Orchestra.m4a 09 Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town - Earl Grant.m4a 10 We Wish You A Mery Christmas - The Columbus Boychoir.m4a
I'm going to throw a little more effort into today's post. I realize that recent posts have been a little slack on the words side of things.
I have a few things to say about The New Christy Minstrels, dumb stories and references from my life that you may or may not care about. The first thing I think about when I hear the name The New Christy Minstrels is of an old comedy record I heard on Dr. Demento as a kid. It was called "Rock and Roll Doctor" and was performed by Travesty, Ltd. The basic concept was that the Rock and Roll Doctor was a radio host and people called in for advice and the doctor would advise them on what kinds of drugs to take. One caller calls in and says he is going to the The New Christy Minstrels show and he asks what should he bring to the show. The good Rock and Roll Doctor says, "a good book". Ba dum bump. Yes, it is dumb, but it has stuck with me all these years.
As luck would have it some kind person has posted the routine on youtube. Give it a listen.
The second thing the group makes me think of is the movie "A Mighty Wind", Christopher Guests brilliant satire of folk music. In that movie there is a group called The New Mainstreet Singers which is a direct parody of The New Christy Minstrels. I even think they show some of their album covers, which are parodies of New Christy Minstrel jackets. Anyways, the movie is hilarious. The songs are great. Jane Lynch from Glee is hysterical.
The last thing to mention before signing off is that I found some interesting tidbits about this folk group on wikipedia, which I hope to be true. Of course you have to take everything there with a grain of salt, but I'm wanting to believe this. It lists alumni of the group and there were a few names that popped out on me. Apparently Kenny Rogers, Karen Black and Kim Karnes were in the group at one point. Now I have to see if I can ever find a record that has any of them as part of the group. I'll have to do more research, but if anyone has any more info on this I would love it. If you can identify any of them on the album cover, I'd love that as well.
Now to the music. Enough babbling about the group and my pop references going on in my head. As a Christmas record, the album is great. It is upbeat and full of energy. I also take a weird perverse pleasure in hearing extremely white folks sing gospel songs or at the very leave in a gospel style. It should be and probably is a genre in and of itself. It is a strange sort of creature that is birthed when that happens and it happens several times on this record. I hope you like it.
Enjoy!
The New Christy Minstrels - Merry Christmas - 320K.zip
01 Beautiful City.m4a 02 Tell It On The Mountain.m4a 03 One Star.m4a 04 Christmas Wishes.m4a 05 The Shepherd Boy.m4a 06 Song Hosanna, Hallelujah.m4a 07 Sing Along With Santa.m4a 08 It'll Be A Merry Christmas.m4a 09 Tell Me.m4a 10 A Christmas Song.m4a 11 Parson Brown (Our Christmas Dinner).m4a 12 Christmas Trees.m4a
Great 70's picture on the front and lots of French songs done with a traditional choir. In the right setting and the right occasion, this can be a pretty good record to have on hand.
This record has a handful of really good tracks.
"Sing A Kris Kringle Jingle", "Wait For The Wagon On Christmas Day", "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas" and "Frosty The Snowman" are all pretty stellar. "Wait For The Wagon" is amazingly great as far as I'm concerned. The parts and layers of the voices are great. I can't hear this track enough at the holidays. As a little side note, I swear this track is actually the exact same track on the Christmas album by Slim Boyd and the Rangehands. I posted that record last year, praising the song "Wagon On Christmas". You can read that post here and download that track to compare. If anyone has any info on the history of Slim Boyd or The Caroleer singers to help explain which came first or why the same recording was credited two different ways, I'd love to hear it. My suspicion is the Slim Boyd may have been a record label creation with session musicians and singers and that later that recording was just re-purposed for this Frosty The Snowman record. That is just a guess though.
The other thing I really like about this record is the artwork. I love this snowman.
01 Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Frank Sinatra 02 O Little Town Of Bethlehem - Jo Stafford 03 A Vision of Sugar Plums - Billy May 04 What Child Is This - The McGuire Sisters 05 The First Noel - Keely Smith 06 Deck The Halls - The Hi-Lo's 07 Jingle Bells - Sammy Davis Jr 08 Medley Go Tell It On The Mountain/How Should I Send Thee/Carol Of The Bells/Joy To The World - Les Baxter's Balladeers 09 Away In A Manger, Hark The Heral Angels Sing - Mavis Rivers 10 Adeste Fideles - Lou Monte 11 Cantique De Noel - Nelson Riddle 12 It Came Upon A Midnight - Rosemary Clooney 13 Peace On Earth and Silent Night - Dean Martin
As a whole this compilation isn't too bad. It's got Eddy Arnold's "Jolly Old St. Nicholas" which for my money is the best version there is. Also the last track "Merry Christmas Neighbor" is from the cast of Bonanza. You don't see that on too many compilations.
There are some decent choirs and orchestras on here. Everything from Robert Shaw Corale to Boston Pops. It's a good listen.
Enjoy!
RCA Victor Presents Music For The Twelve Days Of Chistmas - 320K.zip
01 The Twelve Days Of Christmas.m4a 02 O Come, All Ye Faithful.m4a 03 O Sanctissima.m4a 04 A Christmas Festival (Medley).m4a 05 The Christmas Song.m4a 06 Sleigh Ride.m4a 07 The Little Drummer Boy.m4a 08 Jolly Old Saint Nicholas.m4a 09 Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town.m4a 10 Merry Christmas Neighbor.m4a
I just got a comment from a troubled reader who was frustrated with the fact that most of the links on this blog have been deactivated. That is something I am truly sorry about and wish I could keep things active longer, but I've found that this attracts problems. Anyways, this person was looking for this record that I posted last year with this post. So for DmRofAtoZ , I am reposting.
P.K. And The Sound Explosion.zip
I'm also going to post a link to another site that has digitized this record along with a bunch of other fun Christmas records. www.jeffco.ca.
Nothing super special about this one. It's a lot of the standards done in a rather standard manner. I imagine, though, that there are some out there that had this record growing up and that this might bring back some memories. I didn't have it and so no nostalgia is evoked, but Mitch was extremely popular and so there have to be a few families that had this record.
Enjoy!
Mitch Miller & The Gang - Christmas Sing-A-Long with Mitch LP - 320K.zip
01 Joy To The World.m4a 02 Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.m4a 03 What Child Is This_.m4a 04 We Three Kings Of Orient Are.m4a 05 It Came Upon A Midnight Clear.m4a 06 Silent Night, Holy Night.m4a 07 Deck The Hall With Boughs Of Holly.m4a 08 Go Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.m4a 09 O Come, All Ye Faithful.m4a 10 The First Noel.m4a 11 The Coventry Carol.m4a 12 Away In A Manger.m4a 13 O Little Town Of Bethlehem.m4a
Since last year I found a really old Christmas mix. I think it was the first one I did way back in 2000. You'll notice a lot of repeat artists, because the Christmas music collection was much smaller. Also there are also a lot of classics on here and less obscure tracks. And lastly you'll notice that I was really ambitious and that I made a 2 CD compilation. The basic idea I was going for is disc one being traditional and leaning toward the spiritual side of Christmas and disc two being a more secular disc.
The artwork for this original CD was a lot of family photos. I gave this CD out just to family members as a gift from our family. So the photos were of me and the kids. The mix was also called "Filichia Family Christmas Album". For the purposes of this blog I've changed the name to SAP Music Christmas Mix 2000 and I've replaced the artwork with a out take photo I took last year for the Christmas mix.
So join me in the way-back machine to nearly a decade ago and listen to what I was listening to for Christmas in 2000.
SAP Music Christmas Mix 2000 Disc 1.zip SAP Music Christmas Mix 2000 Disc 2.zip
1-01 It Came Upon A Midnight Clear - Gypsy Soul.m4a 1-02 O Holy Night - Harry Connick, Jr.m4a 1-03 Away In A Manger - Ray Brown Trio.m4a 1-04 The Holly And The Ivy - George Winston.m4a 1-05 The First Noel_Canon In D - Janice Giampa And Carol Commune.m4a 1-06 For Unto Us A Child Is Born - The Mormon Tabernacle Choir.m4a 1-07 Glory To God - The Mormon Tabernacle Choir.m4a 1-08 Carol Of The Bells - George Winston.m4a 1-09 Jesus, Jesu Rest Your Head - George Winston.m4a 1-10 O Come, O Come Emmanuel - Gypsy Soul.m4a 1-11 O Little Town Of Bethlehem - Nat "King" Cole.m4a 1-12 Ave Maria - Harry Connick, Jr.m4a 1-13 Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring - Carol Commune.m4a 1-14 Procession From Ceremony Of Carols - Carol Commune.m4a 1-15 Silent Nihgt - Wayne Newton.m4a 1-16 God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Gypsy Soul.m4a 1-17 Pray On Christmas - Harry Connick, Jr.m4a 1-18 Joy - George Winston.m4a 1-19 Hallelujah - The Mormon Tabernacle Choir.m4a 1-20 I Know My Redeemer Livith - The Mormon Tabernacle Choir.m4a 2-01 Hello Mr. Kringle - Kay Kyser And His Orchestra.m4a 2-02 Whatever Happened To Christmas - Frank Sinatra.m4a 2-03 I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm - Dean Martin.m4a 2-04 Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley.m4a 2-05 White Christmas - The Drifters.m4a 2-06 The Little Drummer Boy - The Harry Simeone Chorale.m4a 2-07 Gabriel's Message - Sting.m4a 2-08 Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee.m4a 2-09 The Christmas Song - Nat "King" Cole.m4a 2-10 All I Want For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth) - Spike Jones & His City Slickers.m4a 2-11 Here Comes Santa Claus (Down Santa Claus Lane) - Gene Autry.m4a 2-12 I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus - Jimmy Boyd.m4a 2-13 Santa Baby - Eartha Kitt.m4a 2-14 Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! - Ella Fitzgerald.m4a 2-15 Jingle Bell Rock - Bobby Helms.m4a 2-16 Jingle All The Way - Lena Horne.m4a 2-17 Baby It's Cold Outside - Dean Martin.m4a 2-18 Winter Wonderland - Peggy Lee.m4a 2-19 Christmas Is - Lou Rawls.m4a 2-20 (Everybody's Waitin' For) The Man With The Bag - Kay Starr.m4a 2-21 Please Come Home For Christmas - Charles Brown.m4a 2-22 Merry Christmas Baby - Lou Rawls.m4a 2-23 Jingle Bells - Wayne Newton.m4a 2-24 I Wish You A Merry Christmas - Bing Crosby.m4a 2-25 Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer - Gene Aurty.m4a 2-26 Frosty The Snowman - Jimmy Durante.m4a 2-27 Holly Jolly Christmas - Burl Ives.m4a 2-28 Silver And Gold - Burl Ives.m4a 2-29 Welcome Christmas - The Who's Of Whoville.m4a 2-30 Happy Christmas (The War Is Over) - John Lennon.m4a
Here is another school record, but this one if a college record. It is very traditional and when I say traditional I mean in the classical music sense of the word. There are a lot of really old hymns on this one. They sound sublime and if you close your eyes you'll think your in a church. Maybe that is good and maybe that is bad. For me it is good.
Enjoy!
Kings College Choir, Cambridge - Philip Ledger, Conductor - Side 1 - 320K.zip Kings College Choir, Cambridge - Philip Ledger, Conductor - Side 2 - 320K.zip
01 Up! Good Christian Folk, And Listen.m4a 02 I Saw Three Ships.m4a 03 A Spotless Rose (Gareth Morrell, Baritone Solo).m4a 04 O Little Town Of Bethlehem.m4a 05 Alleluya, A New Work Is Come On Hand.m4a 06 Away In A Manger.m4a 07 Quittez Pasteurs (Robert Chilcott, Tenor Solo).m4a 08 Lully, Lulla, Thou Little Tiny Child (Timothy Byram-Wigfield, Treble Solo).m4a 09 The First Noel.m4a 10 In Dulci Jubilo.m4a 11 I Sing Of A Maiden.m4a 12 Remember, O Thou Man.m4a 13 Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.m4a 14 Sans Day Carol.m4a 15 A Hymn To The Virgin.m4a 16 Quelle Est Vette Odeur Agreable_ (Gareth Morrell, Baritone Solo).m4a 17 O Come, All Ye Faithful.m4a
I just got a request for this record this afternoon and so I thought I'd repost it. Here is the link to last year's entry. The link has been de-activated so I'll repost an active link here for the next few weeks. So this is for you Gabrielle.
Walter Schumann - Voices Of Christmas 1.zip Walter Schumann - Voices Of Christmas 2.zip
01 Sleigh Ride.m4a 02 God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen.m4a 03 The Christmas Song.m4a 04 Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer.m4a 05 What Child Is This_.m4a 06 Rise Up Shepherd And Foller.m4a 07 The First Snowfall.m4a 08 Fum, Fum, Fum.m4a 09 Christmas Tree.m4a 10 Christmas In Killarney.m4a 11 The First Noel.m4a 12 Frosty The Snow Man.m4a 13 Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.m4a 14 Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers.m4a 15 Lully, Lully, Lu.m4a 16 Christmas Gift.m4a 17 C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S.m4a 18 Go Tell It On The Mountain.m4a
This record, like yesterday is a lot of fun. Actually this record is funner. Lots of instrumentals featuring piano and organ. Also as fun as yesterday's record cover was with the two girls in the Santa outfits, this picture of Jose Melis is priceless. I love the glasses. Reminds me of Gary Busy playing Buddy Holly.
This one also falls into the category of wishing the record was a little cleaner. It is also a record I think you can find elsewhere and perhaps there are cleaner rips out there. You may not get all the cool artwork and the ID tags filled in so thoroughly, though. I do try to go the extra mile in providing all that stuff all of you.
A couple tracks to point out as highlights are "Toy Piano" which feature Melis playing a toy piano. Also "Merry Christmas Music" is nice because Jose sort of talk sings on it.
Enjoy!
Jose Melis And His Orchestra - Christmas With Melis - 320K.zip
01 Sleigh Bells.m4a 02 Winter Wonderland.m4a 03 The Story Of Christmas.m4a 04 Jingle Bells.m4a 05 Toy Piano.m4a 06 Merry Christmas Music.m4a 07 Silent Night.m4a 08 Adeste Fidelis.m4a 09 God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.m4a 10 It Came Upon A Midnight Clear.m4a 11 Hark! The Herals Angels Sing.m4a 12 Oh! Little Town Of Bethlehem, Noel, Noel, Silent Night.m4a
Another very popular post from last year is the "Christmas Adventure In Disneyland" record. Just in the last couple days I've had several requests for the "Jingle Bones" song that is on this record. While that track is a standout as being amazingly great, the whole record is fun for sure. Read last years post here.
If you are too lazy to even click on that link I'll recap the track listings here for you.
01 All Aboard For Disneyland 02 Disneyland At Last 03 The Storybook Tree 04 Fantasyland 05 Once Upon A Dream 06 Jingle Bones 07 Escaping The Witch 08 Frontierland 09 Adventureland 10 The Jungle Tree 11 Tomorrowland 12 The Futuristic Christmas Tree 13 Home At Last On Christmas Morning
Did some one say they wished for some dueling pianos this holiday season? Well then this record may just make you wishes come true. I only wish the record was a little cleaner, but what are you gonna do. I'm pretty sure I've seen this record on other blogs and perhaps there are cleaner rips out there, but if you've stumbled across this one and don't want to search any further I think this rip isn't too offensive.
Enjoy!
Ferrante & Teicher - We Wish You A Merry Christmas - Side 1 - 320K.zip Ferrante & Teicher - We Wish You A Merry Christmas - Side 2 - 320K.zip
Another of my favorite records for sure. The links on this original post I've never taken down. Gisele's voice is great and the French tracks are wonderful. So check out the old post or just hit up these links.
I have a feeling that this is a record a lot of people had as children. So if you are looking for a touch of nostalgia, you'd better act quickly because I may only leave this one active for a short time. I fear the Disney legal teams causing problems if it stays up too long.
Like yesterday, you recognize the opening track from this years mix. Good old Jiminy Cricket sings a great Christmas wish from the folks at Disney to all of you. Enjoy!
Disneyland Records - Walt Disney Presents Christmas Carols From All Of Us To All Of You.zip
I've had a lot of private e-mail requests for this record in the last week, so I thought it made a great candidate for a reposting. Here is the link to last year's blog posting.
You can read whatever I wrote a year ago. If you are just interesting in listening to this classic, then try this link. It should be good for the next few weeks.
Border Brass.zip
I can't say enough how much fun this record is, and judging by the number of e-mails I've gotten about this many other agree. It seems that there are a lot of people who grew up on this record and have fond memories of it. So give it a listen and start your own memories.
This is a school record from one of the private schools here in Southern California. Actually I think it is two schools, Campbell Hall School & Argyll Episcopal Academy, one a boys' school and one a girls' school. I could be wrong though. You have a kids orchestra and several kids' choirs. There are some really good numbers on this record and I think everyone can enjoy it and appreciate it without having to know someone who appeared on the record, which is often the case with this school recordings. These schools had some great choir directors and did some wonderful things with these kids. If you downloaded the SAP Music Christmas mix this year, you'll recognize a couple tracks from this record, that made it onto the mix. So that should give you a little indication of how much I like some of these songs. I found them mix worthy.
I don't have a date for this record, but the photo is obviously 60's or 70's to these kids are all adult and maybe even grandparents now in some cases. My hope in posting a record like this is that perhaps someone who sang on the record stumbles across this blog and is able to share this recording with their family.
While I have plenty of new stuff to post this year, I thought I'd also repost some of the Christmas fun from last year for those who may not know to dig back into the archives. So today I'll start with last year's Christmas mix. You can read the original post here. http://sapmusic.blogspot.com/2008/11/sap-music-christmas-mix-2008.html
How great would it be if this record actually had Colonel Sanders singing? Unfortunately we can all only fantasize about such a record. The Colonel does not bless us with his voice anywhere on this record. Instead he offers up a pretty good selection of Christmas classics from artists of the time, 1967. I'm pretty happy with the rip on this record. It sounds pretty clean and holds up really well as an album. Not really any bad tunes here and can be played from start to finish without any cringing moments. It's definitely a record you can put on when company is over to get them into a Christmassy mood.
Enjoy!
01 White Christmas - Jim Reeves.m4a 02 O Little Town Of Bethlehem - Anita Kerr Singers.m4a 03 Medley - Up On The Houseteop; Jingle Bells - Floyd Cramer.m4a 04 Medley - Hark! The Herald Angels Sing; Good King Wenceslaus; God Rest Ye Merry - Hugo and Luigi's Children's Chorus 05 O Come, All Ye Faithful - Chet Atkins.m4a 06 Medley - Winter Wonderland; Silver Bells - Henry Mancini Orchestra and Chorus.m4a 07 Joy To The World - Vic Damone.m4a 08 I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day - Chet Atkins.m4a 09 The Little Drummer Boy - The Norman Luboff Choir.m4a 10 A Christmas Festival (Medley) - Boston Pops.m4a
Here is a nice way to kick off the month of December. Set aside some time and give a listen to A Christmas Carol. Lionel Barrymore is a great Scrooge. Every time I listen to it all I can think is that it sounds like Simon Bar Sinister being a humbug about Christmas.
Enjoy!
A Christmas Carol.zip
A Christmas Carol Narrated By Richard Hale and Lionel Barrymore As Ebenezer Scrooge - The Canterbury Choir Sings The Hymns Side 1 A Christmas Carol Narrated By RIchard Hale and Lionel Barrymore As Ebenezer Scrooge - The Canterbury Choir Sings The Hymns Side 2
And so it begins. I waited at least until the day after Thanksgiving to post the first Christmas post of the year. The season has now officially begun, though it seems like it unofficially starts earlier every year.
This is my second year of employing the magic of garage band in making the mix. I think in some ways I'm getting better at using the software and coming up with creative and fun things to listen to, however I think I have a ways to go. I took my first stab at grabbing a sample and making a loop and then found a place where I think it kind of works. I really want to explore this more, but that's for the next mix.
This year, time really got away from me and I was really worried about whether I would actually finish in time. I spent a couple weeks on the first 40 minutes and then only a half day on the second 40. It might show that it feels a little more slapped together and rushed. I have to admit it wasn't until I was done with just about everything that I realized I had two tracks from Jim Reeves, which I would normally try to never do. However, because I was running out of time and I couldn't bear the thought of going back in and finding another song and remixing and re-exporting. After all at that point I still hadn't made any cover art. So please forgive the artist repetition. You might notice a few other selections that drew from the same well. I'll do better next year.
There are a lot of incidental rips from movies, cartoons and tv shows this year. I actually did a lot of prep early on finding fun bits of dialogue. Maybe it is too much. Let me know what you think.
And lastly as per usual, I'm not going to list the tracks in text. You can click on the images to read the track listings. You can even download the CD cover, which should print up into something useful for you if you decide to burn a CD of the mix.
So check back real soon, because I have lots of Christmas records again this year. Once of the main reasons I got behind on the mix was because I was trying to get a bunch of Christmas records digitized and ready to post.
In 1987 I wasn't really listening to too much industrial music. I maybe had heard of Nitzer Ebb, but I wasn't listening to them. They came to me more in my college years starting in 1989. It was then that i got into Ministry, Front 242 and that first Nine Inch Nails record I think came out in 1989 or 1990. Anyways I'm sure it was during that time going to clubs that I first heard this song. It is a great club track. Pounding and pulsing and hypnotic. The repetition of the lyrics also makes it just stick in your brain. I think also the imagery is very aggressive, dark and violent, which for some reason worked for me in a dark club back in the day. All these things are great ingredients for a great club track. I still never really got into Nitzer Ebb, though. Never bought any records or CD's. But as you can see, I do own a record now. I picked this up a couple years ago in some thrift bin and have been happy with it ever since.
This one is a relatively recent release, but even with that said it is nearly 20 years old. There are a lot of great jazzy Christmas numbers. The Harry Connick songs are great. These are from pretty early on in his career. At least for me this in when I first became aware of him. I bought my first Harry Connick, Jr. CD in 1990.
