FIRST DAY OF DECEMBER

Xmas is coming fast...........

So a few funny ones relating to Christmas are here.

Gayla Peevey - I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas
The Royal Guardsman - Snoopys Xmas
Teresa Brewer - I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus as well as the original version by Jimmy Boyd

SOME ANDREWS AND MORE

Almost December (Xmas Month) and will post some more Xmas songs next month but meantime some more Golden Oldies for you here with some emphasis on the Andrews Sisters.

The fantastic Andrews Sisters - Beer Barrel Polka, Don't sit under the appletree and with Carmen Miranda - Cuanto Le Gusta.

Stars of the late 30's until the 1950's they were the first female vocal group to have a gold record.

Buddy Knox - Party Doll - a song I would take on a trip to Mars
Damita Joe with the best of the answer songs - I'm saving the last dance for you
From the famous film Al Caiola - The magnificent seven
Also from a film Danny Kaye - Wonderful Copenhagen
A favourite of mine Alma Cogan and The story of my life

GERMAN RUSSIAN ITALIAN AND FRENCH

Here are
Bobby Helms - Fraulein
The Leningrad Cowboys and the Red Army Choir - Stairway to heaven
Mario Lanza (live) - O solo mio
Claude Francois - My Way - this is the original French version called Comme d'habitude. The English words were written by Paul Anka
Conway Twitty - C'est si bon

MORE OLDIES

Both of the Sirs - Guinness and Mills

Here are some more golden oldies on this wet Saturday morning.

Cambridge Strings & Singers - Theme from Tunes of Glory - a wonderful film that I saw many years ago that starred Alec Guinness and John Mills, and featured Dennis Price, Kay Walsh, John Fraser, Susannah York, Duncan MacRae and Gordon Jackson. I remember that it was the first time I realised what agreat actor Sir John Mills was - he was up against the Great Guinness but didn't lose anything in comparison- he was superb. So good that he won the 1960 Best Actor Award at the Venice Film Festival.

Guy Lombardo - I'm my own grandpaw - great words
Donald Peers - Music music music - a singer I've come to like a lot
Stargazers - Broken wings
Fontane Sisters - Seventeen

SILVER AND A BIT OF BLUE

Silver: Some songs about silver here and a bit more background on blue as in that great song Blue Smoke.

Teressa Brewer - By the light of the silver moon
Billie Joe Spiers - Queen of the Silver dollar
Steve Conway - Look for the silver lining


Blue: As in Blue Smoke which I featured at the very start of this blog way back when??. Actually 18 January this year - when I started this blog - so not so long ago.
Recorded 3/10/48 - Processed 23/2/49 - although these dates can be disputed.

Jim Carter, who turns 90 this year, played played the first notes on our first homegrown hit record when he played the slow-waltz introduction to Blue Smoke out of his lap-steel guitar. He opened the song with a variation on Ruru Karaitiana’s simple melody and his final run deftly leads vocalist Pixie Williams into the famous lines:

Blue smoke goes drifting by, into the deep blue sky
And when I think of home I sadly sigh
Oh, I can see you there with tears in your eyes
As we fondly said our last goodbyes
And as I sailed away with a longing to stay
I promised I'd be true and love only you

Blue smoke goes drifting by, into the deep blue sky
My memories of home will never die

It is just such a marvellous song and record - it was the first song Karaitiana had written, the first time Williams had sung professionally, (and she sang skies instead of sky), the first record on the new Tanza (To Aid New Zealand Artists) label and the first commercial recording of a New Zealand song to be manufactured locally.To back up its Kiwi-ness the label design had a bright green and silver label with a tui on top flanked by ferns.

It marked the real birth of our own record industry and was a massive hit. with sales topping 50,000 copies while many others overseas recorded cover versions. The B side had a song called Senorita also written by Ruru Karaitiana.

The band is called the Ruru Karaitiana Quintette, but it was Carter’s Hawaiian band, hired for the session. Others on the session apart from Carter (lap steel guitar) were Gerry Hall (rhythm guitar) George Artridge (ukelele) John McNeeley (double bass) and Noel Robertson also on bass - he was usually a drummer but no drums were required for the record.

It was a DIY production. Some takes of Blue Smoke were allegedly ruined by the noise of a fridge next door, another by Karaitiana himself. “He came in at the end before we’d finished and said, ‘Oh, that’s a good one.’ So that killed that!” said Carter.

I acknowledge some of the information supplied for the above from a brilliant article in the N Z Listener.

XMAS IS COMING

Not too many days until Xmas now. Of course down under it is a warm Xmas.
Today some Xmassy music here -

Tommy Steele - Must be Santa
Billy Idol - Silent night - It is said that a relatively modern song, "Fairytale of New York" by the Pogues is the best Christmas song of all time. My thoughts are that you can't know if that is right for 100/200 years. If the Pogues song is still one of the best in a couple of hundred years then maybe it is a great song. That's why I go for Silent Night as it is still as popular today as it was when it was written in 1818. This is a superb version of what I consider the greatest Xmas song of all time.
David Whitfield - O come all ye faithful
Jose Feliciano - Feliz Navidad
Bing Crosby - White Christmas. Supposed to be the biggest selling record of all time.

SYSTEM CHANGE

I have from the last post changed the system.

Previously when you clicked the link it took you to that song/s only. Now clicking the links will take you not only to the specific folder but will reveal every song in every folder.

I think this is a better system.

I am still unable to find my songs using a search engine?? Don't know why - however if specific enough the blog will occasionally come up in Google.