FaLaLaLaLa

This is a song that was just begging to be here….

My wife and I heard this song several Christmases ago and couldn’t get it out of our heads. But we didn’t hear the name of the song or the artist. We’ve been looking for it since. We both posted requests in the forum here, begging for answers.

The other day, our dreams came true thanks to the ever-laboring Ernie Haynes (orb1234) who found a version by The Starlighters. EUREKA! My wife almost fell over. It wasn’t the version we heard originally, but at least we knew the name of the song.

Then, it just so happened that I had ordered this album from Ebay months ago, but due to some shipping snags it never arrived. Until today–Christmas eve! And this song was on it. It’s still not the version that we heard (we’ll have to keep searching), but it’s a great song and so worth sharing for Christmas Day.

The backup group for this album is…The Starlighters. And it seems like they may have pasted Captain Kangaroo and Mr. Green Jeans on the beginning of the Starlighters version (which you can get over at Ernie’s blog).

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Click here to download the entire 2005 ADVENTure In Carols.

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

I had thought of picking something suitably holy and peaceful for Christmas Eve, but given my current situation (and that of so many others), I thought this would be appropriate.

This has the frenetic feeling of what is probably going on in shopping malls and Wal-Marts across the world today….

Folks will probably notice some similarities between this and stuff by The Caroleers or The Peppermint Kandy Kids. There was a lot of overlap.

Click here to download the entire 2005 ADVENTure In Carols.

Album & artwork in 1 ZIP file.

Swing Bells! Christmas With A Beat
The Glad Singers
Columbia CL 2391 (Mono)
1965

SIDE ONE

Gloria (Angels We Have Heard) 2:37
Good King Wenceslas 1:50
Three Kings 1:57
God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen 2:33
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing 2:00
Joy 1:53

SIDE TWO

Ox And Donkey 2:53
Deck The Halls 2:04
Christmas Tree 2:09
Fum-Fum-Fum 2:05
Happy New Year 2:28

LINER NOTES:

Produced by Teo Macero The Glad Singers’ new album is a gay holiday package brimful of musical treats that have brightened the world for centuries. It is no matter that the origins of some of them are lost in the mists of time, for these are the songs that everyone hears and sings in the festive holiday season. Like Christmas itself, they never wear out their welcome–they are imperishable.
In researching the material for this album, The Glad Singers discovered how these wonderful songs that we call carols have evolved over the years. The way carols are performed today differs considerably from their performance a hundred or even fifty years ago. Words have been altered from time to time, melodies have been modified and, most striking of all, styles of accompaniment have varied. Yet each song remains essentially unchanged, and the thought it expresses is the same thought that cheered our ancestors at this most joyous of seasons. For this collection, The Glad Singers’ guiding spirits, arrangers Don Walker and Arnold Goland and conductor Hal Hastings, decided that the evolution of Christmas carols should be carried logically one step further by presenting the songs in versions consistent with today’s musical styles and tastes. Why, they asked themselves, need carols be solemn and stodgy when the emotions they express are exuberant and inspiring? And what are more exhilarating than the infectious tempos that today’s young people like to sing and dance to?

Thus, with all due respect for their essential reverence, the carols were molded into modern arrangements. While The Glad Singers were recording the songs, a genuine Yuletide excitement filled the studio, even though the Christmas season was not yet officially at hand. The sessions proved a joyous occasion for everyone involved, and the infectious enthusiasm of these young singers communicates itself brilliantly throughout the album.

Once again, as in their previous Columbia album, the arrangements are being published for high school and college glee clubs.
Following is some information about the carols in general, and The Glad Singers’ versions in particular:
Gloria was originally an old French song about the shepherds who watched their flocks by night. Through the years it has appeared in many forms; here, The Glad Singers treat it with a shuffle beat.

Good King Wenceslas recounts a good deed performed by a tenth-century ruler of Bohemia. The words are by a nineteenth-century English clergyman, Dr. John Mason Neale. And the tune is from the sixteenth-century Swedish Lutheran Hymnal.

Three Kings is turned into a fast, exciting “afterbeat” waltz, suggesting the movement of the caravan following the star. Finger cymbals add an oriental flavor. The conclusion goes into an unexpected 4/4 time.

God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen is the title of at least three old English carols. This tune, however, is the most famous one. The Glad Singers turn it into a semi-revivalist admonition to “keep out of the devil’s power.”

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, a beautiful carol, receives a simple, straightforward treatment with an attractive, steady rhythm.
Joy is an exuberant version of the tune better known as “Joy to the World”, customarily ascribed to Handel, Just for fun, The Glad Singers introduce a bit of Handel’s familiar “Hallelujah” chorus from “Messiah” in case he might be listening. A banjo keeps this blazer moving.

Ox and Donkey has an interesting background. A few years ago, arranger Don Walker heard some Caribbean natives sing a carol. Although the tune and words slipped his memory, the setting and the mood of the song did not. Unable to locate the original, he wrote this new carol to bring the warmth of the Haitian rhythms to our northern Christmas. The West Indian percussion suggests the animals in the stable–in a tropical setting.

Deck the Halls is a secular carol that receives a driving shuffle beat. Picture boys and girls pushing one another under the mistletoe, while the bass drum points up the fun!

Christmas Tree. There are dozens of versions of “O Tannenbaum” the old German carol.Tinkly sounds remind us of the twinkling lights on the shiny tree, and the new lyric reminds us of what the tree means to a family gathered together on this happiest of holidays.

Fum-Fum-Fum, a vigorous old Spanish carol, is sung here as it should be: in pasodoble time, with guitars, tambourines and castenets.

Happy New Year, set to the sixteenth-century secular tune “Greensleeves” may seem incongruous in a Christmas album, but The Glad Singers’ researchers uncovered the surprising fact that it once was the New Year’s Eve song of England; in the seventeenth century, it was sung in the same spirit that “Auld Lang Syne” is sung today. So, to close their album, The Glad Singers have chosen it as their way of saying: May you have a Happy New Year!

Cover Photo: Columbia Records Photo Studio: Henry Parker

THOUGHTS FROM THE KING:

It’s hard to do research on an artist when the first results Google gives you are your own posts….

What I know of this terminally happy little combo is what I read in the liner notes you see above.

This is just a great little album. It’s the Ray Conniff singers on some weird combination of speed and lithium. The band swings quite nicely. I like some of the bass work particularly, but I’m a bassist, so what can I say?

And the arrangements are just so unusual. That’s what stands out. When you collect Christmas music there are a bunch of songs that you hear all the time and it’s only occasionally you hear a version of a song and go, “Whoa!” That happens throughout this album.

An interesting note is that the album was produced by the legendary Teo Macero who produced Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck, Tony Bennett and more. An interesting pedigree for these folks.

Enjoy!

The King of Jingaling

December 24, 2005

P.S. This is the mono pressing. If anybody has the stereo version, I’d love to get it!

Medley: Ring Christmas Bells/The First Noel/Jolly Old St. Nicholas

Frank De Vol is somebody whose music you know, but whom you probably never heard of.

He’s responsible for the themes to Get Smart, The Brady Bunch, Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, Cat Ballou, Pillow Talk and more.

This is a nice little album that, I believe, was rereleased with a different cover. I’m sure I have it somewhere. Anyway, here’s another way to shove three more tunes into the ADVENTure with one track.

Enjoy!

Click here to download the entire 2005 ADVENTure In Carols.

The Peppermint Kandy Kids seem to have lots in common with The Caroleers. Many of us suspect the involvement of many of the same people–singers, orchestras, amateur studio engineers, cover artists. And their albums seem to be in as high demand, judging on Ebay prices.

However, on this release it seems the part of the Kandy Kids is played by heavily accented Brooklyn school kids. Listen to how thick those accents are! You can hear it especially after the song ends and there’s some banter. "Santa! Fuhgeddaboudit!"

I’m surprised it took me this long to get to a version of the (in)famous "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town".

Click here to download the entire 2005 ADVENTure In Carols.

Well, it seems that as this little playlist has grown, it has taken on a bit of a Santa theme. This was completely unintentional, but certainly fitting. Especially given the cover art I got from Steve Mack.

Anyway, here’s another little Santa tune.

There is no info on this album regarding who the performers are. The first side consists of a telling of The Christmas Carol that is pretty weird. Not in such a good way. Then there are some traditional tunes and this little number.

It’s short and sweet. I like it and hope you do too.

Click here to download the entire 2005 ADVENTure In Carols.

You gotta love siblings in matching suits. And white kids at that, trying to be funky.

There’s lotsa traditional songs on this album, but we need to preserve this little original bit of Christmas "rock" (the quotes are a necessity).

Of course, we have to wonder if the statement that this song makes is actually true. What does Santa actually listen to when he kicks back? Or while he’s zooming around the world Christmas Eve? Does he have a CD changer in the trunk? XM radio? And does he rock out?

I don’t like to think of Santa landing on my roof with AC/DC’s "Big Balls" blastin’ from the sleigh….

Click here to download the entire 2005 ADVENTure In Carols.

Here is the cover for this year’s ADVENTure In Carols.

The illustration was graciously contributed by professional illustrator Steve Mack. Steve does some great illustrations in a classic style that harkens back to the 50′s and 60′s.

You can see his portfolio and more of his work on his website: Illustration Farm.

I "met" Steve through the Retro Kid Flickr group, and when I put out a call for an illustrator for the 2005AiC he thankfully jumped at the chance. I think you’ll agree that his image works quite nicely with the FaLaLaLaLa music.

The layout/typesetting is mine, but the image is all his.

On Christmas Day you can expect a full package of hi-res images: CD booklet (complete with credits for each song) and jewel case insert.

Many thanks to Steve!

This is just a great album. Any album full of synthesized versions of classic Christmas songs with Jean Jaques Perrey dressed as Santa on the cover has to be great!

And what would be stranger than taking the synth to a Now Sound Tijuana Christmas?

Don’t answer that. We’ve all heard stranger Christmas songs. But this one is still wonderful.

Click here to download the entire 2005 ADVENTure In Carols.