FaLaLaLaLa

The Living Trio with Chimes and Bells
I’ll Be Home For Christmas
RCA Victor CAS2159
1967

SIDE ONE

Medley 1: I’ll Be Home for Christmas/That Christmas Feeling/Home for the Holidays 4:23
Medley 2: Merry Christmas Merry Go Round/I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus/Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer 3:23
Medley 3: Jolly Old Saint Nicholas/Up on the House Top/Jingle Bells 2:46
Medley 4: One Bright Star/White Christmas 2:45
Medley 5: The Little Drummer Boy/Wassail Song/Patapan 4:04

SIDE TWO

Medley 6: O Christmas Tree/Deck the Halls/Here We Come A-Caroling/We Wish You a Merry Christmas/We Need a Little Christmas Now 3:00
Medley 7: O’ Bambino/Mary’s Little Boy Child/Away in a Manger/Oh! Little Town of Bethlehem 4:03
Medley 8: O Come, All Ye Faithful/It Came Upon a Midnight Clear/God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen/Angels We Have Heard on High 3:32
Medley 9: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing/Joy to the World/We Three Kings of Orient Are/Carol, Sweetly Carol 3:00
Medley 10: O Holy Night/Silent Night 3:26

LINER NOTES:

Produced by Ethel Gabriel
ALL YOUR FAVORITE CHRISTMAS SONGS IN ONE PACKAGE

What’s your favorite Christmas song? Silent Night? Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? Everyone in your family, from little Johnny to Grandpa, will find his list of favorites in this album. I’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS, a delightful package containing medleys of thirty-three Christmas songs, will surely brighten the holiday season for every member of the family.

We have included both sacred and secular Christmas music. The Living Trio conveys just the right mood in songs like The Little Drummer Boy and Mary’s Little Boy Child, while catching the joyous holiday spirit in tunes like I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus and Jingle Bells.

The Living Trio brings a fresh new approach to the traditional music of the Christmas season. The sound is different from that usually associated with Christmas. The Living Trio is an organ, a guitar and an accordion-augmented by a rhythm section. Chimes and bells are brought to this recording to add to the magic of the Yuletide flavor.

Here are all your favorite Christmas songs in one package, and what these three instruments do with them is nothing short of marvelous. It’s almost as if you were hearing them for the first time, and you will enjoy them in a new way that will last forever.

Recorded in RCA Victor’s Studio A, New York City.
Recording Engineer: Bob Simpson

THOUGHTS FROM THE KING:

I don’t know how much to say about this album. To me, it’s just a really pleasant and warm collection of Christmas songs. It doesn’t try too hard. The arrangements are interesting but not showy. The sound quality is quite good, as those RCA Living Stereo people loved to craft a lush mix.

Here’s what I mentioned when I posted one of these medleys in this year’s ADVENTure In Carols:

Anybody who collects Christmas LP’s is bound to come across the Living Strings, Living Voices (and Living Strings/Living Voices), and Living Guitars. Here we have the Living Trio (whose members cannot be confirmed as still being alive). Some of the information on the internets tells us that among the members/arrangers/conductors of this little Three Suns imitation were guitar great Al Caiola and keys-man Dick Hyman. I can’t confirm their presence on this record since there are no credits.

But it’s clear that this was intended to appeal to fans of The Three Suns. The instrumentation and arrangements should be familiar to Suns fans (though don’t expect this to be as wacky as Ding Dong Dandy Christmas, this is much more mainstream).

So, sit back with a hot toddy and enjoy The Living Trio.

December 17, 2005