The Piped Pipers Christmas Album

 Well, Surprise, Surprise, I decided to make yet another post. This album is just too interesting to not share. 

     The Pied Pipers were a very famous vocal group from the 1940's. They backed up many great acts including Tommy Dorsey. They were so well known that even in the 50's Tops produced a couple albums featuring them. Sadly this album is not entirely comprised of Pied Piper material, rather a couple soloist appear on this album as well. Basically this album is half Pied Pipers and the rest is filled with material from a couple other artists. In an attempt to keep the album unified, Tops had the whole album backed by an Organist named George Marther. The two tracks I would recommend are "White Christmas" (0:04) and "The Christmas Song"(27:10)

       I like the album, It sounds great in stereo, but rather dull in mono. The tracks are set up so that on the left channel you get the vocalists, and on the right channel you have the organ. You could almost get a two for one album by panning your stereo system by adjusting the sound to come out of just the left or right speaker. I did choose to leave this album unrestored just because it's to late in the season for me to restore it. Please enjoy this album, as the stereo copy of this album is hard to find.

Here's the link to the video, I can't seem to embed it here like I usually do. Here's the link toThe Pied Pipers and others Hollywood Vocalists!

White Christmas-Pied Pipers

Silent Night- Bill Reeve

Good King Wenceslas-Pied Pipers

The First Noel- Norma Zimmers

Good Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen-Pied Pipers

Joy To The World- Thurl Ravenscroft

Side 2

Jingle Bells- Pied Pipers

It Came Upon A Midnight Clear-Norma Zimmers

O, Come All Ye Faithful- Pied Pipers

Hark, The Herald Angels Sing- John Gabreil

The Christmas Song- Doris Drew

Deck The Halls- Pied Pipers 

"18 Christmas Songs" By Johnny Cole & "Others"

This album is from Broadway Records, a cheap budget label from L.A. It's one of the most generic Christmas albums out there. The album features recycled material from three different artists: Johnny Cole, studio recordings that were originally released on Crown Records' "Kiddies Christmas" (CLP-5083), and a recording of "White Christmas" from Eli Oberstein's budget record line. While I do own the complete versions of all the songs featured on this album, I won't be cleaning them up as I usually do."

Track List:

A1 Silent Night

A2 O' Come All Ye Faithful

A3 The First Noel

A4 O' Little Town Of Bethlehem

A5 It Came Upon A Midnight Clear

A6 O Holy Night

A7 Away In A Manger

A8 Auld Lang Syne

A9 O Tannenbaum

B1 Hark, The Herald Angels Sing

B2 Joy To The World

B3 Good King Wenceslas

B4 Deck The Halls With Holly

B5 God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

B6 Jingle Bells

B7 Shepherds Carol

B8 Bring A Torch, Jeanette Isabella

B9 White Christmas

A "Royale" Christmas Album

This is a reissue of one of the first Christmas albums, 12" LP records, which Oberstein put out on Royale Records. In years past [speaking from the year 2024 revising this 2013 blog post], I thought Eli had some Church group taped for cheap. Still, after collecting for several years, it appears these recordings originated from the Sonora Records catalog, released on 78 rpm records, of which Oberstein had acquired the rights a few years before the initial release of this album in 1951 (this copy being a ~1955 reissue). This album features a small but talented choir and a collection of anonymous organ and chime selections on the second side. The album concludes with an okay organ and chimes recording of "White Christmas."

The recordings are high quality on the first side, the arrangements are varied, and several depart from traditional choral recordings contemporary to it. Sadly, the organ selections on the other side of the record sounded distant in places. However, given it was a 1940s recording, likely done with a single microphone placed inside a large chapel at a certain point in the middle of the room, which the recording engineer thought was the best spot- it is okay. The first selection was damaged and caused the needle to skip quite frequently; the rest of the album is much better. That being the case, if you want to avoid the jumpy first track, just start listening at 1:39. A better copy will come my way, or someone will upload a better-quality copy in the future. For now, we must make do with what we have here.

Side 1- The Caroleers

1. Silent Night (0:04)
2. Hark The Herald Angels Sing (1:39)
3. Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem (4:20)
4. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear (6:47)
5. Away In A Manger (8:13)
6. Joy To The World (9:34)
7. The First Noel (10:39)
8. Good King Wenceslas (12:18)
9. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (15:14)
10. Rejoice (17:12)
11. Adeste Fideles (18:32)

Side 2- Organ and Chimes 

1. Silent Night (20:21)
2. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen- Adeste Fideles (23:09)
3. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear (25:59)
4. Hark The Herald Angels Sing- Away In A Manger (28:19)
5. The First Noel- Holy Night (30:55)
6. Little Town Of Bethlehem (33:40)
7. Jingle Bells (36:10)
8. White Christmas (38:34)

The Philharmonia Orchestra plays Rhapsody In Blue and others!

It has been too long my followers! Sorry for the long wait (this blog is more of a side project). 

So I present a complete album (not digitally remastered like I usually do). I am going to be brief here, as the description of the video on YouTube is going to answer all your quest you may have about this album. 

I personally invite you to check out my YouTube channel, it has a lot more regular programming and  it has more content than you can shake a stick at. See you on YouTube!

Enjoy!

The Monterey Brass play Mame

This is the best transfer I have accomplished so far. The cover shot mirrors the real thing, I am so proud of this digitization of this album. I found this sealed at a Goodwill for 1.50! This record is amazing, I have only had the chance to hear a budget album fresh out of the shrink. This is what a diplomat sounds mint, all I did was remove some distractions from the sound and give it to you here (This links you to the playlist). 

If He Walked Into My Life (Mary Louise)

The Era Of The Big Bands- As Played By Former Members Of The Big Bands

  

 

Big Band has a certain elegance to it; its style captivates music lovers to this day. Sadly all we have from this fabulous era of music is old 78 rpm recordings, leaving us to dream what it was like to hear artists like Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey at their prime in the late '30s and early '40s live. Many albums have been made to do just that, and the Bihari brothers, owners of the Modern/Crown/Custom record labels, made their share of these recreations and recycled them endlessly.

These recordings you hear here were made by former members of these famous orchestras. I have found that these recordings are the best cover records made by a budget label in the late '50s. This album is a mere sampler of what was recorded with these "Members of..." orchestras. I hope you enjoy this album as much as I do!

The complete album.

"Themes from Cleopatra" Conducted by William Rogers on Crown Records!

A budget jacket front at its finest.

      This is quite the album; it's a must-have for a Crown collector such as myself. This is a typical movie tie-in album that the Bihari brothers issued in 1963. The thing that makes this album so interesting is that it features a back slick that is custom made for the album, for most Crown albums at the time featured a back that just listed other Crown record albums you could buy. I hope you enjoy the title selections from this album by William Rodgers!

Eric Silver and his Orchestra play a tribute to Glenn Miller

The marching band and the American flag only seem fitting on the last two tracks.

      Eric Silver, if that's his real name (and I so doubt it) and his most likely European orchestra that was most likely paid peanuts to make these recordings, was not that bad. This album's cover art is hard to place, I just cannot decide if it is simply cheap or sort of fitting (see comment under jacket picture). This album has its moments, the Glenn Miller material is nicely covered, the public domain tunes are arranged well, so I guess the album is decent. The material is grab bag like as far as tune selections go, and the last two tracks are just marches. I kind of like this album if I didn't I would be spending my precious time transferring it and making a post featuring it. I hope you enjoy the selections that I have posted for you here, and if you want to hear the full album click this link to go to the playlist.

American Patrol

Anvil Chorus

The Mexicali Brass play Michelle!

The Mexicali brass was one of the many (and also nameless) studio groups that recorded for cheap budget labels in the mid 60's that were made to cash in on the Tijuana Brass's success. These cheap budget albums often featured just one or two Tijuana Brass tunes and then filled the rest of the record  with cheap filler music. This album is not covering a TJB tune, but rather a Beatles tune that was popularly being covered as a instrumental by almost every orchestra known to man (at least as far as budget labels go). I now present you with yet version of this timeless track Michelle (click to go to the video).

Rock and Rhythm with the All Star Orchestra

 

      Most of the Concertone, Gramophone, Halo, Ultraphonic albums were just reissues, this release being no exception, this album features the contents of Royale releases 1600-B and 1514-B, on A and B sides respectively.

     This release has the qualities of a (very cheap) budget release, the artist is given on the record as "All Star Orchestra" (despite the fact the first side features an artist named Freddie Michell), the album's second side lacks song titles. The next quality that makes this album truly budget is the fact that the jacket is recycled from a earlier Royale release. I can only hope that you enjoy this album as much as I do!

Easter Boogie

There are more selections from this album on my Youtube channel.

1960s Fads And Budget Labels

In the 1960s, there were quite a few musical fads, the twist, hot rod records, limbo, and discotheque, just to name a few, which appear on many records of the day. The 1960s brought a new style to budget label marketing, production of generic music releases were, for the most part, put on the back burner, and the production of cash-in fad records came to the fore-front. There were basically two kinds of budget fad cash-in records; option one was when a given label took older back catalog material with even a remotely similar style and just renamed the tracks, or option two used cheap studio musicians to record albums in the fad's style. Regardless of what kind the fad record was, they are often interesting to collect and listen to, especially the real train wrecks that somehow received the green light from their respective producers!

Let's look at the Twist, one of the first major 60's dance fads. 

Bossa Nova

Limbo

The Hot Rod Craze: Records featuring car songs and the constant use recordings of cars peeling out and other car-related sounds in the background.

The Dave Clark Five on Crown Records!

The Dave Clark Five and The Playbacks.

To the playlist!

 The original 1964 release.

The second pressing was released in 1965 (CST-473/CLP-543). I guess the album sold so well that Crown just had to reissue the album. This is the last time  Fazzio's work was used on a Crown release.

This release (CST-644, no mono version) was most likely Crown's last issue ever. This album was released in 1972! Crown, like almost every budget label was folding because of changes in the market, and new copyright law that allowed song writers the right to prevent budget labels from using hit songs for knock off albums (which was the bread and butter of the budget record industry). However I have also read that the Bihari Brothers were having some problems (i.e disagreements) of their own. Because of this the Bihari Brothers budget record empire came to the end after its 15 year reign.