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
The front cover looks terrific. You must have done work on it (I doubt the cover looked that good when it was first issued).
ReplyDeleteTops managed to get a lot of 1940s artists to record tracks for them due to big band musician Dave Pell (who also did some of the best cover photos). That's how they got LPs by Lena Horne, Mel Torme, Kate Smith, etc. There were also some crossover deals at the time because Tops shared a business address with the Bihari Brothers.
If you ever need to replace a trashed Tops or Golden Tone track, look through Dave Pell's later PRI LP issues (check bnspubs.com for PRI, Kimberly, etc.). He did re-use masters. There are also several boxed sets produced for chain stores like Montgomery Ward that have Tops-Mayfair-PRI tracks remixed, with better pressings, arranged in different groupings than on the original LPs. BSN mentions a couple of these, but there are probably more (I've been able to find an entire boxed set on yellow vinyl on Kimberly, and that's quite a feat in NYC). PRI advertised heavily in magazines, and they made deals with chain stores.
No, the cover looks that fantastic in real life. It's a pretty stunning album cover, that I agree.
ReplyDeletePRI issued box sets? I didn't know that, looks like I'm going to start looking at the box sets again!
This looks like the one I found in NYC:
ReplyDeletehttp://thumbs4.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/mRG2-4DkwQJZzODWb-61sfA.jpg
This particular one is long gone from eBay (so there's no longer a page for it, just the photo). The seller had listed it under Montgomery Ward. BSNpubs has another Montgomery Ward boxed set under their PRI listing (red vinyl). Mine came with an instruction booklet on how to use a Montgomery Ward furniture stereo, so they may have been bonuses to people who bought stereos from MW.
Thurl Ravenscroft, who sang "Joy To The World" on this LP, was a well-known studio and group bass singer, a former/founding member of the Sportsmen quartet (who sang on Jack Benny's radio show) and the Mello-Men. He was more famous for singing "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" on the soundtrack of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," but most famous of all as the voice of Tony the Tiger for some 50 years. GRRRR-REAT!!
ReplyDelete