BIRMINGHAM RECORD COLLECTORS
DEDICATED TO THE COLLECTING OF MUSIC, ITS PRESERVATION, AND LASTING FRIENDSHIP MONTHLY MEETING THIS SUNDAY, DECEMBER 13th, 2015
2:00 PM HOMEWOOD LIBRARY – 1721 OXMOOR ROAD 35209
NEXT MEETING SUNDAY, JANUARY 10th, 2016 THE SECOND SUNDAY
THIS MONTH’S MEETING
It’s that time again. We’ll be playing our annual Dirty Santa game this Sunday. Wrap up a gift and come join the fun. You’ll never know what you may go home with. Whether it’s a fun gag gift or a somewhat ‘useful’ gift, wrap it up and come on. If you want to just sit back and watch, that’s great also. Just be there.
And at the December meeting we also have our ‘Free For All’. Bring those records, CD’s, etc, you want to just give away and let everyone search through for something they can’t do without. Hope you can make it to this time of great fellowship.
BRC NEWS
Below is the slate of officers for 2016 to be presented to the members for their vote for at the December meeting. The only one still in limbo is the position of president. A name a scheduled to be ready by the meeting this Sunday. Whether this is the list approved or a change is made before approval, members should be ready to work in some capacity with at least one of these officers during the year. They will need and they want your help. Thanks to the committee that put this slate together.
President – TBA
VP Advertising – Don Campbell
VP Dealer Relations – Joe Reddick
VP Technology – Charles Cayley
VP Monthly Programs – John McGuirk
VP Membership – Charlie Bailey
VP Hall of Fame – Ray Edwards
Treasurer – Charles Cayley
BRC Makes Annual Charity Contributions
As a not-for-profit corporation, Birmingham Record Collectors is happy to be able to make charity contributions from the proceeds realized from our annual record and CD show. These charity contributions are only made when funds are available over and above those funds needed for the annual operation expenses of the club.
Charitable contributions in the amount of $125.00 each have been made to the Jimmy Hale Downtown Mission, Meals on Wheels – Birmingham, Kid One Transport, and to the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. Total amount of all contributions was $500.00.
2016 Meeting Dates Set
Birmingham Record Collectors will continue to meet in Room 101 at the Homewood Public Library during 2016. We will continue to meet on the second Sunday of each month, except for May when we will meet on the first Sunday due to Mother’s Day. The meeting dates are as follows:
January 10th, February 14th, March 13th, April 10th, May 1st, June 12th, July 10th,
August 14th, September 11th, October 9th, November 13th, and December 11th, 2016.
BRC Radio -Heart and Soul of Rock and Roll
It has been 2 years now since BRC has been airing radio shows on the BRC website. I hope you have been listening. If not, here’s a reminder to go to the website and click on “RADIO’ and see what you have been missing. Over 60 shows are now on the site with all kinds of music, information, and fun. Combined we now have approximately over 1200 songs used in all the shows. If you have a music theme or idea you think should be included, please let us know. A special thanks to Don Campbell for the engineering work he does and also for allowing us to do all this at his house. And also thanks to Ray Edwards for be the host DJ and then putting the shows together and getting them posted on the website. Ray has also done a wonderful job adding in spots with performers such as Martha Reeves, Gary U S Bonds, Darlene Love, and many more saying hello to the listeners and reminding them they are in tune to the BRC Heart and Soul of Rock and Roll show. It has been lots of fun and it is a way for BRC to preserve the music we know and love. Check it out at birminghamrecord.com – Tell a friend!
PRESIDENT’S UPDATE
December 2015
It really does not seem like a year ago that I was about to step up and be BRC President for 2015. And I must admit that for the first few months I was wondering if I was crazy because I was also learning to walk on a new knee at the same time. Well, things have a way of going in circles and shortly after the December meeting I will head back to the operating room, this time for a new shoulder. I guess this is God’s way of telling me to slow down and get out of the way. Message received!
I do want to take this opportunity to thank all of the BRC family for making my job easier in the last year. Many of you not only offered to help but when I called on you were ready to step up and do what was needed. Special thanks goes to some of you who went way beyond just helping. All of the Committee Chairmen and the Committee Members who put in lots of hours month after month and even more to get the August BRC Record Show ready and running. To try to name everyone would only cause me to forget someone and I don’t want to do that. I do have to mention Charlie Bailey who guided me with his years of experience, Terrell who has kept us headed in the right direction for years, The gang that has made the Heart & Soul Radio Show so much fun to do, Don, John, Tom, Joe, Charlie, Mickie, Carol, and David. Everyone who helped bring the snacks to the meetings, John for the great line-up of programs and each of you who came to the meetings, took part in the planning, voted on what we did and helped spread the word in so many ways about BRC. And a Very Special Thanks to Charles Cayley who did so much to make the Show at Gardendale a success. I am serious when I tell you that it could not have happened without him.
As our way of thanking you, the BRC Family, Mickie and I are bringing some refreshments for the December Meeting. I thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve as your President. Now I am ready to let another member take over and move us ahead. -Ray
SPECIAL GUEST ARTICLE
By The Paperboy
Have All the Good Pop Music Christmas Songs Been Written?
Hello again everybody. Remember me? I delivered The Birmingham News to your house every afternoon and on Sunday mornings. That was back when newspapers had Reporters that wrote and reported on stories as they actually happened. Now days we have Journalists that write news stories with their own interpretation instead of letting the reader decide for themselves what really happened. But that is another story for another time.
When was the last time you heard a “new” Pop Music Christmas song? I don’t know about you, but it’s been a long time for me.
Most of the really good Pop Music Christmas songs apparently were written in the late 1930’s, the 1940’s, the 1950’s, and the early to mid 1960’s. As most people know, White Christmas by Bing Crosby is the best selling Pop Music song of all times. Written by songwriter Irving Berlin in 1940, it was first recorded and released in 1942. According to singer Bobby Helms, Jingle Bell Rock written and released in 1957 is in second place. And no, I am not including Digital Downloads. I am talking about Vinyl.
After the 1960’s, there was Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer by Elmo and Patsy in 1979, Last Christmas by Wham in 1984, and if I hear it again it will be too soon, and All I Want from Christmas is You by Mariah Carey in 1994. It’s been a long dry spell since then.
What is considered to be Pop Music today, RAP and Hip-Hop, really doesn’t work well with Christmas Songs. And most of the ‘singers” can’t sing by themselves without distracting back up “singers and dancers.” And I haven’t heard anything “new” from the Country Music crowd either.
No, unless and until I hear something new, I guess I’ll just have to listen to and enjoy “classic” Christmas songs from the past.
Merry Christmas everyone, and not the politically correct “Happy Holidays.”
HEY! HAVE YOU HEARD THIS ONE?
Hall & Oats
FROM ALL THE GANG AT BRC, MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR
See ya,
Charlie