BIRMINGHAM RECORD COLLECTORS
DEDICATED TO THE COLLECTING OF MUSIC, ITS PRESERVATION AND LASTING FRIENDSHIP
MONTHLY MEETING THIS SUNDAY, DECEMBER 8th, 2019 – 2:00 PM
HOMEWOOD LIBRARY – 1721 OXMOOR ROAD 35209
NEXT MEETING SUNDAY, JANUARY 12th, 2020 THE SECOND SUNDAY
SAD ANNOUNCEMENT
Long time BRC member Ray Edwards passed away early Tuesday morning, December 3. I don’t know when Ray joined BRC but he was a member when I joined in the early 1990’s. Ray served as President of BRC at least twice and served in other officer positions for the last 25 years at least. For those who may have never met Ray you may know him as the announcer during the record shows year after year. If you were looking for a record and had it announced at the show, that was Ray. BRC members have lost not only a hard worker, a leader, a devoted record collector, and a radio historian, but a great friend. He will be missed by all.
But you also must know he was a great husband, father and grandfather and a man of God. Please pray that the family feels the presence and the peace of God during this time. Romans 8:18 says ‘For I reckon that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Ray let that glory be revealed the way he lived his life and now knows the glory of the Lord.
THIS MONTH’S MEETING
It’s December so we will be playing our ‘Dirty Santa’ game once again. Wrap up a gift and join in the fun. It was decided at last month’s meeting that the gift should be SOMETHING YOU WOULD WANT TO RECEIVE YOURSELF if you had not brought it. So please keep that in mind. Just know that in ‘Dirty Santa’ what you unwrap is something that someone may take away. But at least you can then take away or unwrap another. All players will get something and we’ll have lots of fun.
And in the spirit of Christmas giving don’t forget we will also be doing ‘FREE FOR ALL’. You can bring some vinyl or CD’s that members can go through and take home what they want as a gift from you. Remember, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure.
CHRISTMAS MUSIC TRIVIA
The history of Christmas music can be dated as far back as 129. In that year a Roman Bishop had a song entitled ‘Angel’s Hymn’ sung at a Christmas service in Rome. Although the song wasn’t exactly what we call a Christmas Carol this may have started the use of music to be a part of the Christmas celebration. As time went on hymns specific to Christmas would be written.
One of the most recognizable carols is ‘Silent Night’. The lyrics were written in 1816 by Joseph Mohr with music added in1818 by Franz Gruber. It was first performed at the St. Nicholas parish church on Christmas Eve, 1818 in Oberndorf, a village in the Austrian Empire. Little did the composers and the attendees that night know that the song would become so well-known and become one of the most recorded Christmas carols of all time. And remember, at the time if you wanted to hear music of any kind you would have to hear it live. No one would be selling 45’s, LP’ or CD’s after the performance. And what if they did,m what would a person play it on when they got home?
I thought we’d take a look this month at two songs about the Christmas season that have become a staple of the Christmas genre. One of the stories about the who, what, when and where for our first song states that Irving Berlin was staying at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel and told his secretary to ‘Grab your pen and take down this song. I just wrote the best song I’ve ever written – heck, I just wrote the best song that anybody’s ever written!’ Written in probably 1940, ‘White Christmas’ would go on and become the the best selling single of all time. Bing Crosby’s version has sold an estimated 50 million copies and with the sales of all the versions ever done it could top 100 million copies sold.
The first public performance was done on Christmas Day 1941 by Bing on his NBC radio show The Kraft Music Hall. He would record the song for Decca on May 29, 1942. The recording took 18 minutes and he was backed by the John Scott Trotter Orchestra along with the Ken Darby Singers. It was to be released on July 30 as part of an album of six 78-rpm discs from the musical film Holiday Inn. With its success the door was opened for record labels to begin recording and selling secular Christmas songs. The song topped Your Hit Parade on October, 1942. It would stay there until well into the new year. It also topped Billboard and for three weeks it was # 1 on the Harlem Hit Parade. It would become the only single to top the charts on three different runs when it did it during the holiday season of 1945 and 1946. ‘White Christmas’ won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1942. I wonder what effect the bombing of Pearl Harbor and America entering into WW II had on the success of the song in the beginning. Being introduced just 18 days after the bombing.
Marjorie Reynolds, the actress who played along side Bing in Holiday Inn was originally suppose to be the one who would sing the song but it was changed to a duet although the voice of singer Martha Mears who be dubbed in for Reynolds. In 1954 the song would be used again in another Crosby movie, White Christmas. The recording used in that movie was a second version Crosby would do for the movie soundtrack being backed by Joseph J. Lilley’s orchestra and chorus.
When asked by a nephew about the most difficult thing he ever had to do during his career he would say it was when he was in northern France doing a USO show singing ‘White Christmas’ in December 1944 in front of 100,000 G.I.’s who had tears in their eyes without breaking up himself. Days later many of these soldiers would be killed during the Battle of the Bulge.
The recording we often hear today is the 1947 recording that was done due to the damage the original master suffered because of frequent use. Once again it was with the Trotter orchestra and the Darby Singers. Efforts were made to reproduce the original sound with the biggest difference being added flutes and celesta in the beginning. There are over 1500 different versions that have been recorded making it the most recorded Christmas song ever.
Our second song, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas came to mind while I was in downtown Birmingham the other day. I was at Charlemagne Record Exchange located in an area called Five Points South and thought of the song because it was written by Birmingham native Hugh Martin while staying at the family home just blocks away. It has been said that Martin would walk down the streets of Five Points South and work on the lyrics. The address of the home he was staying in is 1919 South 15th Ave. Martin’s birthplace is located at 1900 South 14th Ave. Next time I’m in that area I’ll have to see if the houses are still standing.
The song was written for the 1944 film Meet Me In St. Louis starring Judy Garland. When Martin presented the song to Garland and Director Vincente Minnelli they said the song lyrics were to depressing and asked for a re-write. Martin did so reluctantly. The line in the song ‘Let your heart be light / Next year all our troubles will be out of sight’ originally went ‘It may be your last / Next year we may all be living in the past’. Garland’s version was released as a single by Decca and it became a favorite with the U.S. Troops during WW II. Her performance at the Hollywood Canteen brought the soldiers to tears.
When Frank Sinatra was about to record his version for an the 1957 LP, A Jolly Christmas he asked Martin to change some lyrics also. He thought the LP should have lyrics that went along with a happy title. He wanted the line, ‘Until then we’ll have to muddle through somehow’ changed to fit the LP jolly title. Martin changed it to ‘Hang a shining star upon the highest bough’. Some lyrics were changed to a present tense rather than looking forward to a better future. Ironically Sinatra had already recorded the song in 1948 using the original lyrics. On the Judy Garland Show Christmas Special she sang the song using the Sinatra lyrics while singing to two of her children, Joey and Lorna Luft.
Martin, in his later life would at times play piano for religious ministries and in 2001 wrote all new lyrics using the title Have Yourself A Blessed Little Christmas. Now the song was a religious version rather than secular. It was recorded by gospel singer Del Deker with martin playing piano.
Whatever Christmas songs you enjoy listening to, have a Merry Christmas and remember the reason for the season, the birth of a savior, Jesus Christ.
HAVE YOU HEARD THIS ONE?
‘Children Go Where I Send Thee’
Peter, Paul & Mary
(circa 1992)
HAVE YOU HEARD THIS NEW CHRISTMAS TIME CLASSIC?
Santa Claus Is Back In Town
(Kurt Russell – from the Netflix movie, The Christmas Chronicles)
AND FINALLY, AN ALL TIME CHRISTMAS TIME CLASSIC
‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’
Darlene Love
(1963 LP – A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector)
Merry Christmas. See ya,
Charlie