Monday, December 01, 2014

MA-71 - Joyful Christmas Time




 


            Here is my 2014 Christmas anthology, comprised of songs that make me joyful in all sorts of ways.  You can be “silly joyful” or “reverent joyful,” you know.

01. Joy to the World - Anointed (3:46)
02. I Wonder as I Wander - An Old World Christmas (3:58)
03. Silent Night - Teja Bell (6:00)
04. Feliz Navidad - The Rubber Band (2:48)
05. Away in a Manger - Nat King Cole (2:01)
06. Hark, the Herald Angels Sing - Herb Avery (4:38)
07. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - Bing Crosby and Judy Garland (2:46)
08. Feliz Navidad - Sly's Alter Ego (1:44)
09. Carol Medley - The Swingle Singers (3:04)
10. Hark! - Claymation Christmas Celebration (3:35)
11. Joy to the World - Classics for Joy, Carols of Christmas (2:46)
12. Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming - Robert Shaw & Atlanta Chorus (2:26)
13. Silent Night - Robert Fripp & Apollo 8 (3:03)
14. Welcome Christmas - How the Grinch Stole Christmas (3:30)
15. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Joy Electric (2:12)
16. Blue Christmas - Denny Brownlee as Porky Pig (1:59)
17. The First Noel - An Old World Christmas (4:04)
18. Cleaning Man Christmas - The Cleaning Man (4:27)
19. What Child Is This? - The Rubber Band (4:38)
20. Joy to the World - The Philadelphia Orchestra (1:54)
21. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel - Robert Shaw & Atlanta Chorus (4:14)
22. Joy! - Claymation Christmas Celebration (2:34)
23. What Christmas Is All About - A Charlie Brown Christmas (1:03)
24. Away in a Manger - Joan Baez (1:55)
25. Silent Night - The Swingle Singers (3:45)


            If you haven’t seen the Claymation Christmas Celebration, then you have missed a lot of fun.  The soundtrack is full of fun and wonder, too.  As you will hear, it contains some joyous-solemn music, along with some silliness.

            The Rubber Band is a Beatles Tribute Band that’s been around since 1979.  I think you’ll like their arrangements on Tracks 4 and 19.

            Track 13 is an overlaying of spoken broadcasts from Apollo 8 astronauts with a Robert Fripp "Frippertronics" version of “Silent Night.”

            There used to be a little radio station in Oklahoma City called KOKF -- site with some history here.  It went off the broadcast airwaves in 2006.  You can now hear it online at 91 Online.  Anyway, during broadcast days one of the sponsoring businesses was a janitorial service.  Their tongue-in-cheek mascot was The Cleaning Man (who sounded a lot like Dudley Do-Right).  And, one Christmas time, we were treated to “A Cleaning Man Christmas,” which I am thrilled to share with you here. 

            The Swingle Singer tracks are from an album unreleased on this side of the pond.

            Track 25 is from a stupendous 1966 album by Joan Baez called Noel.  The arrangements were by Peter Schickele of PDQ Bach fame.

            The Track List moves back and forth from solemn to happy to silly and back again, several times.  I hope listening to this compilation lets you celebrate the greatest gift of all, God’s love, given through his son.  



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© by Mark Alfred