A Christmas Festival with Bing Crosby & Friends (MCA Special Markets, 1971)

This was a budget priced compilation that appeared in various drug/department store/supermarket Christmas LP racks in the early '70s.

Side 1 is a sort of condensed version of Crosby's classic LP Merry Christmas. But strangely without "White Christmas".

Side 2 was a hodgepodge compilation of instrumental holiday classics. Namely the first track on Side 2, Leroy Anderson's 1950 original version of "Sleigh Ride" (Granted, Arthur Fiedler put out an excellent stereo version, but his version doesn't have the sonic impact of Leroy Anderson's mono original.)

At this time, MCA was beginning to consolidate it's labels (Decca, Kapp and Uni.) Over the next two decades, they would acquire ABC, Motown, A&M, the PolyGram Group to become Universal Music Group, the biggest record label conglomerate in the world. They acquired Capitol/ EMI in 2012.

WHAT "War On Christmas"?

 

This "War on Christmas" hogwash is what it is. Hogwash.

The only ones declaring any kind of "war" on this holiday are in my opinion, those who have to nitpick over other people's beliefs to get others worked up and angry at a time we should be doing better things.

Let it go. It's the holiday season. Cheers!

Christmas Greetings Vol. 3 (Columbia Special Products for A&P, 1972)

This would be yet another by now fairly typical Columbia Special Products '70s Christmas compilation album were it not for two tracks on it whose artist names literally jumped off the back cover when I found my copy in a Goodwill a few years ago.

 "The Christmas Song" Carol Burnett...


...and "Here's To You" Cary Grant, which was also released as a B-side 45 RPM single in 1967.

 This 45 is extremely hard to find in merely acceptable condition. The single's equally classy A-side "Christmas Lullaby" can also be found on the 1971 A Very Merry Christmas Volume 3 CSP compilation for the now defunct East Coast department store chain, Grant's.

That Christmas Feeling (Columbia Special Products for JCPenney, 1973)

I swear between Columbia and RCA, these two former rivals (ironically, they're now both subsidiaries of Sony Music) were in a race to tie in as many custom Christmas compilation albums for retail businesses as possible in the '70s.

Columbia released albums for Goodyear, JCPenney, A&P, Safeway, Firestone and several others. RCA had Firestone, True Value Hardware, Radio Shack, Piggly Wiggly and others.

Most of these compilations contained music heard on older compilations, but with different track listings.

"Christmas Countdown" Frank Kelly (1983)

Hysterical twist on "The Twelve Days of Christmas"