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12.23.2003
XMas Music Spectacularamundo
Here's the deal: in the 1960s, RCA/Victor used to press sampler albums with tracks from their catalog and give them out with the purchase of an RCA/Victor record player. Most of these sampler albums would, in today's parlance, be "Limited Editions", never to be made again; back then, it was just one more way to get the consumer exposed to the label.
So the story goes that my grandparents gave my father a record player for Christmas his freshman year of college at Ohio University. When they bought it, they were also given an RCA/Victor sampler album, entitled THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS. Which my dad apparently loved, because it's one of the few albums from their collection that I remember listening to every year when I was a kid. Dad loved it so much that he dubbed it to tape and gave the album itself back to my grandparents so they could enjoy it; that tape then became the Audio Tape What Gets Played the Most in the Dahlberg household. It got so I knew every one of those songs by heart, despite not even knowing, really, who the artists were. And so it comes to pass that now, as an adult with a family of my own, I'd like to have some Christmas music in the house -- all well and good, as it's not hard to come by, but what I want is that album I grew up with. But here's the catch: most of those samplers have never been pressed on CD. THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS, as a sampler album, exists only in its original form: a long-playing record. Which leaves me to turn to the internet. Help me, Internet. You're my only hope. I've been searching high and low for mp3s of the tracks from the album. Some I have; most, I don't. If you have any of these or can find them anywhere using this magical electronic box of knowledge, drop me a line at gus@dahlbergcentral.com and let me know. THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
(1) I actually have a version of this song by another choir which sounds remarkably similar, but I'd still like to have the Luboff version. I highly recommend these for your own Christmas collections, however. There's lots of fun to be had here; the Fiedler/Boston Pops "A Christmas Festival" has long been one of my favorite pieces (yeah, it's a medley, but it's a FUN medley), and The Cartwrights' "Merry Christmas Neighbor" is a hoot (yes, it's the cast of BONANZA doing a Christmas song...) Thanks, Internet. Merry Christmas.
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