CaptainOT
Brando - The Final Performance
updated
He won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1958 singing "Dors, mon amour" (Sleep, My Love), with music composed by Pierre Delanoë and lyrics by Hubert Giraud.
Winning at the age of 46 years and 76 days, Claveau was the oldest winner of the contest until 1990, being the first and only winner prior to 1990 to triumph in their forties.
This track came from a 1958 compilation album called "Un Noël Blanc" with Mathé Altéry released in the United States on Monitor Records.
During the monopoly days of AT&T, phones were available to purchase for exorbitant prices. With the introduction of newer, smaller, and portable phones starting in the 1950s and into the 1960s, the prices came down and NYTel decided the time was right to create a campaign for phone purchases.
They hired Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn (BBDO), the legendary Madison Ave. ad agency (think "Mad Men"), for this purpose. This promotional album sent to radio stations was made to announce how you could purchase a phone for Christmas, 1965.
It's about as subtle as a brick. Get a phone so mom can take "less steps in the kitchen". Really?
For years, this song has entertained and mildly shocked people during the holidays. Consider this our present to you for the 2023 holiday season.
In real life, Hughes passed away in 1976 and a handwritten will was discovered in a Mormon church. This list gave away the vast fortune of Hughes to various people and organizations, including Dummar.
Melvin sued and his court case caught the attention of media outlets. In the end, the will was determined to be fake. Capitalizing on his fifteen minutes of fame, Dummar recorded his the first version of this song in 1981.
This cover was made in 1984 by King and is widely obscure as well.
He began playing music in the late 1950s playing rhythm guitar for Jimmie Tokita & His Mountain Playboys, a country and western act in Japan. However, Terry was enthralled with surf guitar music which was all the rage in the early 1960s in America, then Japan.
In 1962, he formed his first group, The Blue Jeans and they quickly began covering American rock and roll. Within a year, they were one of Japan's best known acts thanks to records and live appearances.
This hard-rocking EP was released in 1964 - his first Christmas record. The following year, he would release another holiday EP called "Beat Christmas". By 1966, the ride of surf music was over and Terauchi quit the Blue Jeans to form another band called The Bunnys. He also formed his own company and continued recorded and produced albums for many others.
He reformed the Blue Jeans in 1969 and the band was been active and widely popular over the next five decades. Known as "King of the Surf Guitar" in Japan, Terry passed away in 2021 at the age of 82.
Beginning in 1956, they began recording music for the Italian record company Durium and by 1958 had released several LPs, 45s, and EPs, including this gem of a Christmas record
I was lucky to find this Spain pressing of their EP - the Italian version has eluded me for years.
By the early 1960s, the group was still popular and touring all across Europe. In 1962, they recorded a jingle for a popular Italian stocking company for women.
The group disbanded in 1969.
https://it-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Quartetto_Radar?_x_tr_sl=it&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc
This Christmas 45 was recorded by a high school chorus in Roanoke, Virginia and asked a the valid question of Santa's flight, all under two minutes in length.
Lapata was a jazz musician who played all around Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley. He traveled to Nevada for eight years, playing and conducting bands for hotels in Reno and Las Vegas. Upon his return to Philly, he recorded a few rock and roll tunes before becoming a staple on the nightclub and jazz circuits.
He came from a family of music - both his father Billy, his brother Tony, and his younger brother Billy Jr. were well-known musicians as well around the City of Brotherly Love. If anyone has information on what year this album was made, we'd love to add it to our files.
The liner notes end like this: We close this biography saying only, true talent will persevere.
"I don't think there's anything to put you in the holiday spirit quite like the sound of Jack Webb's voice..." - David Letterman.
Enter Brownie Wise. She was a divorced mom with a marketing background who came up with the idea of Tupperware parties. These informal meet/greets skyrocketed sales in the late 1950s and soon Tupper hired Wise as the VP of Tupperware - her TV appearances and marketing savvy made her a household celebrity long before Martha Stewart.
In 1956, she recorded a special Christmas Greeting disc for the company and these were sent to sales associates across the country. The following year, Wise was at the peak of her popularity (much to the chagrin of Tupper). This 1957 disc has Brownie sharing some special thoughts of the holiday backed by Christmas music.
One month after this record was released, Tupper forced Wise out of her job. Every reference to her was removed from company literature. She owned no stock and left with a severance package of one year's salary, about $30,000. Overnight, Brownie was no longer a celebrity and after a new business venture failed, she retired to Florida where she remained until her death in 1992.
After facing backlash for getting rid of Wise, Tupper sold the company for $16 million (more than $160 million in 2023 dollars), divorced his wife, gave up his U.S. citizenship to avoid taxes, and bought an island in South America. What a guy!
Tupperware continued its success well into the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s using the model Ware had established. This disc is presented here as a tribute to her memory.
However... this was recorded for Tournesol, a division of Trans-Canada Records back in the late 1960s - a time when music was being transformed radically by rock, jazz, and soul music.
This was likely recorded during a hot summer day in Montreal, not Honolulu.
We wish we had more information on Duquette and his Ensemble Hawaien - if anyone had a biography or more on this record, we'd love to hear it!
In 1958, he made two novelty singles for Jubilee Records - his first was the laughing track "Delicious" which reached the Billboard Top 40 (peaking at No. 40). His second was called "Cave Man" which had this great Christmas song as the B-side in time for the 1958 holiday season. In March of 1959, Jubilee re-issued the "Cave Man" single but with a different B-side ("Rocks on the Roof").
We're not sure if Backus re-recorded this song but many Christmas comps and YouTube videos have this song that begins with the line "Way down deep in my heart..." This version has an intro and several additional lines before Backus sings the line above.
Happy listening!
This was their first appearance on screen in the 1937 comedy "You Can't Have Everything". A straight forward version of the classic piano piece suddenly goes wild in the hands of the Ritzes.
With an appearance by Charles Winninger.
In 1958, several recording artists banded together for a holiday compilation called "God Jul" (Swedish for Merry Christmas). Jonsson was given this plum track and her sixteen year old voice shines throughout.
And that's where the trails ends - her last album was recorded in 1960 and not much else is known. If anyone has further info, we'd love to know it!
As the Wilder Brothers they released several novelty records as well as doo-wop and easy listening from the 1950s into the 1970s.
This was the B side to their 1955 single on Wing Records called "The Old Chiminey".
It was here this album ("A Bermuda Christmas") was recorded back in the day by Har-Fo Records. No date is listed on the album sadly. Many of the singers on this album worked on the base including Ernest Simmons who is the soloist on this track.
Any info about the album is greatly appreciated - leave us a comment.
This is a beautiful re-working of "Danny Boy" and we wanted to share it just in time for St. Patrick's Day.
Groucho: “Why do you have so many children? It must be a terrible responsibility and a burden.”
Mrs. Story: “Well, because I love my children and I think that’s our purpose here on Earth, and I love my husband.”
Groucho: “I love my cigar, too, but I take it out of my mouth once in a while.”
Considering how many people have claimed to have seen or heard that exchange over the years it would seem likely that it must exist somewhere. But of the ninety-nine radio episodes of You Bet Your Life that aired prior to the show’s television debut, fewer than half of them survive. And the show with Mr. and Mrs. Story is not among them. The famous exchange would certainly have been edited out anyway. The brief clip from Season’s Greetings from DeSoto — Laughs with Groucho is all that remains of this episode. And the only people who witnessed that legendary moment were in the studio audience that fateful night in 1947.
This is that clip. From my personal copy of the 78.
With his own orchestra and borrowing the sound from the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Flanagan had a successful recording career throughout most of the 1950s.
In 1959, he recorded a Christmas album entitled "Holiday Inn" on Imperial Records where this track came from. But with rock and roll here to stay, his big band sound was outdated. He continued to arrange/conduct bands into the early 1960s before presumably ending his career and retiring.
As of August 19, 2010, Ralph Flanagan and his Orchestra were listed by EMI Music as a missing royaltor, which means that EMI have lost contact with the estate of Flanagan and his heirs and band members, and that royalty checks are being returned to the record company by the Post Office.
This PSA features a little girl's visit to the Post Office - in 1961, postage was just three cents to mail a letter!
This album was one of the first items I won at eBay in 1997.
Shop early, mail early!
As usual, Mel does the spot in his own hilarious way!
Merry Christmas to all!
Robin traveled to Hollywood, Paris, Monte Carlo, Tokyo to profile celebrities and multi-billionaires and their lavish homes, cars, jewelry, and other trappings. Only in the 80s.
That's when Larry Foster stepped up to the microphone and recorded this Christmas novelty song in time to cash in on Meader's success. Quickly scripted with fellow comedy writers Marty Brill, Morty Jay, and Sandy Sina, Foster refers to Khrushchev and Castro as "Mr. K and Mr. C". Hip, right?
Add in some kids singing, music, and you get this single that was released one year ahead of Vaughn Meader's infamous Christmas single "St. Nick Visits The White House" that disappeared immediately following JFK's assassination.
Case in point: This 1970 radio station only album with celebrities reminding you about mail cut off dates and incessant reminders to use your ZIP code.
They chose Sgt. Joe Friday for this one minute spot. Jack Webb reads this with the ferocity of a police sergeant barking out orders over a car radio. Warm and tender.
Dedicated to all Jack Webb Christmas fans everywhere!
The Ed Sullivan Orchestra and Chorus has recorded several different albums around this time - this track came from the 1967 full length album "Ed Sullivan Presents Music of Christmas". Despite having comments from Ed and lush music, this album sold fair to poor. The times were a-changin'.
Their unique sound would keep them busy on radio and television shows of the day ("The Ed Sullivan Show" / "Faye Emerson's Wonderful Town") and lead to a prolific recording career throughout the 1950s and 1960s on nearly every major label. One album of note was the 1956 album "Bob Keeshan (Capt. Kangaroo) and The Honey Dreamers" - "A Child's Introduction to Jazz".
In November of 1960, the group recorded a new version of "Jingle Bells" utilizing "Goose Latin" - similar to Pig Latin but totally indecipherable.
If someone can post the lyrics, you deserve a medal!
In 1971, he recorded a full length holiday album entitled "Jiminie The Christmas Tree" on Solar Glo Records. Side one tells the story of the title character with two featured songs. Side two has six original Christmas songs - this was track five.
Watch until the end to see Joe getting exercise by skipping rope!
He recorded an album that year called "Charley Weaver Sings Songs For His People" (Columbia) and included on the album was a 4m 23s version of this song.
Columbia released this as the B side to the single "Xmas In Mt. Idy" and trimmed the time to 3m 18s.
Arquette would later reprise Charley Weaver on the original "Hollywood Squares" TV show in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He passed away on Sept. 23, 1974 at the age of 68 from a stroke.
This album was a huge success but for some strange reason it was never officially released anywhere else. So there you are.
This was the flip side of her 1969 single "Sugar" - Uni Records / 55189.
Written by B. Guy - could this be famous blues singer Buddy? Anyone?
Honor Records – HR-1001
Presented here for educational / entertainment purposes only - Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research.
Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.
"Five to ten in the big house!"
Isn't that wild?
In this rare clip, we see them on a variety show performing a sketch about the evils of late night television mail-order ads.
Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.
If someone decides to mail Jerry using the address in the PSA, let us know if you get a response.
This reading PSA was produced by the American Library Association and the National Book Committee and encourages youngsters to forego the TV, radio, movies, and dolls that snore.
Highly fun - and I'll bet you'll be humming this one for days.
youtube.com/watch?v=YMRCHcV2s3I
I was very surprised to finally find the other theater spot she filmed that same year for Toys For Tots. She simply asks us to buy a new toys for those less fortunate "letting you play Santa Claus" and the Marines will do the rest.
www.toysfortots.org
ChristmasSeals.org
ChristmasSeals.org
ChristmasSeals.org
Tricky Dick almost looks sincere as he recites facts the way an overly tired museum guide would sound about 30 minutes from closing time.
He reminds you to display your American flag on June 14th "in our yards, at our offices, at our homes." If the flag was displayed in the yard, wouldn't that be considered at your home?
Not as good as Nixon ringing the bell for mental health though:
youtube.com/watch?v=XGiqWrcAHKE


