[78-L] Christmas Music

[David Lennick]

And numerous swinging versions of Jingle Bells..Fats, BG, Glenn, Ozzie (sorry, 
Al). The earliest Jingle Bells dance band version might be Charles Dornberger 
in 1932....? As for bluesy Christmas sides, there's Ozie Ware's "Santa Claus, 
Bring My Man Back" in 1928 with some of Ellington's band, and "Santa Claus 
Blues" with Louis and the Red Onion Jazz Babies. "Santa Claus Came in the 
Spring" was done by Benny Goodman and Putney Dandridge in 1935.

dl

Harold Aherne wrote:
> There's also "At the Christmas Ball" by Bessie Smith (18 Nov 1925), but which
> doesn't seem to have been issued until 1940--at least I couldn't find it in the 
> 14000-D series. Bessie sounds *much* cheerier than usual on that recording.
>  
> Otherwise, it does seem that the catalysts for "popular" Christmas music as 
> we're thinking of the term are "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and "Winter 
> Wonderland" in 1934, although I'm not aware of many other such songs 
> until the early 40s. And from then to at least the early 60s there's quite a lot of them.
>  
> -Harold
> 
> --- On Sat, 12/27/08, kil at roadrunner.com <kil at roadrunner.com> wrote:
> 
> From: kil at roadrunner.com <kil at roadrunner.com>
> Subject: Re: [78-L] Christmas Music
> To: 78-l at 78online.com
> Date: Saturday, December 27, 2008, 11:21 AM
> 
> I just relistened to it, I think I have dl's CD.  It has no American (or
> Canadian)Christmas songs in the medley.  No surprise as this was a British band.
>  It did include bits of Christmas carols THE FIRST NOEL, GOOD KING WENCESLAS,
> and GOD REST YE MERRY, GENTLEMEN, yes in dance tempo.  So Don's estimate of
> 1935 for the U.S. still seems right.
> RayK
> 
> 
> 
>