[78-L] Christmas Music

[Steven C. Barr]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Harold Aherne" <leotolstoy_75 at yahoo.com>
> 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.
>
BUT...traditional Christmas carols were, IIRC, issued on record from the 
VERY
early days of phonorecords onward! I'd have to look deeper into my half-vast
archives of shellac, and discographic/catalog stuff, to get the facts 
here...?!

...stevenc