arDATE = new Array( "Christmas 2005" ) arARTIST = new Array( "The Del Vetts", "Bonnie Sisters", "The Cadillacs", "Rudolph and the Gang", "The Heartbeats", "X Ray Pop", "Hybrid Kids", "Lou Monte", "The Orioles", "Earl Grant", "The Lancers", "Nat King COle", "disco45A", "78A", "StrangeA" ) arTITLE = new Array( "I Want A Boy For Christmas", "I Saw Mommy Cha-cha-cha with You-Know-Who!", "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer", "Here Comes Fatty Clause", "After New Year's Eve", "Fuzzy Christmas", "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)", "Dominick The Donkey", "What Are You Doing Nw Year's Eve?", "Swingin Christmas", "I Wanna Do More Than Whistle", "The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot", "disco45T", "78T", "StrangeT" ) arTRACK = new Array( "A-Side", "B-Side", "A-Side", "A-Side", "A-Side", "A-Side", "A-Side", "A-Side", "A-Side", "A-Side", "A-Side", "A-Side", "disco45TR", "78TR", "StrangeTR" ) arDESC = new Array( "A fabulous and obscure girl group from the early 60's. And what a surprise under the tree! Unfortunately, I couldn't find any bio information on this group, but this song is available on several doo-wop Christmas CDs. Obviously styled after the Crystals, and predicting the upcoming sounds of groups like the Ronettes, the Angels and the Shangri-Las. ", "If the De John Sisters hadn't recorded 'No More,' the Bonnie Sisters might have never formed. Pat Ryan, Sylvia Totter, and Jean Borgia worked as nurses at Bellevue Hospital in New York. They heard the De Johns' recording on the laundry room radio and decided they wanted to make records too. Whenever they could find time, they rehearsed, when they worked the same shifts they woodshedded on the job. Calling themselves the Belle Aimes, the trio honed their skills enough to go on the Arthur Godfrey television show where they impressed Mickey Baker, who later hit as half of Mickey and Sylvia. Baker hustled as a talent scout and guitarist and saw something in the nurses and got them a deal with Rainbow Records. Events escalated, they quit their jobs, changed their names, and dressed in identical scotch print skirts and blouses. Eddie Heller, the owner of Rainbow Records, came up with the Bonnie Sisters. The Bonnies' first effort, 'Cry Baby,' had been the flip of a Scarlet single; the Scarlets later became the Five Satins. White females singing an R&B song caught on, and 'Cry Baby' entered the pop Top 40 and stayed there for three weeks, climbing to number 18. The follow-up, 'Track That Cat,' and subsequent releases 'Wandering Heart' and 'Confess' did nothing, and caused the trio to scamper back to Bellevue. In 1990, director John Waters named a movie after the Bonnie Sisters lone hit entitled Cry Baby. It starred sexy Joey Heatherton, ultra sexy porn star Traci Lords, future talk show personality Ricki Lake, and the then-unknown Johnny Depp. This Christmas Tune is the B-Sied to that infamous hit, Cry Baby.", "Lots of doo-wop groups recorded this famous Christmas tune, but, really, who could surpass the Fabulous Cadillacs? Earl Carroll, LaVerne Drake, and Robert Phillips were already singing together in the early '50s as the Carnations, whose lineup also included 'Cub' Gaining. Carroll and Phillips were nearly as close as brothers, Carroll having been taken in by Phillips' family after the death of his own mother. The group — based in New York's Harlem in the area around 131st St. and Seventh and Eighth Avenues — had an energetic approach to music, but somewhat threadbare harmonies, and they were popular at dances held at the local public school they all attended. Their main influence was the Orioles, whose slow romantic numbers went over very well with the group members and the audiences of the period. Carroll's own musical roots included gospel, specifically the Five Blind Boys, the Swanee Quintet, and the Soul Stirrers, but also R&B vocal outfits such as the Clovers, the Ravens, the Swallows, and the Five Keys.

The Carnations were heard in a performance at Public School 43 by Lover Patterson, a one-time associate of the Orioles who had organized a group called the Five Crowns (whose 1958-era membership would become the new Drifters, of 'There Goes My Baby' fame), who was impressed enough with their singing to introduce the group to Esther Navarro, a secretary for the Shaw Artist Agency who also wrote songs.

The audition itself brought about changes in the Carnations' lineup. Baritone Bobby Phillips wanted to switch to bass, partly to see if the novelty value of a 5' 4' bass singer would have some value (most basses were big guys), but Cub Gaining didn't like the idea and quit before the audition. Patterson replaced him with James 'Poppa' Clark of the Five Crowns and Johnny 'Gus' Willingham. It was this group — Earl Carroll (lead tenor), LaVerne Drake (tenor), James Clark (tenor), Johnny Willingham (baritone), and Bobby Phillips (bass) — that auditioned for Navarro. They were duly signed but had to give up their name, as the Carnations was already being used by a professional outfit. The Cadillacs was chosen for its association with automotive elegance and to separate the group from the spate of bird and flower names that were common among singing groups.

The group brought a pair of songs, Navarro's 'Gloria' and Patterson's 'I Wonder Why,' to Jubilee Records, an independent outfit owned by former bandleader Jerry Blaine. Their first single was in stores by the end of July 1954, and it proved to be a regional success, with strong sales on the East Coast from Baltimore to Boston, especially (no surprise) in New York. Patterson's more up-tempo 'I Wonder Why' had more success than the more restrained and romantic 'Gloria.' By the time of the release of the group's second single, 'Wishing Well,' issued later that summer, the lineup had changed, with James Clark and Johnny Willingham replaced by baritone Earl Wade and tenor Charles 'Buddy' Brooks.

The group experienced modest success during the latter part of 1954 and early 1955, and then they had their breakthrough record, 'Speedo.' There have been several stories associated with the origins of the song, all of which surround Earl Carroll's attributes: Carroll has claimed that it originated with a nickname he got as a child, but also said that the beat and background were influenced by the group's appreciation of a Regals song called 'Got the Water Boiling.' Esther Navarro, whose name is signed to the song as writer, claimed at the time that it derived from Carroll's derisive nickname 'Speedy,' earned by his slow-moving demeanor; she claimed that he said to her, 'They often call me Speedy but my real name is Mr. Earl.'

The song was recorded in September of 1955, and released in October of that year. It became a monster hit, but only after laying dormant for weeks. The turning point came when Cleveland-based disc jockey Alan Freed booked the group onto his Christmas show at the Academy of Music. The group by that time was completely professional, and had added dance routines choreographed by Cholly Atkins, who later trained most of the Motown acts in their stage presentations. The group swept the board during the two weeks of appearances in the Freed show, which, itself was a major turning point in the history of rock & roll. There had been showcases of that kind going on for several years, but mostly before black audiences; the Freed show broke the theater's box-office record, and in the process drew in a major contingent of white teenagers.

'Speedo' finally broke out in early December, and it entered the Billboard pop charts before it reached the R&B charts, something that had never happened before with an R&B single. The music industry began taking notice not only of this phenomenon, but also of the Cadillacs. The song rode the charts for four months, well into 1956, by which time the Cadillacs were established as one of the top R&B groups in the country. They also had a membership change early in that year, with Jimmy Bailey replacing founding member LaVerne Drake. Their attempts at a follow-up hit failed despite some initial encouraging signs from the trade papers, but this didn't slow their momentum on-stage; they remained one of the most heavily and prominently booked groups among the package tours that were the norm, and the bookings were still good into the late winter of 1957.

Unfortunately, nothing was that straightforward for the group itself. At some point, they split with Esther Navarro, and the group also split into two rival sets of Cadillacs. Earl Carroll led the Original Cadillacs, as they became known — consisting of Carroll, Charles Brooks, Bobby Phillips, and Earl Wade — while Navarro had Jimmy Bailey leading Bobby Spencer, Bill Lindsay, and Waldo 'Champ Rollow' Champen under the name the Cadillacs. The groups both continued recording, both on Jubilee (which was caught in the middle of the dispute), and effectively canceled each other out.

Navarro's Bailey-led Cadillacs (who only recorded once officially, doing 'My Girlfriend' in May of 1957) went on the road in an abortive attempt to carry on, but they were pulled out of the late-1957 package tour before it was half over. By November of 1957, the two groups had made a sort of peace: Champ Rollow and Bill Lindsay were out, and Carroll, Bailey, Brooks, Phillips, and Wade were working together in the studio as the Cadillacs. Brooks was soon replaced by Bobby Spencer, but there were other changes as well: Earl Carroll was pushed into the background of the group's vocals by Jimmy Bailey and Bobby Spencer. Of course, it didn't matter that much, because in their search for a sound that would sell, the group had changed into a comedic doo wop outfit in the mold of the Coasters, specializing in humorous novelty numbers. They hardly resembled the outfit that Earl Carroll had co-founded in the early '50s.

The sad thing, in some respects, is that this worked. They were back on the national charts for the first time in over two years in October of 1958 with 'Peek-A-Boo,' a sort of 'Yakety Yak'-type number that made the Top 40 and gave the group a new lease on life as a concert attraction. Having succeeded once with a comic novelty tune, they mined this vein again with a pair of singles, 'Jay Walker' and 'Please Mr. Johnson.' Both were recorded early in 1959 and featured (in very effective performances) in the 1959 Alan Freed-starring jukebox classic Go Johnny Go, which also featured Jimmy Clanton, Sandy Stewart, Chuck Berry, Jackie Wilson, Eddie Cochran, Ritchie Valens, and Jo-Ann Campbell.

The group's string of hits had ended, however. Earl Carroll left the group that he had founded in 1959; the Cadillacs kept working for a few more years, recording unsuccessfully for a number of labels before packing it in during the early '60s. Carroll fared reasonably well, however, remaining in music and eventually joining the Coasters in 1961, where he remained for more than 20 years. He later re-formed the Cadillacs, with Bobby Phillips the only other veteran member of the group, and he kept the new group going throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, even doing a well-received comeback record early in the '90s. ", "Ummm....hokay. *Someone* has issues... Have a happy white trash Christmas!", "Lead singer James 'Shep' Sheppard co-wrote a series of velvety doo wop ballads for the Heartbeats during the mid-'50s; one entry, 'A Thousand Miles Away,' was a huge R&B seller in 1956. The Queens, NY, quintet began their string of street-corner classics with 'Crazy for You' and 'Darling How Long,' culminating with 'A Thousand Miles Away.' The Heartbeats recorded for Hull, Rama, Roulette, Gee, and Guyden before packing it in. In 1961 the lead singer formed a new trio, Shep & the Limelites, and scored on the charts with a heartwarming sequel to his first hit, 'Daddy's Home,' for Hull. 'Our Anniversary' also sold well for the trio the next year, but they broke up soon thereafter. Sheppard was found dead in his auto on the Long Island Expressway in 1970. ", "X Ray Pop were a band from France associated with the huge underground gloabal cassette movement of the early and mid 80's. They received wider recognition when Ron Lessard published thier wonderful 'Psychedlic Dolls' LP on his independent and widely respected RRRecords label. This garage-sounding tune has some freakyelectronic sounds and is quite charming... ", "Somewhat of a novelty band, this group on the now-legendary imprint Cherry Red brings forth a very new-wave version of John Lennon's classic. The group was the brainchild of Morgan Fisher and featured Lol Coxhill as well.

An archetypal British eccentric whose extensive career spanned from pop to glam to ambient music, Morgan Fisher was born in London in 1950. He first garnered notice playing Hammond organ with the 1960s pop band the Love Affair, scoring a Number One U.K. hit in 1968 with 'Everlasting Love.' After buying an early synthesizer, Fisher turned to electronic music, and created a series of scores for experimental films; he also mounted Morgan, a 'classical rock' band fronted by former Queen vocalist Tim Staffell, and briefly tenured with the Third Ear Band.

In 1973 Fisher signed on as the pianist for Mott the Hoople, and continued with the group — sans Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson — under the abbreviated name Mott. Later rechristened the British Lions, the group disbanded in the late 1970s; given his musical background and sartorial splendor — trademark white suit, homburg and waxed moustache — Fisher seemed an unlikely patron of punk, but inspired by the movement, he established his own independent label, Pipe Records, and turned to producing records for artists including the Dead Kennedys, Jayne County and Cherry Vanilla.

After recording 1980's Slow Music, an early ambient collaboration with avant-jazz saxophonist Lol Coxhill, Fisher adopted the name Hybrid Kids to produce 1980's A Collection of Classic Mutants, a mock compilation album purportedly made up of cover versions of classic pop hits performed by unknown new wave bands. In fact, the entire record was recorded by Fisher and his friends, including Jah Wobble; soon he mounted Miniatures, another compilation — this one legitimate — comprised of 51 one-minute recordings from talents ranging from Robert Wyatt and the Residents to the Damned's Dave Vanian and XTC's Andy Partridge.

After 1982's Claws, a collection of Hybrid Kids' Christmas songs, Fisher toured with Queen before embarking on a lengthy sabbatical in India and the U.S. He finally settled in Japan, where he changed his name to Veetdharm and returned to ambient textures with 1984's Look at Life. 1985's Water Music and 1987's Ivories followed before, in 1990, he teamed with Yoko Ono for the tribute Echoes of Lennon. After returning in London in 1994 to take part in a memorial concert for the late Mick Ronson, Fisher began assembling artists to contribute material for the projected Miniatures for the Millennium, which was released in 1995. Inside Satie followed two years later and Peace In the Heart of the City Cherry Red was issued in 1999. Morgan returned the next year to release both organ: Nova Solis and Water Music. ", "A favorite in virtually every Italian household - especially if you are Sicilian - Lou Monte's comedy music was a real treat. His classics include 'Pepino the Italian Mouse' and 'What Did Washington Say'. This was a local favorite at Christmas in my house when I was a kid, and to this day, you can still hear it played over outdoor loudspeakers along 86th Street in Brooklyn at Christmas time. ", "Led by Sonny Til, the Orioles were the first black vocal group to sing music directly for a black audience. Through their early recordings — which were made in the late '40s and early '50s — the band laid the groundwork for R&B vocal groups and doo wop. The Orioles fused traditional pop songs with gospel sensibilities and arranged blues and gospel material with smooth harmonies, designed to appeal to the broadest audience possible.

Based in Baltimore, MD, the Orioles consisted of lead vocalist Sonny Til (born Earlington Carl Tilghman, August 18, 1928; d. December 9, 1981), Alexander Sharp (tenor vocals), George Nelson (baritone vocals), Johnny Reed (bass vocals), and guitarist Tommy Gaither. Originally called the Vibranaires, the group formed when its members were teenagers. They came to the attention of Deborah Chessler, a local merchant who also wrote songs; she would write many of the group's subsequent hits. Chessler became the band's manager and she was able to get the Vibranaires a spot on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts television show. Although the group lost to pianist George Shearing, they caught the eye of Jerry Blaine, a New York record company executive, while they were in town for the program.

Jerry Blaine signed the group to his newly created It's a Natural record label and had the band cut 'It's Too Soon to Know,' a ballad written by Chessler. After they signed their deal with It's a Natural, the band changed its name to the Orioles. In the late summer of 1948, 'It's Too Soon to Know' was released on It's a Natural but shortly after the single's release, National Records' Blaine complained about the name of his new label, so he re-released the song on Jubilee Records, a record label he had previously used to release Yiddish comedy records. 'It's Too Soon to Know' became a number one R&B hit and crossed over to number 13 on the pop charts. At the time of its release, no black group had managed to cross over to the pop charts with what was then known as a 'race' record. The Orioles immediately followed the success of their debut single with the seasonal '(It's Gonna Be A) Lonely Christmas,' which reached the R&B Top Ten at the end of 1948.

'Tell Me So' became the Orioles' second number one R&B hit in the spring of 1949, beginning a streak of six R&B hit singles that year. In addition to 'Tell Me So,' the group charted with 'A Kiss and a Rose' (number 12, late summer), 'I Challenge Your Kiss' (number 11, fall), 'Forgive and Forget' (number five, fall), a re-released '(It's Gonna Be A) Lonely Christmas' (number five, winter), and the B-side of 'Lonely Christmas,' 'What Are You Doing New Year's Eve' (number nine, winter), as presented here.

Following their peak year of 1949, the group ran into tragedy. In 1950, Gaither, Nelson, and Reed suffered an automobile accident that killed Gaither and severely injured the other two members; Nelson quit the group later in the year. As Reed recovered from the accident, the group found replacements for Gaither and Nelson, finally settling on guitarist Ralph Williams and vocalist Gregory Carroll. The new lineup of the band had its first hit in 1952, when 'Baby Please Don't Go' reached number eight on the R&B charts. The following year, the group had their biggest hit with 'Crying in the Chapel.' Released in the summer of 1963, 'Crying in the Chapel' spent five weeks on the R&B charts and reached number 11 on the pop charts, eventually going gold; Elvis Presley had a hit with the song 12 years later. Toward the end of the year, the group had another Top Ten R&B hit with 'In the Mission of St. Augustine.' The single would turn out to be their last hit.

In 1954, the Orioles began to splinter, as Sharp and Reed left to join the Ink Spots. Sonny Til assembled a new lineup, but the group didn't gain much attention. Til continued to lead various incarnations of the Orioles, performing concerts and re-recording the group's old hits, until his death in 1981. George Nelson died some time in 1959 and Alexander Sharp died in the early '70s.

In 1995, 40 years after the original lineup of the group disbanded, the Orioles were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Collector geeks (not unlike me...) will notice that this is a later pressing. In fact, a first pressing of this is really a reissue of what was a 78-only at its initial release. But the first 45 of this classic had a script Jubilee logo, rather than the calligraphy shown here, which came into service around 1953 or so. ", "Earl Grant was a triple-threat entertainer as a pianist, organist, and vocalist. While much of his material fell into the arenas of either light pop or jazz-schmaltz, Grant scored two R&B hits in the late '50s and early '60s, the most memorable being 'Sweet Sixteen Bars' in 1962. It reached number nine on the R&B charts. His prior smash 'The End' was his lone pop hit, reaching number seven in 1958. Grant also was in the films 'Tender Is The Night,' 'Imitation of Life,' and 'Tokyo Night.' He was killed in 1970 in a car wreck at age 39. ", "Incredibly schmaltzy pop, suitable for a Christmas Eve of entirely too much jolliness. Check out that bassman...", "This man certainly needs no introduction, especially where Christmas music is concerned. But this is a seldom heard Christmas song of his, and finally an alternative to The Christmas Song...", "disco45D", "78D", "StrangeD" ) arLABEL = new Array( "End", "Rainbow", "Josie", "Yuletide", "Gee", "PRS", "Cherry Red", "Roulette", "Jubilee", "Decca", "Coral", "Capitol", "disco45L", "78L", "StrangeL" ) arFORMAT = new Array( "45 RPM", "45 RPM", "45 RPM", "45 RPM", "45 RPM", "45 RPM", "45 RPM", "45 RPM", "45 RPM", "45 RPM", "45 RPM", "45 RPM", "disco45F", "78F", "StrangeF" )