Hank Thompson - I'd Like to Have an Elephant for Christmas
build a ball, launch a dream ~ also how to make lighted balls
friends from lake jeannette, westridge, fisher park, old starmount, historic aycock, kirkwood, sunset hills...and...even tampa and michigan's 
upper peninsula came by for an afternoon of fun and fellowship...and best of all, the transforming of hundreds of feet of poultry netting & thousands of mini lights into magnificent lighted orbs; like snowflakes, each one unique, as unique, in fact, as the people who made them. want to make your own? click here for directions to make lighted christmas balls.photos: Millie Smith
Ball Making Workshop II
Jo, Mike, Zoë & Noa Slane know exactly what they're making...five georgeous lighted Christmas balls. You can see their creations here and all up and down Madison Avenue, between Beverly and Holden.
Tres Navidades
One, two, "three christmas" by the fabulous mexican singer Queta Garay.
Queta Garay - Tres Navidades (1963)
(NEW UPLOAD)
Ball Making Workshop Sunset Hills
We had so much fun teaching our neighbors in Sunset Hills and beyond. If you have photos of this time, please send to annefsmith@gmail.com and I would love to share them. IT was a beautiful day and a lot of fun for us. photo: Millie Smith
Classels Christmas
Natasha, from Radio Oh-la-la-fame, makes a great guestpost on this blog. She says she has more goodies coming up!
Christmas in Québec is a big, cold, snow-covered affair. It starts the day after the Halloween stuff has been cleared from store shelves and lasts until people finally decide to chuck out their drying up Christmas tree onto that big pile of snow by the driveway so it can be recycled into Canadian paper sometime in February. This song by sixties sensation Les Classels has all the trappings of a Christmas song, with lots of neige. And that island rhythm is so much warmer than a fake fireplace!
Les Classels - Le Sentier de Neige (Ohshare)
Got Seven Up In The 'Hood
Come see 'em here.
Millie and I had a great talk with some neighbors walking by while we were stringing up lights. Talked about magnolia trees, lost cats, and, of course, Christmas Balls. That's one of my favorite things about these lights. They make you seem friendly enough to talk to at 10:00pm on a dark, cold night, one block from Summit Ave.
I'll post pictures later.
Millie and I had a great talk with some neighbors walking by while we were stringing up lights. Talked about magnolia trees, lost cats, and, of course, Christmas Balls. That's one of my favorite things about these lights. They make you seem friendly enough to talk to at 10:00pm on a dark, cold night, one block from Summit Ave.
I'll post pictures later.
noël avec sheila
Go here to download Sheila's Christmas performance of 'L'heure de la Sortie'.
According to the Sheila TVgraphie, this is from a program entitled Douce France and was broadcast on December 18, 1966.
The video truly lives up to this blog's name! Sheila, mercifully out of her insane bouffant phase, and her high-booted friends sing and dance in front of Christmas trees and inside what looks like a department store.
Or watch it at Youtube.
Hippopotamus amphibius
Xmas with the Beatles? Yeah, quite nice. But doesn't Yuletide with a hippo beat the eggnog out of Christmas with, er, Ringo? Judge for yourself . . .
Gayla Peevey - I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas
(A Little Touch Of) Bach at Christmas, With Takako Minekawa
Every Christmas playlist needs a bit of Bach for the real Christmas spirrit!
Here's a nice ep by Minekawa Takako (mrs. Cornelius)
(A Little Touch Of) Baroque in Winter.
Tracks:
Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring (J.S. Bach)
Christmas Wish
La Valse Grise n3 on Aminure
Snow frolic
With The Beatles
Christmas in Graceland is nice, but nothing beats Christmas with the Beatles!
Ringo for Christmas - The Rainbow Choir
All I Want For Christmas Is A Beatle - Dora Bryan
Hark! The Herald Angel Sing . . .
A real guilty pleasure from those gloriously innocent days of childhood when winter was chilly, snow was high, and each and every Christmas record featured a terribly blaring children's choir: a truly shameless piece of unadulterated heavy pomp from Washington, DC, glamsters Angel's 1977 album White Hot which used to tint my frozen cheeks with a tender touch of glowing scarlet - and still does.
Angel - Winter Song
Les Baxter
Here are two great Christmas songs from the king of exotica. They are found on a various artist album called Happy Holidays. Santa Claus' Party appears on the Ultra Lounge Christmas Cocktails cd and they have it fade into another song. Here it is in it's entirety. Both from 1952.
LES BAXTER AND ORCHESTRA :: SANTA CLAUS' PARTY
LES BAXTER AND ORCHESTRA :: HANG YOUR WISHES ON THE TREE
¡Something Festive!
Great song. To bad they didn't do a whole album of Christmas music.
SERGIO MENDES & BRAIL '66 :: THE CHRISTMAS SONG
make it a triple
Margo Guryan - I Don't Intend To Spend Christmas Without YouThe Saint Etienne and Claudine Longet versions have both been posted, so I thought it would be a nice idea to add the version by the song's creator, Margo Guryan.
Buy 25 Demos.
Buy 25 Demos.
Toad Hall All decked out
This is a photo of home last Christmastime after all the balls were hung and the ground illumination had been installed over protest from Jonathan. I enhanced and filtered Margo Bender's beautiful original photo in Adobe Photoshop. I like to call it Toad Hall ala psychedelic Monet.
Today at Toad Hall
Today we cast our new SpideyMan fishing rod into the trees a trillion times and hung 24 or so lines for subsequent hanging of the balls. We will repair the balls from last year with more new lights (i bought 12 more boxes of lights----the stock at the Target on Lawndale was getting low btw) so assuming we can stay awake (its 7:14 now) we will fetch the balls from their summer home in the attic of Toad Hall and we will repair, restring, and plan where we will hang what. We will try to launch the high ones from the reknown potato launcher hopefully before it gets too cold.
(I Don't Intend To Spend) Christmas without you
The very fist song on this blog was "I Don't Intend To Spend Christmas Without You" by the wonderful Claudine Longet. This song was also recorded by Saint Etienne in 1998.
The background chorus was later 'borrowed' by Pizzicato Five for their song 20th century Girl. LaLaLaLa LaLaLaLaaaa!
Merry Pizzicato
Only 0.7% of the Japanese population are Christians
So, for my first contribution to this blog, here is a song by my favourite group: Pizzicato Five, with their Christmas single "Juni gatsu niju yokka"', or 24 decembre'.
And, as a bonus; here are two versions of Silent night from their 'out-takes'-album Great White Wonder : version 1 and 2.
Lighted Christmas Balls at Toad Hall
this is how things looked Christmas 2005 at the corner of ridgeway drive and madison avenue. photo: Margo Bender
Jingle-Jangle by Electric Candlelight
Here's another yuletide favorite, this time coming from The King of Colchester, ex-head-Cleaner from Venus, "Britain's busiest songsmith, tunesmith and horticultural assassin" and all-round Greatest Living Englishman, Martin Newell, celebrating the "shoe-string saturnalia" of "Christmas in Suburbia", including gallons of "cheap old cherry wine" and bouts of drunken sex . . . now that's what I call Christmas!
Martin Newell - Christmas in Suburbia
PS: Read all about the man (and the Cleaners and just about everything else) in Giles Smith's excellent - and very funny - book "Lost in Music".
Yuletide Disco
OK. Thanksgiving is over. It is officially time to get this party started. Put on the platforms and get ready to shake it. Here is Yuletide Disco!MIRROR IMAGE :: YULETIDE DISCO
Cold Cuttin' Xmas
Hi, folks. First off, thanks for the invite. I'm Roy Black from the infamous Germans Under Cover blog, but don't you fret, I won't post any Germanized cover versions over here. For starters, I'd like to present you with one of my favorite seasonal records, Coldcut's "Christmas Break" which the dynamic dee-jaying duo of Matt Black & Jonathan More put out in 1989, long before the disc-throwing Ninja became their distinctive trademark. Somewhat neglected at the time of its release, here's 6 1/2 minutes of snow-capped, candy-striped turntable wizardry which'll hopefully ring your Christmas bells. Enjoy!Coldcut - Coldcut's Christmas Break
Norma Jeane
I like my Christmas to be sexy, and Marilyn is as sexy as it gets...
But... apparently I was fooled and it wasn't Marilyn after all.
Credit for this version should be given to Cynthia Basinet:
Cynthia Basinet - Santa Baby
Song has been removed on instruction of the management of Cynthia Basinet.
Cary Grant
Here is a song by Cary Grant called Christmas Lullaby off of a record called Joyous Christmas, Vol. 6.CARY GRANT :: CHRISTMAS LULLABY
spiked candy canes
As requested on my blog, a repost of my Christmas mixes from last year:Spiked Candy Canes Part 1 : (link 1) (link 2)
Claudine Longet - Snow, Dressy Bessy - All the Right Reasons, Deerhoof - Xmas Tree, Isabelle Antenna - Noelle Hawai, Peggy Lee - The Christmas Spell, Stina Nordenstam - Soon After Christmas, The Diskettes - Noel, The Gems - Love For Christmas, The Kinks - Father Christmas, The Knife - Christmas Reindeer, The Pipettes - In The Bleak Midwinter, The Sonics - Don't Believe In Christmas (46 MB)
Spiked Candy Canes Part 2: (link 1) (link 2)
Belle And Sebastian - I Took Some Time For Christmas, Brian Wilson - On Christmas Day, Ginette Reno - Vive Le Vent, Julie London - I'd Like You For Christmas, Lauren Laverne - In The Bleak Midwinter, Marlene Paul - I Wanna Spend Christmas With Elvis, Nena - Wunder Gescheh'n, Of Montreal - My Favourite Christmas (In A Hundred Words Or Less), The Carpenters - Merry Christmas, Darling, The Shitbirds (ft April March)- Christmas Is A-Coming, Universal Robot Band - Disco Christmas, Yo La Tengo - It's Christmas Time (42 MB)
Two options for downloading - NetFileGo, and SnapDrive. I tried to find hosts that I can directlink to (so no ads, waiting etc) and that are supported by download accelerators (both worked well for me with Free Download Manager). But if you have any other preferred hosts you would recommend for the next large files I plan to share, please leave a comment.
Un pizzico di nostalgia
NOBODY is going to top this - the best Christmas-song EVER! Raffaella Cara's Balla Balla, baby! [Grazie Plipp]
Navidades Blancas
In order to start I´d bring you an ep from 1965 belonging to one of the most admired spanish artists outside our borders that was named "Raphael canta a la Navidad" o "Raphael sings to Christmas", we are talking of Raphael. After more than forty years of his career as a singer, Raphael keeps on giving us the gift of many new recordings. Most of them see the light during this dates and are dedicated to the Holydays to come, Christmas.
To be concrete, we`d like to share with you, one version of the song "White Christmas", obviously traduced to spanish.
May all of you have a merry and white Christmas.
P.S. Thanks to Lush and Bruno for inviting me to participate in this blog.
especially for us
Gamine count French film noir and Julie London among their influences, and don't disappoint, bringing just the right amount of drama and style to their beautiful, grand piano-backed torch songs. 'Oh, What A Kiss!' is not strictly a Christmas song as such, but an ode to a passionate and possibly illicit first kiss, the tale taking place on a cold night before Christmas:
We'll drive
Through streets of ice
The lights,
A feast for the eyes.
Decked out for Christmas,
Especially for us.
Les rues
Sont enneigées
La ville
Est illuminée
Ces décors de Noël
Me paraissent irréels.
Watch 'Oh, Mon Cheri' on YouTube.
Gamine on MySpace.
Jingle Bells, Batman Smells...
Here are three Exciting Christmas Stories. Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman all save Christmas in their own stories. Sorry this one is so dusty. This one doesn't say Power Records, but it basically is.SUPERMAN :: LIGHT UP THE CHRISTMAS TREE MR. PRESIDENT
BATMAN :: CHRISTMAS CAROL CAPER PART 1
BATMAN :: CHRISTMAS CAROL CAPER PART 2
WONDER WOMAN :: PRISONER OF CHRISTMAS ISLAND
Soulful Christmas
I’m really glad Lush asked me to participate in this Christmasblog, because I think it’s a real shame what people are listening to in those dark days at the end of the year (in the Netherlands the hideous Skyradio for example).I’ll start of with my favorite soul singer who nailed some great Christmas classics. But then again, if Otis would have been singing his grocery list it would have sounded great as well…
Otis Redding – Merry Christmas, Baby
Christmas in the sixties was fine
One of the most famous Dutch X-mas songs is Fay Lovsky's Christmas was a Friend of Mine. Released in 1981, it became an evergreen and nowadays is on every Christmasplaylist of every Dutch radiostation. Still, it manages to stay fresh, cool and seasonal. Fay Lovsky (real name: Fay Luyendijk) is a multi-instrumentalist, who started out as a singer-songwriter, but generally transferred to music for commercials and films. She worked with famous cartoonists Robert Crumb and Joost Swarte, and plays very funny theatrical shows with her band.
Fay Lovsky - Christmas was a friend of mine
Christmas Kitsch
Hey everybody. Let me introduce myself. I'm Brainwerk and I run a blog called Check The Cool Wax. I try to post mostly out of print records that lean toward novelty, tv/movie personality, kitsch, lounge, odd, etc. For a sample of the things you find there, check out Volume One. I'm really excited to be able to contribute to Christmas A Go Go! My first post is a 1961 record from a guy called Lenny Dee. In my humble opinion, he the unsung hero of the lounge-fueled crazy organ. I think the stand-out tracks are Sleigh Ride and Mister Santa (played to the tune of Mr. Sandman). You will either really like this or poke your ears out with a sharp object.LENNY DEE :: HAPPY HOLI-DEE
I'm begging you Santa Claus
Okay, not évery X-mas song I like has to include death and/or despair, I like it when it's funky as well (and has a socialstudy-ring to it). Santa's got a brand new bag, and the Godfather of Soul's in it. This song was also nicely covered by, yes, Belle & SebastianJames Brown - Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto
A cajun christmas from little miss dynamite
I just love Brenda Lee's voice,reminds me a lot of an ex-girlfriend of mine who also used to sing in a band.She made several christmas songs but this one is a bit special since it's about christmas on the bayou! Really old recording (1958),but sounds fresh even today.Papa noël
BONUS especially for Kate!
I'm gonna lasso Santa Claus
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Merry Xmas from the Dean & Sinatra Family
From a Christmas special staring both the Sinatra and Martin families on the Dean Martin 60's TV Show. Here's Frank and Dean doing a long duet of standard favorites, full of humor and great fun. In the end, we will see their family decorate a Christmas tree in the studio. Cheesy, but awesome! Christmas 1967.
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
ffffffffff
Obviously the best Christmas song by the best girl. (Who doesn't love Doris Day??) Do yourself a favor and buy her Christmas album!
Winter in Canada
I think this song is going to be on top of my playlist in December. It's jinglicious! gggggg
gggggggggggg
Also with a (very similar) version by Danish darling Gitte
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
Okay, so nobody dies in the old hymn Oh Come Emmanuel, is in prison or alone (see Prince-post below), but you can tell there's been a lot of suffering. Based on seven antiphons sung in medieval monasteries beginning a week before Christmas, these twelfth-century Latin verses were translated and reduced to five by the nineteenth-century English carol writer John M. Neale. Singer-songwriter Jonatha Brooke adds her own angelical voice, plus the vocal chords and glacial effects of Kevin Gilbert
Jonatha Brooke & Kevin Gilbert - Oh Come Emmanuel
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