We continue to mine the Capitol Records vaults for more "Jingle Bells" and Christmas EPs and come away with a much less wacky artist than our friend Yogi Yorgesson - the pioneering guitar wizard Les Paul!
Les Paul probably did more than anyone to put the electric guitar on the map and that along with his pioneering use of multitracking have cemented his place in music history.
His playing and multitracking are on full display on his 1951 recording of "Jingle Bells":
That still sounds great!
Les was of course also known for his records with his wife Mary Ford (who had previously sung on Gene Autry's "Melody Ranch" radio show under her (sort of) real name Colleen Summers) and they recorded this offbeat number based on "Jingle Bells" in 1953:
That's an odd one with an odd vibe and I find it oddly fascinating!
Odd in another way is Les and Mary's take on "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" from 1955:
No threat to Spike Jones and George Rock!
It's fun, if cutesy, that the label credits the vocalist as "Liddo Marwy Ford."
(I don't know if Dorothy Parker ever saw that record label, but if she did, I'm sure she fwowed up!)
As with Yogi, Capitol released a Christmas EP of various Les and/or Mary tracks in 1955:
I think that was the first release of Les's recording of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," which also wound up as the flipside of "Rudolph" the next year.
Here's that record:
The EP also included "Silent Night" with Mary, which had been the flipside of "Jingle Bells."
Here's that one:
Then they also included the flipside of "Jungle Bells," which was "White Christmas":
I think I have all that straight, but whatever the case, that four-song EP is solid!
Here's a fun clip of Les and Mary performing their hit "The World is Waiting for the Sunrise":
Fun fact: the lyrics to that 1919 song were written by Gene Lockhart - Bob Cratchit from 1938's MGM version of "A Christmas Carol!"
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