As we continue along with "Jingle Bells," we land on Rondo Records for a couple of renditions played on the organ.
The first one chronologically is from Elmer Ihrke and Skip Berg in 1949:
Pleasant enough version. Good as background music.
The flipside is "Silent Night," credited only to Elmer Ihrke:
I know Elmer was an organist and Skip Berg played celeste and they recorded a few sides for Rondo, but otherwise I haven't been able to dig up much information on either, but Elmer did get his picture on one album:
So, we kind of know what he looked like!
Much more famous was Rondo's premiere artist, organist Ken Griffin, heard on this record from (I think) 1949:
And here's the flipside:
Those are pleasant but not remarkable, but they are representative of Ken Griffin's style and he was very popular!
His popularity was really based on one/sort of two records...
Ken had recorded an instrumental version of a German song under the English title of "You Can't Be True, Dear" in 1948:
Again, pleasant enough, but it had something going for it, as it was big!
Rondo also released that same recording with a vocal by Jerry Wayne overdubbed:
Both of these records were huge hits, with the vocal version hitting number one while the instrumental version parked at number two!
They're both soooooo square, even by 1948 standards, but, boy, they were popular!
Even more fascinating is the little disclaimer on the record label!
There's even more in these "Billboard" ads:
I think it was based on a dispute over royalties between the original German publisher ad Biltmore Music Corp, the American representative.
Whatever the case, Ken Griffin was able to successfully ride the wave of popularity with several later releases on Columbia Records until his untimely passing in 1956.
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