We left "Jingle Bells" with a wacky stereo arrangement from the Three Suns in 1959, so we hang around that year with a couple of instrumentals recorded for the new Warner Bros. label!
First up is this cut from the "Ira Ironstrings Plays Santa Claus" album:
That's really fun! Obviously tongue in cheek, but solidly played!
As might be imagined, Ira Ironstrings is a pseudonym and the artist in question is actually Alvino Rey, the popular steel guitar playing bandleader, moonlighting on banjo!
We last heard him with "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" on the flipside of Glenn Miller's 1941 record of "Jingle Bells," so let's listen to "Ira's" version of that tune:
I really dig the arrangements on late 1950s recordings where they have fun with the new-fangled stereo technology!
More mellow than Mr. Ironstrings was the studio group Guitars, Inc. who cut this version of "Jingle Bells" for the "Guitars at Christmas" album:
That's really solid playing by Al Hendrickson, Howard Roberts, Bobby Gibbons, Tommy Tedesco and Bill Pitman, all top Hollywood studio musicians.
 |
| Tommy Tedesco in the studio. |
You know they laid down a version of "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" as well, so let's check that out:
Some good stuff from Warner Bros. for the stereo buffs of 1959!
No comments:
Post a Comment