We left "Jingle Bells" in the hands of Lawrence Welk, so now we jump ahead to 1967 with Pete Fountain, the great jazz clarinetist who had worked with Welk in the late 1950s.
Pete included "Jingle Bells" as part of a medley with "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town," its oft featured flipside from the 78 rpm era, on his "Candy Clarinet" album:
That's pretty cool!
Here's the title track from the LP:
That's the only recording of that song I'm aware of and I always enjoy a unique vintage song!
As I mentioned, Pete Fountain worked with Lawrence Welk on his TV show in the 1950s, giving some gravitas to the musical content. Here's a clip of Pete performing "Jingle Bells" with trumpeter Warren Luening from December 24, 1958:
Fun to see Pete's family!
Pete Fountain had a long career before, during and after his stint with Lawrence Welk and even dented the pop charts a couple of times, such as with his 1959 recording of the traditional gospel song "A Closer Walk" on Coral Records:
Very good!
And also this 1962 take on the Sy Oliver penned Tommy Dorsey hit "Yes Indeed":
Some good stuff with always masterful clarinet work!
Pete Fountain was from New Orleans, as was his buddy, trumpeter Al Hirt.
Al Hirt recorded his own Christmas album, "The Sound of Christmas" for RCA Victor in 1965 and included this version of "Jingle Bells":
Not completely nutty, but pretty nutty with Al singing a bit!
What does intro sound like? "Viva Las Vegas" maybe?
For the flipside of the 45 single release, Al went old school with "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town":
Those are fun!
Perhaps my favorite Christmas track of Al's is his version of "Hooray for Santa Claus," the theme from the infamous movie "Santa Claus conquers the Martians" from 1964:
That song was co-written by Milton De Lugg, who was the bandleader on "The Gong Show" when I was a kid, but like Frank De Vol was very talented as a conductor/arranger/composer.
Always astounding to me was how Al Hirt could pump so many notes into his playing but still keep the tune. This made him ideal to record the "Flight of the Bumblebee" inspired theme for "The Green Hornet" TV show in 1966:
How can you go wrong with Billy May backing Al Hirt?
And, hey, let's listen to Al's great 1964 hit "Java" one more time:
He was the King, indeed!
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