Still thinking Western music, my thoughts rolled around to the Prairie Ramblers, who included an interesting take on "Jingle Bells" in their recording of "Cowboy Santa Claus" for the Standard Transcription Library in (I think) 1946:
You'll notice that the chorus of that song and the instrumental break are actually the melody of "Jingle Bells," which is pretty neat!
They also cut another Christmas song on the same disk, "Christmas Chimes," which sounds more like it would be a takeoff on "Jingle Bells," but is not:
Those are fun couple of tracks that I think were only recorded as transcriptions, meaning they were available for radio play by subscribers, but not for retail purchase as regular records by regular consumers.
This would be late in the history of the Prairie Ramblers, as the group broke up in 1947 after having formed in the early 1930s.
The group really caught on when they joined forces with singer/songwriter Patsy Montana, whose 1935 song "I Wanna Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" took the country music world by storm. Here's the original recording:
Still sounds great!
Patsy went on to a successful solo career while the boys continued to enjoy success on their own.
Here's a 1941 recording:
Closer to the time of the transcription recording, here are both sides of a single for the new Mercury Records from 1945:
Dig that early Mercury label!
Those sides show the bands versatility as well as their keeping up with the times!
The group also backed smooth-voiced singing cowboy Rex Allen, including on this 1946 release:
So, a decade or so of solid work by the Prairie Ramblers!
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