"Jingle Bells" - Part 76 - Mr. C!

We just heard Perry Como with "The Christmas Symphony," which leads to the obvious question of whether Perry ever recorded "Jingle Bells." The answer is of course he did!

Here's his 1946 recording issued on RCA Victor as part of the "Perry Como Sings Merry Christmas Music" album of 78s:

Nice version with solid backing from Russ Case!

That particular album yielded a separate single release with the new song "That Christmas Feeling" on the A-side:

The flipside is a swinging take on a by-then familiar standard:

Both of those sides have been mainstays on my 1940s Christmas playlist for years!

Another one of those retro-type things I feel smart about "getting" is that the backup vocal group was named the Satisfiers because they appeared with Perry on "The Chesterfield Supper Club" and, as we know, Chesterfields satisfy!

Perry Como recorded a lot of other Christmas songs and he also re-recorded some when stereo rolled around, but I think he only recorded "Jingle Bells" the one time.

But, RCA Victor got a lot of mileage out of it!

Perry released a Christmas EP in 1953 titled "Around the Christmas Tree":

The EP's leadoff track was a recitation of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas":

There was also another EP in 1953 with the title "Christmas Joy":

This included a version of "Frosty the Snowman":

The EPs featured backing from Mitchell Ayres, another frequent Como collaborator.

Seven of the songs from the original 78 rpm album were joined with the eight from the two EPs for the 1956 LP release retaining the 78 album title of "Perry Como Sings Merry Christmas Music":

Then RCA re-released that album with a new cover on their budget Camden label in 1961:

My family had that one (I still have it) and we played it a lot during the holiday season!

Another RCA imprint was the Bluebird label, which had been a lower-priced, but high-quality label in the 1930s and 1940s, but was later used for kiddie records in the 1950s.

RCA went old school and paired Perry's recording of "Jingle Bells" with his 1946 recording of "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" (which didn't make it onto the LP) for a 1957 release:

Here's "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town":

More solid backing from Russ Case and the Satisfiers!

I think those two songs were first teamed up on as the B-side of a 1953 EP that had "The First Christmas" as the A-side:

That recording had been issued in  as a two-sided 78 rpm record in 1950:

Here it is:

The year 1957 also saw this Australian release with a fun ornament packaging reminiscent of the earlier EPs:

It had "The Night Before Christmas" on one side, with "Jingle Bells" and "Frosty the Snowman" on the other.

Then from 1958 is this Italian release that put 1946's "White Christmas" with "Jingle Bells" inside the wacky sleeve:

Here's "White Christmas":

That features backing by Lloyd Shaffer and was the only track from the original 78 album not to feature Russ Case.

All of this just scratches the surface of Perry Como's holiday recordings, as he had many other singles and albums.

He looms very large in the Christmas music world!