1940s Christmas Playlist Housekeeping - Part 1!

                                               

Since I posted my 1940s Christmas Playlist last December, I've come across a couple of tidbits to add to some of the songs. So, it's a bit of housekeeping, if you will.

First up is "Merry Christmas Polka" from 1949.

Among the versions I included was Lawrence Welk's from a 1955 Mercury Records release and I wondered why the label indicated that it was an instrumental when it very clearly contains a vocal.

Well, some further research indicates that was a reissue of a recording from 1949 when the song was published:

And if we look at that label, it credits the vocal to Bob "Tex" Cromer, so that mystery solved!

The other mystery that's still unsolved is why the reissue label says it's an instrumental. I can understand if they didn't want to credit Mr. Cromer, as he was apparently no longer with the band, but still...

I do feel like I should have known that the Welk recording was originally from 1949, but I'll blame it on the 1949 label spelling the song as "Merry Xmas Polka!"

It's odd as well that the original label does not show the songwriting credits, whereas the reissue did.

In any event, Bob "Tex" sang with Lawrence Welk for a couple of years and among the songs he recorded was a cover of the big Tex Williams hit "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke (That Cigarette)" on Decca Records in 1947:

Good thing his nickname was Tex so they didn't have to change the lyric!

That's actually not a bad version of the song, but nobody was as good as Tex Williams at the talking blues. (We had heard Tex's original and a square dance version by Fenton "Jonesy" jones here.)

Another label oddity is the Lawrence Welk record credits Tex Williams's co-writer as "Lee Travis" when it was actually the great singer/songwriter/guitarist Merle Travis! What's up with Lawrence Welk and wacky labels?

Tex Williams had sung with Spade Cooley's western swing ban before organizing his own group, and to show that what goes around really does come around, after Tex Cromer left Lawrence Welk, he cut a couple of records with Spade Cooley!

Here he is on RCA Victor in 1950:

That's pretty fun! Even gets a little square dance in there!

So, good job, Bob "Tex" Cromer!