Christmas Countdown - Day 4 - "The Santa Claus Express" (1935)

Still in 1935, we continue to Deck the Hall(s) as we move from George Hall to Henry Hall with Day 4 of our Christmas Countdown!

So, here's Henry Hall directing the BBC Orchestra with "The Santa Claus Express" on Columbia Records:

Love the train effects!

This recording sounds very British, except don't they call him Father Christmas?

Christmas Countdown - Day 3 - "Santa, Bring My Mommy Back to Me" (1935)

Day 3 of our Countdown to Christmas features another song lost to time: "Santa, Bring My Mommy Back to Me" from 1935!

Here's George Hall and his Hotel Taft Orchestra with star vocalist Dolly Dawn on Bluebird:

Per the (lovely) sheet music, it's actually Daddy that the singer wants back, but with billing as shown in the photo, Dolly can sing whatever she wants!

Speaking of George Hall, it seems to me he recorded another Santa themed song the year before:

Whatever became of that song?

Christmas Countdown - Day 2 - "I'll Keep Warm All Winter (With My Sunny Summer Love)" (1934)

For Day 2 of our countdown to Christmas, we have a snappy seasonal song: "I'll Keep Warm All Winter (With My Sunny Summer Love)" from 1934!

Here's Smith Ballew and his Orchestra with a budget label recording:

Smith's been popping up a lot, but I like his singing!

For another version of the song, here's Ted Weems on Columbia:

Always love to hear Red Ingle with the vocal, whether it's with Ted Weems, Spike Jones or his own Natural Seven!

If we flip over the Ted Weems record, there's another new seasonal song from 1934:

What became of that song anyway?

Christmas Countdown - Day 1 - "Under the Mistletoe" (1932)

Happy First Day of December!

Now that we're here, let's start our Christmas Countdown!

We have Christmas/Holiday/Winter songs from the 1930s in more-or-less chronological order each day until the big day!

First up is Lou Gold and his Orchestra with "Under the Mistletoe" from 1932:

The arrangement and vocal by Buddy Lane are not forward leaning by 1932 standards, but plenty of period charm!

And always good to hear obscure holiday songs!

"The Music Goes 'Round and Around" (1936)

On the subject of Betty Boop, let's hear another one of the songs that Betty's cartoon mouthpiece, Mae Questel, cut for Decca Records!

This time it's not a Shirley Temple movie song, but the current (1936) song sensation "The Music Goes 'Round and Around!"

Here's Mae with wacky extra verses and all:

That's a blast as expected, but the intriguing thing is that the backing is by Red Norvo's band!

Love that xylophone!

"Betty Boop" (1932)

We just heard the theme song of Popeye the Sailor, so let's back up a couple of years to 1932 where we run into another star from the Max Fleischer cartoon studio - Betty Boop!

Popeye's screen debut in 1933 was actually in a cartoon entitled "Popeye the Sailor" from the Betty Boop series. Kind of like a backdoor pilot!

Betty's theme gets a snappy treatment from Phil Spitalny (in the days before he lead his all-girl orchestra) on this cut from a Hit of the Week record:

Lots of fun with the Eton Boys on the vocals!

Kind of a follow-up to the earlier HotW record of another Betty (Co-Ed) from the Spitalny boys!

I had mentioned Hit of the Week records before, how you got two songs on one side of a Durium disc for 15¢ in an attempt to stimulate records sales during those dark days of the Depression.

I would never want to shortchange anyone, so let's hear the other cut from that record, "Lullaby of the Leaves" again from Mr. Spitalny, this time with vocalist Ben Alley:

I know 15¢ was a lot of money in 1932, but I think I would've been satisfied, especially if Arthur Murray really supervised the tempo!

"I'm Popeye the Sailor Man" (1934)

Since we’re talking about Popeye in 1934, let’s hear this commercial recording of his theme song from his Paramount cartoons by his voice at the time, Billy Costello:

 

That’s a lot of fun!