Car Boot Christmas Countdown - Day 10

It's Christmas Eve and the final day of the Car Boot Christmas Countdown, and today I bring you two very different seasonal albums.  The first is quite possibly the greatest ever recorded - Phil Spector's Christmas Album:

Phil Spector's Christmas Album (1963, this version 1983)

I've cheated a little here in that it wasn't a find from this year, but I see it all the time at boot sales and chazzas and couldn't bear to leave it out of the first ever Countdown. Originally released in 1963 as A Christmas Gift For You from Philles Records, the album has had several other different covers and titles:

Original cover and title is top right.

Featuring four acts from the Spector stable (Darlene Love, The Ronettes, Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans and The Crystals), Phil applies his Wall Of Sound to a baker's dozen of Christmas tunes, resulting in two sides of glorious R&B-infused festive girl group pop of the highest order.  Overlooked at the time due to being released on the same day JFK was assassinated, it's now an undeniable classic that sits at no.142 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time, and several tracks are Christmas radio staples.

It's an almost impossible task to pick out a favourite, but if pressed I'd have to choose the only original composition on the album; Darlene Love's magnificent (Christmas) Baby Please Come Home, which was in fact intended for Ronnie Spector, who apparently couldn't inject the amount of emotion required by her future hubby so it was passed to Darlene (I bet that went down well).  Even Bono couldn't ruin this song; U2's very good cover version is one of my favourites from the charity album A Very Special Christmas (1987), on which if you've listened to the cloudcast you'll know that Darlene herself sang backing vocals.

The final track Silent Night is Phil himself speaking over the music (and a little ooh-ing and ahh-ing from his artists), wishing us all a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year, and never sounding more like Kaa from The Jungle Book.

Tracklisting

Side1.
1. Darlene Love - White Christmas.
2. The Ronettes - Frosty The Snowman.
3. Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.
4. The Crystals - Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town.
5. The Ronettes - Sleigh Ride.
6. Darlene Love - (It's A) Marshmallow World.

Side 2.
1. The Ronettes - I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.
2. The Crystals - Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer.
3. Darlene Love - Winter Wonderland.
4. The Crystals -Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers.
5. Darlene Love - (Christmas) Baby Please Come Home.
6. Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans - Here Comes Santa Claus.
7. Phil Spector and Artists - Silent Night.



A quite different record cost me 50p; a budget label 70s release called Christmas Party Sing-Along:

The Music Makers - Christmas Party Sing-Along:
20 All Time Favourites (1973)

This collection of carols and Christmas songs in an easy listening style was released on the Hallmark subsidiary of Pickwick Records and is by a group called The Musicmakers, most likely a bunch of session singers and musicians, since their name only appears in very small lettering on the rear sleeve.  It's pretty straightforward, fairly unexciting stuff, although they roped in quite a nifty drummer for Jingle Bells.

The sleevenotes urge us to "get together Mum and Dad, Grandma, Grandad, the kids and neighbours and sing your hearts out to such all-time Christmas favourites as "White Christmas", "Rudolf" (you know who!), "Silent Night" and "Good King Wenceslas".

On listening, I imagine the singers as a clean-cut set of guy 'n' gals crowded round a couple of mics, wearing bright jumpers and scarves, Santa hats and cheesy grins, cheerily belting out these rather bland, generic covers before rushing off to Studio B to add their parts to the next Top Of The Pops album.

The songs are edited very close together, but there are no lovely segues between them, so each one begins and ends very abruptly, which is rather jarring.  Alright for a bit of background music then, or perhaps a singalong as intended, but not something you'd want to listen to that much.

Since its initial vinyl release in 1973, the album has come out on CD and download in various guises, this time crediting the group as The Mistletoe Singers:

From some of the online reviews it seems that these reissues are in fact poor quality vinyl rips, complete with crackle, pops and skip - not necessarily a bad thing in my opinion!

Anyway, you can judge for yourselves here:



Sadly, none of the tracks from this album made it on to the Car Boot Christmas 2014 Cloudcast, but it does feature one from the Phil Spector record.  Stream it here, or click the link to go to Mixcloud:

Car Boot Christmas 2014 by Car Boot Vinyl Diaries on Mixcloud

Well, that's the last of the Christmas posts.  If I get time over the holidays there'll be something special appearing on the blog for that weird period between Christmas and New Year, as long as I can manage a couple of hours of relative sobriety.  Thanks for joining me - whatever you're up to, have a very peaceful and happy Christmas!

Mini xxx 

Cloudcast Episode 8

Episode 8 of the Car Boot Vinyl Diaries Cloudcast is now online featuring all kinds of tunes sourced from boot sale records in various states of crackliness.  And a Flumps reference.

Car Boot Vinyl Diaries Episode 8 by Car Boot Vinyl Diaries on Mixcloud

I really hope you enjoy listening.

Golden Years part 4

I've picked up quite a few compilations over the past few weeks.  Some of them are multi-artist albums, which I'll cover in a future post, but I'll run through the single-artist ones here.

Firstly, in a 3-for-£1, singles collections from the King & Queen of country; Kenny and Dolly:

Both Sides of Dolly Parton (1978) & The Kenny Rogers Singles Album (1978)

Both released in the UK in 1978, this pair of compilations by past Glasto tea-timers really hit the spot with their melodic country-pop taking in tales of cheatin', beatin' and hard times.

For £1 was this greatest hits from the wonderful Gladys Knight & the Pips:

Gladys Knight & the Pips - Super Hits (1974)

The 15-strong album compiles hits such as I Heard It Through the Grapevine, Friendship Train and their beautiful cover of Kris Kristofferson's Help Me Make It Through the Night; the second most successful version of this much-recorded song after that by country singer Sammi Smith.

Next up, for £3, not strictly belonging in the single-artist category but essentially the work of one man, Phil Spector's Echoes of the 60s:

Phil Spector - Echoes of the 60s (1977)

Apart from his Christmas album and the odd track here and there, my record collection was severely lacking some Phil, so I was delighted to find this album of wall-to-wall Wall of Sound brilliance a few weeks ago.  It's got everything you'd expect to find; Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans, The Ronettes, Darlene Love and loads of Crystals.  It opens with the magnificent River Deep, Mountain High from Ike & Tina Turner; an exhilarating start with a quality that doesn't dip before the end of side 2.

From the same boot sale, costing £1.50, was another collection of the highest quality; this time from good old Motown:

Jimmy Ruffin - Greatest Hits (1974)

Big brother to David, Jimmy broke through in 1966 with the first song on this compilation; What Becomes of the Brokenhearted.  This was to remain his biggest hit although there are no clunkers among the 18 songs included.  David appears on final track Stand By Me:




Arizona-born Linda Ronstadt was one of the most popular and best-selling female artists of the 1970s, selling over 100 million records during her career.   After leaving the trio The Stone Poneys in 1968 to go solo, she has recorded in a variety of styles and is probably best-known for her interpretations of songs by other artists.  I picked up her 1976 Greatest Hits for £1:

Linda Ronstadt - Greatest Hits (1976)

It includes Different Drum from her days in the Stone Poneys, a cover of the Everly Brothers' When Will I Be Loved, and my favourite; her version of Neil Young's Love Is A Rose.

Another £1 find was this John Lennon compilation:

The John Lennon Collection (1982)

This was the first of Lennon's work to be released after his death in 1980, reaching no.1 here in the UK, making it the 10th best-selling LP of 1982.  Like Jimmy's album above, it too contains a cover of Stand By Me, taken from 1975's Rock 'n' Roll album.  This is the only cover, the rest being a good overview of his solo output beginning with the UK no. 2 single Give Peace A Chance up to 1980's Double Fantasy album, from which it pulls in six of the 17 tracks here.

Last but not least, again for £1, was Indiana Wants Me from R. Dean Taylor:

R. Dean Taylor - Indiana Wants Me (1973)

According to the sleevenotes, Canadian singer, songwriter and producer Richard Dean Taylor was the first white artist to have a hit on Tamla Motown.  In the UK this was Gotta See Jane, a tale of a man speeding back to the love he left, jumping red lights all the way, with pursuing police siren effects, which reached no. 17 in 1968.  The title track is similarly themed, as the protagonist, a man wanted for the murder of his girlfriend's lover, is hunted down by the Indiana police force, again with suitable sound effects.  This one reached the top spot both here and in the US in 1970.  My favourite song on the album is the Northern Soul tune There's A Ghost In My House, originally released to indifference in '67.  After becoming popular on the NS scene it was re-released in '74 and squeezed into the UK singles chart at no. 41.


Picked up any good compilations lately, crate-diggers?  Let us know in the comments below, or tweet me your pics @VinylCarBooty.

Instant Karma

Out for a walk during one of yesterday's downpours, I found a £20 note in a puddle.  My route took me past the local police station so I handed it in before having a quick look around the shops.

Maybe the karma police were watching, but as I walked past a charity shop that I'd not been in for a few weeks, I spotted this LP through the window:

Phil Spector's Christmas Album (1983)

I already own this fabulous album, having got it on eBay last Christmas, but it's in lovely condition so I'll hang on to it and maybe sell it on in December.

I found three other LPs that were keepers; the first was this sixties compilation:

Various Artists - Sixties Mix (1987)

60s comps were hugely popular in the 80s, and many, like this one were sequenced as non-stop party mixes i.e. all the tracks stitched together.  Luckily this one is mixed in a restrained fashion without any annoying Jive Bunny-esque effects!  It's a perfect album for dancing around the living room to on a rainy Sunday morning, which is exactly what I was doing earlier.

I also got Squeeze's singles collection; 45s & Under:

Squeeze - 45s & Under (1982)

Top tracks:  Squeeze – Up The Junction       Squeeze – Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)

                         Squeeze – Labelled With Love             Squeeze – Cool For Cats - Single Edit


It dawned on me when playing it that one of my favourite Squeeze songs isn't called 'Pulling Muscles For Michelle'.  Ah.

Lastly was a 1980 Gladys Knight LP, from the hugely successful K-Tel budget compilation company:

Gladys Knight & the Pips - The Touch Of Love (1980)

Top tracks:  Gladys Knight & The Pips – Midnight Train To Georgia

                       Gladys Knight & The Pips – Help Me Make It Through The Night - Single Version

                                 Gladys Knight & The Pips – The Look Of Love


Each album cost just £1 - not bad for a soggy Saturday, and it more than makes up for no car boot sale this weekend.  Hopefully I'll get back out there next Sunday, but the weather forecast for May ain't looking good.

On the bright side, if no-one claims the lost note within 28 days, I'm 20 quid up - hooray!

Christmas Wall Of Sound

This arrived via eBay yesterday just in time for the final run-up to Christmas - a snip at £4.06.  Originally released in 1963 and called "A Christmas Gift For You from Phil Spector", it was reissued with this different title and cover art 20 years later.

Phil Spector's Christmas Album (1983)

It features four of Phil's artists; The Ronettes, The Crystals, Darlene Love and Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans.  Spector's Wall of Sound is put to phenomenal effect on seasonal classics Frosty The Snowman, White Christmas, Sleigh Ride, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus and many others.  Some kind soul has put some of the tracks on youtube:

Fantastic!  The album ends with a spoken message from Phil himself over a rendition of Silent Night by all of the artists.  It really is an essential part of Christmas, so here's the Spotify link to the entire album:  Various – A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector

Merry Christmas all xxxx