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Have A Holly Jolly Christmas
''Have a Holly Jolly Christmas'' is a Christmas album by American folk singer Burl Ives, first released by Decca Records in October 1965 (recorded in November 1964). It peaked at #32 on '' Billboards Best Bets For Christmas album chart on December 2, 1967. Ives had recorded two of the songs on the album ("A Holly Jolly Christmas" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer") previously for the ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'' soundtrack, but he recorded new versions for ''Have a Holly Jolly Christmas''. "A Holly Jolly Christmas" in particular had a significantly different and slower arrangement, which is more commonly heard today. This version had already been released as a single the previous year, with a B-side of "Snow for Johnny", which he also featured on the album.Decca Records #31695, A-side of "A Holly Jolly Christmas", with a B-side of "Snow for Johnny" Track listing Personnel *Burl Ives Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995) was an American musicia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burl Ives
Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995) was an American musician, actor, and author with a career that spanned more than six decades. Ives began his career as an itinerant singer and guitarist, eventually launching his own radio show, ''The Wayfaring Stranger'', which popularized traditional folk songs. In 1942, he appeared in Irving Berlin's ''This Is the Army'' and became a major star of CBS Radio. In the 1960s, he successfully crossed over into country music, recording hits such as "A Little Bitty Tear" and "Funny Way of Laughin'". Ives was also a popular film actor through the late 1940s and '50s. His film roles included parts in ''So Dear to My Heart'' (1948) and ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' (1958), as well as the role of Rufus Hannassey in ''The Big Country'' (1958), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Ives is often associated with the Christmas season. He did voice-over work as Sam the Snowman, narrator of the classic 1964 Christma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roy C
Roy Charles Hammond (August 3, 1939 – September 16, 2020), better known as Roy C or Roy "C", was an American southern soul singer, songwriter and record executive, best known for his 1965 hit, "Shotgun Wedding". Another song, " Impeach the President", which he recorded and produced with a high school group, the Honey Drippers, has had one of the most sampled drum tracks in hip hop music. Life and career Roy Hammond was born in Newington, Georgia. He began singing tenor with The Genies, a vocal group in Long Beach, Long Island, who were later offered a recording contract by record producer Bob Shad. Their first single, "Who's That Knockin'", reached number 72 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in 1958, with Claude Johnson—later of the duo Don and Juan—on lead vocal. The group then moved to Atlantic Records, with Hammond taking over as lead singer, but their recordings were not released, and he was drafted into the Air Force. Solo career and record labels When he returned ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ray Evans
Raymond Bernard Evans (February 4, 1915 – February 15, 2007) was an American songwriter. He was a partner in a composing and song-writing duo with Jay Livingston, known for the songs they composed for films. Evans wrote the lyrics and Livingston wrote the music.Ray Evans papers, 1921-2012 Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania. Biography Evans was born to a ish family in , to Philip and Frances Lipsitz Evans. He was valedictorian of ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jay Livingston
Jay Livingston (born Jacob Harold Levison, March 28, 1915 – October 17, 2001) was an American composer best known as half of a song-writing duo with Ray Evans that specialized in songs composed for films. Livingston wrote music and Evans the lyrics. Early life and career Livingston was born in McDonald, Pennsylvania to Jewish parents. He had an older sister, Vera, and a younger brother, Alan W. Livingston, who became an executive with Capitol Records, and later with NBC television. Livingston studied piano with Harry Archer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he organized a dance band and met Evans, a fellow student in the band. Their professional collaboration began in 1937. Livingston and Evans won the Academy Award for Best Original Song three times, in 1948 for the song "Buttons and Bows", written for the movie '' The Paleface''; in 1950 for the song "Mona Lisa", written for the movie '' Captain Carey, U.S.A.''; and in 1956 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Bernhard Smith
Richard Bernhard Smith (September 29, 1901 – September 29, 1935) was an American composer who wrote the lyrics to the popular Christmas song "Winter Wonderland", which was composed by Felix Bernard. Smith was born on September 29, 1901, in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, the son of Eliza (Brunig) and John H. Smith, a partner with a glass manufacturing plant. His family was Episcopalian. He graduated Honesdale School in 1920 and attended Pennsylvania State College. Smith married Jean Connor, of Scranton, on March 30, 1930. He was diagnosed with tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ... in 1931. He succumbed to the disease on September 29, 1935, his thirty-fourth birthday, in Carbondale, Pennsylvania. He was buried in Dyberry Cemetery, Honesdale, Pennsylvania. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Felix Bernard
Felix William Bernard (April 28, 1897 – October 20, 1944) was an American conductor, pianist and a composer of popular music. His writing credits include the popular songs "Winter Wonderland" (with lyricist Richard B. Smith) and "Dardanella". Biography Felix Bernard (Bernhardt) was born to a Jewish family in New York City on April 28, 1897, and died in Los Angeles, California, on October 20, 1944. A professional pianist from childhood, his early musical studies were with his father, and his formal musical education was from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and CR. Bernard wrote professional one-act musical comedies for vaudeville, and he toured throughout the United States with the Orpheum and Keith Vaudeville Circuit, and also abroad. Bernard worked as a pianist for dance orchestras and music publishers before forming his own band. His also had his own radio show which he produced. Best known as a composer, Bernard found success writing musical material for artists such as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Winter Wonderland
"Winter Wonderland" is a song written in 1934 by Felix Bernard and lyricist Richard Bernhard Smith. Due to its seasonal theme, it is often regarded as a Christmas song in the Northern Hemisphere. Since its original recording by Richard Himber, it has been covered by over 200 different artists. The song's lyrics were about a couple's romance during the winter season. A later version of "Winter Wonderland" (which was printed in 1947) included a "new children's lyric" that transformed it "from a romantic winter interlude to a seasonal song about playing in the snow." The snowman mentioned in the song's bridge was changed from a minister to a circus clown, and the promises the couple made in the final verse were replaced with lyrics about frolicking. Singers like Johnny Mathis connected both versions of the song, giving "Winter Wonderland" an additional verse and an additional chorus.Lankford, pp. 110-111 History Smith, a native of Honesdale, Pennsylvania, was reportedly inspire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (song)
"Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" is a song by songwriter Johnny Marks based on the 1939 story ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'' published by the Montgomery Ward Company. Gene Autry's recording hit No. 1 on the U.S. charts the week of Christmas 1949. History In 1939, Marks' brother-in-law, Robert L. May, created the character Rudolph as an assignment for Montgomery Ward, and Marks decided to adapt the story of Rudolph into a song. English singer-songwriter and entertainer Ian Whitcomb interviewed Marks on the creation of the song in 1972. The song had an added introduction, paraphrasing the poem " A Visit from Saint Nicholas" (public domain by the time the song was written), stating the names of the eight reindeer, which went: "You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen, But do you recall The most famous reindeer of all?" The song was first introduced live on New York Radio (WOR) by crooner Harry Brannon in November 1949. Gene A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Simeone
Harry Moses Simeone (May 9, 1910 – February 22, 2005) was an American music arranger, conductor and composer who popularized the Christmas song "The Little Drummer Boy", for which he received co-writing credit. Early years Simeone was born in Newark, New Jersey, United States. He grew up listening to stars performing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, not far from his native Newark. Initiated and inspired by this childhood passion, he sought a career as a concert pianist. To this end, he enrolled in the Juilliard School of Music, which he attended for three years, but when he was offered work at CBS as an arranger for bandleader Fred Waring, he dropped out of Juilliard to accept it. Initial prominence After garnering vocal and music arrangement credits for the 1938 RKO motion picture ''Radio City Revels,'' Simeone relocated to Hollywood with his wife, Margaret McCravy Simeone, who briefly sang with Benny Goodman's orchestra, using the stage name Margaret McCrae, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Katherine Kennicott Davis
Katherine Kennicott Davis (June 25, 1892 – April 20, 1980) was an American composer, pianist, arranger, and teacher, whose most well-known composition is the Christmas song "Carol of the Drum," later known as " The Little Drummer Boy". Life and career Davis was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, on June 25, 1892. She composed her first piece of music, "Shadow March," at the age of 15. She graduated from St. Joseph High School in 1910, and studied music at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. In 1914 she won the college's Billings Prize. After graduation she continued at Wellesley as an assistant in the Music Department, teaching music theory and piano. At the same time she studied at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Davis also studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. She taught music at the Concord Academy in Concord, Massachusetts, and at the Shady Hill School for Girls in Philadelphia. She became a member of ASCAP in 1941. and was granted an honorary doctorate fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Little Drummer Boy
"The Little Drummer Boy" (originally known as "Carol of the Drum") is a popular Christmas song written by American composer Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941. First recorded in 1951 by the Trapp Family, the song was further popularized by a 1958 recording by the Harry Simeone Chorale; the Simeone version was re-released successfully for several years, and the song has been recorded many times since. In the lyrics, the singer relates how, as a poor young boy, he was summoned by the Magi to the Nativity of Jesus. Without a gift for the Infant, the little drummer boy played his drum with approval from Jesus's mother, Mary, recalling, "I played my best for him" and "He smiled at me". Origins and history The song was originally titled "Carol of the Drum". While speculation has been made that the song is very loosely based on the Czech carol "Hajej, nynjej", the chair of the music department at Davis's alma mater Wellesley College claims otherwise. In an interview with Music Depart ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
