~ from the Musical Smart Set "Perry Como Sings Merry Christmas
Music"
With Russ Case and His
Orchestra and The Satisfiers
O
Little Town of Bethlehem
~
DROPPED IN 1947
Words and Music by Phillips Brooks and
Lewis H. Redner
~ from the Musical Smart Set "Perry Como Sings Merry Christmas
Music"
With Organ and Choir
conducted by Russ Case
RCA
CAMDEN CCD-660 BMG MUSIC 1987
BMG SPECIAL MUSIC
CAD1-660 1992
PAIR RECORDS 660
Original
Issue 1961 Camden LP Compilation released as CAL-660
The
first 8 tracks were recorded between May 5th and June 22nd, 1953, and
first released in the RCA Victor 10" LP "Around The Christmas
Tree" LPM-3133 excluding one track recorded during these sessions,
"I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", which was released as a
single on the flip side of "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer".
This album was produced by Henri René with Mitchell Ayres' Orchestra and
Chorus ( the Chorus was probably conducted by Ray Charles and may have
included what came to be known as The Ray Charles Singers ). Recordings
were made at RCA Victor Studio 2 and the Manhattan Center, New York City.
All of the
recordings from 1946 were included within the original 78 rpm RCA Victor
Musical Smart Set also titled "Perry Como Sings Merry Christmas
Music". Perry recorded these songs with Russ Case and His Orchestra
and The Satisfiers on "Winter Wonderland" and "Santa Clause
Is Comin' To Town". In 1947 he recorded "White Christmas"
with Lloyd Shafer's Orchestra and this song replaced "O Little Town
of Bethlehem" in future album compilations. This set was released in
various formats including the 1951 10" RCA Victor LP LPM-3023
with the same title.
Recordings
were made at RCA Victor Studio 2, New York City.
The 1956 12" LP
"Perry
Como Sings Merry Christmas Music" combined both the 1951 and 1953
10" LP releases within one compilation but still excluded the track
"O Little Town of Bethlehem" which had been dropped in 1947. In
1961 this album was re-released on the RCA Camden label and dropped one
additional track, "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town". The 1987
compact disc release was a duplication of the RCA Camden re-issue. Perry's
1953 recording of "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" was never
released in any other format than the original single.
Album
notes for the original compilation were by Robert Prestegaard but these
were excluded from the compact disc release.
LPM-3023
1951 10" LP Included 1946
& 1947 tracks excluding "O Little Town of Bethlehem"
LPM-3133
1953 10" LP "AROUND THE CHRISTMAS TREE"
Included first 8 tracks
LPM-1243
1956 12" LP Included all tracks excluding "O Little Town of
Bethlehem"
CAL-660(e)
1961 12" LP Deleted
2 Tracks as Listed
WARNING: The RCA Camden
Label was established in 1957 as a value-for-money "budget"
compilation release. The label was purposely designed for sale at very low
"affordable" prices. While it was claimed that the quality of these
releases were not being compromised, the facts clearly show this not to be
the case. Common sense clearly suggests that it's impossible ( pardon the
pun ) to maintain the same engineering standards for a budget release
label such as RCA Camden as compared with the premium RCA Victor label. In
1957 this may have been reasonably possible but with the advent of stereo
recordings, and higher technical standards, this claim became increasingly
difficult to maintain. By 1960 the number of tracks contained within the
average Camden album was reduced from 12 to 10 and for stereo Camden
releases it wasn't uncommon for some tracks to be reprocessed from
monaural masters to simulate stereo. In general, Camden releases are
remastered from second generation sources and that continues to be the
case even today within compact disc compilations. While some RCA Camden
compilations can be very good, as were a number of Perry's original Camden
albums, it is an unusual occurrence.
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