1963 marked the third year that Goodyear (and Columbia Records Special Products division) released a new volume of their “Great Songs of Christmas” premium record series. For the 1963 holiday season, Goodyear increased the number of records produced to nearly 2 million since the entire supply of Volumes 1 and 2 had sold out weeks before Christmas in 1961 and 1962 respectively. As with the two prior releases, before mid December, Goodyear sold every “Great Songs of Christmas” Volume 3 record produced.
As with Goodyear’s “Great Songs of Christmas” volumes 1 and 2, the third album was released only in monoaural format.
From the back of the album jacket, read about each release included in the Goodyear “Great Songs of Christmas” Volume 3 holiday record.
“Once again we celebrate the joy, festivity, and reverence of Christmas with great performances of the most-loved music of the season.
The moving melody of O Little Town of Bethlehem is at its lovliest, enriched by the world-famed, glorious sound of The Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Eugene Ormandy.
Like most Christmas music whose origins are known, this carol has a story. A young Philadelphia rector made the trip from Jerusalem to Bethlehem on horseback shortly before Christmas 1865. He later recorded his feelings on approaching Bethlehem in a poem for his Sunday school class. The children urged the school organist to set the poem to music, but it wasn’t until Christmas Eve that the melody came to him, and this beloved carol was created.
In contrast to the full sound of The Philadelphia Orchestra, Julie Andrews sings the serene Silent Night simply — with the distinctive sweetness and feeling that made her America’s “Fair Lady.”
The story of this carol is as touching as the melody. It was written in desperate haste by a poor young assistant pastor and his organist for two solo voices, chorus, and guitar, when the church organ broke down and could not be fixed in time for Christmas.
The 375-voice Mormon Tabernacle Choir is one of the world’s great choral groups, and among the oldest and largest. Millions enjoy their music in Salt Lake City, on radio, through their international concert tours and recordings. Their first selection is O Come All Ye Faithful.
The origins of this lovely hymn are not known. Manuscripts dating back to the 1740s have been found in England and Ireland, but the hymn also enjoyed early popularity in France. Whatever its origin, it is one of the greatest carols ever written.
In a gay, sprightly change of pace, Percy Faith has distinctively arranged two of the happy, festive carols. I Saw Three Ships is merry and English and more than five hundred years old. It tells of the sailing of three ships, bearing Mary and the Christ Child, to Bethlehem on Christmas Day in the morning.
Here We Go A-Caroling, or We Come A’Wassailing, also is a very old English air. It dates back to the time when revelers went around offering drinks from the Wassail bowl in exchange for gifts. This age-old Christmas tradition continues today — but carols are offered instead of the Wassail bowl.
It Came Upon the Midnight Clear is a comparatively new carol, and one of the few which originated in America. The words were published in 1850. The original music seldom is heard; the melody which is familiar to most of us was composed by Richard Willis after reading the poem in a reprint.
Away In A Manger also is known as Luther’s Cradle Hymn, and is believed by many to have been written by Martin Luther for his children.
These two traditional carols are sung by Mitch Miller and his group, whose joyful music-making has induced a nation of viewers to “sing along.”
The final selection on the first side, Schubert’s Ave Maria, is performed movingly and with the virtuosity only Isaac Stern — considered by many the world’s greatest violinst — can give it. The Ave Maria is one of the most deeply stirring melodies ever written, and has a devotional quality which touches every listener.
The unique voice personality which has catapulted Robert Goulet to stardom never has been used more effectively than in his performance of the deeply religious, solemnly melodious Panis Angelicus.
This hymn is not in the most literal sense Christmas music; but like the Lord’s Prayer and the Ave Maria, it is part of the beauty and reverence of the Christmas season.
Next, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings again — the jubilant Joy to the World. The words date back to 1719, and are based on the Ninety-eighth Psalm of the Psalms of David. The melody, drawn from Handel’s Messiah, was not added until much later — in 1830 — by Boston scholar Lowell Mason.
O Tannenbaum celebrates one of the earliest and most enduring symbols of Christmas — the fir tree. Percy Faith’s arrangement of this rollicking German carol is merry and gay, and pure delight.
Along with the best-known carols, many of us treasure a few less familiar, but equally beautiful melodies.
One such carol is Snow in the Street. It has an old folk quality about it, but almost nothing is known of its origins. The hauntingly beautiful melody and lyrics stand well on their own, however.
Another deeply moving, beautiful carol which will be a delightful discovery to many is Joseph Dearest, Joseph Mine. Also known as The Song of the Crib, this carol traces back to a German manuscript, placed about 1500, part of a religious mystery play.
These old folk selections are sung, appropriately enough, by the New Christy Minstrels — among the most talented and most popular of the “folk sing” performers.
Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic have perhaps done more than anyone to increase listeners’ understanding a pleasure in classical music. They play the spirited, Christmas-cheerful Carol of the Bells. This is an old Ukrainian folk melody which imitates the vivid joyful sound of church bells ringing at Christmastime.
The Norman Luboff Choir skillfully uses voices as musical instruments. First they sing the jubilant Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. The words for this carol were written in 1739 by Charles Wesley, brother of the founder of the Methodist Church. A hundred years later, Felix Mendelssohn wrote the melody — not as a carol, but as a cantata, celebrating the invention of printing! Fifteen years later, an English organist, Dr. W.H. Cummings, combined the two to create one of the season’s most-loved carols.
The second Luboff selection, A la Nanita Nana, combines the qualities of a lullaby and a hymn. This carol is typical of some Spanish folk songs which change mid-way from a minor key to a major key. It is sung in Spanish because the most careful translation would lose the feeling and euphoniousness of the original.
Andre Previn is a versatile, many-talented musician — equally at home performing or arranging, with classics or jazz. Here he has taken two old melodies — The Holly and the Ivy and We Wish You a Merry Christmas — and blended and entwined them into a delightful musical Christmas card.
We Three Kings of Orient Are, sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, was written in the ancient musical style of old carols — but is fairly recent. John Henry Hopkins, son of the second bishop of Vermont and himself a noted clergyman, wrote it in 1857. Though he was an accomplished musician and poet, little of his work — other that this charming carol — remains.
The New Christy Minstrels end this Yuletide greeting with the gala Wassail, Wassail All Over the Town. This is an old folk song and is another of those once sung by merrymakers dressed in garlands and ribands and carrying a huge wassail bowl.
We echo this carol’s final words, “Here’s health to you all, may your fortunes abound…We wish you good cheer, to all Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!”
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| Goodyear “Great Songs of Christmas” Volume 3 |
View the 1963 television commercial for Goodyear’s “Great Songs of Christmas” Volume 3.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTtdcAyNdDE&feature=related
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