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Stop in, look around, have a drink and crank some tunes. I'll be posting some songs ripped from records, some out of print and hard to find stuff, some songs by artists you should be listening to, and a few mixes here and there.
Check back tomorrow for the Check The Cool Wax Christmas Mix. Because there has been so many problems with servers and downloading files, I've whipped together a mix of the best songs I had to offer this year. Just finishing up the artwork.
Once again. I apologize for all the broken links to files. It seems some Grinch out there is having all of my files removed from different servers. They must be having fun because they are being taken down as soon as I can put them up...
One last mp3. I just had to post this one. It comes off of Al Hirt's Have A Merry Little. It's called Nutty Jingle Bells and it's great. Enjoy.
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Just getting a few quick ones in here right before the big day. Here are two tracks from The Jim Nabors' Christmas In Hawaii TV Special. He has some pipes on him. You just wouldn't know it from watching Gomer Pyle. The songs here are
Christmas All Over The World and
Doodle Eee Do.
GET THE FILES HERE
Ahhhh! Look out for the Godzilla-sized kid walking down the road! If this isn't from Japan, I apologize. That's my best guess. Don't even know the names of the performers. I can't help but chuckle when the singing kicks in. They start out like any Christmas song, then HUH? Here are seven cuts.
UPDATE: This is from Korea. I was wrong, wrong, wrong.
MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM KOREA
Here is my 2nd Caroleers post of the season. Actually labeled this time as The Caroleer Singers and Orchestra. This one is a bit more peppier and has all original songs. A real gem that deserves not to be overlooked. Here's the entire album.
THE CAROLEERS :: SLEIGHRIDE
Another Rankin/Bass post for ya'll. This time it's Frosty's Winter Wonderland. Definitely not as good as the original, but a nice little story nonetheless. Andy Griffith tells the story of how Frosty gets married. This one is growing on me. It's nice that they got the original voice for Frosty back.
RANKIN/BASS :: FROSTY'S WINTER WONDERLAND
Because there were a lot of requests, and to the best of my knowledge this CD is out-of-print, here is the complete album rip. This has quickly become one of my favorites this year. Give it a shot even if you aren't a fan of country music.
HANK SNOW :: CHRISTMAS WITH HANK SNOW
NORAD is still tracking Santa and has been for over 50 years.
Play this and they will leave... Here is Little Marcy with two very odd Christmas songs. They are
Christmas Is On It's Way and
Colored Christmas Lights.
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Combustible Edison (named after a drink) was my favorite bands from the resurgence of lounge about a decade ago. I was fortunate enough to see them once at the Uptown Bar in Minneapolis. I, Swinger is one of my favorite cds to this day. They worked a little with Esquivel before he died too. I caught them once on Conan O'Brien singing
Christmas Time Is Here. I searched all over for this and finally found it on a Sub Pop Sampler. I was excited to see they had two songs on this cd.
Christmas Time Is Here AND
Sleighride. Anyone know what these guys are up to these days?
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SERVER UPDATE - I'm not sure what I'm going to do about hosting my files. I do know that all non-Christmas files will be down until after the holidays. Sorry about that. For people who don't know, the high volume of Christmas music traffic crashed the server. I've since been hosting my files on one-click hosting sites like Rapidshare and FileHo! None of which work that great. I constantly read comments about these sites not working for visitors. I have a bunch more Christmas albums that I'd like to post, but this new system just sucks. If anyone has any ideas to help me get the files out smoother, please leave a comment.
Minnesota is a long way from Southern California. Christmas here is snowy and cold. When I listen to this song I imagine what it's like to celebrate Christmas in a sunney climate. I've always liked this song. It's by Redd Kross.
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Here are two songs from the Hanna Barbera Christmas Sing Along CD that is out-of-print. I'm pretty sure they were both from Yogi's First Christmas cartoon, but I could be wrong.
UPDATE: I was wrong. The song
Comin' Up Christmas Time was on Casper's First Christmas.
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One of my first Christmas memories is looking at this cover and listening to Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer. I listened to it over and over. It's still one of my Christmas favorites. Here are three songs off of Fred Warings gread record. I always wondered why this never made it to cd. I did find it on
cassette once...
UPDATE - I fixed Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The ending was clipped off but now it is fixed.
FRED WARING :: 'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
Yes, it's the record you see at almost every Goodwhill. This will sit nicely next to your downloads of previous novelty/Herb Alpert knock-offs (
Sour Cream &
Col. Sanders). Here is The Border Brass with 4 Mexican-fueled favorites.
THE BORDER BRASS :: TIJUANA CHRISTMAS
Here is one that was strictly bought for the cover. Turns out it's pretty good. The record isn't in the greatest condition though. Here is the latin piano sensation - Jose Melis.
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A great classic record with a great classic cover. Here are six tracks from Christmas With Hank Snow. Some great country Christmas music.
GET THE COMPLETE ALBUM HERE
Ever wonder why they change the cover of an album when they release it on cd? This Chet Atkins cover is just soooo cool and they felt like they had to change it to
this. I was almost going to post some songs from this album. It is on cd, but I've read many places that the mastering on the cd was wrong and the album sounds way better. At the last minute I decided not to. Don't want to post songs that appear on cd.
Two Christmas songs from an episode called Christmas Flintstone. If you want to see this cartoon, it's on Season 5 of the Flintstone box sets. These are from an out-of-print cd called Modern Stone Age Melodies.
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People who have visited here for a while know I'm a big Jerry Lewis fan. I know he isn't for everyone one. Love him or hate him, you just have to love this song if you love Christmas music. This is from an out of print Jerry Lewis cd called The Capitol Collector's Series.
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Here is a song from a record previously posted
here at Check The Cool Wax. It's called Beatnik's Wish. I thought I repost it seperate from the whole album. If you are looking to download both albums, I'll fix the link after Christmas.
UPDATE: I totally goofed up and had the wrong song loaded. It has been corrected. Download again for the correct song. Thanks to SWAK!
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Hey everyone. I'm sorry for not ripping entire albums lately. My time has been consumed by a little bundle of joy. My second child was born three weeks ago and it's been consuming much of my time. I think you'll understand...
Yikes. Heavy downloading has eaten up all of my bandwith. I had no idea I'd receive this much love at Christmas time... The bandwith has been severely throttled. I may have to switch to Rapidsare or something like that... Trying to figure it out. Hang tight and thanks for visiting. My suggestion is to try and download stuff at night (for all of you U.S. people at least). I have meierjo working on it as we speak. He is the exclusive computer support for brainwerk studios. We'll figure something out.
UPDATE: Complete crash. Might be a while until I'm up again.
UPDATE 2: Slowly getting the files back up. Using a service called File Ho! Please tell me how they are downloading. Thanks.
UPDATE 3: A bunch of links are back up. Sorry about Rapidshare. I know everyone hates it but it's the only one that wasn't crapping out on me. I'll get the non-Christmas links back up after Christmas.
UPDATE 4: OK. Rapidshare may suck. But at least it's reliable. I've tried three other one-click sites and they've all had problems. So Rapidshare it is. Sorry.
What would a groovy Christmas be without The Golddiggers? You remember them from The Dean Martin Show. A mod spin on chorus Christmas music. Nice. Here's four songs.
THE GOLDDIGGERS :: WE NEED A LITTLE CHRISTMAS
I was never a big Captain Kangaroo fan, but this album is great. It's super-kiddie.
CAPTAIN KANGAROO :: MERRY, MERRY CHRISTMAS
From a dusty old 45, Here are Paul & Paul with 2 Christmas songs. I really dig Holiday Hootenany. Sounds like it's from a beach movie.
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No songs posted from this album because they are probably all on cd. Just posting the artwork because it's so great.
I love Pee-Wee. I've been posting him since I started this blog a year ago. I thought I'd grab the great opening song off of his Christmas Special and a sound byte. Perfect for your Christmas mix this year.
PEE-WEE HERMAN :: PEE-WEE'S CHRISTMAS SPECIAL THEME (2 VERSIONS) & WHAT WOULD YOU PUT ON MY CHRISTMAS LIST
After the big three (Rudolph, Frosty and Santa Claus Is Coming To Town), this is my favorite Rankin/Bass Christmas special. It still plays now and then on cable if you can catch it. The story is about a clock maker who makes a big town clock that will play out on Christmas eve so Santa will visit their town again. I've also isolated just the song Christmas Chimes Are Calling Santa Claus. A really fun Christmas song.
RANKIN/BASS :: 'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
Another favorite here at Brainwerk studios. The Three Suns. Some say this was the peak of their career here with A Ding Dandy Christmas! What Lenny Dee does for the organ, these guys do for the xylaphone and tuba. Is this not one of the coolest covers ever?
THE THREE SUNS :: DING DONG DANDY CHRISTMAS
Hey everyone. I wanted to give some props to my brother. A good part of the records you hear are his. You can call him BeatPoet62. I've been commandeering his turntable all year until I can get one that sounds as good.
Here are some great resources for out-of-print and hard to find Christmas music.
Fa La La La La post some really great music and the forums are a great place to meet people and share music. Download the 2004 and 2005 ADVENTures In Carols compilations. They are WONDERFUL!
Ernie (Not Bert) has some really great music too. Make sure you look through his archives of last Christmas too. You can find gems like these over there. I've been trying to hunt down this Santa Claus Conquers The Martians album for a while now...
Visit the Captian over at the
Christmas Yule Blog too. Great stuff there. Even an Arnold Schwarzenegger Christmas greeting.
I visit
Senses Working Overtime for Christmas clip art that is second to none. They also share some great music that is categorized into fun themes. Check them out too.
PART 1a
