Today I thought I'd share a few thoughts on one of my favorite subjects, Christmas music done by 'our' artists. As many of you know, each day for a couple of weeks leading up to Christmas, I post one of these tunes on Facebook. I try to hit some of the best and most fun songs, and a few that are a little more obscure but still bring a smile to my face.
Now, like most of us 'born in the 50's' kids, my sister and I heard plenty of Christmas music in our home during the holiday season. Dad and Mom had musical tastes that were, for the most part, pretty much mainstream for their generation. Dad loved big band music, he especially had a fondness for Gene Krupa (as Dad had played drums for a time), and Glenn Miller. Mom was a Lawrence Welk fan, along with our Grandmother and Aunt (who lived with us at the time), and she also loved the traditional carols as done by Bing Crosby, Johnny Mathis, and Dean Martin - whose show was really 'must see' tv in our house.
Ginny and I loved these songs as well, and we got to hear and sing them in school. I remember Miss Trutken (sp), the music teacher at Stratford School teaching us kids to sing "Silver Bells" when I was in maybe 5th grade. Some of the kids in class got to actually ring small bells during the song, and boy, that hooked me! To this day, that song is still one of my favorite Christmas songs.
So we listened to, and sang, the traditional songs - we even had a couple of Christmas songs on the player piano rolls that we played when our relatives came over. And every once in a while, we'd get a bunch of our friends together and wander through the neighborhood, ringing doorbells and assaulting the ears of our neighbors by 'going Christmas caroling'. Yeah, just what people getting ready for Christmas want; 8 to 10 kids standing in front of their door screaming "Jingle Bells" or "We Wiiiiiiish you a Merry Christmas" off key and at the top of their lungs!
And then, slowly, over time, there was a change. When I was about 10, Dad came home one day with a gift for me; a small, AM band Koyo transistor radio. It was green and tan, came with a 'leather' case which was perforated on the front where the speaker was, and included a 9 volt battery and an ear phone for private listening. I was thrilled! Like most kids of that age, I was instantly hooked, and radio became (and still is) a big part of my life. I spent countless hours running up and down the dial, listening to every station that the little 8 transistor circuit could pull in, learning what format each station played. It quickly became evident that the 'cool' kids listened to 3 stations; 570 WMCA (home of the 'good guys'), 770 WABC (home of the 'All Americans'), and 1010 WINS. Each of these stations played top 40 rock and roll, and man, back in '63, the music was really jumping! I remember distinctly when "My Boyfriend's Back" was running up the charts, you couldn't go more than 10 or 12 minutes without hearing it on one of those stations! And Dion, man, "Donna (the prima donna)", what a cool song that was! Some doo-wop mixed in, and these surfer kids, The Beach Boys, they sounded great also. The Crystals, Ronettes, all the great groups and their signature sounds, man, I walked around with that little radio glued to my ear for hours on end! One of my biggest challenges was to somehow acquire enough 9 volt batteries to keep the thing playing all day. Remember, this was way before 'alkaline' batteries hit the market, and a typical plain old 9 volt battery didn't last very long, especially when the radio was on for hours on end. That was alleviated a bit when Dad, who must have been really tired of my constantly whining that I 'need' a battery, brought home a combination battery charger/ac power source. You could put your dead or almost dead battery on this thing and it would sort of recharge it, and there was a wire coming out of the other end that you could use to power the radio while the battery charged. Of course, the thing had to be plugged in to an a/c outlet, so you couldn't wander around like you could when the radio was using the battery, but, still, it gave you some flexibility and reduced somewhat, the need for all those batteries.
The months roll on, and we go from summer to fall, tunes change, and we've got Randy & The Rainbows doing "Denise", Jan & Dean with "Surf City", Trini Lopez doing "If I Had a Hammer" - great stuff! And so many different styles of music! Right next to "Surfin' USA", you might hear Nat 'King' Cole's "Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer", then Rolf Harris with "Tie Me Kangaroo Down"! We really had it great, three stations playing all sorts of wonderful music, and while we really loved the rock, we learned to appreciate other styles as well.
Skip ahead to late fall, sometime after Thanksgiving. I'm sitting around my room one day after school, probably avoiding doing my homework while listening to the radio, and I hear an amazing sound. It takes me a minute, but I recognize the tune almost immediately - it's Santa Claus is Coming To Town - but man, does it sound DIFFERENT! It's got a major rock and roll backbeat, great drums and saxophone work - it's amazing! But who the heck is doing it? Yeah, on comes the DJ (probably 'Big' Dan Ingraham), who tells me it's The Cyrstals! A rock and roll group doing a Christmas song! And I'm hooked. Immediately. This is like way cool, it's a great, fun, traditional song, but with 'our' kind of tempo and rhythm! Over the next few days, one by one, I hear all the tracks of the now legendary "A Christmas Gift For You" album (mostly referred to as the Phil Spector Christmas Album). I hear The Ronettes doing "Sleigh Ride";  Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans with "Here Comes Santa Claus", and the incredible voice of Darlene Love belting out "Marshmallow World", "White Christmas", and "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)". And I fall in love with each and every one of them! I spend the next several weeks scouring the radio dial listening for these songs - 570...770....1010...back and forth I'd spin the dial hoping to hear one of these new, and somewhat cool, songs. This spinning the dial back and forth by the way, was great practice for what was to come early in 1964, when all we kids wanted to hear was this new group from England, the one with the unusual hairstyles; you know who I'm talking about!
Anyway, Christmas comes and goes, and so does this great music. Until next year, when, around the same time, I hear one of those songs, and I'm again in love with it. Then, a couple of hours later, there's a different one - something called "Merry Christmas Baby", and I immediately recognize the group, it's The Beach Boys! And on and on it goes, 1965 brings "The Ventures Christmas Album", featuring what is possibly the silliest (and coolest) song ever, their version of "Sleigh Ride" (done to the tune of "Walk, Don't Run"). Then along come The Royal Guardsmen with "Snoopy's Christmas", and on and on it goes, songs that express my love of all things Christmas, done by artists that I can relate to, just as Mom and Dad relate to their favorite artists.
Through the years, my love for these songs has grown to the point where I can't wait to pop my Ventures "Christmas Joy" CD into the car's audio system, and listen to those silly, but lovingly done, songs, over and over. Booker T. & The MG's doing "Jingle Bells"? Love it. Frankie and The Four Seasons "Santa Claus is Coming To Town"? Ditto. Bobby Helms, Brenda Lee, all those great 50's artists doing their songs, "Jingle Bell Rock", "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree", Chuck Berry's "Run Rudolph Run" - love 'em all!
And, now, also, I really appreciate a lot of the artists Mom and Dad loved. Yeah, The Ventures "Sleigh Ride" makes me smile and laugh each and every time I hear it; so does the original by Leroy Anderson (and the Johnny Mathis version); I love The Drifters "White Christmas" - and also Bing Crosby's. And nobody, nobody, does "Let It Snow" like Dean Martin, a truly great entertainer.
My sons have heard more times than they care to, how important music has been to me, how it's accompanied me in my life's journey, through good times, and bad. How it's added to my happiest moments, comforted me in my saddest moments, and how a day gone by without some joyous music in it seems like a wasted day to me. I know I got my love of music from my family, from the way we gathered around our old player piano, to the way Lawrence Welk, Dean Martin, and all of the great musical/variety shows played on our television set night after night, week after week. And that little 8 transistor radio that Dad brought home so many years ago, a simple little gift that fed my love of music, and really changed the way I look at life. Seems a little important to remember and reflect on things like that at this time of year. So, go crank up your record player, your cassette player (you young kids, send me a note and I'll explain what those are), your CD player, your MP3 player, or whatever device you use to listen to music, enjoy the music that YOU cherish at this time of year, and do your best to pass your love of that music, of all music, along to others in your life. Merry Christmas to you all!

Welcome back to the blog! It's been a busy few weeks, lots of interesting 'stuff' happening with the business, some short road trips, and a few nice evenings out, so it's 'catch up day' (as opposed to ketchup day) here in blogland. Here we go!

The Association at City Winery: Couple of weeks ago, Karen and I got the chance to see The Association in one of their somewhat rare NY appearances. It's been a while since we last saw them at Westbury - at least several years - and as happens with the oldies groups, there have been some personnel changes, due to retirements and passings. Most recently, Larry Ramos, who'd been with the band since the early days passed away. His spot was filled by his brother, Del Ramos, who has been in the band for many years. Long time members Jules Alexander and Jim Yester, along with Jordan Cole, son of original member Brian Cole, and drummer Bruce Pictor round up the current lineup.

After an opening act that was about as far different from The Association as you could imagine (a depressing 'suicide song' folksinger), the band hit the stage for a very solid hour and a half show. They ran through all the hits, and sounded very strong on all of them. Their instrument work was solid, and vocally they were very close to the sound of the original group. "Never My Love", "Along Comes Mary", "Windy", "Cherish", and my favorite "Everything That Touches You" "Six Man Band", "Goodbye Columbus" were all well done. A medley of 60's hits, and some album cuts rounded out a very impressive show.
City Winery is a great, smallish venue in Chelsea, great acoustics and sight lines, and a decent menu. Wonderful place to grab a burger or a flatbread pizza and see a show. Highly recommended for a reasonably priced night in Manhattan.

"Hot Autumn Nights" at Westbury: And the oldies just keep on coming! The Saturday before Thanksgiving found us at the NYCB Theater at Westbury for this annual show. We've seen all of these acts many times in the past, and a couple of them are ones that we really like to see whenever we get the chance, as they have a great catalog of hits, and always do a great show.
Opening the night were The Buckinghams, with original members Carl Giammerese and Nick Fortuna, who've been carrying the torch since the late 1990's. Along with long time member Bruce Soboroff, and newer members Dave Zane and Rocky Penn, they sounded great. Carl's voice is a little softer (and more on key) than original lead Dennis Tufano, and the songs sound damn close to the originals. 

Only thing I notice is that since they lost drummer Tom Schekel to Paul Revere & The Raiders a few years back, Rocky's drumming is more pedestrian than Tom's was; less rolls and staggered hits, which were kind of a trademark of their sound. Still, the hits sound great, and they got the crowd into the show early with a cover of Van Morrison's "Domino" and the sing along to "Susan". By the time they closed with "Kind Of A Drag", all was right in the theater.
Up next were "The Grass Roots", which I've put in parentheses, since the people on stage bore no resemblance to the real Grass Roots. As way of explanation, the Grass Roots were, much like The Monkees, a group assembled by the writers and producers of the songs they were given to perform. Through the years, over 50 musicians and singers have been in the group. Their most successful years, however, featured lead singer Rob Grill. 

The guys on stage this time were lead guitarist and vocalist Dusty Hanvey, keyboardist Larry Nelson (both of whom 'joined' in 1984), drummer Joe Dougherty ('joined' in 1990), and lead singer and bassist Mark Dawson ('joined' in 2008). Now, if you look at the chart history of this band, their last successful record was "Two Divided by Love" in 1971 - 13 years before Hanvey and Nelson started performing with Rob Grill.I understand that as individuals pass on, either new members have to be brought in to keep the music going, or we lose the ability to enjoy these acts 'live'. My issue is that when there are NO original members in the band, it isn't "The Grass Roots", it's "The Grass Roots Tribute", and should be advertised as such. These guys played the songs very well, Hanvey's backing vocals mirror the records pretty well, and Dawson has some vocal range as well. The hits sounded great, but you know, there are plenty of bar bands that can play "Midnight Confessions" and sound great as well. Time for these promoters to start being honest with us as to who's really on stage when we plunk down our money!
Up next, Herman's Hermits featuring Peter Noone. Now here we have a group where the original backing musicians have all passed on, but the lead singer is still going strong - VERY strong! Backed by a great band featuring Vance Brescia (of the legendary NY band The Mosquitos) on guitar, this is a real high energy group that recreates the fun and excitement of the original British Invasion acts. Peter reminds me of the late Davy Jones with his boundless energy and romps around the stage. He rarely stood still, and really had the crowd worked up during his set. 

The music was great, Peter's vocals are still strong, and overall, this might have been the best act of the night. With an amazing string of hit records, Peter and the guys could have stayed out on stage a lot longer than they did, they didn't get to all of their hits, but they did most of them, and did them well. We just noticed that Peter and the band are playing at BB King's in Manhattan on Feb. 6, and decided to go - yes, they're that much fun to see!
Closing the show was Tommy James and The Shondells. Tommy's been the headliner on these shows for a long time, and always closes the show. Unfortunately, there are only a few acts that could have followed Peter Noone that night, and Tommy isn't one of them. They started out well, with a great version of "Draggin The Line", but things bogged down quickly with a slow, acoustic version of "I Think We're Alone Now" which Tommy did as a tribute to the late Morris Levy, who owned Roulette Records, the label Tommy had all the hits on. It was done also to help promote Tommy's book and upcoming movie, "Me, The Music, & The Mob". 

Unfortunately, after the high energy that Peter brought to the stage, this ill timed song really killed the crowd. As he (finally) finished the tune, several folks yelled out "Do it like the record" - which seemed to throw Tommy for a loop. The rest of his set was, unfortunately,  nothing special, even though he did Hanky Panky, Crimson & Clover, and he threw in a 'proper' version of I Think We're Alone Now. We noticed that for some reason, the bass player and drummer had a particular shuffle type rhythm, which made all of the songs sound the same. Mony Mony couldn't even get the crowd up, and while we never leave early, as Tommy went 'round and 'round the stage shaking hands, we exited.
So, three pretty good acts and one disappointment. And a really surprising disappointment, as Tommy usually hammers the show closed with a great performance. Perhaps he was 'off' or a bit tired, but it wasn't the Tommy James we've come to expect.
That's more than enough for today, I'll try to catch you all up on the couple of short road trips I had over the past few weeks in the next day or two.