You will have to forgive me for the paucity of posts this year, it's been a busy one. One of the unfortunate byproducts of aging is having to deal with health issues (in others as well as myself), the death of family and friends (and friends who have become family), and life in general: this year I have published my latest book, moved house twice (which resulted in putting my entire record and CD collection into storage for six months), made several 'live' appearances and have been beavering away on my next tome. So, apologies for so few blog entries during 2023; I hope to make it up to you in 2024.
But it's almost Christmas, and what would this time of year be without a handful of festive failures for you? that's right, it's time for the first installment of the annual Christmas Cavalcade! Hold on to your Santa hats...
First up is both sides of a 45 issued in the US in 1975, the first of two singles issued by The Whales Featuring Rathbone and His Tuba. Their debut was this bizarre, and utterly pointless cover of the 1958 hit from David Seville and the Chipmunks, namely
The Chipmunk Song, backed by a cover of a 1948 number originally popularised by singing cowboy Gene Autrey,
If It Doesn't Snow on Christmas. The Whales' schtick was to do the opposite of what the Chipmunks had done so successfully, namely instead of speeding up the vocal track to sound like tiny furry creatures, the producers of this dreck (Mickey Joe Yannich and Bobby Lee), slowed the vocal down to suggest the sound that a huge, lumbering ocean leviathan might make. Unsurprisingly this and the follow-up,
I Want to be the Only Whale (to Graduate From Yale) were not hits, and the Whales sank without a trace.
And talking of Chipmunks rip-offs, the year after Alvin and Co had their big breakthrough, Capitol Records retaliated with Dancer, Prancer and Nervous (the Singing Reindeer) and their debut offering
The Happy Reindeer. Like the Whales, these three also issued a second 45, coupling
The Happy Birthday Song with
I Wanna Be an Easter Bunny. Capitol clearly thought they had a hit on their hands, even issuing a promotional EP featuring the voice of Nervous introducing segments for regional radio play, but although
The Happy Reindeer was a modest hit, the follow-up failed to chart and that was the end of that. Incidentally, the B-side of
The Happy Reindeer,
Dancer's Waltz, was simply an instrumental version of the plug side.
So, enjoy these three tracks for now... there will be more soon!
Download Chipmunk HERE
Download Snow HERE
Download Happy HERE
