Earlier this year, I found this album in an antique store in the antique town of Pierceton, Indiana. At first glance, I nearly passed over it because of its non-Christmas title. However, the songs were and I added this to my pile of albums that I was preparing for the upcoming holiday season.Then in July, our friend Bongolong at Bongolong Land offered this album as part of his "Christmas In July" celebration.
Earlier this month, Bongolong decided to create a new Christmas ONLY blog entitled Bongobells and is currently offering this album to download.
In his first three weeks, Bongo has offered 31 different albums with such diverse titles as:
"Ren & Stimpy's Crock O'Christmas"
"Mae West - Wild Christmas"
"Christmas In The Stars: The Star Wars Christmas Album"
"Guitars Inc. - Guitars At Christmas"
"Jackie Gleason - Merry Christmas"
This music box album is one of the TWELVE albums I've downloaded from his site (each one of these albums will be reviewed, I promise!).
Now...
Err...
How does one review music boxes? Do I compare alloys from the machine and the discs? Are music boxes made in Switzerland better than the ones you can get at the San Francisco Music Box Co.?
Music boxes and Christmas have long been a tradition thanks in large part to Rita Ford. Ms. Ford's passion for collecting, restoring, and repairing music boxes led her to open her famous store in New York City back in 1947.
In 1961, a clever guy from Columbia Records approached Ford and asked about recording several music boxes for Christmas. A Music Box Christmas was a HUGE smash (you've heard at least one track off this album in your lifetime) and it was followed up in 1962 with "Music Box Wonderland Christmas with Rita Ford's Music Boxes".
Suddenly, the imitation music box LPs began popping up all over the budget labels. One album in particular released by Pickwick Records (the very same label that released the album before you) even claimed the music boxes were from Rita Ford! She quickly disavowed any connection with that album and has done many other times since.
As for this album, it was released by Pickwick in 1980...
And it's chock full of music boxes playing Christmas tunes.
(nervous grin)
That's about it. Bongo, thanks for beating me to the punch with this one!
On to the next new Christmas CD in my collection...
Capt
