Were there any Bing or Sinatra shows recorded live during the Christmas season during WWII? I think those would be really nice to hear during the holiday season.
Wow I've posted a ton of Bing this week! Bing Crosby Show 1949-11-23 (010) Guests Frank Fay & Peggy Lee Three Legends togetherBing, Jolson, and Gracie! Bing Crosby Podcast 1949-11-30 (011) Guests Al Jolson and Gracie Allen
Now let's jump back to 1944! Bing Crosby Show 1944-11-23-Kraft Music Hall - Guest Rise Stevens Bing Crosby Show 1944-11-30 Kraft Music Hall - Guest Spike Jones
To cap off the week Stacey and Mindi bring us Bing, Judy and Rudolph! You must hear the Rudolph duet, it's the first song anyway! Bing Crosby Podcast 1950-12-06 (045) Guest Judy Garland - Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Duet (Stacey & Mindi)
65 years ago with Bing and William Boyd aka Hopalong Cassidy! Bing Crosby Show 1949-12-07 (012) Guests William Boyd and Peggy Lee
65 years ago this week Bing Crosby brought us another episode of the 1949-1950 season with a duet of Baby It's Cold Outside sung with Jimmy Stewart! Bing Crosby Podcast 1949-12-14 (013) Jimmy Stewart and Carole Richards - Jimmy and Bing sing Baby , It's Cold Outside
I'm bringing us Bing shows from WWII, but the problem is that many of the well known Christmas songs weren't written until after WWII and then it usually takes a few years for the song to find a big enough audience to become a standard and be prominently featured on a Christmas show, so "Christmas Shows" feature more recognizable music from the late 1940s on up. Check out the dates on this below list from our friends at Wikipedia. Most-performed Christmas songs (US) According to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers in 2006, the following are the Top 25 most-performed "holiday" songs written by ASCAP members, for the first five years of the 21st century:[8] (tracking plays in the U.S. only, and in order of number of plays)[9] Rank Song Composer(s) Year Type 1 "The Christmas Song" Mel Tormé, Robert Wells 1944 traditions 2 "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" Ralph Blane, Hugh Martin 1944 celebratory/sentimental 3 "Winter Wonderland" Felix Bernard, Richard B. Smith 1934 seasonal 4 "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" J. Fred Coots, Haven Gillespie 1934 mythical 5 "White Christmas" Irving Berlin 1940 seasonal/sentimental 6 "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne 1945 seasonal 7 "Jingle Bell Rock" Joseph Carleton Beal, James Ross Boothe 1957 celebratory/seasonal 8 "The Little Drummer Boy" Katherine K. Davis, Henry V. Onorati,Harry Simeone 1941 religious 9 "Sleigh Ride" Leroy Anderson, Mitchell Parish 1948 seasonal/birthday 10 "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" Johnny Marks 1939/1949 mythical 11 "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" Edward Pola, George Wyle 1963 seasonal/traditions 12 "I'll Be Home for Christmas" Walter Kent, Kim Gannon, Buck Ram 1943 traditions/sentimental 13 "Silver Bells" Jay Livingston, Ray Evans 1950 traditions 14 "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" Johnny Marks 1958 traditions 15 "Feliz Navidad" José Feliciano 1970 celebratory 16 "Blue Christmas" Billy Hayes, Jay W. Johnson 1957 traditions/alternative 17 "Frosty the Snowman" Steve Nelson, Walter E. Rollins 1950 mythical 18 "A Holly Jolly Christmas" Johnny Marks 1964/5 traditions/celebratory 19 "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" Meredith Willson 1951 traditions/celebratory 20 "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" Tommie Connor 1952 mythical/novelty 21 "Here Comes Santa Claus" (Right Down Santa Claus Lane) Gene Autry, Oakley Haldeman 1947 mythical 22 "Carol of the Bells" Peter J. Wilhousky, Mykola D. Leontovych 1921/47 celebratory 23 "Do They Know It's Christmas? (Feed the World)" Midge Ure, Bob Geldof 1984 traditions 24 "(There's No Place Like) Home for the Holidays" Bob Allen, Al Stillman 1954 traditions/sentimental 25 "Santa Baby" Joan Ellen Javits, Philip Springer, Tony Springer, and Fred Ebb 1953 mythical/alternative Of these, the oldest songs are "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" and "Winter Wonderland", both published in 1934—though some element of the song came along earlier for two titles (the source or music). Almost a dozen were released in the 1940s, the next largest group coming in the 1950s. Only two became popular in the 1960s; one each in the 1970s and 1980s. "Do They Know It's Christmas? (Feed the World)" by Midge Ure and Bob Geldof is the only relatively new one on the list: "Recorded in 1984 by Band Aid—an all-star band of British musicians—this benefit single assisted famine relief efforts in Ethiopia, and sold millions of copies over the '84 holiday season."[8] Christmas songs introduced in theater, television, and film include "White Christmas" from Holiday Inn (1942), "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" from Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), and "Silver Bells" in The Lemon Drop Kid (1950). Elvis Presley introduced his cover of "Blue Christmas", and debuted the Leiber-Stoller "Santa Claus Is Back in Town", on his first Christmas album in 1957—along with versions of other standards such as "Here Comes Santa Claus", "White Christmas", and "I'll Be Home for Christmas". Bruce Springsteen and The Jackson Five recorded separate versions of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town", as well as other Christmas titles. The unlikely pairing of Bing Crosby with David Bowie on the impromptu "The Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth" created one of the most popular Christmas duets ever recorded.[10] Other popular Christmas songs Other popular Christmas songs often heard include: "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" (1937), "Happy Holiday" (1942), "Baby It's Cold Outside" (1944), "Merry Christmas Baby" (1947), "Mary's Boy Child" (1956), and "We Need a Little Christmas" (1966)—all recorded by a number of acts. Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters had a hit with "Mele Kalikimaka" in 1950, and Crosby introduced "Marshmallow World" (backed by The Lee Gordon Singers and the Sonny Burke Orchestra) in the same year. In 1951 he recorded "Christmas in Killarney". Frank Sinatra put "The Christmas Waltz" on the B-side of his version of "White Christmas" in 1954, and included "Mistletoe and Holly" on his 1957 album A Jolly Christmas From Frank Sinatra. Nat King Cole put his stamp on "The Happiest Christmas Tree", "Buon Natale (Means Merry Christmas to You)", and "The Little Boy that Santa Claus Forgot" on various Christmas album releases. "Suzy Snowflake" was recorded by Rosemary Clooney in 1951 and Chuck Berry released "Run Rudolph Run" in 1958. Others would follow in the ensuing decades:
I post "new" 1944-1945 Kraft shows to my Podcast every Thursday, and I'll keep linking to them on this thread as long as folks are interested! Bing was quoted before the 1944-1945 season of 70 years ago, saying that this season would take a more musical focus and feature a variety of musical guests over popular entertainers of the day. You can see this is true by the higher percentage of musical guests featured this year, but it must not have worked for ratings because of Bing's shift back to featuring higher percentage of popular entertainers as guests in future years - see our 1949-1950 season shows that we have been airing for example.
Here you go! Bing Crosby Show 1944-12-14-Kraft Music Hall - Guest Jerry Colonna - Holiday Inn Medley With Ken Carpenter, The Charioteers, Eugenie Baird and Jerry Colonna. *Don’t Fence Me In (b) with Choir Straighten Up And Fly Right The Charioteers *More And More (b) (All Of A Sudden) My Heart Sings Eugenie Baird Can’t You Hear Me Calling, Caroline? Jerry Colonna Medley from “Holiday Inn” *Let’s Start The New Year Right *Abraham with Choir *Be Careful, It’s My Heart *Easter Parade with Eugenie Baird *White Christmas with Choir
Sort of a live Christmas concert with Bing! A great compliment to Bing's classic Christmas Album! Bing Crosby Classic Podcast 1953-12-20 (52) Christmas Show
The one from 1953 (above) is absolutely outstanding and he never did another quite like it. Here is the summary of the episode: No. 52 20th December 1953 (a) Transcribed in Hollywood. Announced by Ken Carpenter. With Jud Conlon’s Rhythmaires. *Adeste Fideles (b) with Rhythmaires *Sleigh Ride (c) with Rhythmaires *The Christmas Song (d) *Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (e) with Rhythmaires *Jingle Bells (f) with Rhythmaires Medley: *Deck The Halls With Boughs Of Holly (g) with Rhythmaires *Away In A Manger (g) with Rhythmaires *O Little Town Of Bethlehem (h) *The First Nowell (g) with Rhythmaires The Toy Trumpet (Scott) John Scott Trotter Orchestra *White Christmas (i) with Rhythmaires *Silent Night (j) with Rhythmaires Silent Night Closing Theme - Rhythmaires
it is wonderful 2 that stand out to me....I believe it is one of his oldest if not his oldest, before the war late 30's? it is the one where he is home with his kids Christmas morning I think also the one with Rosemary Clooney (I love her so I am bias)
Command Performance - Christmas Special 1945-12-25 I've had some requests for Bing and Sinatra, so here they are in a special Command Performance! Wow! Bob Hope (m.c.), Ken Carpenter (announcer), Bing Crosby, Dinah Shore, Harry James, Herbert Marshall, Jimmy Durante, Ginny Simms, Jerry Colonna, Johnny Mercer, The Pied Pipers, Judy Garland, Ed Gardner, Frances Langford, Kay Kyser, Frank Sinatra, Mel Blanc, The Robert Mitchell Boys Choir, Harry Truman, Cass Daley.
Elgin Holiday Specials 1944-12-25 Elgin Christmas Show 3rd Annual From 70 years ago today Elgin Watches brings us their third annual Christmas program. With Ginny Simms, Eddie Anderson, Jack Benny, Louis Silvers and His Orchestra, Manny Klein, The Swing Wing, The Charioteers, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Carmen Miranda, Joseph Szigeti, The Les Paul Trio, Barbara Jo Allen, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Carroll Carroll (writer), Anthony Stanford (production supervisor), Don Ameche (m. c.), Ken Carpenter (announcer), Joan Davis, Anne Stone, Tyler McVey.
I think you are talking about this, my favorite Christmas Show of all time! Bing Crosby Podcast 1950-12-20 (047) Crosby Family Christmas Bing and his family really shine on this one!
WOW! This one looks like a gem. sadly, some of those names are unknown to me. I shall enjoy it later. Thank you and Merry Christmas!!!!
Much as I try, almost anything that involves Bing with the 1st family eventually creeps me out. I mean NO OFFENSE to Bing. But you get the feeling that there is something deeper running underneath everything when the boys are with Dad in front of a mike. Gladly, the new PBS Special has finally shed light on what was an unfortunate situation from before they were even born. Sad.
this one is wonderful but no the kids are older and it is in a studio it is the late 30's and they are at Bing's home, the kids are young waiting for Santa I think or they just open their presents. I have to do some research