Classic Hifi Care

I put our copy of Perry Como's Christmas album on CD. I believe it was from 1961 on an RCA Victor "Living Stereo" record. Nobody does "Ave Maria" like Perry Como. Or "O Holy Night". He doesn't even breathe hard on the high parts. I'm not the hugest fan of Christmas music, but nobody does it quite like Perry Como. In the olden days, they used lots of French horns and kettle drums in Christmas music. I don't know what they used for bass, but I think an electric bass guitar. If you have this album and a Magnavox Symphony, you're set........

funny we have been playing Ray Conniff Christmas albums along with Nat King Cole all day...

That album Dr. Demento put out a few years back is on now. "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" is playing. I had that on a kiddie record back in the day. "The Chipmunk Song" circa 1959 was the highest of the high tech in its day. Ed Bagdasarian did the chipmunk voices in different speeds than the music. Ray Stevens used similar technology ten years later only he did the voices himself at the same speed. "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" is on this album. Super-hot about 1973 or so.

Perry Como has been my favorite male vocalist since the '50s when I was a kid and "Catch a Falling Star" was a hit. He was one of the few that preserved his voice into old age, unlike Sinatra and others he didn't drink and smoke heavily and lived a clean life. An admirable guy in many respects, he always thought of himself a just a former barber from small town Scranton PA and never let fame and fortune go to his head. I first got his LP Christmas record in the mid-70s, and we wore it out listening with the 3 kids over some 30 years, so had to buy another. I love all the old vintage Christmas albums and have many of them from the singers of the '40s to '60s, along with some of those great old Goodyear and Firestone records you could buy for $1 at Christmas time back then. They all sound great on the Dumont but especially on the Scott tube system