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1. Chuck Berry Run Rudolph Run 1958 2:45 Producers: 2. The Moonglows with Red Holloway’s Orchestra Hey Santa Claus 1953 2:24 Various 3. Jimmy Liggins and His Drops Of Joy I Want My Baby For Christmas 1950 2:41 Re-Issue Producer: 4. Oscar McLollie and His Honey Jumpers Dig That Crazy Santa Claus 1954 2:31 Bill Dahl 5. Jimmy Butler with Blues Express Orchestra Trim Your Tree 1954 2:02 Disc/Metalpart Transfer: 6. Cecil Gant Hello Santa Claus 1950 2:54 Victor Pearlin, Dave Booth 7. Mabel Scott Boogie Woogie Santa Claus 1948 2:19 Mastering: 8. Lowell Fulson Lonesome Christmas (Part 1) 1951 2:26 Chris Zwarg Liner Notes: 9. The Cadillacs Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer 1956 2:17 Bill Dahl 10. Titus Turner Christmas Morning 1952 2:41 Discographical Data: 11. The Penguins Jingle Jangle 1955 2:22 Richard Weize, Bill Dahl, 12. Charles Brown Christmas Finds Me Oh So Sad 1963 3:10 Russ Wapensky 13. Jesse Thomas Christmas Celebration 1951 2:34 Photos & Illustrations: 14. Amos Milburn Let’s Make Christmas Merry, Baby 1949 2:54 and more bears archive, 15. The Drifters White Christmas 1954 2:39 The Showtime Music 16. Jimmy McCracklin Christmas Time (Part 1) 1961 2:19 Archive, Toronto, 17. Huey ‘Piano’ Smith and the Clowns Silent Night 1962 3:03 Sven T. Uhrmann, Billy Vera 18. Chuck Berry Merry Christmas Baby 1958 3:13 Photo Scans: 19. The Orioles (It’s Gonna Be A) Lonely Christmas 1948 3:18 Andreas Merck 20. Big Bud Rock Around The Christmas Tree 1955 2:32 Photo Restoration: 21. Jimmy Witherspoon How I Hate To See Xmas Come Around 1947 2:59 Sven T. Uhrmann 22. Roy Milton and His Solid Senders Christmas Time Blues 1950 3:05 Artwork: 23. Solomon Burke Christmas Presents 1955 3:05 EsTe /Retrograph 24. Willie John and The Three Lads and A Lass Mommy What Happened To Our Christmas Tree 1953 2:30 25. Alex Harvey and His Soul Band The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot 1999 3:00 26. Little Willie Littlefield Merry Xmas 1949 2:57 27. The Five Keys It’s Christmas Time 1951 2:51 28. Johnny Moore’s Blazers with Frankie Ervin Christmas Eve Baby 1955 2:23 29. The Harmony Grits Santa Claus Is Coming To Town 1959 1:59 AMB 70080 available on CD on RWA Records 2 ○○ The concept of Christmas blues songs variations on the theme, and the often-ribald harks back to the earliest days of recording. duo of Butterbeans and Susie checked in with Enterprising labels realized from the outset Papa Ain’t No Santa Claus (Mama Ain’t No the commercial value of such holiday fare. Christmas Tree) in 1930—just the thing to If an artist was tethered to a record company brighten a snowy Christmas morning. for any length of time, he or she would likely be contributing at least one timeless The postwar R&B generation was number to the Christmas canon. Shelf life particularly given to applying holiday fare was brief for such seasonal releases, but to wax. Jumping combos were turning out they were perennials and could always be swinging odes to Kris Kringle, romance under rolled out again a year down the road if the old mistletoe, and double-entendre- there was stock left over in the warehouse loaded sleaze, the latter only permissible to and a demand in the stores. spin on the trusty Victrola after the kiddies were safely tucked away in their beds with Bessie Smith memorably belted At The visions of train sets and baby dolls dancing Christmas Ball at a Columbia session in late in their sweet little heads. 1925, and Blind Lemon Jefferson chimed in with Christmas Eve Blues in 1928 for This collection is sure to make your Paramount. Pre-war bluesmen Bo Carter, Christmas merrier. It ranges from the Tampa Red, and Charlie Jordan came up with pioneering jump blues combos of Jimmy 3 ○ ○○○ Liggins, Roy Milton, and Amos Milburn to 1. grittier blues fare from Lowell Fulson and Cecil Gant and the straightahead rock and Chuck Berry roll of Chuck Berry. Vocal groups are well Run Rudolph Run represented with sweetly harmonized gems (Chuck Berry-Marvin Brodie) by The Five Keys, Drifters, and Orioles and peppier items by The Cadillacs, recorded November 19, 1958; Ter-Mar Moonglows, and Penguins, and the king of Studio, 2120 South Michigan Avenue, ‘em all, the perpetually mellow Charles Chicago, Illinois with Chuck Berry: vocal/guitar/overdubbed Brown, is here with one of his more obscure guitar; Willie Dixon: bass; Odie Payne, Jr.: Christmas laments. drums; Ellis ‘Lafayette’ Leake: piano master 9167 So on Christmas morning, when you’re Chess 1714 unwrapping your presents in front of the 1958 tree and the family is near, slide this compilation into your CD player and Rock and roll’s chief architect usually luxuriate in the hip sounds of holidays long didn’t share authorship credit with anyone, past, when Mabel Scott sang so brightly of but it was unavoidable for Run Rudolph Run. a Boogie Woogie Santa Claus and the totally Since Chuck Berry incorporated Rudolph, unknown Big Bud socked out a ditty about The Red-Nosed Reindeer into his delightful rocking around the Christmas tree. There’s storyline, he reportedly had to pay a fee to no better soundtrack for celebrating the the original copyright holders that holidays. introduced the character in an illustrated children’s book back in 1939. Marvin Brodie Speaking of which, we wish you the was apparently a creation of Montgomery merriest Christmas and the happiest New Ward, the famous Chicago-based Year imaginable! department store chain and mail order firm 4 whose employee Robert L. May dreamed up the cute critter. Berry was on top of the world at Chess Records when he waxed Run Rudolph Run on November 19, 1958. The lean, lanky duck-walker was born in St. Louis on October 18, 1926 and soaked up a blend of pop, big band swing, country, and blues influences as he grew up. After a stint in a Missouri reformatory, Berry returned to St. Louis, picking up an electric guitar and learning Carl Hogan’s licks from the smash platters of jump blues pioneer Louis Jordan. He’d already played around town with bandleader Tommy Stevens prior to receiving a fateful phone call from pianist Johnnie Johnson inviting Chuck to join him at a top East St. Louis nightspot, the Cosmopolitan Club, on New Year’s Eve of ’52. “I employed him one night to work for me, because one of my original players couldn’t make it,” said the late Johnson. Berry’s predilection for country music made him stand out on the local scene. “It was something new, and everybody was very interested in it, especially coming from a black guy playing hillbilly music,” said Johnson. By May of 1955, Chuck was itching to record. He traveled up to Chicago and asked blues king Muddy Waters for advice. Muddy sent him to Chess Records. “I give him the address, told him they open at 5 ○ ○○○○○ nine o’clock, be there at 10,” said the late Waters. “Tell Leonard Chess I sent him 2. there!’” The Moonglows Berry’s Chess debut release Maybellene with Red Holloway’s Orchestra shot straight to the top of the R&B hit parade Hey Santa Claus in the summer of ’55 and went Top Five (Harvey Fuqua-Alan Freed) pop, designating the guitarist as one of rock and roll’s primordial standard bearers. Berry recorded September 27, 1953: probably wielded his guitar like a scythe as he pranced Universal Recording, 46 East Walton around on stage. He racked up a non-stop Street, Chicago, Illinois string of smashes: Thirty Days (To Come Back with The Moonglows: Harvey Fuqua, Bobby Home) later in 1955; Roll Over Beethoven, Lester, Prentiss Barnes, Alexander ‘Pete Too Much Monkey Business, and Brown Eyed Graves’ Walton, vocals; Red Holloway: tenor saxophone; Louis Carpenter: piano; Handsome Man the next year; School Day ‘Hawk’ Lee: bass; Robert ‘Hindu’ (Ring! Ring! Goes The Bell) and Rock And Henderson: drums Roll Music in ’57, and 1958’s Sweet Little master C-5061 Sixteen and the immortal Johnny B. Goode. Chance 1150 1953 Chess pressed up Run Rudolph Run just in time for the ’58 Yuletide season. Long before he took the New York radio Sounding nothing like typical holiday fare, airwaves by storm, deejay Alan Freed it was a full-scale Berry rocker, his championed The Moonglows. Without typically clever storyline abetted by his question one of the smoothest-sounding R&B slashing guitar and Willie Dixon’s vocal groups of the 1950s, the quartet thundering upright bass. The suits at specialized in ‘blow harmony,’ giving them an Montgomery Ward never envisioned this. extremely polished and very advanced sound. 6 Founder/baritone Harvey Fuqua (born July 17, 1929), nephew of The Ink Spots’ Charlie Fuqua, and tenor Bobby Lester (born January 13, 1930), were natives of Louisville, Kentucky. They met in high school and began performing together locally, working their way up to touring with saxist Ed Wiley’s band in the early ’50s. Fuqua relocated to Cleveland in 1952, and with tenor Danny Coggins and bass Prentiss Barnes formed a jazz-oriented vocal group, The Crazy Sounds. Singer Al ‘Fats’ Thomas recommended them to local deejay Freed, who renamed them The Moonglows and hired on as their manager. With Lester added, the newly minted Moonglows made their first record, the Fuqua-led I Just Can’t Tell No Lie, for Freed and Lew Platt’s new Champagne label.