Twelve Days (Before) Christmas

Day 5 - Good Morning Blues (I Want to See Santa Claus)

Christmas music can surely evoke a certain mood or memory. This is no different today than it was for people in the 1930s. The Etude Magazine in December 1931 described the reactions of people on the street as they played holiday recordings each year outside their headquarters: "Over and over again we have seen passers-by listening with tears in their eyes. There is something about this simple, heartfelt music, which carries us back to those precious, vanished moments in the homes of our youth, bringing to our minds the faces and caresses of those dear to us [. . .] resurrected in the holy land of Christmas memories by the miraculous music of Christmas." (thanks to Vintage Stardust!)

Jazz icon Count Basie was born William James Basie on 21 August 1904 in Red Bank, New Jersey. Count Basie is considered one of the greatest bandleaders of all times. He was the arbiter of the big-band swing sound and his unique style of fusing blues and jazz established swing as a predominant music style. Basie changed the jazz landscape and shaped mid-20th century popular music, duly earning the title King of Swing because he made the world want to dance! (note thanks to Rutgers University)

Good Morning Blues (I Want to See Santa Claus) (1937) - Count Basie Orchestra (vocal, Jimmy Rushing; written by William Count Basie, Eddie Durham, James Rushing)

Pinky Tomlin (1907-1987) was an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and actor of the 1930s and 1940s. In addition to performing in occasional motion pictures, he wrote and published 22 songs, several of which were in the top ten on the Hit Parade. Tomlin came to national attention in the 1930s due to a song he had written while attending the University of Oklahoma, one he composed for a student at the school, Joanne Alcorn, whom he would later marry. The Object of My Affection (see him singing it on Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life)  became a number-one hit late that year for Grier's Coconut Grove Orchestra, featuring Pinky Tomlin on vocals. Here's Tomlin's one Christmas themed song . . .

I Told Santa Claus to Bring Me You (1937) - Bernie Cummins Orchestra (vocals, Jimmy Ray; written by Pinky Tomlin)

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Day 2 (After) - Good King Wenceslas . . . We have all heard this carol since childhood, but most don't really know the story behind it. It turns out that the king of this carol was King Wenceslas (c.907-935), Duke of Bohemia (now the western portion of the Czech Republic). His grandfather and father had turned from paganism to Christianity, yet his mother was the daughter of a pagan tribal chief. When Wenceslas was 13, his father died, and his mother, having embraced paganism once again, tried to turn him away from Christianity. She was unsuccessful, and when Wenceslas turned 18, he gained the throne, had his mother exiled, and sought to reign over his people with mercy and justice as a truly Christian monarch. He is best known for his acts of kindness - one of which is immortalized in the carol we sing at Christmas. An early biographer wrote of his legendary deeds:

Rising every night from his noble bed, with bare feet and only one chamberlain, he went around to God's churches and gave alms generously to widows, orphans, those in prison and afflicted by every difficulty, so much so that he was considered, not a prince, but the father of all the wretched.

Beloved by his people, he ruled for a decade. But at the age of 28, he was assassinated on his way to church by his brother. Yet his influence lived on. He was considered a martyr, was canonized by the Catholic Church, and today is the patron saint of the Czech state. [thanks to Dr. Ralph F. Wilson for this note]

Good King Wenceslas tells the story of the king going on a journey and braving harsh winter weather to give alms to a poor peasant on the Feast of Stephen (December 26). During the journey, his page is about to give up the struggle against the cold weather, but is enabled to continue on by following the king's footprints, step for step, through the deep snow. In 1853, English hymn writer John Mason Neale wrote the lyrics to Good King Wenceslas, in collaboration with his music editor Thomas Helmore, and the carol first appeared in Carols for Christmas-Tide (1853). The text was set to the melody of 13th-century spring carol Tempus adest floridum (Eastertime has come), first published in the collection Piae Cantiones (1582). [the same collection, by the way, where Divinum mysterium first appeared!]

Good King Wenceslas looked out,
on the Feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about,
deep and crisp and even;
Brightly shone the moon that night,
tho' the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight,
gath'ring winter fuel.

"Hither, page, and stand by me,
if thou know'st it, telling,
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?"
"Sire, he lives a good league hence,
underneath the mountain;
Right against the forest fence,
by Saint Agnes' fountain."

"Bring me flesh, and bring me wine,
bring me pine logs hither:
Thou and I shall see him dine,
when we bear them thither."
Page and monarch, forth they went,
forth they went together;
Through the rude wind's wild lament
and the bitter weather.

"Sire, the night is darker now,
and the wind blows stronger;
Fails my heart, I know not how;
I can go no longer."
"Mark my footsteps, good my page.
Tread thou in them boldly
Thou shalt find the winter's rage
freeze thy blood less coldly."

In his master's steps he trod,
where the snow lay dinted;
Heat was in the very sod
which the saint had printed.
Therefore, Christian men, be sure,
wealth or rank possessing,
Ye who now will bless the poor,
shall yourselves find blessing. 

Good King Wenceslas - Lynn and Tony Hughes (concertina and guitar)

Good King Wenceslas - Howell's School Llandaff

Good King Wenceslas - Animation presented by SoulFM

Good King Wenceslas - Julien Neel (a cappella quartet)

Good King Wenceslas -  spacinjangler

Good Swing Wenceslas - The Count Basie Orchestra