Happy 99th birthday to the legendary Dick Van Dyke

I saw on the news last night, that Dick Van Dyke, had to be evacuated from his home in Malibu, yesterday.  That terrible wildfire, still going on,  has destroyed lots of homes . . . other celebrities besides Van Dyke. 

Everytime I hear of one of these awful fires I think I should put old photos and a few important documents in a steel container but I keep postponing the task

Italian Children's Christmas Song

Just wouldn't be Christmas without...

Quote from: Marilyne on December 13, 2024, 12:14:59 PMI saw on the news last night, that Dick Van Dyke, had to be evacuated from his home in Malibu, yesterday.  That terrible wildfire, still going on,  has destroyed lots of homes . . . other celebrities besides Van Dyke. 

He and his wife are back home now fortunately.

Quote from: BarbStAubrey on December 13, 2024, 01:08:29 PMJust wouldn't be Christmas without...

David Crowder is always worth listening to

Here's another fun rendition of "Jingle Bells", this time in an Italian dialect of some sort (Neapolitan or Sicilian I believe)

Oh goodness crazy Lou Monte - so many lighthearted and fun recordings from before the Beatles when Elvis was still 'the man' and the likes of Patsy Cline just started her rise to fame - among my friends there was one Italian girl and she used to sing his stuff all the time along with Volare - she had us all singing Volare to the top of our lungs. Our children were preschoolers and would stare at us, at first with their eyes wide but then after they were used to our silliness they laughed and smiled

Here is another Lou Monte Christmas silly...

And probably Lou's most famous Christmas tune...

A fun rollicking version of "Jingle Bells" from 1963. The Pinetoppers were a hillbilly band formed by Vaughn Horton and his brother.

A fun piece from 1958 from Stan Freberg. This almost didn't get released because Capitol Records didn't want to deal with the feedback it would generate from those in the advertising industry. Freberg threatened to have another label release it instead, and this finally got released, but Capitol didn't promote it at all and the few DJs who dared to play it were faced with significant backlash. This ended up getting Coca-Cola to ask Freberg to create an ad campaign for them, and only furthered his success working in the advertising industry, despite the message.

I remember the song, and the controversy. I know I've mentioned in the past, that he graduated from my high school - a few years ahead of me.  He came back once, and put on a wild and hilarious show for a school assembly in 1952.  He was never invited back.  His rendition of  "John and Marsha",  didn't go over well with the faculty.  We, the students,  loved it and him!

Quote from: Marilyne on December 17, 2024, 10:58:53 AM"John and Marsha"

That one was fairly popular here on the other coast.

I wonder, ---is there any nice Christmas music left?

One of my favorite Christmas songs sung by one of the best!

Thanks Mars.  "O Holy Night" - a favorite of mine since I was a kid.

Here's another great holiday tune from Johnny Mathis. This has its roots in an Italian song called "Le rose blue". That song was then re-arranged into a wordless choral piece called "Soleado", and German record producer Fred Jay added English lyrics to create this song. It was originally recorded by German singer Michael Holm in 1974. Mathis recorded it in 1976.

Another great holiday tune that's not as well known as it should be. Written and originally recorded in 1988 by Canadian country singer Rita MacNeil. This version, which is the only other one I can find, is from 1993.

Had to look it up - Anne Murray retired, age 79 living in Canada

haha love it MarsGal  

That video is a classic. Never gets old.

Here's a fun one from 1962. In 1985, Ray re-recorded with slightly different lyrics, featuring the singer talking to his lover rather than kids, and a music video for that version was included on the popular Ray Stevens Comedy Classics VHS tape.

Make this FULL SCREN.

A wild very 1950s version of "Blue Christmas" by Esquivel and company. This album was one of RCA's "Living Stereo" releases, designed to take full advantage of the relatively new stereophonic technology, and this recording is a great example of that.

OK change of pace - this Youtube not only includes the song for Las Posadas but the two unprofessional performers share the story of the song and yes, a brief comment on what it means to them.

And now that y'all understand the Traditional Christmas song for La Posada here is a marvelous display of the song with the musicians in their finest for Christmas

Oh and one more - the dancing that starts half way in this video of La Posado  is marvelous

I feel the need to explain myself since the current issue overwhelms the news - Yes, I share Mexican cultural music because, not so much north Texas or West Texas but Central Texas to South Texas has ALWAYS had a huge Mexican American population that many were living here before the first white man crossed into the area - there were Mexican men who died at the Alamo and therefore like all the Alamo fighters today they are remembered with a county named for them - Their numbers were not as noticeable in the past because yes, as the Blacks in the South were not given equal treatment till the last about 50 or so years so too many of the Mexicans in Texas unless you were a huge land owner. The recent issue at the border is as offensive to most of the Texas Mexican population who consider themselves white.

In El Paso 90% are Mexican with the Spanish language common as a first language - In San Antonio it is 80% Mexican American and in Austin it is equal whites to Mexican American - Here in the Houston area there is about 39% Mexican compared to 50% White with many French speaking Cajun's, a strong Czech and German influence with their churches and festivals and a good size Vietnamese community.

Living in Austin and here in Magnolia, on the outskirts of Houston I have and had Mexican American neighbors - In Austin my best next door neighbor is Mexican American - My children had among their friends growing up Mexican American youngsters. And yes, like the entire state we have the addition of recent migrants that are not counted or included in these city population numbers - the YouTube music I share is just I find the Mexican Mariachi music to be happy and joyful and so I share it.

83 years old and still performing on national TV every year...

Barb,  I enjoyed watching the La Posado video. Especially beautiful when the ladies begin dancing with those colorful dresses.  A pleasure to watch the musicians and singers too. 
I grew up in the Los Angeles area, where there is a huge Mexican population, and always lots of traditional celebrations, parades, events going on year round.  I love the Mariachi and the Ranchero music, and of course the food is legendary!   

Not so much up here in Northern California-Bay Area, where I live now,  but there's still a big presence.  We love the Christmas tradition of tamales for Christmas Eve.  We usually buy them from local Mexican restaurants, but I've heard that Costco sells thousands of big bags of tamales here,  during the holidays.