Merry Christmas All Of You

This Year I have collected more Christmas Music than I ever will get the time to listen to. The amount of files you can download has really grown (but if you only want one place I will recommend Ernie not Burt, what a collection!). Still, the most interesting music I find at flee markets, and this year there simply was no time for visiting such places. Even less time to transfer to mp3 (we have loads of records that I listen to but can't share with you, one is above). But maybe next year will be more relaxed since I just got a big grant for writing (I don't think anybody thought of Christmas Records when they gave me this award but never mind).
The annual Christmas Party at Club Sunkit was an ever greater success this year, people arrived early, many of them knew the lyrics of the songs and we continued for longer than we ususally do.
Merry Christmas All of You! See you next year!

5 different versions of White Christmas

Today I will share diffent versions of White Christmas. In Swedish: "Jag drömmer om en jul hemma" ("I'm dreaming of a Christmas at home"). Supposedly they thought we don't need to dream about snow. But I don't agree. Most winthers in Stockholm are green.

* Jag drömmer om en jul hemma with Lasse Löndahl, from the beginning of the sixties.
* Jag drömmer om en jul hemma with Bengt Westin, old time favourite originally 78s.
* Jag drömmer om en jul hemma with Bertil Bo, 78s.
* White Christmas with Vikingarna traditional dancehallmusic, not sure when they recorded it but possibly during the seventies.
* White Christmas with the Hep Stars, not extremely talented favourites for most girls including myself in the sixties. ABBA-member Benny Andersson was an original member in this band and plays organ on their record with Christmas music.

Jingle Bells in 7 different versions

It seems to be more and more popular to collect many different versions of the same melodies. Jingle Bells must be the most common Christmas Song that ever was (Bjällerklang in Swedish). Here are a few Swedish versions, for your pleasure:

* Bjällerklang - Towa Carson(popular artist from early sixties)
* Jingle Bells - Danny's(traditional dance hall music from the seventies)
* Bjällerklang - Thore Skogman. For more information about this artist try here.
* Bjällerklang - Indiska(produced by a store selling clothes and other stuff from India)
* Jingle Bells - Loket (known mostly becouse he introduced a Bingo-competition in TV)
* Bjällerklang - Nils Kihlberg (old 78s-version)
* Bjällerklang - Harmony Sister(this one I shared already last year, they are from Finland, apparently)

The illustration is a post card, possible from the seventies

Come Home for Christmas, Daddy

Today I will share a few tracks from the first album in my collection of Christmas Music. We had a Christmas Party and told everyone to bring their worst Christmas Records. This one was left behind (can you imagine?) and has for many years been a favourite amongs us. It's standard dance music from the seventies´. The cover is probably made by a pupil in a local school (wonder why, they sold a lot of these).
The first song is:
* Kom hem till jul,pappa (Come Home for Christmas, Daddy with Jigs, a sentimental song about how they are crying for daddy around the Christmas Tree.
The second song is:
* Jag önskar er alla en riktigt god jul (A Merry Christmas to All of You). The singer called himself Paul Paljett (paljett = sequin) as he wanted to be part of the era of Bowie-inspierad pop music with lots of glimmering details in scene costumes as well as in hair and faces (very modern at that time, but his music is not at all popmusic, as you can hear for yourselves).

Additional information for those that lives in Stockholm:
Our annual DJ-night at Club Sunkit will be Monday 18th of December at 8 pm, downstairs in the cellar at Bröderna Olsson, Folkungagatan, as usual. No entrance fee(but be there early, it usually gets crowded).

Christmas at a Brothel

This is quite an obscure thing from the seventies, the cover gives a good idea about the lyrics. The music is not very interesting, the singers and the musicians (some of them later got quite wellknown) sounds rather bored but they are doing their job. A speculation in bad taste (still I think it never sold very much, you find loads of these in Salvation Army stores).

In this version of the Lucia song (in my country it's considered as a Christmas song and we are celebrating the bride of lightness, Lucia, the 13th of December) is about a drugaddict selling her body for ten swedish crowns (a litle bit more than an american dollar).
"Hej tomtegubbar" (Cheers all Father Christmas) is a well known drinking song,not only sung at dances around the Christmas Three but also when you drink Snaps (vodka) at the dinner table at Christmas Eve. In this version Father Christmas is asked to pull down his trousers (and the rest you can guess). Last I give you a totallly different version of a traditional song "Nu är det jul igen" (Now it's Christmas again): "Nu e jag kåt igen!".

Additional information about the inspiration of this record:
Bordellmamma (Mama San in charge of the Brothel)was a well known theme from a couple of records with a totally different artist. He has nothing to do with this Christmas record. His name was Johnny Bode, well known in the 30ties and 40ties as a singer but also for many other things (such as fraud and other criminal activities, sympathies for the Nazi Party, a couple of peculiar Gay Records - some of them for the German market etc). Towards the end of his life he was getting more and more miserable, constantly in need of money and willing to do all sorts of odd things that would give him some cash. His pornografic records was a great success and many others tried to copy the idea, the Christmas Record is a result of such a project. (There are a few eccellent books about Johnny Bode, the latest one was written by the journalist Ingemar Norlén. Those that know Swedish might try to read here).

Homesick Seamen at Christmas

There are plenty of Christmas songs about Seamen longing to go home for Christmas.In fact they had an entire Radio Show for those at Christmas Eve where they played all these songs and presented greetings from their relatives. Here are some of my favourites. "Jul i främmande hamn" has been recorded with several artist. Erik Källquist (on the picture) that is singing on this one was actually a hairdresser. But he recorded many records as well and performed all over the country. For many years he made an annual Christmas Record. Those that can understand Swedish might notice that the girls they are inviting for a Christmas party in this song most certainly are prostitutes.

"Jul ombord" with Harry Persson is my second choice. He was a stage performance artist, as you might tell from his way of singing. In this case they are not in a warm and sunny country but in the middle of the Atlantic Sea, and the wind is pulling their gloves (according to the song).

Christmas in the Wild West

In the 50ties Sweden was still a country were most people lived in the countryside, farming, working with animals etc. So when country music was discovered we felt at home. Cacka Israelsson was probably the first artist trying to sing country music in Swedish. He was not very good at english, as you can hear when he tries to sing e g Emily Fords old songs (later I will upload Cool Water). But most of his songs were in Swedish,as this song about celebrating Christmas in the Wild West, "Jul i vilda västern".
(By the way, the old links below should work, so try to download again if you missed some of the tracks I shared last Christmas. If you tried a couple of days ago try again, I found a hopefully better solution this morning.).

Christmas DJ in December

It might feel as if it's long until Christ-mas. Here in Sweden we have an amazing autumn, the weather is dry and sunny, the temperature around 20 degrees. This weekend we went swimming in the sea.

Still - in just two months the preparations for Christmas begins. We have already had some calls from people wanting us for Christmas DJ. The first occasion will be in Haninge Folket Hus, just outside Stockholm, the 10th of December. We have promised to play some of our favourites.

As a service to newcomers I have downloaded the mp3-files that I shared last year again. This means the links should no longer be expired. Wish you all a great pleasure. Here are the links:
1) Older Swedish version of Frosty the Snowman and "Tre små tomtar".
2) Thore Skogman sings one long and two very short songs.
3) Yngve Stoor sings Christmas in Hawaii and a remake of a Bing Crosby-song.
4) Old dances around the Christmas Tree.
5) Old american favourites in Swedish.
6) More dances around the Christmas Tree.

Welcome back in Christmas 2006

As some people seems to be worried about the lack of action on this blogg I might as well tell you all: I will provide you with more Christmas Records later on. But as the weather is getting warmer and we get summer at last in Sweden I will wait another few months.

Meanwhile I suggest you try my Summerblog instead with various findings of kitsch, weird pieces of handicraft, odd cookerybooks a.s.o. And Yes, there are some music too.

I would particularly recommend some old Scandinavian records from the 40ties, e.g. some of Zarah Leanders Swedish Recordings, pretty hard to find outside Sweden.

The picture is a detail from a cover with the band Vikingarna (The Wikings), one of Swedens most selling band in the field of popular dancehall music (not my piece of cake but I like the cover somehow).