Christmasparty at Club Sunkit

Some information for everyone in the Stockholm-area: The yearly Chrimastparty at Club Sunkit (Bröderna Olsson, Folkungagatan) will be Monday 17th of December. It starts at 8 pm, we will be playing music the first one or possible 2 hours (depending on the response and how eager Burt and Magnus are to get on with playing their music).

The day after, Tuesday 18th, I will talk about Christmas Records in Eftersnack, a local talkshow in stately television SVT2 (distributed locally in greater Stockholm area). I think it starts somewhere around 10 pm.

What could be a better choice if you want to celebrate that Christmas is approaching than showing a cover from a Christmas record with the German singer Heino (favourite all year around). Thanks to bizarrerecords.com.

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).

Merry Christmas Everybody

The man on this cover once spent a long time in a hospital (for what reason I don’t know). He later decided to start and save up money for children without a home, as he knew what it was like to be longing for home. This EP was made to gather money; in one of the songs he sings that he wants to give all human beings a happier world. Quite an ambitious project.

This week we, me and my husband, was DJ:s as usual at the annual Christmas Party at Sunkit, a club for Incredible Strange Music in Stockholm. The website is all written in Swedish, but they just put up a new presentation in English, where you can also read about our annual contribution.
Last week I talked about my collection of Christmas Music in morning television, and this week I was talking in two different radio programmes (but then I got tiered of myself and cancelled a third programme). There is undoubtedly a growing interest for unusual Christmas Music.

More Dances Around The Christmas Tree

"Postflickorna" was a group of girls all working at postofficies. This record contains old Christmas songs, unfortunatly I can´t yet provide you with this particular songs. But instead I want to share some other Christmas Songs. This is filmactor Thor Modén, well known from many comedies. This time he takes the part as Father Christmas ("Tomten" in Swedish) at the main stage of the outdoor center Skansen in Stockholm, it´s just before Christmas and he sings together with a laides choir. There are two parts, part one and a part two.
Hope you enjoy it!

Old American Favourites in Swedish

This time I want to share some old American favourites with Swedish artists. These recordings were made in the 40ties, when we first discovered some of these well known songs. There are a lot of versions of both songs, but these are my favourites.
The first one is Jingle Bells with Harmony Sisters, a Finish very popular ladies group singing in Swedish with a slight fínish accent (the Swedish titel is Bjällerklang). My second example is "I Saw Mummy Kissing Santa Claus" with Margret Bienert ("Jag såg mamma kyssa tomten").
I don´t have any pictures of these artists, so I decided to give you one of the worst postcards I have in my collection instead. There is not much to say about it, apart from that I figure it was made in the 70ties.

Old Dances Around the Christmas Tree

Kvartetten Synkopen was a male choir and they recorded a legendary EP wíth dances around the Christmas Tree. The last bit of it was sampled by "Just D", a Swedish hip hop-group, for their record "Juligen" (apparently the same name as this blog). Please listen to part one and part two of this very traditional Swedish Christmas Record from the 50ties.

Scandinavian Christmas in Hawaii

Yngve Stoor was a Swedish singer performning music in Hawaiian style. His most famous song is "Sjömansjul på Hawaii"(Christmas for Seemen in Hawaii), a very sentimental and extremely popoular Christmas song in my country, also performed by many other artists. It is all about longing for going home (a common theme in Christmas music).
He also translated american songs into Swedish. This is his version of a song that was made popoular by Bing Crosbys: "God julvisa på Hawaii".

Kalinka turns into cold ham

My old favourite Thore Skogman made his first Christmas-EP in 1963. This is another version of the cover (another one is shown below). The song Klappa på is telling about the exitement when Santa is knocking on the door. Thore is also an excellent writer of new lyrics to old songs. He turned all the old songs used for dancing around the Christmas Tree into barbaric butcher-songs (suffering pigs are hunted up and down with big knives). This song from 1985 is called Ritsch Ratsch. For another tune, "Kall skinka", he used the russian melodi Kalinka. Kalinka almost sounds like "cold ham" in Swedish, and ham is the main dish on our Christmas table.

Christmas With Evie

It´s getting towards winter. In Stockholm we just had the first snow of the year. It’s freezing cold. Discovered this LP from 1974 with religious songbird Evie Tornqvist: "Jul med Evie" (“Christmas With Evie”). She had a peculiar American accent, I remember. No idea what she is doing these days, but she had a nice hat on, don’t you think?.
Hemmets Härold LP 503 979

Glennmarks - a perfect family



The Glenmark family were not really a family, Ann-Louise were a famous singer, her husbound Bruno had an orchestra and was promoting his wife, Anders and Karin were brother and sister - Bruno was a brother of their father. They sang perfectly in thune but with a lack of temperament that made it rather boring. They also made a Christmas Album in the seventies.

Sing along with Egon

Egon Kjerrman is the unconquerable champion in Sweden when it comes to making many editions of the same recordings. Always with different covers, sometimes really strange covers. Look down below for a detail with two kids from another cover.

The setup is always the same; the poor kids are dancing around the Christmas tree together with Egon who is shouting and singing (rather false) as load as he can making them speed up. You often find these records in Salvation Army stores and flee markets for less than 2 dollars. Normally they are in perfect condition, meaning nobody ever wanted to listen to them. No wonder why, if you ask me.

Happy Holiday in Sweden

This record contains a bunch of wellknown Swedish artists from the beginning of the sixties. I particularly like the way they are imitating the sound of tripping small "tomtenissar", as we call them in Sweden. The song is called "Tre små tomtar"(meening there are three of these small men).
We have a slightly different Christmastradition, originally Father Christmas was not an old man with beard at all, he was rather a small, grey grumpy and rather mean supernatural being known from fairytales. For various reasons somebody found out it would be nicer with a red cap. And then he turned out to be part of the Christmas celebrations, which was never ment to be.
The record contains some national and some international favourites, my favourite amongs the american songs is a hilarious version of "Frosty the Snowman".