Wendy Richard & Diana Berry - Keep 'Em Looking Around

 

Wendy Richard had appeaed on Mike Saerne's1962 #1 record 'Come Oustaside'.

Wendy Richard And Diana Berry - Keep 'Em Looking Around

Wendy Burton - 17 Million Bicycles

 

 

Released 1962, The only record from Wendy Burton.

Seventeen Million Bicycles

Caroline Binkley - I Want A Baby Brother For Christmas

 

Wishing every one a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Caroline Binkley - I Want A Baby Brother For Christmas

Released 1965 only in the USA,  this was re-released as the 'B' side of 'Mr Pilot' a promotional only record in 1966. 

This record according to the cover notes was the Christmas record of 1965 challenging Denise Regan - Hole In My Socking for the accolade, in the event of things this record is the more common of the two.

1965 Carolyn Binkley - I Want A Baby Brother For Christmas

Caroline Binkley - All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth

Released 1965 the 'B' side of the first of 3 released for Caroline Binkley, though the 3rd release was a DJ only record. I have to confess that I have all 3 of Caroline Binkley's records.

 Carolyn Binkley - All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth

Denise Regan - Hole In The Stocking

 

Denise Regan - Hole In The Stocking 

Released 1965, I like the line in the sleeve notes 'And her Hole In The Stocking' will become a Christmas standard for years to come. This record only turns up as Promotional Copies, was it ever released to the public, it's not going to be a Christmas Standard if nobody can buy the record.

The track has not been posted on You Tube, and remains a Christmas Obscurity.

 

Jerry Pate - Twelve Days Of Christmas

 

A Track from A Dysfunctional Family Chrustmas.

This is the only track I have by Jerry Pate, did he record any other songs, there is little or no infornation about him.

A Poor Boy's Twelve Days Of Christmas - Jerry Pate

Becky Lee Beck - I Want A Beatle For Christmas

 

A 1964 release, ten years earlier there was a song 'I Want Eddie Fisher For Christmas', it was recorded by a number of Artists.

I WANT A BEATLE FOR CHRISTMAS - BECKY LEE BECK.wmv

Stereo 

I WANT A BEATLE FOR CHRISTMAS BECKY LEE BECK DES

More Vagarants and Blocked Drains

 In one building we would get complaints that when the weather got hot the building smelt like a Gents Urinal, much time, effort & money was spent trying to find the source of the problem, was there damage to the stack pipes or a break between the toilets to the stack, no problem could be found that would cause the smell. Out the back of the building was an underground electrical sub station, by the entrance door was a recess and a drain, the drain was blocked and there was what we thought was water possibly 6-8 ins deep, it was not our building or responsibility, the local vagrants were using the stairs down to the entrance as a urinal, meaning it was not water but urine, it was also  discovered that the air intake for the air conditioning was in the electrical sub station, the electricity board got the drain unblocked, the problem disappear, the management liked to do frequent reorganisations, knowledge about buildings was not passed on and lost.

At some point the company decided to replace the roller towels with green paper towels to save money, the roller towels were removed and money was saved on that budget, the number of blocked toilets and stacks increased, one green paper towel could hold back a whole stack, once the held back sewerage got to a certain level it would find the path of least resistance, in this case the 1st floor ladies toilet and then flow down the main staircase, resulting in a big clean up, this was a fairly common occurrence, the building was being transferred to another division within the company who had their own facilities, the building a typical 1960's office and did not have the best natural light, they had chosen dark grey furniture, it made the floors look dark and dingy, before we had moved the last of our people out, we got a blocked stack, sewerage coming out the first floor ladies toilet and running down the stairs, we put into practice the by now well tried clean up procedure, there facilities said to me you must promises me this will never happen again, I said I can only promise it will not happen again if your staff do not flush the green paper hand towels down the toilets, they never did move in as the group was disbanded shortly afterwards.

The change to paper towels may have saved money on one budget, but increased the costs on another, in the end it cost far more than was saved.

The building was on the site of the Holborn Empire, there was a preservation order on the site, the building had to be in the footprint of the Holborn Empire.

In another building (now demolished) there would be flooding in one of the Gents Toilets after it had rained, specialists were brought in various coloured dyes were put on the roof to see if the water was coming in from a leak in the roof, they could not find the source of the water, it remained an unsolved problem, the staff were moved out and the building was closed, during the soft strip it was found the the urinals in that toilet had never been connected to the main stack and had been draining into the area the stack ran down, the building was about 60 years old and this problem had been there since Day1.

The building had won a number of Architectural Awards when it was built, I was based there after my Facilities days and was looking at the chimney, on each floor it had a platform around the chimney these were close fitting to the chimney, there was no drainage provided from the platforms, the rain water had no way of escape and puddled there.

The Fans - I Want A Beatle For Christmas

 

A 1964 release , trying to cash in on the popularity of the Beatles? The only record about the Beatles to chart in the UK  if I recall is the 1963 release of 'Dora Bryan - All I Want For Christmas Is A Beatle' it made No. 20 in the UK Charts.

The Fans I Want A Beatle For Christmas

Gorman Sisters - Daddy Is My Santa Claus

Released December1958, This was the lastof 4 records from the Gorman Sisters, was their first attempt aimed at the Evangelical market and a year later the General market?

The Gorman Sisters - Daddy Is My Santa Claus

 

Gorman Sisters - Jesus Is My Santa Claus.

 

Released November1957, the picture sleeve promoted this as the 'Most Popular Christmas Song Of All Time', the first time I heard this reord was when I played it to transfer it to a digital format, I can think of many other records that are much better known than this record.

The Gorman Sisters - Jesus Is My Santa Claus

The Little Sisters - Are My Ears On Straight

 

Relesed 1959, the first of three releases by The Little Sisters, only their third single ' Goin' To Boston' had a UK release. 

 I do not have a copy of the 1964 Jennie Bradley Australian release.

The Little Sisters - Are My Ears On Straight (1959)

Gayla Peevey - Are My Ears On Straight

 

This was also recorded by 'The Little Sisters' in 1959, and an Australian Relase by 'Jenie Bradley' in 1964.

Are My Ears On Straight

Gayla Peevey - I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas

Issued in 1953, in the UK this record was issued on the Phillips Label as a 78 the Phillips Label at that time were not producing 45's in the UK.

Gayla Peevey - I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas (Hippo the Hero) (Audio)

Doris Slater Martin - I Got The Chicken Pox For Christmas

 

First released in 1957, the record was also available as a 78rpm disc, I have it on a 45, the record is part of an activity pack, with actions for children to do during the song, a lot of the records have become separated from the activity packs, when I first posted this record it was still available to buy.

The only recording I could find is taken from a 78.

Doris Stalter Martin - I Got the Chicken Pox for Christmas

Mike Mercado - Brussel Sprouts

 

Sorry this record or any of Mike Mercado's records are posted on YouTube.

Each time I posted a Mike Mercado record I got a number of comments from former pupils of the schools he had taught in as Brother Solomon later as Mike Mercado, saying his subjects were Discipline and Music in that order, he left the order in 1966 and became Mike Mercado, there were hints of other things being carried out.

It seems the hints that something untoward was happening were true, 

Teacher accused of historic sex assault received pay-out worth £58k today | East Anglian Daily Times

Willie Rainford - There'll Be Rain, Dear This Christmas

 

Released 1972, I have no details about this record, Willie Rainford had another record released in 1977.

A few years ago when I was buying some records from my record dealer, he had a copy of this record I almost turned it down as I had just acquired a copy, something made me change my mind and  I brought the record, when I got the record home and compared it to the copy I already had it was the same label , same song but a different artist, I can not remember where which copy came from, the Willie Rainford release has 'There'll Be Rain, Dear This Christmas' as the 'A' side and 'Christmas Shoes' as the 'B' side and has the catalogue number as C 1035.

George Elliott released the same 2 tracks on the same label as catalogue No.         C-1036 with Christmas Shoes' as the 'A' side and 'There'll Be Rain, Dear This Christmas' as the 'B' side, there is a different musical director for both records.

In the early days of the blog I posted 3 different versions of 'Thoroughly Modern Millie' all of them had the same track on the 'B' side.

The George Elliot version has not been posted on You Tube.

 

Willie Rainsford - There'll Be Rain, Dear This Christmas

Three Blonde Mice - Ringo Bells

Released November 1964, the First of two singles from this group, the 'A' side 'The Twelve Days Of Christmas' is not on You Tube, while checking my storage I have both sided of their second single from May 1965 so I probably have a copy of that single, when I was buying lots of Christmas records I would get many I had never heard before.

 Three Blonde Mice - Ringo Bells - YouTube

Bob Rivers - Little Hooters Girl

Bob Rivers sadly passed away earlier this year, I first came across a CD of his when I was in the HMV store in London, I had a long service award and took it as HMV vouchers, I had a couple of pounds remaining, I saw a Bob Rivers Christmas CD at £1 so I brought that and another cheap CD, I went on to acquire most of the Bob Rivers CD's.

The Little Hooters Girl - YouTube

Weavers Green - That's How Christmas Began

I found my copy of  this 1967 release from one of the Hook Road Arena Boot Sales some time ago. the 'A' side 'I Saw Santa Sitting On A See-Saw', is not on You Tube, but the'B' side is., I do not recall ever hearing this record until I transfered it to MP3 format.

 Weavers Green - That's How Christmas Began (1967) MGM - YouTube

Windows and Murder

 

One of the buildings we dealt with was in Shaftesbury Avenue, in one corner of the building had some Social Housing incorporated, we had nothing to do with the housing, it overlooked one of the flat roofs, the roof was the responsibility of the Landlord, one of the families living their regarded the roof as their own personal rubbish dump tins bottles and general refuse was thrown on to the roof, in their wisdom the senior management had decided not to renew the window cleaning contract, we had a job issued that there was human excrement on the windows, the little sh1ts that lived there had taken their excrement wrapped it in toilet paper and thrown it against the windows, as a workaround to remove the excrement we used the fire hoses to blast the stuff off, on another front actions were started to evict the family.

A couple of weeks later a child was murdered in the Seven Dials area (part of Covent Garden), it turned out the little sh1t worked as a Rent Boy and he had been murdered by one of his customers, there was a memorial set up for him, reading the letters form his classmates 'he was such a wonderful person', are we talking about the same little sh1t, the family dissapeared, the Landlords cleaners cleared the rubbish from the roof, we had no problems from that area again.

Be careful what you wish for sometimes wishes do come true.

Paddy Roberts - Merry Christmas You Suckers

 

Released 30th November 1962, the last single by Paddy Roberts, and a bit prophetic as Christmas seemed to start earlier each year in the UK it is was not hemmed in by Thanksgiving, the start of Christmas was when Father Christmas arrived at Bentalls in Kingston usually late October, we would be taken to see him mid December, my mothers thinking was if the Christmas decorations have to come down on twelfth night they go up twelve days before Christmas, some shops were selling Christmas cards in June, another indication the Christmas was approaching was the advert for Timex watches on television, on Christmas Day the adverts extolling you to but this or that ended and changed to ones to book your Summer Holidays, though these start well before Christmas now.

PADDY ROBERTS - 'Merry Christmas You suckers' - 1962 45rpm - YouTube

Kempton Park Toy Fair

Yesterday I went to the Toy-fair at Kempton Park, it was very busy possibly due to the date being close to Christmas, the Toy-fairs tend to be either model car oriented where there are more people selling model cars or ones where Model Trains are in the ascendance, yesterday's was one where model car's were more prominent, the queue to get in was the longest I had ever see it, one of the things I do is buy the old Triang mineral wagons and replace the chassis with a Bachmann one from either the China Clay wagon or the Salt wagon, they both use the same underframe, there were plenty of the triang mineral wagons there, most were priced at £5 or more and by the time you have acquired the Bachmann wagon the cheapest I have found was £4 but prices normally start at £7.50, I decided it was project not viable at present, I had spent most of my money and was having a last look around before I left, I noticed a bov under one of the stalls that I had missed on my initial walk round, the box contained a large number of Bachmann 16ton Mineral wagons all with coal loads, unboxed at £6.50, I ended up buying 16 perhaps I should have brought the lot, I rejected the odd ones that were damaged, mainly missing brake parts and some were from a later period than I model, one stall had a box of pigs they were a bit large for most scales. 

 

Mona Aboud - I should Have Left The Light On For Santa Claus

The 'B' side of this 1980 release, this record was issued on 2 different labels.

 I Should Have Left the Light On for Santa

Meeting Rooms & St. Giles

 For my sins I once worked in Building Facilities, it was not a job I enjoyed, meeting rooms were a particular bain, one woman called us and said I have booked Meeting Room 7 (it was a small meeting room for 6 people) I need 40 exrea chairs, I told her that we did not have any extra chairs and that you could not fit them in the room, I was told I was being very unhelpful according to her, another time someone stormed into the office and shouted at us you should have better signage on your meeting room doors I can not find room X, without looking up I said thats in such and such building about a mile down the road.

One day we got an 'A' job it had a four hour deadline, the job was there are naked  vagarants dancing in the car park, so we went to the building, there was no sign of the vagarants, the Building St Giles House shared certain parts with the Hotel next door, when cleating bottles of wine the bottles were just dumped in the recycling bim, they were not emptied some bottles still had some of the contents in them, the vagarants had diccoverd this, and had forced the bin open and had been drinking the dregs in the bottles, by the time we got there the offenders had dispersed, there was little we could have done if they were still there. The ironic thing St Giles is the patron saint of homeless people.

Mona Aboud - The Pretty Little Dolly

 

Released 1980. This is another record I first came across on a compilation CD of forgotten Christmas songs, I was looking at the new listings on a site I brought quite a few records from, this was listed so I brought it as one of the 50-100 christmas records I was buying each year back then, I no longer buy large numbers of Christmas records from America as the postage deals changed and it became unviable to buy records, the postage went fron1st record full postage then $1 for each subsiquent record, the revised was $17.50 for each record, the Customs declaration form only has 5 lines and I discoverd by accident thet if you brought 5 cheap records ($4-$6) as the first 5, the records were listed in the order you brought them on the Customs form, the avarage for the first 5 records was about $25, Customs duty started at $30, from memory the Custins duty worked out at about £30 of which £24 was the collection fee.

The Pretty Little Dolly - The Tonight Show - Mona Abboud Auer & Jim Rusk [1966] - YouTube

More Fun On The Trains

 I was almost always the last person the leave the office in the evening, I would walk from Blackfriars to Waterloo and catch the train at about 17.25, all the incoming passengers had left the train, there was one person left he was asleep the way he was dressed spoke vagarant, we had from one of the beggers that worked the commuter services from Waterloo, the scnario was "I have been on the phone for most of the day and I have found a place at a hostel from Thursday (always in three days time) until then I will still need to eat, I only want a small meal" but I digress, with the usual British reserve nobody woke him up, one of the station staff at Vauxhall woke him up, and he started, he was on his way to work, he had a job unlike you lot who don't have jobs, he did not stop shouting, at Clapham Junction when the doors opend their were two British Transport Police waiting for him, he was escorted from the train still shouting, maybe he was already known to the staff and police, most of the people on the train were returning home from work.

Anothger time a couple of vagrants got on the train, as the train left Waterloo they produced a bottle of wine I think they had stolen from the Off Licence on Waterloo Station, they excitedly peeled of the foil cap then their faced dropped the bottle had a cork and they did not have a bottle opener, that made me think they had stolen the bottle if they had brought it they could have got a bottle with a screw top.

Granny - Granny's Holiday Fruitcake

 

Released 1963, Granny is Jerry Thomas, in  Stan Freberg's record  'The Old Payola Roll Blues' the record label mentiond is the Obscurity label, this ia another record I first came across on a CD of forgotten Christmas records.

Granny - Granny's Holiday Fruitcake - 1963

Lenny The Lion With Terry Hall - I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas

 

                                            Released November 1959, the first of 2 records by Lenny The Lion With Terry Hall, the second an EP on the Decca label issued in 1963, I can remember Lenny The Lion on TV when I was young.

The 'B' side I Wish That I Could Be Father Christmas is not avalable for download

I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas - Lenny the Lion with Terry Hall - YouTube

Working in London.

Muffin after a visit to the Vets, while brushing Muffin one morning I noticed a large hole underneath in the back leg, as if a branch or large twig had goen in, on her walks I never saw any indication of bleeding, it was straight round the vets, an operation to clean out the wound and stitch it up, she also had a number of skin tags around the eyes, I asked for them to be removed while she was under anesthetic, when she came back she had what looked like 2 black eyes, the vet told me that the wound she had on her leg the object had gone between two muscles and would have not bled very much if at all.

 Some time back when I was working in the Holborn/Hatton Garden area, on a Saturday morning, I was changing trains at Holborn Station, the only interchange between the Piccadilly and Cental Lines though the lines cross each other at Hanger Lane there is no interchange there, I had clocked this thing in black and ignored them, he? followed me onto the Piccadilly Line Platform. I always walked to the end of the station so I would be in the right place for the last coach, I was tho only person on the platform and was standing behind the safety line, he walked behind me and the passed in front of me walking in the safety area (about 2ft), it (a better discription) was wearing a female punk outfit made from black bin bags with fishnet tights, I was suposed to be shocked, but I ignored it as it went past it let out big sigh, working in that area it felt like you were walking into a freak show everyday, what really wound them up was ignoring them, at other times I worked in Shaftesbury Avenue and Angel areas with similar experiences.

Tich & Quackers - Santa's Got Such A Terrible Cold

The 'B' side, as far as I know both the 'A' & 'B' sides of this record have never appeared on CD or an LP, often the 'A' side will feature on a compilation or 'Best Of' CD but not the 'B' side making the vinyl record the only source of the track, there are some records that it is the 'B' side that appears on the compilations.

(3) Santa's Got Such a Terrible Cold ~ Tich & Quackers & The Ted Taylor Four with The Corona Kids (1964) - YouTube

Christmas Eve On The Trains

 

One of my past jobs was planning capacity on one of the digital networks, stating early December and over Christmas and the New Year we always had an embargo on new works and freeing up capacity by moving/re routing circuits, the network would run almost to capacity all generated by Credit & Debit cards, unlike many people we were not that busy over Christmas, though the jobs in limbo (usually waiting for superstructure to be built had a default date of Christmas day), on Christmas Eve the Manager of the group I was working in would say 'we will finish at three O'clock today as the higher management can never decide what time to let the staff go, most people went to the pub across the road for a drink, a few including me would go straight home as British Rail had said that all trains will finish early and be at there destinations by 21.00, the underground and buses finished later, the reason I did not go to the pub is that when I start drinking and having a good time you forget about the time and before you know it you have missed the last train, when I got to Waterloo Station it was busy I was in luck there was an Epsom train due to leave in 10 mins, the train was not overcrowded, there was one person soundly asleep, as the train was arriving at Stoneleigh two stops before Epsom, some one decided to wake him to make sure he did not miss his stop, he went ino a major strop shouting 'what the f**k did you wake me for this is not my stop, I'm on my way to Amersham you should have left me alone', most of the nearby people were stunned and amused, not only was he on the wrong train he was on the wrong railway, I still wonder if he got home for Christmas.

One of my brother in laws worked as a Guard on South West Trains had had one of the last trains into Waterloo that Christmas Eve, getting into Waterloo not long before 21.00, he told me that the indicator boards all said there are no trains until XX XX (two days later) the station concourse was packed, everyone was asking is this train going to XXXX, they cancelled his empty stock working to Wimbledon Depot, he managed to get a lift on another Empty Stock working to Wimbledon. 

Christine Hunter - Santa Bring Me Ringo

Yesterday I posted the Tich version of Santa Bring Me Ringo here is the original,there have been quite a few records about the Beatles, as far as I can recall only one made the UK charts beinf Doea Bryan's 1963 record 'All I Want For Christmas Is A Beatle.

 Released November 1964, this record did not have a UK release and was coverd by Tich, this is the only release by Christine Hunter.

 Christine Hunter Santa Bring Me Ringo

Idiots In Public Places

On my recent trip to Epsom I was in B & M not a store I often use, the store is on two levels with up & down esculators and a lift at the back of the store, a family with a number of children arrived they took a trolly, then they went to the esculators and tried to take their push chairs and trolly up to the first floor they caused absolute chaos, the esculator had to be stopped causing more problems, as I had paid for my items I left the store before the drama had fully played out, the comments of the customers (unprintable due to swearing) sumed up the situation, 'What a bunch of ******* Idiots' was the genral expression.

A later visit to the store notices have been placed on the esculators telling people not to take push chairs and trollys on to the esculators.

 

Tich - Santa Bring Me Ringo

This 1964 record was one of the last releases on the Oriol label, CBS had aquired the independant Oriol label the year before for its production facilities, in Dcember 1964 the Oriol label was discontinued (and also Woolworths Embassy Label), this record was avalible to order for 2 weeks.

Tich & Quackers had a TV series about a boy Tich and his pet duck Quackers, though I do not recall ever watching it, Ray Allen of Lord Charles fame was the ventrloquist behind Tich, Tony Hart who would later host the art shows for deaf children Take Hart & Vison On, was the operator of Quackers, the guests on the show included the Beatles, despite there being 141 shows over 8 series between 1963 -1968 little apart from some stills exists.

(3) Santa, Bring Me Ringo ~ Tich and The Ted Taylor Four with The Corona Kids (1964) (Beatles spoof) - YouTube