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CluelessInSeattle
  • Rank:Diamond
  • Posts:312
  • From:USA
  • Register:01/22/2011 05:14:18

Date Posted:04/06/2018 02:03:39Copy HTML

I've been sorting through my boxes of old home recorded audio cassettes and came across an unidentified recording of The First Noel played on a pipe organ and chimes accompanied by an orchestra.  I'm not certain where I got it, but I think I copied it from a set of home recorded cassettes of Christmas music a former neighbor gave me years ago.  She had received them as a gift from a former boyfriend, but she was one of those people who hated Christmas so she gave them to me. 

I copied it from one of those compilation cassettes onto a 5 minute cassette and then eventually transferred it to an MP3, but the quality is really poor, to the point of being unlistenable.. 

I'd be grateful for some help in trying to identify the source of the original recording so I could track down a high quality recording of it.

Can someone remind me how I could post the MP3 here to the message board so you folks could give it a listen? 


Will in Seattle a.k.a. "Clueless"
KingofJingaling Share to: Facebook Twitter MSN linkedin google yahoo #1
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  • Register:08/24/2009 02:49:49

Re:First Noel - Organ & Orchestra - Unknown Artist

Date Posted:07/27/2018 09:50:10Copy HTML

I don't believe these forums allow attachments or uploads, usually for security purposes. You could upload it to an external service (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.) and post a link for people to hear it. Lots of folks out here (myself included) love this kind of detective work.
CluelessInSeattle Share to: Facebook Twitter MSN linkedin google yahoo #2
  • Rank:Diamond
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  • Register:01/22/2011 05:14:18

Re:First Noel - Organ & Orchestra - Unknown Artist

Date Posted:08/26/2018 05:53:40Copy HTML

Thanks, Jingaling!


I just uploaded the MP3 to Google  Drive:

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cjShU89S0M97nkrzMcZ6F_JtFXZYrtiW/view?usp=sharing



Will in Seattle a.k.a. "Clueless"
snow miser Share to: Facebook Twitter MSN linkedin google yahoo #3
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  • Posts:33
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  • Register:01/05/2007 12:52:02

Re:First Noel - Organ & Orchestra - Unknown Artist

Date Posted:08/27/2018 01:49:10Copy HTML

The artist is Leslie Pearson/John Paice/The London Bell Ringers & The Westminster Brass Ensemble.  The song is available on many different albums including as an mp3 download on Amazon, Apple, etc.  Any more that need identifying?  Love this kind of stuff...
CluelessInSeattle Share to: Facebook Twitter MSN linkedin google yahoo #4
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  • Register:01/22/2011 05:14:18

Re:First Noel - Organ & Orchestra - Unknown Artist

Date Posted:08/27/2018 06:04:17Copy HTML

Thanks a million, snow miser!  That was really fast!  And you nailed it! 


You also sent me on a nostalgic trip down memory lane:


Using the artist info you provided me,  I googled around on the web and came upon a CD on amazon that listed along with Leslie Pearson/John Paice, et al, also listed Richard Benson and his Orchestra.  That rang a bell.  Back in the mid 60s when I was a teenager, I ordered a Reader's Digest box set of LPs called "Joyous Music for Christmas Time."  (There was something odd about that set. One of the LPs in that set had some tracks that sounded just like the tracks on Melachrino's "Christmas Joy" LP.  But they were credited to "George Benson" and his Orchestra.  I've wondered ever since about that.  Did this George Benson license the Melachrino arrangements and make his own recording of them?  Or was "George Benson" a pseudonyn for Melachrino? Maybe Chip can fill us in.  But I'm getting off track; back to the story):


Well, seeing that name, George Benson, made me wonder:  "Is the First Noel track I'm looking for on that Reader's Digest box set of LPs?  Wasn't there one side of an LP in that set that had organ and bells arrangements on it?"


I went to my LP shelf and looked through all my Christmas LPs, but the Reader's Digest box set wasn't there.  I find it hard to believe that I could have tossed it during one of my purges of my collection.  That was one of my most beloved LPs. But, I'm in my 70s and in poor health and may soon have to move to an assisted living facility, so I've been trying to force myself to let go of more and more of my stuff.  And it looks like I may have taken that box set to the Golden Oldies used record store during my latest purge.


But then, I thought:  "Wait a minute!  Don't I have a set of CD-Rs of "Joyous Music for Christmas Time" that a guy I met on the Internet made for me years ago?  Didn't he transfer them from his own set of LPs and mail them to me?"  I flipped through my little box of Christmas CD-Rs, and sure enough, there it was.  Not only that, I saw on the paper sleeve that I had marked in pencil four stars next to the track listing for "The First Noel."  I popped the CD-R into my PC's DVD/CD drive and bingo!  Out of the speakers came the very same recording I was looking for.


So it turns out I had had it in my collection all the time but had compeletely forgotten about it.


A long while back some one told me that one of the nice things about having dementia is that you can hide your own Easter eggs.

Will in Seattle a.k.a. "Clueless"
snow miser Share to: Facebook Twitter MSN linkedin google yahoo #5
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  • Register:01/05/2007 12:52:02

Re:First Noel - Organ & Orchestra - Unknown Artist

Date Posted:08/28/2018 01:34:48Copy HTML

Glad it worked out!  I went back to look myself and found the track in one of my Reader's Digest Christmas CDs - so there you have it!
Christmas Music Guru Share to: Facebook Twitter MSN linkedin google yahoo #6
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  • Register:09/07/2005 11:04:22

Re:First Noel - Organ & Orchestra - Unknown Artist

Date Posted:08/28/2018 06:45:47Copy HTML


Will,

First, you meant to say Richard Benson in your post, not George Benson. Second, you cannot copyright an arrangement; so there would have been no need for Benson to license George Melachrino's arrangements. In addition, that 1963 Reader's Digest LP box set was manufactured by RCA Records, which was Melachrino's contracted record label; so Benson would have been more than welcome to use his arrangements anyway. As for the seven songs by Benson on the Reader's Digest box set, all of the tracks except for one has a different running time than Melachrino's version of the songs; so it's doubtful that Richard Benson was a pseudonym for Mr. Melachrino.

Sorry to hear that you have to get rid of your stuff in order to move into the assisted living center. But if that's what you need to do to get the care your need, it will be worth it. We all have too much stuff anyway!

Best of luck.


Lawrence F. "Chip" Arcuri Owner/Webmaster | The Yule Log.com
CluelessInSeattle Share to: Facebook Twitter MSN linkedin google yahoo #7
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  • Register:01/22/2011 05:14:18

Re:First Noel - Organ & Orchestra - Unknown Artist

Date Posted:08/29/2018 07:00:31Copy HTML

Thanks Chip!  I was hoping you'd drop in on this thread and clear up the Richard Benson mystery.  I figured if anyone had any answers it would be you.



Will in Seattle a.k.a. "Clueless"
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