RichLI: the 2nd tune: did it almost sound like a 'Salvation Army Band'?
I seem to recall that one, and it might have been the Philadelphia Brass, or it could have indeed been a Salvation Army Band?

A few years back I found online, a newspaper photo from the station that Marlin Taylor programmed, (maybe WPAT) and it had their full song listing of what music they were playing for Christmas.  Perhaps that can be located and help narrow it down to a 1000 songs?

It's too bad that you couldn't have given me more of a description of the song than you did when you first asked about it two years ago, because I could have identified it for you at that time and saved you all that time. This album resides in the 2nd Tier of my Top 500, coming in at #155. With a collection as large as mine, I'm only going to be as good as the description I have to work with.

Hello all!

I thought that I would refresh this request to see if anyone can help me identify the artist/album for this Patapan/Jingle Bells medley. This was recorded on the WPAT "Spirit of Christmas" 36 hours of commercial free music on Christmas Eve 1987, in NY:

https://soundcloud.com/tekkrokk/patapan-jingle-bells/s-mK0oj

Thanks & Merry Christmas!

Hesitant to say this, but after listening to it again, I'm not even sure it's in my archives. It'll be interesting to see if I have it after it's identified.

Just a thought: back in the '70s and '80s a lot of B/EZ stations would actually publish their Christmas Eve/Christmas Day playlists in the local newspapers a couple days or so ahead of time. If anyone here has a Newspapers.com account maybe they could search the archives of some of the NJ papers and see if WPAT ever did this?

I never saw either WPAT or WRFM post their marathon Christmas playlists in any of the New York or New Jersey papers here. But it certainly couldn't hurt to check.

 Thanks for the suggestion Motown Mike! Unfortunately WPAT never did publish their Christmas music marathon. I would’ve been very interested in seeing that. IMHO, WPAT was the gold standard of the 3 NYC area radio stations playing uninterrupted Christmas music on Christmas Eve. The 3rd station, aside from WRFM was WCTO.

I did find out last year thanks to another board member that WRFM used to publish their Christmas music playlists in the Sunday New York Times in the 70s and 80s. Not sure if WCTO ever published their playlist.

Much thanks Chip for checking that elusive song!

That's absolutely correct, Rich; WPAT was indeed the best Easy Listening station here in the New York metro area; and, of course, with their annual "Spirit Of Christmas" radio presentation, they had the best Christmas radio programming as well. For anyone interested, we talked more about this in another thread; click here.

By the way, that was interesting about WRFM publishing their playlists in the Times; I didn't know that.

 Rich, glad you mentioned WCTO. Growing up in Brooklyn and eventually ending up in New Jersey I was always a WPAT guy and I agree is was the best. One day I needed to go to my brother's house on long Island about two weeks before Christmas when I was able to pick up WCTO on the car radio . Great station. For several years my brother would make a tape for me on Christmas Eve until they went off the air.   

I've been on a bit of a Patapan kick lately and saw this thread.   I did some searching on newspapers.com and found a few Patapan/Jingle Bells entries in various 1980s Christmas song marathons attributed to a Ben McPeek.   It appears there is not much out there about him, other than that he was a Canadian composer.    Perhaps this is his song? 

Hello Kringleling,

Thanks for the post.  This one interests me a lot.  I did a search for Ben McPeek and I've seen a lot of Christmas Music marathons in print, but not a one leads to a Ben McPeek and Patapan.  Can you tell me what newspaper and date?  I have access to the newspaper.com site and would be able to search these.  Thank you.

Snow Miser

Kringleling,

I think you are definitely on to something here.  I was able to find a 45 released by the Canadian Talent Library in 1973.  On side B there is a "Patapan" by the Ben McPeek Orchestra.  On another site that details the 45 it says, "...a medley of "Patapan/Jingle Bells" by the Ben McPeek Orchestra.

If you look at the image of the 45 site here: http://www.45cat.com/record/s5830

You'll notice the Patapan by Ben McPeek is 2:35 long and it's a match for the recording that RichLI originally posted.  The only thing left here is to get a copy of that 45 to confirm that it is indeed the mystery recording.  Let the search begin...

Chip - any chance you have this 45 in your collection?  :)

Thanks again Kringleling.

Snow Miser

I may have this version of Patapan on a cassette from when I would tape off the radio in the 1970's.  It sounds very familiar to me too.  It could possibly be Ben McPeek as I use to listen a lot of CFLG 104.5 in Cornwall Ontario.  That station still exists today, but they have changed their format.  They are now Fresh 1045  I remember several years ago listening to an 8-Track tape that I recorded.  The tape was an 80-minute one, so 20 minutes per track, but I ended up getting about 25 minutes per track and when I actually played it back, the tape was dragging so the music was playing back faster than recorded but also slowing down.  I had written CFLG asking them about two particular songs that I often heard them playing.

At the time it sounded like a young female singing soprano, but at least 20 years later, I finally found out who it was.  It was Heinthe (Hein Simons) and the two songs I was trying to identify were Little Toy Tin Soldier and Alle Jahre Wieder.

The second song is more recognizable as it was done by many artists.  But the first one, I kept getting search results for artists like Martika and a few other artists, but nothing was the song I was searching for.

I had written several letters to CFLG trying to find this song and didn't get any responses.  Then when I had a computer I would email them and so on, but still no results.  Eventually someone posted a video on YouTube of Little Toy Tin Soldier and I was able to directly search for Heintje.  I was already familiar with him from his singing "Mama:"  from the movie "Die Lummel"

Growing up in Vermont, we got a few Canadian TV Stations on our cable TV system, and one was in French.  Though I couldn't understand the language very well, they did broadcast this movie a few times and I remember Heintje singing Mama on a few television shows like Mike Douglas etc.  Not sure which one he actually sang it on.

I was able to find both of his Christmas albums as only one song that I was searching for was on each.

Moral of the story.  "Persistence will pay off"  It has done so many times since the advent of the personal computer and world wide web.

EDITED as I forgot to include the albums these two songs are from.

Weihnachten mit Heintje

Ariola 78199 IU

1968

Side One

01 Stille Nacht

02 Süßer Die Glocken Nie Klingen

03 Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen

04 Leise rieselt der Schnee

05 Morgen kommt der Weihnachtsmann

06 Kommet, ihr Hirten

07 O Tannenbaum

Side Two

01 O du fröhliche

02 Am Weihnachtsbaum die Lichter brennen

03 Kling, Glöckchen, kling

04 Alle Jahre Wieder

05 Morgen, Kinder, Wird's was geben

06 Ihr Kinderlein kommet

07 Vom Himmel hoch

And
When The Christmas-Bells Are Ringing

1971

Polydor 2310 148

Side One

01 When The Christmas-Bells Are Ringing

02 Silent Night

03 Winter Wonderland

04 O Christmas Tree

05 Jingle Bells

06 Little Toy Tin Soldier

Side Two

01 White Christmas

02 Little Drummerboy

03 O Thou Joyful Day

04 Wintertide

05 Cowboy Carol

06 From Heaven High The Angels Come

Sorry, no dice on this Canadian single.

 Wow, I really appreciate the updates for this very elusive song! I'm convinced that Kringleling and Snow Miser may have found the correct artist after all of these years!

Anyway, Merry Christmas everyone!

Hello All,

Just a note to let you know that the Patapan/Jingle Bells Medley is solved.  Kringleling hit the nail on the head.  The artist is indeed Ben McPeek and the song is found on the B side of a 45 titled, "A Joyous Noel", from the Canadian Talent Library.  I was able to find a copy of the 45 from an Internet seller and was able to confirm that it is a match to what RichLI posted. 

Thank you, Kringleling!

Snow Miser

What an amazing tale of sleuthing and crowd sourcing over six years!

What a wonderful resource this message board is!