I have produced another new hour of the legendary Yule Log telecast.

A new Fifth Hour will be added to the broadcast this year to celebrate the program's 50th anniversary.

It will premiere nationally on Antenna TV on Christmas Day morning at 6am (EST) as part of a special 5-hour 50th Anniversary Golden Jubilee presentation of the program from 2am-7am (EST). Following that, here in New York, it will air on WPIX-TV at 11am (EST) as part of a special 5-hour presentation of the program from 7am-12pm (EST).

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of WPIX's legendary Yule Log broadcast, this magnificent new Fifth Hour begins in celebratory and jubilant fashion with Al Hirt's jolly and rollicking rendition of Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town, and ends triumphantly and majestically with the "King of the Yule Log" Percy Faith's joyous and reverent rendition of Hallelujah Chorus, which aired on the first three Yule Log broadcasts from 1966-1968. This new fifth hour also boasts songs by eight new artists to the program's soundtrack. They include Patti Page, Andy Williams, Jim Reeves, Kitty Wells, Brenda Lee, Lawrence Welk, Perry Como and Lynn Anderson.

I initially began producing this new Fifth Hour in mid-2014 in anticipation of the Yule Log's approaching 50th anniversary in 2016. I worked on the new hour on and off for well over a year. I made my final decision on the songs in the fall of 2014, and then began the delicate work of meticulously arranging them in the best order that they should play. Then, last year, in January of 2015, when that process was completed and I had settled on a final arrangement, I formally submitted to WPIX my proposal of celebrating the Yule Log's 50th anniversary with a special "Golden Jubilee 5-hour presentation" of the telecast and provided them with the proposed new Fifth Hour's track list. Subsequent to this, came the long tedious production work of laying the hour down and working the segues between the songs so that they're perfectly timed, which takes considerable time as the program's soundtrack has a unique pace and flow to it. Then, finally, in February of 2016, once the hour was fully produced and I was pleased with the results, came the final production work of creating the demo disc and accompanying jewel case artwork to present to the execs at WPIX.

It is truly the great honor of my life that by virtue of my 2006 audio restoration and the new Fourth and Fifth hours that I created for the program in 2009 and 2016 respectively, that I could now be regarded as kind of a second father of this legendary program after, of course, its original creator, the great Fred Thrower.

Posted below and released for the first time is the complete track list for the new 50th anniversary Golden Jubilee Fifth Hour.

As with my new Fourth Hour in 2009, creating this new Fifth Hour in 2016 was a true labor of love.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I had in putting it together.

  Track Listing for the New 5th Hour of the Yule Log Soundtrack:

Seq	Title	Artist		Original Album Cover Art
1	Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town(Instr)	Al Hirt		The Sound Of Christmas RCA 1965
2	Santo Natale	Patti Page		Christmas With Patti Page Columbia 1965
3	Kaye Thompson's Jingle Bells	Andy Williams		The Andy Williams Christmas Album Columbia 1963
4	Senor Santa Claus	Jim Reeves		Twelve Songs Of Christmas RCA 1963
5	The First Noel	Johnny Mathis		Merry Christmas Columbia 1958
6	Dasher With The Light Upon His Tail	Kitty Wells		Christmas Day With Kitty Wells Decca 1962
7	Do You Hear What I Hear	The Norman Luboff Choir		Christmas With The Norman Luboff Choir RCA 1964
8	This Time Of The Year	Brenda Lee		Merry Christmas From Brenda Lee Decca 1964
9	MEDLEY: Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer / Jingle Bells (Instr)	Andre Kostelanetz		Wonderland Of Christmas Columbia 1963
10	Silver Bells (Instr)	Percy Faith		Christmas Is Columbia 1966
11	I Wanna Do More Than Whistle	Lawrence Welk		Merry Christmas From Lawrence Welk Coral 1956
12	Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town	Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians		'Twas The Night Before Christmas Decca 1955
13	Mary's Little Boy Child	Jim Reeves		Twelve Songs Of Christmas RCA 1963
14	The White World Of Winter	Bing Crosby		Goodyear: The Great Songs Of Christmas, Vol. 6 Columbia 1966
15	Ole Kris Kringle	Kitty Wells		Christmas Day With Kitty Wells Decca 1962
16	The Christmas Song	Johnny Mathis		Merry Christmas Columbia 1958
17	Strawberry Snow	Brenda Lee		Merry Christmas From Brenda Lee Decca 1964
18	MEDLEY: Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town / Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (Instr)	Andre Kostelanetz		Wonderland Of Christmas Columbia 1963
19	Christmas Dream	Perry Como		I Wish It Could Be Christmas Forever RCA 1982
20	Silver Bells (Instr)	Al Hirt		The Sound Of Christmas RCA 1965
21	Mr. Mistletoe	Lynn Anderson		The Christmas Album Columbia 1971
22	Hallelujah Chorus (Instr)	Percy Faith		Hallelujah! Columbia 1958

   For the complete song listing of the original 4-hour program, Click here.