Springer's Holiday Tuneage

Charlie Springer created his first annual holiday tape in 1984. It was a labor of love, a collection of his favorite Christmas songs, aptly titled "Holiday Tuneage." Now it's an annual tradition on CD, each collection chock full of holiday classics, seasonal standards and one-of-a-kind tracks,
some recorded especially for this project.

As I was putting together my Christmas CD, I discovered several of Springer's tapes and CD's that I've collected from him at Warner Brothers. Mind you, these collections weren't commercially available, but some of the songs are. Some are classic, others priceless, and they're all collectible.

So today's blog is dedicated to you, Charlie. Thanks for all the memorable holiday tuneage!

Worthy of mention are:

The Malibooz "It's Just Not Christmas" from A Malibu Kind Of Christmas; you'd swear it was really the Beach Boys


"O Little Town Of Bethlehem" by Bob Rivers and Twisted Radio, from their Atlantic album I Am Santa Claus; sung to the tune of House Of The Rising Sun

The Texas Tornados "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" from Warner Brothers "A Christmas Tradition Volume III"; Doug Sahm, Augie Meyers, Freddy Fender and Flaco Jimenez make this Christmas classic their own

"Silent Night" by Keith Emerson; I had already mentioned Greg Lake's "I Believe in Father Christmas" in my earlier blog...so where's Palmer?

"Another Christmas Song" by Jethro Tull; I just love Ian Anderson's voice, he could sing the phone book and I'd be entertained...plus the fancy flute works!

The Kinks "Father Christmas"; I didn't know who this was at first and had to look it up. Good thing Charlie always had great liner notes, so you knew who did what

David Bowie and Bing Crosby "Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy" a priceless celebrity Christmas duet

"Snoopy's Christmas" by the Royal Guardsmen; heard it on the radio the other day


Enya "Oiche Chiun" ("Silent Night" sung in Gaelic) which is stunningly beautiful...formerly of the Irish group Clannad, Enya crafts a haunting rendition of this classic Christmas carol "Silent Night"

I hope yall have a Wonderful Christmas time!