Posted by Martin Rolls on December 27, 2021, 4:47 am
I hope everyone has had a very happy Christmas!
Here in the UK the BBC aired a festive programme called ‘Blackburn sings Christmas with Gareth Malone’. Gareth is a well known choirmaster and presenter, and he went to the Lancashire town, one of the areas hardest hit by Covid, to produce a concert celebrating the work of the National Health Service and the local community spirit, featuring local folk.
Amongst others he met Stephen, a hospital porter and cleaner who also worked as a singer before the pandemic. Gareth decided a good choice of song in his case would be Jim’s ‘An Old Christmas Card’. As Gareth said – “This is an old country song, and what I like about it is 1947 (the year of its original publishing) so 80’s and over this is. This is gonna be a banger for them, and it’s Jim Reeves!”
Stephen quipped – “My grandmother loved Jim Reeves!”
Well as far as I’m concerned, and I suspect many others, Jim is still for all ages. Nevertheless Gareth went on to say – “Oh God, if you could bottle Christmas I’d have about a litre and a half. What’s good about it is there’s this bank of songs people sing every year, over and over again, but now and again you just discover a little gem that’s ripe for reinventing and rediscovery.”
Speaking as a proud Englishman a couple of pints would do for me ! but I know exactly what he means. An Old Christmas Card has long been one of my favourites of Jim.
Stephen went on to sing it very nicely indeed, in a voice a little higher in range than Jim’s. What particularly interested me was he didn’t include Jim’s spoken interlude, but he commenced with a very pretty verse which was presumably included in the original publication –
‘Every Christmas Eve, When Santa’s work is through, I tiptoe through the little attic door. Go through my souvenirs, And turn back all the years, Until I find what I’ve been looking for – ‘
I hope someone much abler than I will put it on You Tube.
It’s nice to know Jim’s never forgotten.
All the best to all Jim’s fans for the New Year.
Martin Rolls.
Re: An Old Christmas Card
Posted by Gary Bryson on December 27, 2021, 8:26 pm, in reply to "An Old Christmas Card"
My favorite song from Jim's Christmas album. Just a wonderul song, written by Vaughn Horton. Jim sings it superbly.
There was a Christmas compilation CD released a few years back, and Chet Atkins insisted that Jim's "An Old Christmas Card" was included because it was one of his very favorites...
Re: An Old Christmas Card
Posted by Larry Jordan on December 30, 2021, 4:58 pm, in reply to "An Old Christmas Card"
Martin, very interesting about the added verse. I wonder if that was on the original or something someone added later.
I like Jim's narration on the bridge.
You know, we overdubbed a more lush string section (and added some other perks too) on that song. It's in "Jim Reeves: The New Christmas Recordings" that has material RCA never had.
I have 'The New Christmas Recordings' Larry, one of your best. Just no one could recite like Jim. A fan on a DVD (I forget for now just which one) said "Jim's voice soothes", and how right he was.
There's much in the press today about youngsters having mental health issues, but it's not a new phenomenon. I had my own problems over 50 years ago, but every day I'm grateful I discovered Jim Reeves. His gentle voice helped me through so many times, bringing me calm.
'The New Christmas Recordings' has many first class highlights, such as 'A Christmas Star', Delores Watson with Jim on ' Silver Bells', and Jim's several comments along the way, and his final Christmas message to us all.
I just found a short bio on the song "An Old Christmas Card". It seems accurate enough, but incomplete. There is no mention of Wilf Carter recording the song at all. However, it does say that the song was written in 1948 for Bing Crosby, but he never got around to recording it. Then it says that Jim discovered the song when he was looking for material to record for his Christmas album...
I have researched as much as I can trying find how Vaughn Horton originally wrote "An Old Christmas Card", especially the recitation part. The original title was "Memories Of An Old Christmas Card" according to what I found. I seem to think that Jim Reeves' recitation part is how Vaughn wrote it. If I missed something, please correct me.
There is a song on You Tube featuring Wilf Carter, singing "An Old...." A Canadian singer/song writer who had recorded in excess of 500 songs, and someone Mike Slater just mentioned. Thank you Mike for bringing up his name. Wilf recorded the song in 1965. To those of you who may not be familiar, Wilf Carter was only known by that name in his native Canada. To our friends in the United States, he was known as Montana Slim. Surprisingly, something I didn't know, other than him being Canadian, he was born in 1904 in Nova Scotia, my home province.
Anyway, I digress. The interesting thing I found in Wilf's recording was his recitation part. It is twice the length of Jim's version. It really goes on too long in my opinion. Question is who wrote the longer version. I surmise it was Wilf himself that added the extra paragraph since he wrote countless songs in his life time. But that's only a guess. I am not sure how copyright infringement would apply here.
Martin, can you elaborate a bit more on the extra verse you found and where that came from? The one with 'The little attic door'...really well written I must say. Is it possible it may have been authored by someone in your great country of England. I can not find anywhere that this was part of the original lyrics that Vaughn Horton wrote.
Thank you everyone here on the Forum and have a Wonderful 2022.
All I can say is that in the TV programme Gareth Malone was shown with a music sheet headed 'An Old Christmas Card'. My guess is the verse must have been included in the lyrics on the sheet. To me they're very pretty and smooth in keeping with the chorus so maybe Mr Horton wrote them himself but they weren't used subsequently.
I'm going to try and contact Mr Malone and if necessary the BBC. This may take a while, but I'll keep you posted.
Thanks for that Ron but having checked I was thinking of 'The Story of a Legend' DVD. Quite near the beginning an unnamed gentleman says ".... beautiful voice....he soothes me...".
And so he does. Once in a lifetime, or less, a voice comes along that simply defies description but is in its own way faultless. Over here the late Wally Whyton, in a BBC tribute, said of Jim "Had he lived Jim would have become an artist of immense stature", and so I'm sure he would.
I have listened to Jim's "An Old Christmas Card" every season, and to me, it just seems to get better as the years go by. One thing I noticed this year is realizing Jim sings on the opening chorus. I think this may be a bit rare, and can not find any other song that Jim does this. Am I wrong and Can anyone help add to this? If you listen very close, you can clearly hear Jim on the opening chorus.
And who could not recognize Dottie Dillard, the alto vocalist adding to the chorus and throughout the song. Her contribution to many of Jim's recordings are a thing of legend.....
Martin, I would take issue with the Wally Whyton comment that if Jim had lived he "would have become an artist of immense stature." That is an inane statement. Jim had international stardom, had simultaneous hits in various foreign countries, is the only artist to have 34 charted hits AFTER his death, rode the British charts at #1 for five weeks at the height of the Beatles' popularity, made a movie in South Africa, etc. Why do people always have to "qualify" a compliment when they write about Reeves? The fact he is still being discovered by new generations of music fans without there being any big promotion behind him is a true phenomenon, and attests to his IMMENSE STATURE.
Jim does not sing on the opening chorus. You are hearing the Anita Kerr singers augmented by Winnifred Breast, the high soprano.
One thing I will point out is that the original version sounds rather anemic with the weak background strings and we made them fuller and added some embellishments and I think it sounds fuller on our overdub. I frankly am not impressed with how they did the strings on some of Jim's songs. They were using string players from the Nashville Symphony but on some songs the volume is too low; they were poorly mixed.
Larry, Wally Whyton was a staunch supporter of Jim Reeves here in the UK. He was a very likeable man and died much too soon, of cancer.
What I'm sure he meant was that if Jim had lived he would have reached even greater heights. For example I can imagine Jim coming to Britain, as he said he would, and not entertaining at relatively small venues, but at for example at the Royal Albert Hall.
Moreover in 1964 it was said of Jim in Britain that he "maintains his mesmeric hold on the charts." Though he had a smash hit in 1966 with Distant Drums, the 'song of the year' inevitably his releases began to dry up. Had he lived I firmly believe that his influence and presence would have permanently changed the face of the British popular music scene, for the better.
I found these songs written or co-written by Jim. No demos exists
Baby you're the one(Tom T Cuterer/Jim Reeves) January(Jim Reeves) Jim's Jive(Jesse Fletcher/Jim Reeves) Now that is over(Dean Kelly/Jim Reeves) Hey Woman(Jim Reeves/Luke McDaniel) Now that's over(Jim Reeves//Ray Winkler/Dean Kelly)
on December 27, 2021, 4:47 am