Gosh almighty, when Mr. Miller was given this record, he nearly flipped his can! Never had he heard these sweet little melodies beforeUntil...
Check out this great download over at Check The Cool Wax. It seems that Captain Kangaroo does the same songs on the Mitch Miller 45 record... the EXACT same songs!Mr. Miller first discovered this when he got a mix CD from a friend (the very same Christmas that he got the Mitch Miller record and put it on his own mix CD) with Captain Kangaroo doing his version of "Merry Merry Christmas." He thought it was odd that the Captain's song virtually matched Mitch Miller's version -- only the Captain did a tiny intro on his record.
Then after we got a comment in the ol' mailbag pointing out the similarities, we thought we'd better do some look-seeing around the Internets. What we found was that The Sandpipers and the Captain and Mitch Miller were well linked up, as you can see on this record sleeve art we found on esnarf.
Here... have a closer look.
Oddly, there's no mention of Bob Keeshan on any of the Mitch Miller & The Sandpiper records. Hmmmm... makes you wonder. I think Lumpy Brannum was behind the whole thing...
If anyone know more about this coincidink, please feel free to contact PopCereal. Mr. Miller here is just dying to hear all about it.
Here's more about your 1958 record with Mitch and the Sandpipers.
ReplyDeleteIt is funny that you have Merry x4, Check the Cool Wax has Merry x 2, and 999 Dances has Merry x 3! Perhaps that old Captain got happier as the years passed.
Happy Holidays, Mr. Miller!
Dear Ms. Oddio,
ReplyDeleteApparently, copyright didn't mean much in those days, eh? Outside of Mitch Miller adding on an extra "Merry" or two to his record sleeve, or the Captain tacking on a "Merry Christmas everyone" intro to his record, it's hard to figure out who to give credit to for this song.
Mr. Miller