I love to listen to Christmas music on channel 946: Stingray Holiday Favourites. While CHFI radio tends to play the same top forty Christmas hits over and over (not that I’m complaining–when I am in Mark’s car over the next two months that radio dial is set on CHFI for its nonstop Christmas music and you’d better not change it) the Stingray channel plays a more diverse selection of songs. Some of the artists would never be played on CHFI. I have discovered some gems from the past and have eagerly sought out the artists’ full-length albums after listening to just one or two of their songs on Stingray. In some of my searches, however, I have discovered that some artists may have recorded only one or two Christmas songs over their careers but they had never recorded a full-length Christmas album. Carol Burnett, Patti Austin, the Pointer Sisters and early Aretha Franklin are three such artists. Their material was originally released as individual 45 rpm singles or as a track on various artists compilations decades ago. These songs tend to get rereleased on new compilations. Aretha Franklin recorded several such songs (back when she had a tolerable singing voice) which finally were assembled on a single package as Joy to the World in 2006.
Stingray Holiday Favourites started broadcasting Christmas music this year the day after Halloween. I could see from the programming guide that the Christmas hits would start airing at 8:00 a.m. on November 1 yet when I turned the channel on at 7:45 that morning–hoping to hear the precise moment when the programming changed–Perry Como was already playing.
This post is specifically about the Christmas music I discovered, and later bought, from listening to the Stingray Holiday Favourites channel.
Merry From Lena by Lena Horne, originally released in 1966. I bought this as a sealed CD from Discogs.
A Merry Christmas by Al Martino which I found in the Bedford Taz store. It was an LP in excellent condition in the $1 Christmas bin.
That Holiday Feeling! by Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme was rereleased on CD in 2022 with eight bonus tracks.
Christmas Songs by Diana Krall. Krall is a singer whose material is more contemporary and she is heard on more mainstream radio stations as well. A friend sent me a Diana Krall playlist and I realized how much I loved her singing because I heard her every year on Stingray. I realized that I should better then get her Christmas album.
Elvis is played on all radio stations over Christmas, especially the classic “Blue Christmas”, which I own on multiple various artist compilations. But what led me to buy Elvis’ Christmas Album was the inclusion of “Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)” and “Santa Bring My Baby Back (To Me)”, which I always hear on Stingray. I love those bouncy songs.
Catherine McKinnon’s Christmas Album was originally released in 1966. What a clear voice she has; I could listen to her sing the names out of the phone book. After I heard Stingray play her Christmas songs I knew I had to get the album they were from. Since then, I have gotten later McKinnon Christmas releases:
Keeping a Canadian Christmas is a various artists release from 1991 which features two new songs by McKinnon.
Images of Christmas was released in 1992 and features one of my musical heroes, Denny Doherty, duetting on two songs.
As a child in the 1970’s I grew up with television commercials advertising LP collections of the hymns of Mahalia Jackson. I loved hearing her Christmas carols on Stingray and was lucky to find this budget CD containing ten songs, five each by Jackson and LaBelle.
It’s amazing that an artist like Wayne Newton gets regular airplay at Christmas. While I was assembling images for this post I had the Stingray channel on and Wayne Newton came on. I found this CD, as well as Catherine McKinnon’s Images of Christmas and A Keely Christmas by Keely Smith, at Select Sounds in Bedford, Nova Scotia.