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a v e r y e r i k k e n n e d y c h r i s t m a s , 2 0 1 8

While procrastinating over the composition of my 2018 Christmas poem, I accidentally listened to several hundred public domain Christmas songs from the 1940s and '50s, downloaded the best of them, and sorted them into an album that is sure to become a perennial holiday favourite among the egg nog–drinking classes. Quite by accident, I assure you.

This album, A Very Erik Kennedy Christmas, 2018, is available as a free download at erikkennedy.com. It's fitting that so many of these tracks are novelty songs, as I think that many, if not most, of my poems are 'novelty poems' rather than straightforward treatments of their purported subjects. The album is pretty country- and jazz-heavy. I was surprised that there wasn't more Space Age nuttiness. But I guess that's what the fifties were really like: folksy, clubby, and a bit boozy, rather than predominantly kitschy and utopian. Perhaps we've all learned something. Happy Christmas!

As a ZIP.

Or track by track (length 34.33):

01. Dick Haymes with the Ken Darby Singers - Santa Claus Is Ridin' the Trail
02. Al Russell and the Do-Re-Me Trio - I Don't Want to Be Alone for Christmas
03. Zeke Clements and His Men from Music Mountain - Christmas Star
04. Gayla Peevey - I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas
05. Babs Gonzales - The Be-Bop Santa Claus
06. Jo Stafford and Frankie Laine - Christmas Roses
07. Crew-Cuts - Dance, Mr Snowman, Dance
08. Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys - Empty Chair at the Christmas Table
09. John Greer - We Wanna See Santa Do the Mambo
10. Bill Doggett - The Christmas Song
11. Gene Autry - Where Did My Snowman Go?
12. Claude Thornhill and His Orchestra - Snowfall

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