The Johnny Desmond Christmas Collection

This year I've already offered a few posts of holiday recordings by favored singers who never produced such a collection themselves - Margaret Whiting and John McCormack. Today we turn our attention to another fine vocalist - Johnny Desmond (1919-85) - with 10 songs he released from 1949 to 1956 for M-G-M and Coral records.

A few of these sides have appeared in compilations on my other blog, but this is the first time I've pulled them all together.

In conjunction with this new collection, I've also remastered Desmond LPs from Coral and M-G-M, as well as the soundtrack to The Stingiest Man in Town and the Coral LP Merry Christmas 1952, which includes two Desmond songs. Links are below.

A bit of Johnny's personal history: his first break was in 1940 when his vocal group the Downbeats was subsumed into Bob Crosby's band as the "Bob-o-Links." Desmond only stayed with Crosby for a year before turning solo with Gene Krupa's band. The following year he joined the Army, becoming a vocalist for Glenn Miller's Army Air Force Band, where he remained until the end of the war.

1949 Cash Box ad

Postwar, he recorded for Victor, followed by M-G-M and Coral; later on for Columbia and other labels. Desmond also was an actor, starring in three films in the late 50s, the Broadway show Say, Darling (which merited a cast album) and later in Funny Girl opposite Barbra Streisand, in the role originated by Sydney Chaplin. He also appeared in the 1956 television special The Stingiest Man in Town, the source of two of the songs on today's program, which follows.

Johnny released a Christmas single for M-G-M in both 1949 and 1950. The earlier coupling included the oft-expressed sentiments "You're All I Want for Christmas" and "If Every Day Could Be Christmas."

The former song is ascribed to Segar Ellis and Glen Moore, but for the melody they reused an old New Orleans standard called "Algiers Strut." Regardless it's a good piece, popular in 1949, with Desmond's competition including Bing Crosby and Frankie Laine. The B-side, "If Every Day Would Be Christmas," is much less familiar although not a bad song. Tony Mottola's guitar is featured along with a celesta.

Much different is Johnny's 1950 coupling, "Sleigh Ride" and "A Marshmallow World." The former is Mitchell Parish's vocal version of the Leroy Anderson favorite. The Boston Pops introduced the instrumental in 1949; Parish's lyrics followed soon thereafter.

Competing in the market with Desmond's "Sleigh Ride" were the Andrews Sisters and Percy Faith, but I doubt that any other version was a lively as his. It has the Ray Charles Singers imploring him to come out for a ride ("Aw, c'mon John!"), which he does, and ending with a sneeze instead of Anderson's horse whinny.

Johnny also does well with that season's new song "A Marshmallow World" by Peter De Rose and Carl Sigman, which we have just heard on my other blog, from Ronnie Deauville and Ray Anthony.

Tony Mottola

Moving ahead to Desmond's new label, Coral, we have two worthy items that appeared in the Merry Christmas 1952 album, "Christmas in the Air" and "Christmas Is a Time (That Will Never Change)." The former is a good Sam Stept-Jimmy Brewster song that Johnny does with the right amount of sincerity and feeling. The latter is by Carolyn Gilbert and is worth hearing, as well.

I've now remastered the Merry Christmas 1952 LP in ambient stereo. It also includes songs by the Ames Brothers, Don Cornell and Eileen Barton. You can find it here.

Tony Mottola was the bandleader on the Merry Christmas 1952 songs, as he had been for all the M-G-M singles covered above.

In 1955, Johnny had another winner with "Santo Natale," which was backed with "Happy Holidays to You." Al Hoffman, Dick Manning and Belle Nardone put together the first song; Koby Sirinsky, David Fischer and Desmond himself the latter.

We close the program with Desmond's songs from the 1956 television special The Stingiest Man in Town (who was Scrooge, of course, played by Basil Rathbone). Johnny, who appeared as Scrooge's nephew Fred, had two songs, "Birthday Party of the King" and "Old Fashioned Christmas," from the excellent score by Fred Spielman and Janice Torre. Tutti Camarata conducted Johnny's record.

The two Desmond songs in the present collection are taken from his Coral release rather than the Stingiest Man cast LP on Columbia. On LP, "An Old-Fashioned Christmas" is different from the Coral version, but I believe "Birthday Party of the King" may be the same. I posted the cast album many years ago and have now reworked the files in ambient stereo.

The Stingiest Man in Town was presented in color on television, but the only surviving version is from a black-and-white kinescope. The image below is a colorized screen grab from the kinescope.

Johnny Desmond sings "The Birthday Party of the King"

As mentioned above, I've also remastered two of Johnny's early LPs in ambient stereo:

Hands Across the Table (M-G-M)

Play Me Hearts and Flowers (Coral)

LINK to Johnny Desmond Christmas Collection