Columbia CL-691 (Album)
Happy Holiday
Issued November 1955 – 33 rpm LP
Also issued as a 3-EP set, Columbia B-691
The 33 rpm LP, Columbia CL-691
Tracks on the 33 rpm LP:
Side 1:
(Happy Holiday, by the Starlighters)
Winter Weather
with the Starlighters
Matrix No. RHCO 33411 * Recorded 14th April 1955
Christmas Song (The)
Matrix No. RHCO 33431 * Recorded 29th April 1955
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
Matrix No. RHCO 33412 * Recorded 14th April 1955
Toyland
Matrix No. RHCO 33432 * Recorded 29th April 1955
(March of the Toys, by Paul Weston and his Orchestra)
Side 2:
Winter Wonderland
with the Starlighters
Matrix No. RHCO 33429 * Recorded 29th April 1955)
‘Twas The Night Before Christmas
with Timothy John Weston
Matrix No. RHCO33430 * Recorded 29th April 1955
I Wonder As I Wander
Matrix No. RHCO 33437 * Recorded 13th May 1955
(O Little Town Of Bethlehem, by a Children’s Choir)
Silent Night, Holy Night
with Children’s Choir
Matrix No. RHCO 33441 * Recorded 16th May 1955
Happy Holiday
with the Starlighters
Matrix No. RHCO 33414 * Recorded 14th April 1955
The EP set, Columbia B-691
Tracks on the 45 rpm EP’s:
Disc 1, 5-2236:
Side 1: ' Happy Holiday ', and ' Winter Weather '
Side 6: ‘Silent Night, Holy Night’, and ‘Happy Holiday’
Disc 2, 5-2237:
Side 2: ‘The Christmas Song’, and ‘Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!’
Side 5: ‘I Wonder As I Wander’, and ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’
Disc 3, 5-2238:
Side 3: ‘Toyland’, and ‘March Of The Toys’
Side 4: ‘Winter Wonderland’, and ‘ 'Twas The Night Before Christmas’
NOTES
In his Jo Stafford Discography, Jim Marshall does not provide information about the opening track, the first version of ‘Happy Holiday’. Maybe he omitted it on purpose, because this version of ‘Happy Holiday’ cannot really be looked upon as a Jo Stafford song: Ms. Stafford only sings one solo line here.
Tim Weston (born November 19, 1952) was barely two-and-a-half years old when he helped his mother perform
‘ ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas’. One reviewer of the album describes the little boy’s contribution as follows:
‘One of the high points of the “Happy Holiday” release, is Jo’s reading of “The Night Before Christmas” with 2½-year-old Timmy chiming in for such rhymes as “houshe,” “moushe,” “care” and “there.” Timmy, whom his father describes ruefully as a “nonroyalty artist,” comes right in on cue, to make an auspicious record debut’ (The Times and Democrat (Orangeburg, South Carolina), November 27, 1955).
The name of the Children’s Choir is not mentioned on the album’s cover. On the label of Side 2 of the disc, the choir is simply called ‘Children’s Choir’.
The first chorus of ‘Silent Night’ is sung by the Children’s Choir alone. Jo Stafford joins in for the second chorus, after little Tim has asked her to (‘You sing that, Mommy’).