Christmas Eve 1972 | "Rudolph" Composer Johnny Marks | WTIC Radio | Hartford, CT | Dick Bertel скачать в хорошем качестве

Christmas Eve 1972 | "Rudolph" Composer Johnny Marks | WTIC Radio | Hartford, CT | Dick Bertel

Johnny Marks (1909-1985), the composer of “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer” and many other popular songs, is interviewed by Dick Bertel from WTIC Radio and Television in Hartford, Connecticut with his children Darcy, Jimmy, Susie, and Dougie. The story of how the Tin Pan Alley songwriter conceived, composed, revised, and perfected “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer” is the focus of most of the conversation. Marks relates how it started with him jotting the title in a diary in 1939 after seeing it on a coloring book written by his brother-in-law Robert L. May and published by the Chicago-based retailer Montgomery Ward. After serving five years in the Special Services entertainment branch of the U.S. Army during World War II, Marks began composing it in 1946. He didn’t like it, however, and moved on to other projects before returning to the song in 1949. On his office piano, he demonstrates how he discovered then that reversing the original melody revealed the song’s charming tune. Later, he turned his energy toward improving the lyrics, sharing examples of how “pretty bad” they were at first. When he finally finished it, he began shopping it to performers like Dinah Shore, Guy Lombardo, Eddy Howard, and others. He shares how RCA Victor turned down the song for Perry Como, believing that the final line, “you’ll go down in history,” was inappropriate for a fictitious reindeer. Undeterred, Marks presented the song to Gene Autry who, Marks learned later, was ready to pass on it before his wife Ina implored him to do it as a favor for her. After being the first to record it, Autry found that it was a huge hit by the tremendous audience response it received at live concerts. Johnny Marks himself encountered the enduring global appeal of “Rudolph” in 1968 while touring U.S. military hospitals in Japan with the USO-ASCAP entertainment unit. He mentions that a bandleader on WJZ Radio in New York (WABC since 1953), Vincent Lopez, was one of the first to perform it live on the air. He also recalls rewriting Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Civil War-era poem “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” as a song, composing “Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree” anonymously, developing “A Holly Jolly Christmas” for the “Rudolph” TV special, and naming his company “St. Nicholas Music Inc.” A holiday tradition on WTIC Radio in Hartford from 1962 to 1976, Dick Bertel would host a program of Christmas music at 8:00 p.m. each Christmas Eve. 1964 was the first year that he included his kids in the show. This program was broadcast on Sunday, December 24, 1972. Dick Bertel interviewed Johnny Marks in his office on the sixth floor of the Brill Building at Broadway and 49th Street in Manhattan. [The raw interview was catalogued in 2000 by the Library of Congress with control no. (LCCN) 2006655103.] The children’s dialogue was recorded at their home on Randy Lane in Wethersfield, Connecticut. (In a rare cameo appearance, Dick’s wife Jean tells their children to don their coats and gloves.) The rest of the show was recorded, mixed, and produced by engineer Bob Scherago at WTIC’s Broadcast House studios on Constitution Plaza in downtown Hartford. This edition was sponsored by the Charter Oak Bank and Trust Company whose president and founder, William E. Budds (1920-2001), offers yuletide greetings, and the Hartford Insurance Group which reminds the listeners to drive safely during the holidays. All of the music played during this program was written by Johnny Marks. Most of it was recorded for the soundtrack album for the 1964 Rankin/Bass stop-motion animated network television special “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.” The instrumentals on that album were performed by the Decca Concert Orchestra as conducted by Herbert Rehbein. SOUNDTRACK SONGS • “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer” instrumental • “Silver and Gold” instrumental; vocal version sung by Burl Ives as narrator Sam the Snowman • “There’s Always Tomorrow” sung by Janet Orenstein as Clarice; instrumental • “We are Santa’s Elves” sung by the Videocraft Chorus; instrumental • “Jingle Jingle Jingle” sung by Stan Francis as Santa Claus; instrumental • “The Most Wonderful Day of the Year” sung by the Videocraft Chorus as the Misfit Toys; instrumental • “Christmas Medley: The Night before Christmas Song / A Merry Merry Christmas / When Santa Claus Gets Your Letter / Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree" • “A Holly Jolly Christmas” sung by Burl Ives as Sam the Snowman • “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” instrumental OTHER SONGS • “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer” by Gene Autry and the Pinafores, 1949 single • “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” by Bing Crosby, 1956 single • “Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee, 1958 and 1959 single • “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer” from Stanley Black and his Orchestra’s 1954 album “Christmas Holiday for Romance” • “A Caroling We Go,” the title track on Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians' 1966 holiday album