The Casablanca Records Dream Christmas Album

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Motown knew to do it ....Phil Spector too .....I'm sort of surprised Casablanca... knowing them.... didn't do it ... put out a Christmas LP featuring their roster of acts.

Too bad Larry Harris doesn't check in here on occasion ... would love to ask him (amongst other things) if Casablanca didn't perhaps at least consider such a project?

I wonder what it would have resulted in ????

I'm picturing a typical two-record Casablanca package with a gate-fold center.
Four sides of Christmas music performed by various names on their label .... let's say for a Christmas 1979 release , so any of their artists before and around then are possible.

Let's break it down like this ....


Side On: features , like Salsoul Records , a Christmas disco medley performed by The Munich Machine ( or a better choice??)
Side Two: features Casablanca disco artists doing disco versions of Christmas songs .
Side Three: features Casablanca disco artists doing traditional versions of Christmas songs.
Side Four : features Casablanca non-disco artists performing Christmas songs in their choices of recording styles (traditional , rock, R&B, Pop etc.)


So that's the dream release ......

The question for all of us now is -

Which acts are performing what songs and how ???


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[FranceJoliFan]

****Four sides of Christmas music performed by various names on their label .... let's say for a Christmas 1979 release , so any of their artists before and around then are possible.

Let's break it down like this ....


Side One: features , like Salsoul Records , a Christmas disco medley performed by The Munich Machine ( or a better choice??)
Side Two: features Casablanca disco artists doing disco versions of Christmas songs .
Side Three: features Casablanca disco artists doing traditional versions of Christmas songs.
Side Four : features Casablanca non-disco artists performing Christmas songs in their choices of recording styles (traditional , rock, R&B, Pop etc.)
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Alright, I'll bite (I'm a sucker for a list).


Side One: Giorgio doing a synthesized re-interpretation of Handel's Messiah (with Munich Machine singing the Hallelujah chorus, of course.)

Side Two: Patti Brooks/Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree, Village People/Jingle Bell Rock, Lipps Inc./Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

Side Three: Cher/I Wonder As I Wander, Donna Summer/Angels We Have Heard On High, D.C. Larue/Little Drummer Boy

Side Four: Parliament/The 12 Days Of Christmas, KISS/Silent Night, Michael Sembello/Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem

[remicks]

Alright, I'll bite (I'm a sucker for a list).


Side One: Giorgio doing a synthesized re-interpretation of Handel's Messiah (with Munich Machine singing the Hallelujah chorus, of course.)

ooh .... that's especially good !!! In fact, I think that should be the special "bonus side" record !!

So - let's reassign Meco to the disco medley ... he's really into that kind of thing anyway .

Oh, and on the "disco artists doing disco versions of " side ..... We've got Cher fittingly doing I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS .... (as the follow-up to her insistence on being taken there )


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[FranceJoliFan]

Oh, and on the "disco artists doing disco versions of " side ..... We've got Cher fittingly doing I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS .... (as the follow-up to her insistence on being taken there

Now that's a clever idea (and the back up singers will have to do a few "take me home" chants near the end..


And for Meco's medley, it would have to start with Carol Of The Bells:



then go into We Need A Little Christmas:



take a detour into Blue Christmas:



and end with Sleigh Ride:

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that's fine ! , FJF .

and don't you think Sir Alec Costandino's 's perfect assignment would be to do one of his bloated epic concoction's based around 'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS ??


Hmmmm, - we may have to let him put out his own two-sided LP with that though ..... or maybe we expand this project into a box set , call it ...."THE CASABLANCA CHRISTMAS PACKAGE OF STARS "

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[FranceJoliFan]

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and don't you think Sir Alec Costandino's 's perfect assignment would be to do one of his bloated epic concoction's based around 'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS ??

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Let's hand that one off to Boris Midney, and let Costandinos make a tragic and romantic disco epic out of The Snow Queen.

snow queen snowflakes.jpg

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Except Boris isn't Casablanca .

and THE SNOW QUEEN ... yes Alec could emerse himself well in that tale,

but
WE HAVE TO assign that project to :

Paul Jabara ... don't we !!?


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[FranceJoliFan]

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Except Boris isn't Casablanca .

and THE SNOW QUEEN ... yes Alec could emerse himself well in that tale,

but
WE HAVE TO assign that project to :

Paul Jabara ... don't we !!?


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Yes, we'll have to sacrifice Night Before to a non-Casablanca artist. But it just has Midney written all over it.

So why don't we keep Costandinos on the Snow Queen project, and let Jabara do a revisionist disco/leather take on Babes In Toyland.

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I'm good with that!

Over on the "disco artists doing disco versions of " side,
I've now got Space doing a cosmic journeyed version of SLEIGH RIDE .



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We're having some troubles here in the main office -

....Donna's balking... "too tired - too busy"

.... she just wants to stick her WINTER MELODY on there and call it good.

meanwhile Parliament says they're doing some funked up version of WHITE CHRISTMAS -

and DC LaRue, he wants to do an original composition he's titled CHRISTMAS CATHEDRALS.


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[FranceJoliFan]

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We're having some troubles here in the main office -

....Donna's balking... "too tired - too busy"

.... she just wants to stick her WINTER MELODY on there and call it good.

meanwhile Parliament says they're doing some funked up version of WHITE CHRISTMAS -

and DC LaRue, he wants to do an original composition he's titled CHRISTMAS CATHEDRALS.


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: )


And Patti Brooks can't make her studio time because she's getting her nails done.
Roberta Kelly's stuck in Celebrity Rehab.
And Casablanca is having trouble clearing the rights to Dennis Parker's cover of All I Want For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth).

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OK - We've made some progress :

DC "CATHEDRALS" LaRue has relented to do a discofied OH COME ALL YE FAITHFUL

Roberta Kelly has gotten the spirit and is going to do Kris Kristofferson's JESUS WAS A CAPRICORN - discofied.

Pattie "AFTER DARK" Brooks :an uptempo OH HOLY NIGHT

And who better to disco up OH LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM than The Village People .



tentative title for the project:


THANK GOD IT'S CHRISTMAS

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[FranceJoliFan]

tentative title for the project:


THANK GOD IT'S CHRISTMAS

Excellent.

Which means the follow-up disco Easter album can be titled:

THANK GOD IT'S GOOD FRIDAY

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Hey --I like that FJF .Put it on the new year's projects board !


Good news ! We've got Parliament rechanneling their efforts on a little ditty they're calling UP ON THE ROOF TOP (TEAR THE ROOF OFF THE SUCKER ) .

still workin' on Donna .... although Pattie has already said anything Donna doesn't want to do .... sign her on for!! .

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[FranceJoliFan]

Parliament[/B] rechanneling their efforts on a little ditty they're calling UP ON THE ROOF TOP (TEAR THE ROOF OFF THE SUCKER ) .

Sounds good. We'll add it to:

Giorgio's I Wanna Jingle Bell Rock You
and Munich Machine's I'm Dreaming Of A Whiter Shade Of Christmas

[langlang]

much respect to the starter of this thread, and much love for the salsoul xmas record. great lp, have loved and played it every year since it came out in the mid seventies, but really with the exception of a few records-memphis sounds orch-sleigh ride- most of these christmas disco tunes are kind of -well-wack-raindolls-disco santa??? i believe the casablanca xmas record might have given a couple of nice tunes,but in totality probably would'nt have been that good. also, if a marketing and promo maniac like bogart did'nt do it, he probably felt it was'nt viable.

[FranceJoliFan]

Christmas albums can be profitable (and can have a long shelf life.) So it's hard to say why Casablanca never did one. Maybe because people would have dismissed it as a novelty record (like Mickey Mouse Disco, or something.)

I think they would have been better off doing individual artist albums, such as a Village People Christmas Album (the cover could have been fun--Leatherman Santa, and his scantily clad boy elves?) But I think the music could have been done in a good way, and been perceived as more than a gimmick. I think by the late 70s, disco Christmas records were perceived as holiday Muzak.

[remicks]

Giorgio's I Wanna Jingle Bell Rock You
and Munich Machine's I'm Dreaming Of A Whiter Shade Of Christmas

in a similar vein , advance plays are suggesting this may turn out to be one of the best received cuts :

Lipps Inc. - SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO FUNKY TOWN


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[FranceJoliFan]

in a similar vein , advance plays are suggesting this may turn out to be one of the best received cuts :

Lipps Inc. - SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO FUNKY TOWN


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Now that's clever.

: )