Music: New Pop Records

Tin Pan Alley’s merry little elves of music, the tunesmiths and the record makers, have tied on their long white whiskers. Last week record counters were loaded as usual with Christmas productions for every age, taste and temper. There were The Man with the Bag, Christmas in Killarney, Christmas in My Heart, Christmas in Heaven, Christmas Alone, Santa Send Someone to Me, When It’s Christmas on the Range, Blue Christmas (Billy Eckstine), etc., as well as the perennial White Christmas. One to avoid: Boogie Woogie Santa Claus. A good one, particularly for youngsters: The Twelve Days of Christmas (Tom Glazer; Young People’s Records, LP). For large & small Jimmy Durante admirers, there was Christmas Comes But Once a Year, with Frosty the Snow Man on the other side (M-G-M). For croon fans who can’t get along for a day without their favorite, there was even A Crosby Christmas (the Crosby Family; Decca). None of the latest Christmas crop threatened to put Silent Night, Holy Night out of business.

Other new records:

Jazz: Volumes I & II (Folkways Records; 4 sides LP). An interesting anthology, compiled mostly from old records, which traces the long journey of jazz, both hot and blue, from contemporary (i.e., U.S.) origins. It includes such rare and worthwhile items as the Negro sermon (with accompanying chanting) Dry Bones; the wordless wonders of Dark Was the Night, intoned by “spiritual” singer Blind Willie Johnson; Black Snake Moan, moaned by Blind Lemon Jefferson (Lead Belly’s teacher); performances by such favorites as Bessie Smith, King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Jimmy Yancey and Louis Armstrong.

You’re Just in Love, one of the most ingratiating of Irving Berlin’s Call Me Madam (TIME, Oct. 23) tunes. Perry Como (Victor) does it justice.

Tennessee Waltz, a lilting oldtimer, which has whirled its way right to the top of the hit parade, chiefly through the smooth efforts of Patti Page (Mercury), who is also high on the list with All My Love.

Ink Spots (Decca; 2 sides LP). Good for a mellow and nostalgic 20 minutes with oldies such as If I Didn’t Care, Maybe, I’ll Never Smile Again, Until the Real Thing Comes Along.

Stan Kenton Presents (Capitol; 6 sides 45 r.p.m.). A collection of Progressive Musicman Kenton’s “sound concoctions” (TIME, Feb. 13), some more noisy and pretentious than others.