The Small One: A Christmas Musical for Young Voices

Here's another Christmas album for you. This is a musical version of the story "The Small One", as sung by the Jay Stream Singers of Carol Stream, Illinois. The basic story is that a little boy is forced to sell his troublesome donkey (who is also his friend). He has no luck until he finally gets to sell it to Mary and Joseph. The donkey carries Mary who is great with child, as they say. And of course, this is the same Mary who gives birth to Baby Jesus. (Oops, should I have thrown a Spoiler Alert in here??)

Anyway, as pleasant as this album was, it was all about the pictures for me. First of all, somebody wrote "Discard" in big letters using black marker on the front cover and there was a big sticker in the top right corner that I couldn't get off. This was my first experience using Microsoft Paint to get rid of the incriminating evidence. I think I did OK for a rookie, don't you?

Secondly, take a look at the back cover here:



See this young guy in the ruffledy shirt?



I saw that and joked to myself, "Hey, it looks like they got 'Dukes of Hazzard' star John Schneider to perform on their album!"

Then I glanced down at the credits:



Yep, that's really him! I think he performed the voice of David's father and later sang the Auctioneer's Song. (In fact, I seem to think for some reason I might have heard him sing that song somewhere else. At a telethon perhaps?) This album was copyrighted 1977 and "Dukes of Hazzard" started on TV in January 1979, so this may have been one of the last performances Schneider did before he started working on the show.

OK, enough talk. Enjoy the album! (By the way, the story and songs were intermixed so the track breaks are somewhat arbitrary.)

Here's the track list:

1. Introduction
2. Destiny
3. That's the Way It Is with Friends
4. I'll Whistle
5. The Auctioneer's Song
6. Would You Like to Buy a Donkey?
7. That's the Way It Is with Friends (Reprise)
8. Miracles

Click here or here to download!