Wow. I don't know what to say about this, other than it makes Frank di Silvestro sound like Lennon & McCartney by comparison! Almost all of these songs are written by Mrs. Nellie Bond who, according to the liner notes, Dinkins met while performing on the Squeaking Deacon Show. They wanted to do an album of all new Christmas songs, and this is what they came up with.
The songs are all sung by Tim Dinkins with a couple of exceptions. One singer, referred to as the "Mystery Guest", sings "The Wise Ole Owl". The liner notes say that they're certain "he'll not be a mystery anymore once you've heard him". I hate to break it to them, but he's still a mystery to me. The second one is a little girl named Susan Kay (who they heard singing on a radio show on station K.I.E.V. (probably performing something Ukranian)). She sings a song called "I Won't Let You Lick My Candy Bar". Thank goodness Tim didn't sing this one as well. That would have been creepy. And speaking of creepy, Tim does his best adowable wittle kid impersonation for the song "A Little Boy's Letter to Santa". Apparently Tim wanted to give me the jibblies for Christmas. *SHUDDER*
I think this might have been shared elsewhere, but I scored a sealed copy of this album so I felt like I should share this clean copy of it. This is just mind-numbingly bizarre, but it's definitely interesting!
Here's the track list (All songs sung by Tim Dinkins unless listed otherwise) :
- Santa's Rocket
- The Empty Chair
- Two Little Stockings
- I Won't Let You Lick My Candy Bar - Susan Kay
- Just a Little Birdie in a Coo Coo Clock
- Merry Christmas
- The Wise Ole Owl - Mystery Guest
- Ole Pop Reindeer
- Christmas Message
- Christmas Comes to Everyone
- A Little Boy's Letter to Santa
- Tinkle Toes
8 comments:
Yes!!! This is great! The search for my 2008 x-mas album is over!
Thank you!
As an apéritif while you're downloading this one, check out a different "Christmas on the Moon" - this one incomprehensibly but adorably sung by li'l Troy Hess, "America's Singing Souveneir."
Who was that mystery singer? All I know for sure is that he sang his song with the voice of an old Texas man.
Kinds sounds like Bob Dylan...could it be?
No, thanks little girl. I wouldn't lick your candy bar for anything. And if the guy sang it, I'd feel the same way. Nothing creepy there. Creepy would be if he or she said they would let someone lick their bars. And as I said, no thanks. But the album is great as it is.
As way out as it may seem, this was a kinda normal idea in the mid 60s.
The K.I.E.V. referred to, is actually a radio station.
Eg: "KIEV is a radio station call sign associated with a construction permit for 1500 AM in Culver City, California serving the Los Angeles area." - thanks Wickepedia...
If you look at the LP credits:
"Music coord. Jimmy Wilson; arr. Carl Walden & Jimmy Collins; pr. Tim Dinkins."
Some of the guys on the LP, like Carl Walden, was a country and rock recording artist, sideman and studio musician, were from the SoCal bar scene. Jimmy Collins is either the singing bass plaer, or the guy who played steel guitar for west coast artists like Freddie Hart and Wynn Stewart.
Carl Walden was part of Gary Paxton's Hollywood studio scene, he recorded for A&M records almost half a decade before the Carpenters. He was also assocuiated with local TV shows like Country Music Time (KCP-TV, Channel 13), and worked with Lee Hazellwood, The Collins Kids and Sammy Masters.
Names probably don't men much here, but this LP was probably just another budget session, and there was a whole lot of them on the west coast in the 60s.
I'd guess that Dinkins is one of those hopefuls that just never made it. In many cases, there was a good reason for their lack of success. Good post - cheers
Jason
Great comment, Jason . . . I'm still downloading the album and haven't heard it yet, but I'm sure this has to be the same Tim Dinkins who recorded (the fantastic) "Cattin' Tonight" on Fable. So, unknown hopeful as the guy might have been, there do seem to be some other traces of him as well.
I came across a Tim Dinkins 45 on Cartwheel Records of an alternate version of A Little Boys Letter to Santa called A Fathers Letter To Santa. It is basically the same story but recorded from the Father's point of view. He lost his son in a car wreck etc...
From some other things I found at the same sale, Dinkins also involved with Terry Teene, another relatively unkown artist, and several of the others mentioned in Jason's post above were in there as well.
Thanks for the info, I love stuff like this!
Nathan
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