Thursday, November 25, 2010

A Halmark Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! In case you were wondering what Thanksgiving is, here are the fine folks at Halmark Records, to offer up their version, one I find nearly completely unlistenable. Actually, this song's lyrics present Ernest V. Krider's interpretation of the answer to the question, "What Is Thanksgiving?". Your own mileage may vary: 
The flipside, "Perfect Living", is notable for being sung by someone who doesn't sound (to me, anyway) like either of Halmark's usual male singers (Bob Storm and Jack Kim). Also, Halmark often listed the author's name and address on the label, and this is the first one I've ever seen that wasn't written by someone in the USA, being composed by Ernest L. Martin, a resident of West Germany at the time: 

4 comments:

Darryl W. Bullock said...

Thanks Bob for sharing another great Halmark production. I'm intrigued by the b-side, Perfect Living, but mostly by the music itself - to me it almost sounds like a proper band performance rather than one of the usual music beds. I agree with you that it doesn't sound too much like Bob Storm or Jack Kimmell, but then again a lot of the tracks credited to Bob Storm on Halmark sound like the work of different singers to me - on at least one Halmark release Bob Storm is a woman!

Stu Shea said...

If that's thanksgiving, I'm staying in bed.

The b-side is better by a bit...I'm glad that Perfect Living "brings out the soul brother in you." That dates things, doesn't it?!?

Thanks for posting!!

KL from NYC said...

Forget the holiday side (one of the few singles I haven't downloaded from your blog).
My guess on the second side: Ernest was a soldier living off-base -- there was (is?) a big American base with a PX like Walmart (with records and trashy magazines that would have had ads for song poem companies). Army personnel in recreational bands and singing groups weren't uncommon. And most people could have had access to a decent tape recorder.

Timmy said...

Perfect Living is a doer. THANX!