Unreleased Coke Christmas Carols

[Derek McGovern]

Lanza sang four Christmas Carols on his radio show in December 1951: O
Come, All Ye Faithful, O Little Town of Bethlehem, The First Noel, and
Silent Night. While I'm not keen on the Coke versions of O Come, All
Ye Faithful and The First Noel, both of which are heavyhanded (and
inferior to the 1951 RCA versions), I'd forgotten how beautifully
Mario sings O Little Town of Bethlehem on the same show:

http://www.4shared.com/file/176856612/58cbf66e/_2__O_Little_Town_of_Bethlehem.html

Like the exquisite Coke Silent Night, this rendition is superior in my
book to the two (1951 and 1959) RCA versions. It's a lovely, sensitive
piece of singing. It would be great if both of these recordings could
find their way on to a Lanza Christmas disc one of these days.

And here's a link to the Coke Silent Night just in case anyone missed
it:

http://www.4shared.com/account/file/70230017/d628f455/Silent_Night__Coke_.html

[Joseph Fagan]

Thank you for that Derek, just beautiful...even though Both his Christmas albums were somewhat  disappointing  to me ( I just did not care for the arrangements  and tempo).

 

Of course, there were some exceptions like the above two, Guardian Angels.... This version of Silent Night makes my toes curl...wow.

 

 Another observation I wanted to add is about his diction. It seems to me that he navigated some very difficult lyrics in O Little Town, and he did it seamlessly. I think this song could be used as a good  example of this great Lanza characteristic...do you agree?

[Lover of Grand Voices]

Thank you Derek. I believe one of these was in the movie "Polar
Express." Do you by chance know which one?

On Dec 19, 3:58 pm, Derek McGovern <derek.mcgov...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Lanza sang four Christmas Carols on his radio show in December 1951: O
> Come, All Ye Faithful, O Little Town of Bethlehem, The First Noel, and
> Silent Night. While I'm not keen on the Coke versions of O Come, All
> Ye Faithful and The First Noel, both of which are heavyhanded (and
> inferior to the 1951 RCA versions), I'd forgotten how beautifully
> Mario sings O Little Town of Bethlehem on the same show:
>

> http://www.4shared.com/file/176856612/58cbf66e/_2__O_Little_Town_of_B...

>
> Like the exquisite Coke Silent Night, this rendition is superior in my
> book to the two (1951 and 1959) RCA versions. It's a lovely, sensitive
> piece of singing. It would be great if both of these recordings could
> find their way on to a Lanza Christmas disc one of these days.
>
> And here's a link to the Coke Silent Night just in case anyone missed
> it:
>

> http://www.4shared.com/account/file/70230017/d628f455/Silent_Night__C...

[Derek McGovern]

Ciao Emilio: The recording you're thinking of is the 1956 version of
Deck the Halls.

[Derek McGovern]

It's that time of the year again when I love to listen to Mario's beautiful unreleased Coke version of Silent Night:

http://www.4shared.com/account/file/70230017/d628f455/Silent_Night__Coke_.html

[Vince Di Placido]

Hi, Derek! Yes that is a beautiful recording, Mario handles it
perfectly & I couldn't resist putting this together for you as I know
how much you love this version & re-visit it each December...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_55y7UOiBQ

[Derek McGovern]

Very nicely done, Vince! I especially liked the beginning, with Mario looking reflectively into the mirror -- quite poignant, actually.

Cheers

Derek

[Jan Hodges]

Beautifully done Vince.... I loved the pics that you chose of Mario  when he was looking young and healthy. Jan

[leeann]

It IS that time of year again. And the 4shared  downloads cited above ARE still active. So is Vince di Placido's wonderful YouTube video (also linked above).  A beautiful gift.  Thank you.  Best, Lee Ann

P.S. I love the search functions. This forum (and yes, the website as well) is incredibly dense. I was looking for comments on Lanza's Christmas music--well, O Holy Night alone brought so many interesting discussions. Silent Night--ditto. Well, you get the picture.

[dori...@gmail.com]

I live in England and I do not believe I have heard any of the "Coke" show carols by Mario Lanza, perhaps I have though without realising.  However, my No.1. favourite of carols by Mario is O Holy Night that really tugs at the heart strings, his version is truly magnificent.  Another favourite is Silent Night which I always played as a teenager in the 1950's, here in

England we had to wait for records to be released then and, unfortunately, Lanza recordings were rather thin on the ground.  Silent Night, therefore, was a favourite of my mother and myself which we played on the stroke of midnight every xmas eve.

 

Doreen

[Derek McGovern]

Since it's only a few days till Christmas, I thought I'd take Lee Ann's lead and bump this thread back into prominence :)

And here's a question to ponder: which of the two 1951 "Silent Night"s do you prefer? The RCA version or the Coke rendition? I like them both, but the Coke version gets my vote for most touching Lanza rendition of my favourite Christmas Carol.

[Vincent Di Placido]

I always associate Mario with Christmas, the only Christmas album we
had was his 1959 album, his earlier album had long gone missing after
a priest borrowed it... Even as tired & ill as Mario was on those 1959
recordings I still enjoyed listening to it, especially the arrangement
of "God rest ye merry Gentlemen", I love this carol & especially this
thoughtful orchestration, but of course he is in much better voice on
his 1956 Henri Rene recording.
I really enjoyed listening to his 2 recordings of "Silent Night"
beautiful singing but yes I think the Coke version shaves it for
overall effect, I enjoyed watching my wee video again, I had forgotten
it... They were fun to do...

[Barnabas Nemeth]

Vow! The Coke version is really the most touching rendition compared to the otherwise great that of RCA. I didn't know. That means there are at least three versions published, aren't they?

 

Barnabas

[Derek McGovern]

It's that time of year again when I like to play my favourite Lanza Christmas carol recording: the unreleased Coke version of "Silent Night." It's not a perfect rendition (and there are parts that are better on the 1951 RCA version), but the second verse, in particular, is so touchingly rendered that I find it irresistible.

Don't miss Vince's beautiful video if you haven't already seen it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_55y7UOiBQ

Cheers

Derek     

[Derek McGovern]

I was just listening to the 1959 version of "Silent Night" on the recent Sepia Records CD The Electrifying Mario Lanza. It's a lovely rendition, especially when heard in its original acetate form, which I've attached here as an MP3. In fact, all three Lanza versions of "Silent Night" are beautifully done. 

Mario's at his freshest, of course, in his two 1951 versions: one for RCA and the other for his radio show. Since creating this thread 13 (!) years ago, the radio version has been released commercially at last (on the 2017 Sony two-CD set Mario Lanza: The Best of Everything), and it's still my favourite Lanza rendition, though I have to admit we're spoiled for choice here.   

Here's Vince's beautiful video of the radio version, and here's the 1951 RCA recording. As I wrote upthread all those years ago, all three Lanza versions have their moments. Which is your favourite Mario version?

[Aaron Caruso]

Merry Christmas Derek,

Thank you for this great gift on Christmas! Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a blessed 2023. Did I ever send you my Mario inspired “Ave Maria?” If not - here you go! My video / lighting guy is a student of the old films and techniques.  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_1-MyrJOCY4 Forgive me if you’ve seen it already. All the best! Aaron 

Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 24, 2022, at 7:23 AM, Derek McGovern <derek.m...@gmail.com> wrote:

I was just listening to the 1959 version of "Silent Night" on the recent Sepia Records CD The Electrifying Mario Lanza. It's a lovely rendition, especially when heard in its original acetate form, which I've attached here as an MP3. In fact, all three Lanza versions of "Silent Night" are beautifully done. 

Mario's at his freshest, of course, in his two 1951 versions: one for RCA and the other for his radio show. Since creating this thread 13 (!) years ago, the radio version has been released commercially at last (on the 2017 Sony two-CD set Mario Lanza: The Best of Everything), and it's still my favourite Lanza rendition, though I have to admit we're spoiled for choice here.   

Here's Vince's beautiful video of the radio version, and here's the 1951 RCA recording. As I wrote upthread all those years ago, all three Lanza versions have their moments. Which is your favourite Mario version?

--
To reply to this message, please go to: https://groups.google.com/g/mariolanza
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Mario Lanza, Tenor" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to mariolanza+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mariolanza/bc843cb8-9d94-4c18-9554-599197407866n%40googlegroups.com.

<Silent Night (1959 Acetate).mp3>