Where do I begin?  I’m not necessarily familiar with Ruth Lyons because I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. It’s more about what I learned after I started collecting music, and the first music I started collecting was Pop Vocals from the 1950’s.  Once I discovered Christmas music, this CD somehow came to my attention, but I was not aware of it until it had been out for almost 3 years.

Ruth Evelyn Reeves was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1905.  Ruth Lyons’ parents were both musicians and Ruth herself was very active in drama from a young age.  All through high school she played music and wrote and composed plays.

Ruth acquired the last name Lyons from her first husband Johnny in 1932.  His business transferred him out of town, but Ruth did not want to leave her radio show and stayed in Cincinnati.

Ruth became interested in radio while in high school.  In a short time, she became head of programming at two different stations in the course of 14 years.

In 1946, she created a radio program that invited 50 housewives to lunch every day, and a live broadcast of a show about subjects including home economics, personal grooming, and current news and events.  She called it the 50 Club.  In 1949, the 50 Club moved to television.  In 1953, the audience was expanded to 100 housewives and renamed the 50/50 Club.

Starting in her radio days, Ruth Lyons refused to read the scripts she was given by the sponsors.  She used the products that were advertised on her show and would tell the audience whether to buy the product or not.  She ran her TV show the same way.  She told it like it was and everyone loved her for it.

Keep in mind, this was 1946, and moved to TV in 1953.  She had a ninety-minute show on Monday through Friday starting at 12 noon.  It was also broadcast live to Dayton and Columbus, Ohio and Indianapolis, Indiana.  Her show was broadcast in color from the very beginning although very few families had a TV, let alone a color TV in 1953.

She had a large supporting cast of announcers, singers and musicians.  She had no trouble securing appearances of Hollywood celebrities when they were passing through Cincinnati.

By 1967, after the death of her daughter, Ruth had had enough.  The 50/50 Club was handed over to her co-host Bob Braun.  That’s where I come in.  I watched the 50/50 Club hosted by Bob Braun from around 1973 to 1977.  It was a great show.  It was on from 12 noon to 1:30. It was local.  The entertainment was good.  And the celebrity appearances were always the best part.  It was a great show!

Ruth Lyons started the Ruth Lyons Christmas Fund in 1939 and it provided Christmas presents to local hospitalized children.  It is Ruth Lyons’ legacy.  It was a huge success in its very first year and is still very active every year to this day.

This CD combines both Ruth Lyons’ Christmas albums; Ten Tunes Of Christmas from 1957, and It’s Christmastime Again from 1963.  Because there were some duplicates from the first album onto the second one, we have all of Ruth Lyons’ Christmas output.  Excellent.

This CD came to me from my mother.  After I started collecting Christmas music, I became aware of this and only heard about it, and really knew nothing of it.  I had barely heard of Ruth Lyons and only knew of the 50/50 Club with Bob Braun as host.  It may have been on my Christmas wish list that year.  At that time, there was, and still is, a radio station in Cincinnati with the call letters WMKV.  They play Big Band and Pop Vocals, and all the DJs are retired personnel that had TV or radio experience in their careers, and they are all volunteers.  Somehow my mother got in touch with one of the guys at WMKV.  He had copies of this for sale.  I think he was the remastering engineer.  Mind you, although this was done locally in Cincinnati, a lot of work went into putting this together.  The remastering engineer had 100’s of copies of the album and took the best versions of each song he could find.  He then digitally remastered them.  It is available on Amazon, but back in 2008, it was not.

If you want to know what a 1957 Christmas looked like, look at the cover of this CD.  Ruth and her co-host Bob Braun are surrounded by all the supporting cast from the 50/50 Club.  In the background is a wonderfully decorated Christmas tree.  Everyone is dressed in their finest.  Women in brightly colored party dresses, men in gray tailored suits.  The chorus is dressed in light blue dinner jackets and black bow tie.  As soon as I saw this cover, I fell in love with it.  It is one of the best covers of a Christmas album I have ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot!

The back of the CD features a numerical track listing with performing artists and time signatures.  Below are composer and writer credits and original album release dates.  To the left is a picture of Ruth Lyons.

The front cover opens in a double bifold to a 10”x10” piece of heavy paper.  Fully opened, there is a very detailed history of both Christmas albums.  Along with the text are black and white pictures of the performers in the studio.  This is continued on the top half of the back if folded over once.  Below are notes on recording dates and remastering credits.

If you want to know what a 1963 Christmas looked like, take the front cover out, and without opening it, on the back you will see almost the same setting as from 1957, but from 1963.  The same lead cast is here, albeit 6 years older.  (I also noticed that all the women had gone blonde! Gotta love the 1960’s!)

With all the historical information and the wonderful nostalgic color photographs, the back of the CD is the only place we find track listings and performing credits.  Overall, the artwork and detailed information is one of the best ever.

As I wrote earlier, this CD contains all of Ruth Lyons’ Christmas output.  Unless you have this in your collection, you will not be familiar with any of these songs.  All the songs were written and composed by Ruth Lyons.  There are 18 great, original Christmas songs and Ruth wrote them all.  The orchestration and arranging is done by Cliff Lash And The 50/50 Club Orchestra.  They were still the orchestra when I was watching the 50/50 Club.

(A small note…when I did watch the 50/50 Club With Bob Braun, most of the singers and performers were different.  Most of the ones on this CD had retired by 1974).

Another great thing about this release is the songs are arranged in the same track order as they were on their respective albums.  You get all the first album, minus the last track, which appears at the end of the CD, first. Then the rest of the CD is the album from 1963, minus the ones that were originally from the first album, and they are in their original order.  (They are hitting me in all my soft spots with this release).

The thing that impressed me the most the first time I heard this was the elaborate instrumentation.  There are harps, bells, piccolos, xylophones, oboes, etc.  The production is incredible.  This is Christmas music!

As much as I would love to tell you about each song on here, it would take way too long.  (Perhaps in the future, I will expand this review and do that).

What I will do is tell you that out of the eighteen songs on here, eleven are in my Top 500 Classic Christmas Recordings.  That means 60% of the songs on this CD I feel are the best Christmas music has to offer.

These include the opening song, Hey Nonny Nonny featuring Ruth Lyons and The Bello-Larks.

The third song, Christmas Is Getting Mighty Close features a nice duet with Bonnie Lou and Peter Grant.

The fifth song, Have A Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas features Ruby Wright And The Dick Noel Singers, which sounds like a chorus of children and adults.  This is probably the best Christmas song ever produced.  This is what Christmas music is supposed to sound like.

The eighth song is It’s Christmas Time Again by Bonnie Lou.  A wonderful flute driven ode to all the wonder the season has to offer.

The tenth song, Christmas Marching Song is perhaps the best song on here, (have I said that before?)  It begins with flowing harps, muted trumpets and has a tag line of We Wish You A Merry Christmas before marching into a counting song that reminds me of a Children’s Christmas song .  It features Ruth Lyons and all the 50/50 Club performers.

The eleventh song, This Is Christmas, is beautifully sung by Ruby Wright.

Always At Christmas Time follows and is sung by Bob Braun.  It is a great Christmas song and Bob does an excellent job of delivering the perfect Christmas sentiment circa 1963.  He is joined by a chorus of 50/50 Club personnel.

Track 14 has Bonnie Lou and Peter Grant sharing another duet on All Because It’s Christmas.  Absolutely wonderful.  I’ve said it a few times already, and I’ll probably say it a few more times, but this is the best Christmas music ever produced.  Thanks, Mom!

Track 17 features once again, Bob Braun singing a song more suited to his mid baritone to tenor voice, It’s That Very, Very Special Time Of Year.

The last song on the CD is also the last song on the original album.  Let’s Light The Christmas Tree is an endearing, soft arrangement of a torch song lullaby.  It is sung by Ruby Wright.

All the performers on here were big stars in their own right in Cincinnati.  Ruth Lyons’ legacy will never be matched.  Before there was Oprah, before there was Regis, before there was Dinah Shore, there was Ruth Lyons.  She started the daytime talk show.  She invented it.  She mastered it.  And she is the Queen of Daytime TV, and always will be.

I absolutely love this Christmas CD.  If you asked me for my top 5 favorite CDs out of my over 1600 CDs and LPs, this one is in my Top 5.  It has some of the best Christmas music I’ve ever heard.  It has one of the best Christmas covers I’ve ever seen.

If you like Classic Christmas music performed with a full orchestra with lush arrangements, you will absolutely love this CD!  And if you don’t, I will personally come over and clean your house!

There is nothing like a carol or hymn presented on here.  They are all original Christmas songs that speak, hark and yearn for the most wonderful, secular Christmas possible.

This is Christmas 1957 and 1963.  And it sounds like it.  That is my favorite period of the Classic Christmas Era (1946 – 1976).  If you prefer more modern contemporary synthesized Christmas music, this is not for you.  If you like vintage Christmas music as I do, this is one of the best Christmas CDs you will ever find, and you will absolutely love it!

I give this CD :

*****