VA – Basil Rathbone / Lyn Murray Singers – Dickens’ Christmas Carol / Christmas Carols

This is an unusual Christmas album in many ways.  First, most items presented on this blog are CDs and LPs of Christmas music.  This is only half that.  Secondly, this compilation, as presented on the CD reissue, was originally released just as presented here, as a long-playing LP in 1949.  It combines a 6-track telling of Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol narrated by Basil Rathbone, recorded in 1949, combined with 8 Christmas carols from the Lyn Murray Singers originally recorded and released as a 4-disc set of 78s in 1942.  (I also have a copy of that release).  Thirdly, I find it unusual to combine a radio drama on one side of an LP with songs by a completely different artist on the other side.  But I’ll take it and having it in remastered digital quality is a big bonus!  (Both performers were on the Columbia label at the time, so maybe not that unusual, but certainly not common).

The CD artwork is very good.  The cover of the CD is the same as the cover from the album released in 1949.  The back artwork on the CD has simple titles, a list of performers and a numerical track listing.  The CD cover opens to a two-page fold out.  The artwork on the back of the fold-out is similar to the artwork on the back of the CD.  The inside artwork of the fold-out is similar to the back of the original LP.  All the original information regarding Basil Rathbone and Dickens’ Christmas Carol is presented here albeit in a different font and structure.  The original information for the Lyn Murray Singers from the album is here, but what’s not included are the songs and their lyrics as was on the original LP.  I still think the information on the CD is excellent since they pretty much duplicated the front and back of the original LP.

The Dickens’ Christmas Carol part of the CD is listed as 6 parts and each has their own title whereas on the original album, they take up all of side one and is one continuous track.  (Why Sony decided to separate them for the CD reissue is beyond me.  The individual tracks play seamlessly with no noticeable space between the end of one and the beginning of the next one).  The Lyn Murray part of the CD has the original track order as it was on the LP.

Basil Rathbone was a British actor born in South Africa.  He appeared on stage in England and the United States during the 19teens.  In the 1920’s, he started his movie career playing villains and swashbuckling characters in silent movies.  He played Sherlock Holmes in a 1939 movie, and it was such a big hit that he continued the character in many more movies throughout the 40’s.  Those eventually got him typecast, but being British, he seemed the perfect actor to portray Ebenezer Scrooge.

For his part of the CD, Basil Rathbone is joined by a large cast performing Dickens’ Christmas Carol with orchestration provided by Leith Stevens & his Orchestra.  Not too overly dramatic, as future presentations would portray, it tells the complete story in 23 minutes and 27 seconds.  It is a good performance spread out over 6 tracks, each between 3 and 5 minutes. The great thing about the CD reissue is, at least in my iTunes, the tracks play seamlessly, with no noticeable change to the next track.  That’s a plus.

The second side of the original album features 8 traditional Christmas carols sung by the Lyn Murray Singers.  Lyn Murray was also British, whose career was spent composing, arranging, and conducting orchestras for radio, movies and later TV.  He emigrated to the United States to attend Julliard and stayed in the US for most of his career.  All of the Christmas songs I currently have by the Lyn Murray Singers are from these recordings made in 1942.  They did a few other singles in the early 40’s with other artists, but their Christmas output seems to be limited to the 8 songs presented here.  (Oh well, it would have been nice to have other Christmas albums released throughout the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, but I’ll take these).

The Christmas carols presented here are traditional in nature, as are the arrangements.  Not too unusual considering many Christmas songs we are familiar with are non-secular and written after 1942.

It is tempting to catalog the Lyn Murray Singers as an a cappella group, and for the most part, they are, except for very light instrumentation, usually provided by organ and chimes.  They are really terrific and are one of my favorite choral groups, along with the Anita Kerr Singers.  (Look for CD reviews of the Anita Kerr Singers in this blog’s future).

There are a few specific things I go out of my way to collect.  One of those things are the issues of Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol.  I have many by many different artists.  Also, I like to collect different issues of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, traditional English Cathedral Choirs and a cappella groups.  I have many different presentations of all those.  (Look for those in this blog’s future).  This CD combines two of those.

This CD reissue of the original album from 1949 is really good.  If you like older presentations of Dickens’ Christmas Carol, Basil Rathbone and the cast deliver one of the very best.

If you like traditional Christmas carols performed in a traditional manner, with a little 1940’s flavor thrown in, there is no one better than the Lyn Murray Singers.

As I said earlier, it is unusual to have a drama and songs on one CD, and this may be 1 of 2 that I can think of that I have.  This CD is worth it just for the Lyn Murray Singers.  The only CD’s or LP’s by them that Amazon offers is this one, and the original 4-disc 78 RPM set from 1942 (used) and a copy of Finian’s Rainbow that they did in 1947.

I give this CD :

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