Most of my music experience was from Movie Musicals, Saturday Morning Cartoons, (The Archies, The Beatles cartoon, etc), and other TV shows. Of course the biggest of these were the Monkees and the brand new series, The Partridge Family.

Christmas of 1970 brought presents that would be the beginning of the creation of this Music Fan.

For it was on that Christmas morning I opened my very first record player. Looking back 40 years ago with how easy it is to have a constant source of music, having your own record player may not be a big deal. But for this 12 year old boy it was. I’m sure it would be to anyone living it that generation. A generation where entertainment in the house usually was focused in one room of the house. A TV set, and it may not have been a color one, and music console were all together.

My record player wasn’t simply a small one. It resembled a medium sized trunk. Nor was it mono, as many were in 1970. It was a stereo. It also have a Bass and Treble control. I don’t know how expensive it may have been, but I’m sure for our family it was quite expensive.

On top of that I received three albums. Amazingly these are still in my collection. Those albums were The Beatles, Yesterday and Today, Elvis Presley, From Memphis to Vegas and the first album from what was my favorite music group, The Partridge Family.

I’m sure that there are many, men and women, my age who still think back to the Christmas of 1970 as the beginning of their musical journey. And while they may not admit that the Partridge Family, The Jackson Five and the Osmonds were some of their earliest favorites, like mine they probably were.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Very Happy 1971

The brother and sister duo The Carpenters recorded this song in 1970 early in their career. When they release their Christmas Portrait album in 1978, they recorded a newer version of the song. The only difference between the versions is that in 1978. Karen Carpenter requested to rerecord the song since in 1970 she felt that her voice was more deep and husky while in 1978 it was softer.

The words of the song was written by Frank Pooler who was director of the University Choir at California State University at Long Beach when Richard Carpenter was attending in 1966. He asked Richard to put a poem that he wrote in 1946.

The song was released as a Christmas single many times and in 1970, 1971 and 1973 it was the top Christmas single.

In 1970 a few Pop artists released Christmas Albums, but after that until the Carpenters released Christmas Portrait in 1978, few artists recorded a full Christmas album. Their record company A&M Records had been reluctant allow them to release on, but by 1978 and their recording of three popular Christmas songs, Christmas Portrait was released. The album was a success.

Greg Lake of Emerson Lake and Palmer released his only solo song during the Christmas season of 1975.

Upon listening to the song, without really listening to the lyrics, this song written Greg Lake (Emerson, Lake and Palmer) and writing partner Peter Sinfield, it sounds like a nice little Christmas song. But it’s really a protest song against the commercialization of Christmas. It still makes my favorite list.

In 1977 Bing Crosby was the old crooner from the 1930s and 1940s. He was more well known then for his annual Christmas Specials and his recording of White Christmas, as well as his old films, when on September 11th he and 30 year old glam rocker David Bowie recorded this song for Bing’s 1977 Christmas Special.

The song was originally just to be a duet of the Little Drummer Boy, but Bowie was not a fan of the song and requested to sing something else. Buz Kohan, Larry Grossman and Ian Fraser quickly wrote the song Peace on Earth and created an arrangement for the two songs.

This song was one of the last recordings of Bing crosby, who died of a heart attack after completing a round of golf on October 14th. The Christmas Special would be shown a month after his death.

The song didn’t really become popular until it was released as a Christmas single in 1982.