When a Baby is Born

First of all, let me wish all of you a happy Christmas, and/or joyful whatever else you're having. I appreciate every visitor and every visit to this site, and I hope you find it worth your while every time you stop by.

When I found I had a recent acquisition containing the song title "When a Baby is Born", I felt that was a natural for a Christmas Day post. However, the song, named in this week's post title, is by far the lesser of the two songs on this 45, so I'll share it in the runner-up position.

And it's no surprise that the flip side is better, as it is yet another winner from Cara Stewart, in this case titled "Each Passing Day". I suppose nothing really sets this one aside from other Cara efforts, just another wonderfully winning vocal and more arrangement magic from Lee Hudson.

Download: Cara Stewart and Orchestra - Each Passing Day
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Actually the most interesting aspects of this record are probably the ones found on the label. When I shared the only other "Princess" label 45, in a post here (the links in that post no longer work), I speculated that the record in question was one of very few on the Princess label, a label not documented anywhere else at that time. Clearly, there were more, as this record, from three years later (1969), is number 19, a whole six records after the 1966 issue linked above. Clearly these are rarities - it took me eight years to acquire a second Princess release.

I didn't mention it in that previous post, but what is the deal with the copyright of "Dorothy Mann, Queen of the West"? That's got me thinking. And then of course, there is the matter of how and why did this come into the position of a Sergeant in the Women's Army Corps, as seen on the sticker. These are the things that would keep me up at night, if I was the sort to be kept up at night, which I'm not.

Anyway, the flip side, "When a Baby is Born", may make for a good title to use on a post for Christmas Day, but as a song - even a song-poem, it's fairly awful. This slow, dull record doesn't even give me much of a clue as to what song-poem factory it may have come from. Thoughts on that? The record claims the singer is someone named "Frank Cherry", but a quick listen shows that this is very unlikely to be the case. At least, I'm not familiar with "Frank" being a unisex name, but maybe I'm just out of the loop.

Download: (Labeled As) Frank Cherry and Orchestra - When a Baby is Born
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And finally, here is the Christmas card my family and I sent out to family and friends this year. We have a history of offbeat Christmas cards, and my older daughter, who is an artist, had perhaps the best idea we've ever had for a card. My wife and I are in the front row (I'm actually bald - that's a wig), and our daughters are in the back, on either side of the boyfriend of my my younger daughter (who is on the left).