Event Recap Chat with Duke Allen about Christmas Flipsides and Flops

[Jeff Westover]

@SBellsRikki would be an excellent North Pole reporter...just sayin'

 

[e_xander]

Yes, Duke, like how did you get interested and find all the music you play?

 

[Duke Allen]

I'm going to ask my engineer Merry Carey to rustle up "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus" from 1950. This is NOT the original hit from Christmas '48, as recorded by rhythm-and-blues singer Mabel Scott. This one is by Patti Page, and there's a story here. While I'm typing it, you can listen to the record...

 

[Jordan Rivers]

Umm, Patti Page

 

[MerryCarey]

 

[Jordan Rivers]

This is cool

 

[Storeytime]

I've used that song in my synchronized display before. Good one to get the lights flashing.

 

[Jordan Rivers]

Thanks for all this preparation, guys!

 

[SBellsRikki]

oh, those big horns!

 

[Jeff Westover]

Outstanding

 

[Jordan Rivers]

spinning tunes in chat...this is brilliant

 

[SBellsRikki]

This needs to be a Xmas Kareoke number!!! How about it @MerryCarey

 

[MerryCarey]

*gulp* Me singing? uh-uh.

 

[SBellsRikki]

I'm dancing... virtually in my mind

 

[Jeff Westover]

I could see @MerryCarey proofreading sheet music...

 

[Duke Allen]

"Boogie Woogie Santa Claus" is the Queen Mother of Christmas B sides that rode the roller coaster of success. This is a cover of Mabel Scott’s record from Christmas 1948, with Mercury Records’ singing star Patti Page. “Boogie Woogie Santa Claus” was the record Mercury was pushing, and the label deliberately put a “nothing” song on the flip side so that “Boogie Woogie Santa Claus” would get all the attention from the disc jockeys.

 

[Duke Allen]

Note that they were aiming at the disc jockeys, not the record-buying public. The deejays were the one who could make or break a record, and Mercury bet the works on “Boogie Woogie Santa Claus,” paying so little attention to the B side that they let Patti Page sing whatever she wanted to sing. She chose a little song called “Tennessee Waltz.” Of course, the disc jockeys began playing the flip side, and it took off like a rocket. It became Patti Page’s all-time biggest hit, with nine weeks at #1, and it sold more than 10 million copies. So Mercury reprinted the record with “Tennessee Waltz” as the A side, and “Boogie Woogie Santa Claus” as the B – and then “Boogie Woogie Santa Claus” was dropped from the record entirely, replaced with another ballad.

 

[Storeytime]

Wow! very interesting.

 

[Jeff Westover]

very

 

[SBellsRikki]

excellent