Welcome to episode 82 of Holly Jolly X’masu! In this episode, I’ll be talking about the 1959 album, “Blue Christmas – Trumpet Mood Collection,” by Keiichiro Ebihara And The Lobsters.

I’ve had a lot of “most wanted” albums since I started collecting. This one spent nearly a year in my top three. Thankfully, it proved to be as good as it was elusive. Cleaning it up proved to be a struggle and you can still hear a lot of noise in my files. It took me about as long to digitize it as it did to finally get a copy. I’d work on it, not be happy with the results, then put it aside for several weeks and try it again, each time taking a different approach. I finally let it sit for a few months then came back and gave it one last shot. The results weren’t perfect, but I can live with them.

That said, I hope you enjoyed Keiichiro Ebihara and the Lobsters. I would have liked to have given more background on him, but the side I found when I first got the album is one of several I’ve used for research over the past few years that have disappeared when I went back to check them again. I believe I did a decent job stitching together a somewhat accurate picture of his life based on the liner notes and the few other sources I found.

Join me back here next month as I cover a pair of fun albums from the 1960s. Up first is the sonojournal Electric Guitar Christmas 10, featuring the music of Yoshiyas Ueda and Swing West. Then join me later in the month for “Golden Christmas Part,” which is a compilation from 1964 featuring music by the Blue Coats Orchestra, Yoji Yamashita and the Five Sons, and the Doshiro Quintet. From what I can tell, none of the music on either album has ever been rereleased, so you won’t find it anywhere else.

As always, any feedback on this episode would be appreciated. If have any suggestions, or if you’d like to recommend a song or album for a future episode, drop me a line and let me know.

Remember, I’ve added a button to my Ko-fi page. If you’d like to support me one cup of coffee at a time, a donation is only $3. I’ve also opened a Redbubble store. I only have a couple designs up, but keep an eye on it as I’ll be trying to add more. Half of any proceeds or donations received will be donated to support the people of Ukraine, while the rest will be used to purchase new Japanese Christmas music to review for future episodes. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. And if you get a chance, leave me a review on iTunes. Thanks!

Episode 82: “Keiichiro Ebihara’s Blue Christmas – Trumpet Mood Collection”

Welcome to episode 80 of Holly Jolly X’masu! In this episode, I’ll be talking about Lisa Ono’s 2004 album, “Boas Festas 2 – Feliz Natal.”

This is coming out a lot sooner than normal after my last episode. Despite all the setbacks I’ve been facing over the past few months, I wanted to make sure I got both episodes out this month. I’m hoping things calm down and I’m able to get back to a more regular release schedule.

As I said last time, I really hope you enjoyed Lisa Ono’s music as much as I have. Every once in a while when I’m preparing for an episode, after hitting play on an album for the 15th time, I’ll be ready to move on to something else. As much as I’ve listened to both of these CD’s this month, I never grew tired of them.

Be sure to join me next month for a pair of great albums. Up first is Hiro Tsunoda’s “Ballad X’mas” from 1991, along with a couple Christmas singles. Then join me on the 25th for one of the oldest Japanese LP’s I have, “Blue Christmas – Trumpet Mood Collection,” by Keiichiro Ebihara and His Lobsters from 1959. They’re both a lot of fun and I’m sure you’ll enjoy them.

As always, any feedback on this episode would be appreciated. If have any suggestions, or if you’d like to recommend a song or album for a future episode, drop me a line and let me know.

Remember, I’ve added a button to my Ko-fi page. If you’d like to support me one cup of coffee at a time, a donation is only $3. I’ve also opened a Redbubble store. I only have a couple designs up, but keep an eye on it as I’ll be trying to add more. Half of any proceeds or donations received will be donated to support the people of Ukraine, while the rest will be used to purchase new Japanese Christmas music to review for future episodes. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. And if you get a chance, leave me a review on iTunes. Thanks!

 

Episode 80: Lisa Ono’s “Boas Festas 2 – Feliz Natal”

Welcome to episode 78 of Holly Jolly X’masu! In this episode, I’ll be talking about the Korean funk classic, “Woodpecker Merry Christmas,” from 1985.

As I said in the episode, this certainly didn’t align with my expectations. I have a couple others that did, though, so when I mention “Korean Christmas” in the future, you’ll be in for a pleasant surprise.

My main disappointment here was all the skips. This is one of two albums I’ve gotten where the skips were this bad. The other is an LP by a Japanese pop group from the 80s. With that one, I was able to get the song I was looking for on a single, so it wasn’t too big a deal. Still, playing a record and having a three-minute song only run 55 seconds because it’s nothing but skips can be frustrating.

Join me back here later this month when I cover Lisa Ono’s Christmas albums. She grew up in Brazil and developed an affinity for Bossa Nova music. Her albums are fantastic and feature some Brazilian Christmas songs I wasn’t familiar with previously. She has a wonderful voice and a great, loungey sound and I’m sure you’ll love her music.

As always, any feedback on this episode would be appreciated. If have any suggestions, or if you’d like to recommend a song or album for a future episode, drop me a line and let me know.

Remember, I’ve added a button to my Ko-fi page. If you’d like to support me one cup of coffee at a time, a donation is only $3. I’ve also opened a Redbubble store. I only have a couple designs up, but keep an eye on it as I’ll be trying to add more. Half of any proceeds or donations received will be donated to support the people of Ukraine, while the rest will be used to purchase new Japanese Christmas music to review for future episodes. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. And if you get a chance, leave me a review on iTunes. Thanks!

Welcome to episode 76 of Holly Jolly X’masu! In this episode, I’ll be talking about Hideko Kojima’s 1970 album, “Christmas On Hammond – Jingle Bells.”

This month has been a bit tumultuous, to say the least. I’ve had a lot of issues that have kept me from working on my podcast, and just about anything else. I wanted to make sure I got these two episodes out, so I’ll be cutting my blog posts short. I will point out that Hideko Kojima’s album was one of the most pleasant surprises of my collection. I didn’t expect much of it, but it ended up being an exceptional album. I just hope I can get a skip-free copy at some point.

I hope you enjoyed Hideko Kojima’s music and what little background I was able to provide. Over the past few months, I’ve reached out to several people who may or may not have been the artist I was covering at the time. For the most part, I haven’t heard back from any of them. At some point, I’d love to get some feedback from one of them. That said, I hope you’ll join me later this month for the second of my Women’s History Month episodes. Next time around, I’ll be covering Mieko Hirota’s 1960s Christmas music. She was an exceptional singer and you’re sure to love her records.

As always, any feedback on this episode would be appreciated. If have any suggestions, or if you’d like to recommend a song or album for a future episode, drop me a line and let me know.

Remember, I’ve added a button to my Ko-fi page. If you’d like to support me one cup of coffee at a time, a donation is only $3. I’ve also opened a Redbubble store. I only have a couple designs up, but keep an eye on it as I’ll be trying to add more. Half of any proceeds or donations received will be donated to support the people of Ukraine, while the rest will be used to purchase new Japanese Christmas music to review for future episodes. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. And if you get a chance, leave me a review on iTunes. Thanks!

Episode 76: Hideko Kojima’s “Christmas On Hammond – Jingle Bells”

Welcome to episode 74 of Holly Jolly X’masu! In this episode, I’ll be talking about the Christmas flexi-discs released by the confectionary company, Juchheim.

When I was a kid, one of my favorite things to spin on my record player was “It’s A Super Spectacular Day” from the 1980 Mad Magazine Super Special. A few years later, it was superseded by “I’m A Boinger” from the Bloom County collection, “Billy And The Boingers Bootleg.” Thanks to those and a few other I had, I’ve always had an affinity for flexi-discs.

When I started collecting Japanese flexis, I bought up all the affordable ones I could find. I soon got the point where most of the ones I’d see show up for auction that I didn’t already have were the really scarce ones. I’ve managed to get quite a few of them, and some of the music on them is outstanding.

The Chieko Sogawa and Motoyuki Suzuki flexis are some of my favorites. They feature top-notch jazz from extremely obscure artists that you literally can’t hear unless you buy the original disc. It’s the sort of thing that got me into collecting.

I hope you enjoyed this episode and my glimpse into the world of Japanese Christmas flexi-discs. Some the music that can only be found on flexi-disc really rivals the best of my vinyl albums, and I look forward to sharing them eventually. Join me back here on the 25th for what will likely be my last Black History Month episode, at least until Chris Hart releases another Christmas album. I’ll be talking about Chris Hart’s “Christmas Hearts 2,” which features another mix of popular Japanese and Western Christmas tunes, as well as an original or two. If you liked his first album, you’re sure to enjoy this one as well.

As always, any feedback on this episode would be appreciated. If have any suggestions, or if you’d like to recommend a song or album for a future episode, drop me a line and let me know.

Remember, I’ve added a button to my Ko-fi page. If you’d like to support me one cup of coffee at a time, a donation is only $3. I’ve also opened a Redbubble store. I only have a couple designs up, but keep an eye on it as I’ll be trying to add more. Half of any proceeds or donations received will be donated to support the people of Ukraine, while the rest will be used to purchase new Japanese Christmas music to review for future episodes. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. And if you get a chance, leave me a review on iTunes. Thanks!

Welcome to episode 72 of Holly Jolly X’masu! In this episode, I’ll be talking about the Royal Hawaiian Boys’ album, “Hawaiian Time Vol. 3: Christmas In Hawaii.”

I’m in a rush to get this out so I won’t have much to say here. My 2022 was awful. I gave a friend this analogy: Years ago, we saw Lebron James play in the high school championships, right before he joined the NBA. It was literally like watching a top NBA star playing against high school kids. In terms of awfulness, that’s how 2022 was in comparison to 2020 and ’21 for me. This year’s keeping the trend going, so I’m a little behind schedule.

That said, I hope you enjoyed learning about the Royal Hawaiian Boys and Poss Miyazaki. There’s plenty of Hawiian-style Japanese Christmas music out there, so you’ll be hearing more like it eventually. Join me back here next week for Riichi Maki’s “New Sounds Of Christmas.” I had to overcome all sorts of obstacles to finally get a copy, but the end result was worth it, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy hearing it.

As always, any feedback on this episode would be appreciated. If have any suggestions, or if you’d like to recommend a song or album for a future episode, drop me a line and let me know.

Remember, I’ve added a button to my Ko-fi page. If you’d like to support me one cup of coffee at a time, a donation is only $3. I’ve also opened a Redbubble store. I only have a couple designs up, but keep an eye on it as I’ll be trying to add more. Half of any proceeds or donations received will be donated to support the people of Ukraine, while the rest will be used to purchase new Japanese Christmas music to review for future episodes. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. And if you get a chance, leave me a review on iTunes. Thanks!

 

Episode 72: The Royal Hawaiian Boys’ “Christmas In Hawaii”

Welcome to episode 70 of Holly Jolly X’masu! In this episode, I’ll be talking about the virtually unknown 1988 City Pop compilation, “Christmas Lovers” from BBM Records.

This is one of those albums that gave me goosebumps the first time I heard it. I’d spent hours listening to City Pop Christmas songs and playlists on YouTube, and I was familiar with all the really popular songs and most of the more obscure ones as well. Everything here was entirely new to me, and each of the songs was fantastic. How it’s flown under the radar for so long escapes me. It was the same feeling I had the first time I listened to ZE Records’ “A Christmas Record” in the late 90s.

While the artists here are all extremely obscure and don’t seem to have done anything beyond this one album, I hope I help to shed a little light on their work. This has become one of my favorite Japanese Christmas albums, and I feel it holds its own against the other better-known 1980s compilations.

Be sure to join me back here next week for my special New Year’s Eve episode. This time, I’ll be covering the Blue Diamonds, who were known as the Indonesian Everly Brothers. It’s a short, wonderful album on par with the Christmas music from their American contemporaries. If you like early American Rock, you’re sure to enjoy it.

As always, any feedback on this episode would be appreciated. If have any suggestions, or if you’d like to recommend a song or album for a future episode, drop me a line and let me know.

Remember, I’ve added a button to my Ko-fi page. If you’d like to support me one cup of coffee at a time, a donation is only $3. I’ve also opened a Redbubble store. I only have a couple designs up, but keep an eye on it as I’ll be trying to add more. Half of any proceeds or donations received will be donated to support the people of Ukraine, while the rest will be used to purchase new Japanese Christmas music to review for future episodes. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. And if you get a chance, leave me a review on iTunes. Thanks!

 

Welcome to episode 68 of Holly Jolly X’masu! In this episode, I’ll be talking about the King Orchestra’s 1978 album, “Jingle Bell – Christmas Karaoke Collection.”

Despite some disappointment, I was glad to finally add this album to my collection. When I first started buying these records, I built a fairly substantial wishlist, and any time I finally get one of the albums that’s been on it from the beginning, I get a feeling of satisfaction. That might change when I listen to it, but at least I can enjoy the achievement for a little while.

As I mentioned in the episode, these first two of the month were done while battling COVID. It wore me out more than I thought it would. I didn’t realize how much it impacted my recording until I was editing this episode and had to cut out tons of lengthy pauses and deep breaths. I’m hoping to be fully back on track in the next week or so.

I hope you enjoyed some of the music here, and the background about King Records. Join me next week for one of my absolute favorite Japanese albums, “Mint Sound’s X’mas Album.” It’s a spectacular compilation from 1987, loaded with a fantastic array of mostly original songs. It’s one of the first albums I bought, and one that really got me hooked on collecting Japanese Christmas music. This is one episode you don’t want to miss!

As always, any feedback on this episode would be appreciated. If have any suggestions, or if you’d like to recommend a song or album for a future episode, drop me a line and let me know.

Remember, I’ve added a button to my Ko-fi page. If you’d like to support me one cup of coffee at a time, a donation is only $3. I’ve also opened a Redbubble store. I only have a couple designs up, but keep an eye on it as I’ll be trying to add more. Half of any proceeds or donations received will be donated to support the people of Ukraine, while the rest will be used to purchase new Japanese Christmas music to review for future episodes. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. And if you get a chance, leave me a review on iTunes. Thanks!

Episode 68 –King Orchestra’s “Jingle Bell – Christmas Karaoke Collection”

Welcome to episode 66 of Holly Jolly X’masu! In this episode, I’ll be wrapping up my “Big In Japan” month with a selection of records from a variety of artists who found their biggest or initial success in Japan.

This is easily one of the episodes I’ve been most excited to record. While the nostalgia invoked by Bob McGrath, and the relative notoriety of Jennifer Connelly’s record were big deals, those paled in comparison to everything I was able to uncover about Paul Anka’s “Christmas In Japan.” I’ve mentioned before that I’m not in the best position to uncover facts about Japanese Christmas music that my friends in Japan don’t already know, so when I do, it’s a huge accomplishment for me. I’ve always liked Paul Anka, so the fact that his record was involved made it even more meaningful.

As promised in the episode, here are the English lyrics to “Vive Le Vent”:

Long live the wind, long live the wind Long live the winter wind Which goes whistling, blowing Through the tall green Christmas trees, oh!

Long live the weather, long live the weather, Long live the winter weather Snowballs and new year’s day and happy new year Grandma!

Along the long road All white from the white snow Walks an old man With his cane in his hand And all above the wind Which whistles in the branches Blows on him the romantic tune That he sang as a young child, oh!

Merry, Merry Christmas To the thousand candles Which delight toward heaven The night’s bells. Long live the wind, long live the wind Long live the winter wind Which brings to old kids Their memories of yesterday, oh!

And the old man Goes down toward the village It’s the time when everyone is good And the shadow dances near the fire But in each house There floats a festive air Everywhere the table is set And you hear the same song, oh!

I ran a little long in spots this episode, so I had to edit out a few bits. One thing I regretted cutting was the fact that “Christmas In Japan” was released on both 45 and 78. I’ve seen one copy of the 78 for sale. Unfortunately, I didn’t bid on it. I’ll keep looking, though.

Jimmy Osmond’s record was a fun one to pick up. It was also surprisingly hard to find. I had a copy sitting in my wish list on one of the record sites for a couple months, but when I went to buy it, their copy had sold. It took over a year for another copy to show up. Since then, I’ve seen dozens of them, but there was a long stretch where I’d started to worry that I’d never see another.

From a pure nostalgia standpoint, Bob McGrath’s EP was one of the biggest highlights of my collecting career. Of the human characters on “Sesame Street,” Bob was always my favorite. Hearing his “Jingle Bells” the first time took me back to my childhood. When a copy of his “White Christmas” single showed up a month or two ago, I couldn’t pass on it.

I resisted getting “Jennifer’s X’mas” for quite some time. Now that I have it, I don’t regret it, although I’m glad I didn’t pay as much as some others have.

Jennifer Connelly on “The Graham Norton Show”

I hope you’ve had as much fun listening to and learning about these artists who were “Big In Japan” as I did collecting and researching their music. Join me back here next month as I celebrate Christmas with four weekly episodes. Up first is the Hibari Children’s Chorus and their 1965 album, “Good Child’s Christmas Party.” After that, I’ll be covering the King Orchestra’s 1978 album, “Jingle Bells – Christmas Karaoke Collection.” Then join me later in the month as I talk about one of the greatest Japanese Christmas compilations to come out of the 1980s, “Mint Sound’s X’mas Album.” Finally, on Christmas Day, listen in as I cover a virtually unknown City Pop Christmas compilation. It’s one of the coolest records in my collection and one you don’t want to miss.

As always, any feedback on this episode would be appreciated. If have any suggestions, or if you’d like to recommend a song or album for a future episode, drop me a line and let me know.

Remember, I’ve added a button to my Ko-fi page. If you’d like to support me one cup of coffee at a time, a donation is only $3. I’ve also opened a Redbubble store. I only have a couple designs up, but keep an eye on it as I’ll be trying to add more. Half of any proceeds or donations received will be donated to support the people of Ukraine, while the rest will be used to purchase new Japanese Christmas music to review for future episodes. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. And if you get a chance, leave me a review on iTunes. Thanks!

Episode 66: A Very “Big In Japan” Christmas