A long time ago in the 60s when we were all very young, Dad used to hide a microphone in the Christmas tree to record us on his reel-to-reel as we came downstairs on Christmas morning, opening presents, looking for breakfast, starting up Rudy the Robot, crashing things, crying, etc. Hey Mom, where are my underpants? When you listen to those tapes long after they were made, you sometimes notice the sounds in the background, like what was playing on the radio that morning of December 25 in, say, 1964.

Here is one of those things. You can hear some of it on one of the Christmas morning tapes of the 60s, in the background--The Star Carol, composed by Alfred S. Burt and sung by the Hi-Los.

The recording was only available on a couple of 1958 holiday compilation LPs from Columbia: "Seasons Greetings, A Christmas Festival of Stars" (CS 8189), and "A Merry, Merry Christmas" (CSP 161). The LPs are long out of print, the tracks were never issued anywhere else, and until now, I don't think any of us ever heard it outside of what was on the Christmas morning tape.

Make sure your computer speakers are on, and click here to listen. Or right-click to save it on your hard drive. Thanks to Hi-Los collector Bobby Jenkins, owner of www.thehi-los.com. For more information on this and other carols by Alfred Burt, visit www.alfredburtcarols.com.

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