Merry Christmas to You All!

It's probably the most unique record album of the many UP WITH PEOPLE recorded back in the 1960s, '70s and '80s.

Produced in a Los Angeles studio, according to Linda Blackmore Cates (the featured solist on the cover of the album), it was funded by an UWP donor and created "following an amazing gathering of all the UWP casts in Sante Fe, New Mexico during the Christmas period of 1967."

In addition to Linda's involvement (she now lives in the Nashville area), there were several other Tennesseeans involved with the album's production. Her husband-to-be Bill Cates (they had just gotten engaged) played a role in the recordings. Bill served as Musical Director for Up With People after being the original Music Director of Sing Out South.

Bill Cates in May, 1966 with Sing-Out South

And then there's the title song for the album "MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL" which Linda says was written by former SOS cast member Cabot Wade when he was a part of Cast C of Up With People in 1967.

Linda Blackmore Cates & Cabot Wade at an UWP People Reunion

Thanks to YouTube and Willie Knowles' Up With People 1965-1970 Facebook page, here's the title song of MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL with Linda as the featured solist...

Linda told me one more very interesting thing about this title song. She wishes she had done another take of it in the studio! She didn't like how she has done the closing part of the song, feeling she missed a note at end. However, she says nobody has ever mentioned any concerns to her about that over all the years.

Linda has other strong memories during the time the album was recorded, including one surrounding the creation of the song THE HOPE OF MANKIND. It's also featured on the MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL album. Linda says the music for the song came out of a dream which Herb Allen, the all-star UWP song writer and producer, had one night.

The next morning he was so excited, he called Linda, woke her up ,then had her come over to hear the song played on a piano for the very first time. Here it is from YouTube and the 1965-1970 UWP cast Willie Knowles Facebook page as heard on the MERRY CHRISTMAS album...

Linda says this song was the highlight of the album for her which also featured many of UWP's stars at that time including:

Frank Fields
Pat Ector
Finis Fator
Debbie Kirkpatrick
THE UP WITH PEOPLE CHORUS

Here's another original song from the album featuring some of those artists and the UWP Chorus entitled A PRESENT FOR SANTA...


The album was produced in stereo and released under the PACE RECORDS label in time for the 1968 Christmas season. In my archives information, I found a 4/color circular about the album inserted the next year in 1969 inside an edition of TOMORROW'S AMERICAN.

The ad features the album for sale with the extra bonus of it being available at the low price of just $3.98 along with all the other UWP People albums at the time (UWP I, II, III and FRONTIERS OF TOMORROW) all being offered in tandem for a similar price to be given as holiday gifts.

Today, the album may be more difficult to buy. I could not find its sheet music on line and I am not sure it has been released on CD by UWP. All I could find were some album copies available (in various conditions) ranging in price from$5.00 to $9.95 on E-Bay.

Along with several original songs, the MERRY CHRISTMAS also features UWP arrangments of several classic Christmas carols such as I WONDER AS I WONDER, AWAY IN A MANGER, O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM and this classic....O HOLY NIGHT!


If any of you reading this blog posting were involved in this recording, we'd love for you to share your memories here or send them to me by e-mail, and I can post them (pat.nolan@dvl.com).

I can share one review of this album which I recently found on on-line. It was written some 40 years after the album was recorded. Dated Thursday, September 25, 2008 on the blog site A CHRISTMAS YULE BLOG, the un-bylined article says:

"The album is undeniably Sixties--the sound, the pop beat, the smell of dacron and polyester. At times, it goes so overboard that you need scuba equipment to simply breathe.

There are fun Christmas songs (JINGLE BELL BEAT, A PRESENT FOR SANTA), traditional carols (AWAY IN A MANGER, O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM) and at time preachy songs (PAT'S POEM, UP WITH PEOPLE) with a hint of Christmas that make them qualify for this album.

Overall, I liked the album, and the soloists (Debbie Kirkpatrick, Linda Blackmore, Pat Ector) did a fine job when the spotlight shone on them. The group singing is very reminiscent of a hip Mitch Miller & The Gang and the '60s sound is a true flashback."

So MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL, to all, the best in 2011!