The Night Before Christmas Song - Rosemary Clooney & Gene Autry ~1952

A shout out to Lorraine and Marilyn, the girls who wrote their names on the label. Thanks for taking care of the record as kids!

Born in 1907 in Tioga, Texas, Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry would move to Ravia, Oklahoma with his parents in the 1920's and worked on his father's ranch. Once out of high school, he became a telegrapher for the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway. To pass the down-time at work, he would sing and accompany himself with a guitar, which although helpful for future Gene, actually got him fired from that job. Tired of the regular grind, he saved enough money to head to New York City and auditioned for the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1928. He was ultimately turned down, but in quick thinking, he talked to director, Nathaniel Shilkret and he wasn't turned down for lack of talent, but because Victor just signed two similar artists. He was able to get a letter of introduction from Shilkret himself and some advice to hone his skills in radio and try back in a year or two. Autry started singing on Tulsa KVOO (now KTSB) as "Oklahoma's Yodeling Cowboy". By October 9, 1929, he had made his first recording with Victor as a duet, but still no contract, so at nearly the same time, he signed an official contract with Columbia.

For the first few years or radio and recording, Autry jumped around with all kinds of genres, including many hillbilly style records that were quite different than his later perfected country stylings. While gaining traction and fan-base with his recording career, he also got discovered by film producer Nat Levine in 1934 and was given his break in Mascot Pictures Corp. movie "In Old Santa Fe" as part of a singing cowboy quartet. without diving too deep, we'll say that as his movie career flourished, so did his record sales and popularity...Then war were declared.

Autry enlisted in the US Army in 1942 and became a Tech Sergeant in the Army Air Corps. He already held a private pilot certificate but was determined to become a military pilot and got that rating in June 1944 serving as a C-109 transport pilot. He was assigned to the Air Transport Command and was part of a dangerous airlift operation called "The Hump", flying over the Himalayas between India and China.

Upon returning from the war, he wrote and performed some of the songs he is most famous for to this day with his versions of Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, and Here Comes Santa Claus. This is a lesser known but equally lovely song with Rosemary Clooney lending her voice to the duet and Carl Cotner providing his orchestra as well. This is "The Night Before Christmas Song", originally written and arranged by Johnny Marks who was essentially the John Williams of Christmas music (seriously, look up the songs he wrote. He almost single handedly wrote what we know as Christmas). The song was recorded on June 20, 1952 and released that November.

By the late 1950's, as the original owner of Challenger Records, he began recording other artists, especially trying to capitalize on the beginning of the Rock and Roll craze.

Autry retired from Show business in 1964 with almost 100 films and 640 recordings in total, with 300 of those being written or co-written by himself. He sold over 100 million copies altogether and has more than a dozen gold and platinum records to his name. He was inducted to the country music hall-of-fame in 1969 and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.

Rose Mary Clooney, aka Rosemary Clooney, was born oon May 23, 1928 in Maysville, Kentucky. When she was 15, her family split in two with her mother taking her brother to California and her and her sister remaining with their father. The two sisters became entertainers and her brother would become a newsman and television broadcaster. In 1945, the Clooney sisters won a spot on Cincinnati's WLW as studio singers. The two would sing together as a duo for much of Rosemary's early career.

Her recording career started in 1947 when she signed with Columbia Records and sang with Tony Pastor's band. She would cut 14 sides with the band before making her solo debut in 1949. In 1950 she began appearing on radio and television programs, growing her audience rapidly. She'd have her big break in 1951 with the hit "Come On-A My House", a song which she openly despised. 1954 saw Clooney hit the silver screen along with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, and Vera-Ellen in "White Christmas". In 1956 she got her own television show. She would often perform with Bing Crosby and even went on tour in Ireland with the crooner. The last major chart hit Clooney had was "I've Grown Accustomed To Your Face", released in May 1956, at which point rock-and-roll was quickly driving established pop singers from the charts.

Clooney was awarded the Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998 and would also be awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002. She would pass away from lunch cancer in June of that same year.