Saturday Swing Shift - A Christmas Special

Alright man, the first big snow storm hits us here on the east coast and things are feeling very Christmas-y. Other than the obligatory booze run, looks like I am staying indoors tonight and what better opportunity than to upload this...which truly qualifies as a Gem.

Years ago I spent sometime in the Chicago area. The host of this radio show not only ran the Saturday Swing Shift but was the afternoon host of daily programming. He single handedly revived and expanded my interest in jazz music when it had all but fallen by the wayside.

And the most important thing he did for me was to make me look backwards. His Saturday morning show made me look deep at the roots of jazz and opened my eyes like no one ever had before.

Here is his Christmas show from 1996, the Saturday before Christmas, diligently recorded to cassette at 10 AM on Dec 21st. This show specializes in tunes from the "swing era" so we are looking at the '30's and '40's.

From WDCB, 90.9 - NPR from the College of DuPage, Il. Bruce Oscar - host.

Disc One
1. Radio intro
2. White Christmas - Bing Crosby
3. Let it Snow - Vaughn Monroe
4. con't
5. radio break
6. Rudolph The red Nosed Reindeer - Gene Autry
7. The Christmas Song - Nat Cole
8. All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth - Spike Jones
9. radio break
10. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus - Little Jimmy Boyd
11. Christmas Island - The Andrews Sisters
12. Silent Night - Bing Crosby
13. Here Comes Santa Claus - Gene Autry
14. radio break
15. A Christmas Medley - Glenn Miller Orchestra
16. Home For The Holidays - Glenn Miller Orchestra
17. radio break
18. Let It Snow - Woody Herman
19. Trim Your Christmas Tree - Les Brown
20. Brazilian Sleighbells - Harry James
21. White Christmas - Harry James
22. Jingle Bells - Duke Ellington Orchestra
23. radio break

Disc Two
1. radio break
2. Snowfall - Claude thornhill
3. Jingle Bells - Benny Goodman
4. Santa Claus Came In The Spring - Benny Goodman
5. radio break
6. Winter Wonderland - Ted Weems
7. Santa's Swingin' - Louis Prima
8. Jingle Bells - Fats Waller
9. radio edit
10. Hello Mr. Kringle - Kay Kyser
11. I Like The Winter Weather - Peggy Lee
12. When Winter Comes - Eddie Duchin
13. Sleighride In July - Les Brown
14. Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer - Sammy Kaye
15. The Christmas Song - Doris Day
16. radio break
17. Silver Bells - Bob Hope
18. Santa's Secret - Johnny Guarnieri/Slam Stewart
19. Christmas Medley #2 - Glenn Miller Orchestra
20. What Are You Doing on New Years Eve? - Kay Kyser
21. radio outro

The big disclaimer - there are some dropouts because this was recorded on a receiver in my basement hideaway straight to cassette.
Disc one's track listing is also a bit screwed as the cassette jammed and I had to reburn some tracks and because I suffer from a lackadaisical attitude I did not remember to fix the tags before uploading. Good luck.
And of course the disc jockey fucks up once proving we all all human.

Saturday Swing Shift Christmas 1

Saturday Swing Shift Christmas 2

This is a great Christmas show - please don't discount it because of my limitations.