Peter Pan Caroleers - The Christmas Collection

At some point in the early to mid 70s, famed budget children's label Peter Pan Records issued a series of themed compilation 45s with four songs on each, two to a side. The title track was always a cheapo cover version of some recognizable song; the other three were original songs on the same basic theme - usually scrounged from Peter Pan's back catalogue. The cover tunes were nothing special, and I haven't included them here. However, some of the original songs were quite delightful. Most of the songs in this selection seem to be the work of an uncredited group known as The Caroleers.

So far as I can tell from what limited information is online, The Caroleers (or "The Peter Pan Caroleers") is just a name that Peter Pan would occasionally slap onto whatever in-house group they were using at the moment. Usually, as on this recent re-issue of Christmas standards, the Caroleers were a bog-standard group of choral singers. Lovely voices, competent but uninspired performances, nothing to write home about. But the particular incarnation of The Caroleers we're looking at today often evinced a wit, imagination and playfulness beyond what you might expect from such cheapie origins. Some of these songs have deeply burrowed into the heads of those who first heard them as children (including myself), and there are several message board threads online in which people are looking for these and other Caroleer songs, to no avail. I am here to answer their call!

I had always seen the Peter Pan portrayed in their logo as being rather mischievous-looking, due to that upward-curving unibrow. Scanning in the labels, I've only just realized that that supposed to be his hair, and he's meant to be smiling cherubically. I'm a tad disappointed.

Side note: These are all classics to me, as I remember playing them all the time as a kid. Most of these are long forgotten and not available on CD anywhere. However, Peter Pan Records has stated they intend to re-release their catalog of music and most of the Christmas catalog is slated to come out. They have released one CD so far that includes 3 of songs in this collection. All of these were rips from my vinyl collection.

This collection includes:

10 Thousand Santa Clauses (2:31)
Christmas Mountain (2:19)
Icicles, Holly, Red Berries & Snow (2:33)
I'm Gettin' Nuttin' For Christmas (2:43)
Jingle Bells (2:04)
Jolly Old Saint Nicholas (1:36)
The North Pole Express (2:01)
Sleigh Ride / Jingle Bells (2:12)
Snoopy's Christmas (2:40)
The Day Before The Night Before Christmas (2:08)
Who's That Up On The Roof? (2:03)