"Scrooge" - Roye Goodrich with the Holidays (1952) - Part 3

A few thoughts about the song "Scrooge" as recorded by Roye Goodrich and the Holidays for King Records in 1952...

The song seems pretty obscure. I think it was just recorded that one time. And that one time being on the independent King label by an unknown artist, if it didn't catch on, it was gone.

I'm presuming the publishers would have love to have had the song recorded by name artists on bigger labels.

Flash-forward a year to 1953 and a very similar song, "Ebenezer Scrooge" (discussed here) was making the rounds and got recorded by Teresa Brewer on Coral and Eddy Howard on Mercury. And that song went nowhere either!

The two songs are really similar. Coincidence? At this point who knows?

What probably is a coincidence is that the flip side of Roye Goodrich's record is called "Home for the Holidays," but it's not the same song as "(There's No Place Like) Home for the Holidays," which was published in 1954, a couple of years later.

That song became a holiday standard when it was recorded that year by Perry Como!

In any event, as a bonus here's Roye Goodrich with Holidays' recording of "Home for the Holidays":

"Scrooge" - Roye Goodrich with the Holidays (1952) - Part 2

If you got a chance to listen to King Records' 1952 release of "Scrooge" by Roye Goodrich with the Holidays, I hope you liked it!

Finding little obscure gems like that really scratches an itch for me!

Here's what "Billboard" Magazine said about this release in its November 22, 1952 issue:

I don't know anything about Roye Goodrich, but he sounds very 1952 on this record!

They seemed to be going for the big pre-rock type sound I associate with Columbia Records and the productions of Mitch Miller and Ray Conniff.

He reminds me of somebody? Don Cherry, maybe?

"Billboard" nails it with this review from the August 22, 1952 issue of an earlier Rooye Goodrich release:

It actually surprised me a bit to hear this style on a record from King, as I associate them with country artists like Moon Mullican and Hawkshaw Hawkins and Cowboy Copas, as that's what they're best-remembered for these days.

In any event, it doesn't seem that Roye Goodrich's career never really went anywhere. It was probably already stalled out, but the emergence of rock and roll put his type of singing out of business.

For fun, here's Roye with the overdone "Jungle Drums":

"Scrooge" - Roye Goodrich with the Holidays (1952) - Part 1

"Scrooge" (1952)

Roye Goodrich with the Holidays

King Records

Here's an obscure little single from Roye Goodrich with the Holidays on King Records from 1952!

Give it a listen:

I think it's awesome!