This is one of the great American premium-record programs. Every Christmas from 1962 into the 1970s, Firestone tire dealers handed out an LP of carols to customers - beautifully produced, pressed in enormous quantities, and given away rather than sold. Volume 5, issued in 1966, is the one people actually go looking for, because it is the volume with JULIE ANDREWS on it, at the height of her Mary Poppins and Sound of Music fame, singing with ANDRE PREVIN conducting the Firestone Orchestra and Chorus. Of the whole series, Volume 5 is the most sought-after because of her.

Now let me be plain with you, because "sought-after within the series" is not the same as scarce: this record is extremely common. Discogs shows 2,794 owners against just 37 wants. Firestone gave away hundreds of thousands of these. It is a lovely, warm-sounding Christmas record with a genuinely charming story behind it, and it is priced accordingly - I am not calling it rare, because it is not.

DETAILS

Artist: Julie Andrews with Andre Previn, the Firestone Orchestra and Chorus

Title: Firestone Presents Your Favorite Christmas Carols, Volume 5

Label & catalog #: Firestone / Forrell & Thomas Inc., SLP 7012, 1966

Format: 12" vinyl LP, 33 RPM

Genre: Holiday / Christmas choral and vocal

The catalog number is shown on the label in the photographs.

CONDITION

Very Good (VG). Honest used vintage vinyl. The record plays through with the light surface noise you would expect of a sixty-year-old LP, and the sleeve shows shelf wear, edge and corner wear and possible ring wear. Please see the photos - they are of the actual copy you will receive.

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Ships FREE via USPS Media Mail, packed in a rigid record mailer with the record outside the sleeve to prevent seam splits.

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