Silent Night & the 11 O'Clock News
1968 · Josie 969 · New York City, New York
- Artist
- The Shurfine Singers
- Title
- Silent Night & the 11 O'Clock News
- Release
- Silent Night & the 11 O'Clock News / Go Tell It On the Mountain
- Year
- 1968
- Label
- Josie # 969
- Format
- 7" · Single
- Language
- English
- Country
- New York City, New York, USA
- Songwriter
- Wendell Parker
- Genre
- Soul, Gospel & Funk · Gospel · Soul
- Primary theme
- Peace, Protest & Anti-War
Annotation
The song "Silent Night & the 11 O'clock News" (Josie Records # 969) from gospel/soul singers Shurfine Singers takes a very similar approach to the well-known Simon & Garfunkel single 7 O'Clock News/Silent Night, playing the Christmas hymn "Silent Night" with a a news monologue in the background. Like that track, this news report is also from 1966, starting with an item about the Beatles proclaiming to be "more popular than Jesus", and then onto contemporary issues from Civil Rights to Vietnam. The Vietnam section included news from Saigon, saying that the recent deaths took "the total number of American soldiers killed in Vietnam to over 5,000" - by the end of 1966 the official statistic was 6,143 combat deaths. By 1968 (the release date of this record), the total number of combat deaths had more than doubled to 16,592, a reminder to the listeners that so much had changed in two years. (1)
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Annotation — Christmas Songs
The song "Silent Night & the 11 O'clock News" (Josie Records # 969) from gospel/soul singers Shurfine Singers takes a very similar approach to the well-known Simon & Garfunkel single 7 O'Clock News/Silent Night, playing the Christmas hymn "Silent Night" with a a news monologue in the background. Like that track, this news report is also from 1966, starting with an item about the Beatles proclaiming to be "more popular than Jesus". The Vietnam section included news from Saigon, saying that the recent deaths took "the total number of American soldiers killed in Vietnam to over 5,000" - by the end of 1966 the official statistic was 6,143 combat deaths. By 1968 (the release date of this record), the total number of combat deaths had more than doubled to 16,592, a reminder to the listeners that so much had changed in two years. (1)
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
About the artist
Unknown - "Silent Night & The 11 O'Clock News" b/w "Go Tell It On The Mountain" (Josie Records 45-969, 1966, with a 1967 repressing) - a news-collage Christmas piece in the vein of, but distinct from, Simon & Garfunkel's "7 O'Clock News/Silent Night". "Shurfine" matches a grocery private-label brand, suggesting a sponsored premium record, unconfirmed. No performers were identified. [Source: Discogs]
Themes
Christmas · Saigon · Anti-War · MLK · Civil Rights
In collections
Christmas Songs · Civil Rights Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs · Soul, Gospel, & Funk Songs