Silent Night & the 11 O'Clock News

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 Sources1US National Archives: Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics↩

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.1Sources1US National Archives: Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: News comes from Mississippi today... negro girl was beaten by white men because they went into a school... in Saigon the fighting continues heavy in Vietnam / American headquarters in Saigon announces today that there were 93 American killed in combat last week, this bringing the total number of American soldiers killed in Vietnam to over 5,000 / A spokesman for the Pentagon said the US may have to send up to 2 million troops in to end the war within five years, he also stated that the war could drag on for 20 years unless troop commitments are raised In Saigon the fighting continues heavy in Vietnam / American headquarters in Saigon announces today that there were 93 American killed in combat last week, this bringing the total number of American soldiers killed in Vietnam to over 5,000 / A spokesman for the Pentagon said the US may have to send up to 2 million troops in to end the war within five years, he also stated that the war could drag on for 20 years unless troop commitments are raised

Notes

Josie Record No. 45-969 (Joz-570), "A Product of Jay-Gee Record Co., Inc., N.Y."; "Silent Night & the 11 O'Clock News" (Wendell Parker), Benell Music Corp. - Bold Lad Music - Cape Ann Music (BMI); vocal with inst. accomp.; produced by Wendell Parker. [From the record sleeve and labels]

Themes

Christmas · Saigon · Anti-War · MLK · Civil Rights

In collections

Christmas Songs · Civil Rights Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years] · Soul, Gospel, & Funk Songs