Featuring Rock Around the Clock
To all North Pole City Elves, those in Santa’s Village, in the Lower 48 and all around the world, this is your weekly update for the week of April 11, 2022. I'm your host Walter "Mistletoe" Livingstone. Let's go to press.
| For the week of April 11, 2022 your sponsor will be: Hanna’s Holiday Emporium. Specializing in decorations and decor for all of your holiday needs. From Father Time to Christmas, Hanna has something to decorate for every holiday season. That’s Hanna’s Holiday Emporium. |
| Update from Santa’s Village: If you heard Santa and the team take-off out of Santa’s Village last week you were not imagining anything. A special trip was made by Santa to go and visit the Easter Bunny. The Easter Bunny contacted Santa to let him know that he was a little short on coloring for Easter Eggs and gifts. Santa thought it would be a great way to help out and find something to do with the batch of paint that came out of the paint factory that could not be used. After the paint was packaged securely for the flight, Santa flew the paint down to the Easter Bunny’s secret factories and spent the day touring the facilities. He returned later that evening and reported the fantastic job that the Easter Bunny and all of his workers were doing this season. |
| Edward Hicklemyer has posted the schedule for the Easter Bunny’s North Pole security detail, also referred to as the “Bunny Brigade '', to be ready to leave Santa’s Village at 8 a.m. on Friday morning. Please be sure to pack for your three day trip. The “Brigade” will be assisting the Easter Bunny’s “Pink Berets” during his delivery trip around the world, and then escort him up here to North Pole City afterwards for his vacation for a few weeks at North Pole City. |
| The staff at the WWW/PR division for the Department of Elfland Security will be taking some time off this week in preparation for the arrival of the Easter Bunny after Easter. They have officially released the Easter Bunny’s webpage; however, they need to meet with him to get some final information. We expect more posts about the Easter Bunny’s page over the next few weeks; however, you can enjoy some worksheets and downloads that are available on TAOLF.com now. |
| This week in North Pole City weather, we will have much of the same weather as last week, with heavy rains expected later this weekend. Some estimates have been 3-4 inches of rain expected with some localized flooding possible. If you have any items in low lying areas, now is the time to move them to higher ground. |
| The Department of Elfland Security’s investigation team are looking into the outage that took place this weekend here at WELF-NPC radio. For two days, the radio station's Internet connection was down and no information was being transmitted out over the airwaves. It looks like some sabotage again has taken place right here in North Pole City. The executives at the station are debating on whether or not to re-broadcast this week's schedule next week since none of the shows were heard on Friday night and Saturday morning. “Everything was working fine on our end,” said engineer Scooter Scarbough, “but we were getting calls from all over the world that elves were not able to hear the shows on their end. There was nothing we saw as being an issue until we sent out a team to the towers. It looked as if the communication cables were just cut off and we had to re-run some of the patch cords. Once we figured out the problem, the station came back on the air with no problem. I sent pictures over to the investigation team.” |
| On April 12, 1954— Bill Haley and His Comets recorded “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around The Clock.” If rock and roll was a social and cultural revolution, then “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around The Clock” was its Declaration of Independence.Bill Haley put his enormous signature on rock and roll history during the final 40 minutes of a three-hour recording session in New York City—a session set up not for the recording of “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around The Clock,” but of a song called “Thirteen Women (and Only One Man in Town).” It took the group nearly all of their scheduled session to get a usable take of “Thirteen Women,” a song that was entirely new to them but was chosen as the A-side of their upcoming single by their new record label, Decca. With time running out and no chance of extending the session, Haley and his Comets were eager to lay down the song they’d been playing live for many months to enthusiastic audience response. The lead guitarist brought in for the session, Danny Cedrone, had not had time to work up a new solo for the instrumental break on “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around The Clock,” so he repurposed one he’d used on a Haley recording two years earlier called “Rock This Joint.” Cedrone was paid $31 for his work that evening, which included performing what is still recognized as one of the greatest guitar solos of all time.Haley and the band had time for only two takes, and in the first, they played so loud that Haley’s vocals were almost inaudible on tape. In an era before multi-track recording, the only solution was to do a second take with minimal accompaniment and hope for the best. Later, a Decca engineer painstakingly spliced together segments from both takes—a near-miracle given the technology of 1954. The finished version was judged good enough to include as the B-side on “Thirteen Women,” which was released in May 1954.The single sold a respectable but underwhelming 75,000 copies in the coming months, and was destined to be forgotten until a 10-year-old kid in Los Angeles flipped “Thirteen Women” and fell in love with the now-famous B-side. That kid, Peter Ford, happened to be the son of actor Glenn Ford, who was slated to star in the upcoming teenage-delinquency drama Blackboard Jungle. Peter turned his father on to “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around The Clock,” and soon enough, the song was chosen to play over the opening credits of Blackboard Jungle, which is how it became a pop sensation, selling a million copies in a single month in the spring of 1955. |
| The North Pole City Commerce association will be hosting a special “Spring Easter Sidewalk Sale” this weekend through the streets of North Pole City. All North Pole City businesses are encouraged to put a table outside of your business and offer some “Spring” related items. The sale is scheduled to begin Saturday morning at 9 a.m. |
| The North Pole City Council has reported that half of the city streets in North Pole City have been completed ahead of schedule. The construction crew will be taking the next week off as they are awaiting more bricks from the brick factory. They are going to take advantage of this time to perform some maintenance on their machinery. |
| North Pole City Sports League has received thousands of suggestions for a spring sport for North Pole City. They will be compiling a list for the next advisory board meeting and will announce plans for the new sport that will be available to all of the citizens in North Pole City next spring. Please stay tuned for more updates. |
| Besides this week’s Spring Sale throughout the streets of North Pole City, the North Pole City Hotel is preparing for a new dignitary to be arriving later next weekend. The Easter Bunny will be joining us for a few weeks after Easter and several events will be posted soon.Mrs. Claus’ Kitchen has reported that their Brown Bag Luncheon Swap was another great success this year and many have taken advantage of sending the notes to each other. The post office has been putting in some extra hours to get the notes delivered but they are almost caught up. |
| WELF-NPC would like to wish a very happy 575th Birthday to Nancy “Nimbles” Appleton who has been the personal reindeer handler for Vixen down in Santa’s Stables for almost 500 years now. Nancy takes care of Vixen every day and handles all of her appointment, workout, and training schedules, as well as, seeing to all of Vixen’s dietary needs. We wish you many more happy years. |
This is Walter “Mistletoe†Livingstone with the reminder: The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.
Have a good evening, and be sure to tune in next week for another WELF-NPC North Pole Radio News Update.
