Everyone is probably familiar with the publication Reader’s Digest. I know we always had them in our household growing up. I would hazard a guess that these magazines were a staple in most American households.
My grandmother also had a collection of Reader’s Digest condensed books. I never read any of them, most likely I was too young to be interested at that time.
But what I do remember well is our collection of Reader’s Digest LP collections. I looked tonight to see if I could find the records we had and Voila! I found several for sale on eBay. The collection I remember was “Popular Songs That Will Live Forever”.
The only record in this collection that I really listened to was the 10th album in the set: Songs That Will Live Forever which included the following songs:
- Side By Side
- Stephen Foster Medley
- My Blue Heaven
- Heart of My Heart
- Till We Meet Again
- The Band Played On
- In the Good Old Summer Time
- Let Me Call You Sweetheart
- Down by the Old Mill Stream
- Shine On Harvest Moon
- Bye Bye Blackbird
- The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise
- All Alone
- Always
- Auld Lang Syne
- Good Night Sweetheart
I have the words to every song committed to memory. My favorite has to be “My Blue Heaven” because of my grandfather. He told me a story about a man he used to work with when he worked for the railroad. This song was this man’s favorite and evidently he sang this song all the time. If I remember the story correctly, he was killed in a crane accident and my grandfather had been the crane operator.
I was a child, but my grandfather always told me to remember this man and how much he loved that song. I always have. I think my grandfather must have carried extreme sadness over his death and this was his way of keeping a little of him alive. I wish I had known his name.
I like this version because the tempo is closest to what I remember.
fromcavewalls.wordpress.com 