American in origin. The Longines Symphonette Society was the mail-order record arm of the Longines-Wittnauer company; it grew out of a radio programme of the 1940s and '50s and issued records from the 78rpm era into the mid 1970s in its native land. As well as recording its own material it licensed and repackaged popular recordings by the likes of Bing Crosby. From the mid '60s until around 1970 it had some recording done in London through Angela Morley, but the number of actual British issues for which it was responsible appears to have been limited. It had a British office at 366, Kingsway, Hove in the early '70s, and in 1971 that office had a go at cracking the Christmas market with the release of an album called 'The Sweet Voices Of Christmas' (WS-155; 11/71) and a single taken from it, 'I Saw Mummy Kissing Santa Claus' by The Massed Children's Voices From The Choirs Of Famous Westminster Abbey And St. Paul's Cathedral b/w Lyn Cornell's 'The Angel And The Stranger' (XX-1; 11/71). According to an advert in 'Record & Tape Retailer' of the 13th of November both were available from EMI. The single cost 50p, and seems to have been The Symphonette Society's only venture into singles territory. There were however several more albums pressed here by EMI in 1970-71. Their labels were more adventurous than that of the single, I'm glad to report.
Copyright 2016 Robert Lyons.