1969 was one of those years when everything was happening. Jimi Hendrix and Woodstock, Tom Seaver and The New York Mets, Neil Armstrong and the Moon Landing. If you were alive in 1969, you probably watched Neil Armstrong step onto the lunar surface live on television. I know I did.
1969 wasn't a big year for Christmas music. There were new releases from John Davidson and Slim Whitman, Boots Randolph and Country singer Bill Anderson, The Living Guitars and Paul Mauriat. The top selling Christmas album that year was Johnny Mathis' "Give Me Your Love For Christmas". The top selling Christmas single in 1969 was Bing's "White Christmas" (again).
On the other hand, there is no shortage of space travel and moon related Christmas music. Might even get around to a listing of them at some point. The two songs, though, that most remind me of that time and that great adventure were not Christmas songs. One was a failed single (1969 or 70) from Barry Winslow, one time lead vocalist of the Royal Guardsman, who tried to recapture some of the group's Snoopy success with "The Smallest Astronaut". It was never stated that "The Smallest Astronaut" was Snoopy (a little rights dispute with Charles Schultz), but it was kind of hard to avoid the connection. What made that record great, though, was the listing (at its close) of all of the American astronauts who had ever flown into space. The record failed to chart, but it's never left my mind (you can find it on many a Royal Guardsmen anthology, but apparently not as an mp3).
The other song that sends me back to Moon Landing days and memories was a big hit in 1965 for Jonathan King, "Everyone's Gone To The Moon".
Rest well, Neil Armstrong. Thank you for your service to mankind.