Twelve Christmas Albums for Your Holiday Season

I had original planned to do one of those Imaginary Mix Tape ("Christmas Mix 2018! A Blizzard of Ho-Ho-Hos!") deals for this post. But while it's always fun to put together a good playlist, I think I'm going to phase out this side of the Omnibus. I'll still put up stuff on music from time to time, but the whole playlist or Albums I Listened To In Insert-Calendar-Month type post is hereby banished lawfully repopulated to the Island of Misfit Blogs.

There is so much Christmas music out there that it's easy to just surrender to the radio or internet station playlists. But why do that when you can spend this Christmas season with one or all of the below? 

Ho Ho Ho, Dog Star Omnibudsmen! Let's do this.

Honorable Mention

I honestly don't even remember how I ended up with this one. Around the time I was going through the Ventures catalog, I think, I downloaded this one as well. If this had been the original "Christmas Mix" post, I'd likely only have included "Mele Kamikemaka" but the whole thing's pretty good. Essential? Perhaps not. But Honorable Mention for sure. 

Oh and before we get to any more albums, here are some other single tunes that also would have figured prominently in said Christmas Mix:

"Shchedryk" (aka Karol of the Bells) by the Bel Canto Vilnius Choir.

"Holiday for Strings" is fantastic. One of the best compositions of the 20th century for my money. A real Heinz Kiessling vibe, pizzicato madness. "I Wish It Was Christmas Today" is my pick for Christmas Tune of the 21st Century. That Ray Conniff Singers album is definitely not for everyone, but I love crap like this. This one is especially saccharine and goofy - perfect for that time-traveling Christmas vibe I love so much. Half if not all of the Christmas fun is the temporal disorientation that mists over my frontal lobes as these songs take a sleigh ride round and round in my head: time travel not only to my own childhood but to the childhoods of All Christmases Past.

As for the Shchedryk tune by the Vilnius Choir, I did not realize this was a Ukrainian traditional until just this past week. I prefer it like this, now, to the Anglicized version. It sounds fantastic.

"God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" is perfectly self-explanatory.

Oh, and all of these years, I thought "Please Come Home For Christmas" was performed by Bryan Freaking Adams. This year I find out it's actually been The Eagles all along. This is tough for me because I've always kind of hated the Eagles and always kind of loved Bryan Adams. (That Reckless album was along with the Miami Vice soundtrack my Favorite Thing Ever for a few pivotal months in 6th grade.) WTF. Ah well. That makes at least one Eagles tune I love. 

12.

I like to tune into Radio Deluxe on Saturday nights or Sunday mornings when I can, and they put this one on my radar this holiday season. It basically sounds exactly like their show, so hey, if you like such things, this will appeal to you. (Check out this great "Winter Wonderland.") That Konrad Paszkudzki can sure play the keys, brother. 

11.

Andy Williams "Happy Holidays" is the definitive one. For years I thought that was Sinatra; I can't be the only one. It and his version of "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" have been part of the Christmas music ether for so long but won't forever. It deserves to be preserved, though, rather than all the endless (Buble) knock-offs of it. Not that there can't be different versions of things, just a tip of the cap to those who set the molds. Not sure who arranged this one - I think it was George Wyle, but whomever it was deserves all the accolades. That's at least one of the definitive sounds of Christmas.

Another collection of seminal arrangements:

10.

Arranged by the father of Christan Rock (for better or worse, kids) Ralph Carmichael, this one is perhaps best known for "The Christmas Song" (written by the Velvet Fog himself, Mel Torme.) Which is, of course, wonderful. But the whole thing is one definitive standard after another. The definition of smooth. And maybe a little square, too, sure, but smooth-square is still pretty damn smooth. And yes it reminds me of my grandparents, and this time of year, that feels pretty good. I miss those guys. 

Christmas ain't about being hip. It's about time travel, baby! 

9.

If you're comparing the track listings so far, you'll see some overlap. Inevitable given the genre we're talking about, but I did want to mention: it'd have been cool to come up with 12 albums that cover a broad range of Christmas tunes with little to no overlap. But my personal faves are this list, and the track listings are what they are. 

This one has some tunes you don't see many other places, such as "Mistletoe and Holly" (Frank might own that one, pretty much, on most playlists) and "The Christmas Waltz"
written just for Frank by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne. 

How can you go wrong with Frank? Ditto for:

8.

This is actually an internet-era release combining Elvis' Christmas records into one playlist. All of them, I think, unless it's missing one or two. 

As with Sinatra's, you get all the standards here, done in Elvis' singular style: "Blue Christmas," "Here Comes Santa Claus," and one of my favorite of Elvis' gospel songs "(There'll Be) Peace in the Valley (For Me)." What a vibe on that one. I'm not sure what the parentheticals are all about, there, but what a tune. It's kind of a stretch to call it a Christmas tune; might as well include "How Great Thou Art" or "If I Can Dream." Which I just did, I guess. Any mix, Christmas or otherwise, is improved by including all of them.

And really, if you made a gospel movie - that is, a movie about Jesus Christ's time on earth, i.e. the reason for the season according to your religious relatives who insist on such things - and Jesus broke into "If I Can Dream," not only would it be 100% appropriate, it'd be pretty damn cool.

"Out there in the dark, there's a beckoning candle, oh yeah,

and while I can think / while I can walk,

while I can can stand / while I can talk,

while I can dream,

please let my dream come true/
right no-ow-w...!"

Horns and fanfare. Amen.

7.

Okay, McMolo, what are you trying to pull here? Sinatra, Elvis, now Dino? And Dino in front of them all? Yes indeed - probably the only time Dean Martin finishes ahead of either of them. And objectively speaking, is it a better record than either of theirs? Maybe not. But what can I say, it's always been a seasonal favorite. I hear "It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas" and I'm instantly in the backseat of my parents' car, driving to my cousins' Christmas party and looking at all the houses done up. (Then the "12 Pains of Christmas" comes on, or the Dogs Singing "Jingle Bells" one, and my Dad almost drives us off the road in a rage.) 

Time for something different:

6.

I mentioned the Musical Heritage Society in a post a few months back. Here's another gem I got from my time as a member. One Amazon reviewer enthuses:

"CD 1 presents a sequence of Christmas music from many different cultures and ages. It exemplifies the rich diversity of music written for the feast, which has inspired musicians with a unique enthusiasm for its colorful narrative and message of salvation. A special theme of the recording is the group of motets by Francis Poulenc. Four wonderfully atmospheric settings of texts used also by earlier composers represented here on this CD: Lassus ('Videntes Stellam'); Byrd 'O Magnum Mysterium', Schein ('Quem Vidistis') and Schutz ('Hodie Christus Natus Est'). This leans heavily upon the classic sacred music, but sprinkled in are such well-known tunes as 'Hark, the Herald Angels Sing' and 'Silent Night' and more of the like. There is an occasional accompaniment by the Collegium Novum Ensemble with period instruments.

CD 2 includes songs more familiar and of a traditional nature such as 'O come all ye faithful', 'The Angel Gabriel', 'Ding Dong Merrily On High', 'In the Bleak Midwinter', 'The Holly and the Ivy', 'The Coventry Carol', 'Wassail Carol' and the much sung 'Once in Royal David's City'. Others such as 'Adam Lay Y Bounden', 'Out of Your Sleep' and 'Here is the Little Door' may not be as familiar. 

If you like the all-male choir with it's soaring crystalline sounding boy sopranos, and the lush sound of the male altos along with tuneful tenors and light clear-sounding basses, and mostly unaccompanied singing, this is your time!"

Well, there you go, then! I lost my booklet that came with this, verdammt, but I'll take this reviewer at his word. (That Collegium Novum Ensemble link up there is very much worth clicking on, by the way, and playing loud. It's not Christmas, but while we're here.) 

5.

This one was completely off my radar until brought to my attention by Bryant Burnette just last year, but it instantly became a fave. I even expected to not like it much - I went through a fairly substantial Dylan phase in the mid-to-late nineties, but I haven't felt much of a pull to revisit any of it in some time. I'll forever tip my cap to the guy, of course - goes without saying. But, this charmed from the first. A total old-school (Ray Conniff/ Andy Williams) production design, with Dylan at his scratchiest singing since Time Out of Mind. The tracklist is as traditional as it gets, with one exception: "Must Be Santa." I tried to embed the video but no luck, so here's a link. 

The name of the album is Christmas in the Heart, and it's very much that, but it's all very much from the heart as well. I can't tell how tickled I am that Dylan put put this late innings throwback Christmas record and had what seems like a wonderful time with it. The whole thing is great, but the You-Tube linking is unfortunately not so good. There's "Little Drummer Boy" and that's pretty much it. That's not my favorite Christmas tune by a long and country mile, but this version is more than fine. 

4.

Thirty-four-and-a-half-minutes of yuletide awesomeness. You've heard every track here in a dozen movies, if not more - I can't imagine the royalties her estate must get. "Jingle Bells," "Sleigh Ride," "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" ("Will I be with you / or will I be among the missing?" is kind of an ominous line, no?), "Good Morning Blues," and "Rudolph" ("Hang your nose down, Roo-oo-dy") every last one's a gem.

What a voice Ella had - I know I'm hardly the first to notice. Produced by longtime manager Norman Granz (with whom I share a birthday, I just discovered) though I'm not sure who arranged it on first pass. I've listened to this album a gazillion times but have only just today actually looked up anything about it.

I mentioned "Sleigh Ride" out there. I like a lot of versions of that tune (possibly my favorite all-round Christmas song) but the definitive, massive-department-store-opening, hoopla, bells-and-whistles, fat jolly elf Spielberging across the full yuletide moon for me will always be the orchestral version from:

3.

Here it is. It's not Christmas until I hear that at least once. As of 2018, I'll hear it on the radio or while out in the world fairly routinely. But I worry about the future. So, make sure you grab yourself a copy and do your bit by blasting it loudly. Santa needs the encouragement, and we need Santa. I think it's the return of theme 1 around here-ish where the horns play a descending-notes counterpoint that really drives home the awesomeness.

The Boston Pops has had at least two iconic conductors, Fiedler and John Williams. Fiedler tended to treat his musicians the way Mahler and many other conductors of old treated them: as serfs to be dominated brutally under his baton. The results are undeniable (in both cases, although we have to take the word of Mahler's contemporaries for those performances, since they were of course never recorded) but sounds like a work environment in total odds with the jolly music on "Christmas Pops." (Also, apparently, he despised the popularity of the record and people's expectation to play it every year.) But whether it's "Sleigh Ride" or "March of the Toys" or "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" or "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers," we're all lucky to have had the grumpy bastard at the rostrum for these recordings. 

2.

The first draft of this post has this one at #1, and really, it could go either way. Here's another of America's indelible contributions to the world, especially the world of Christmas. Say what you will about Phil Spector - "he's a crazy SOB" and "didn't he murder somebody?" are just a few of them - but his Wall of Sound production in the 60s was (and remains) a revelation.

As with the Ella album, we've all heard this stuff so many times we run the risk of forgetting how truly wonderful it all is. "Frosty the Snowman" by the Ronettes might be best known these days for its use in Goodfellas (and as movie-associations go, that's really not a bad one; Harry Nilsson and Derek and the Dominoes and Tony Bennett know what I'm talking about) but it's the definitive version for my money, as is "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" by the Crystals.

The album belongs to Darlene Love, though, whether it's "Winter Wonderland" or "Baby Please Come Home" (that clip is from its last performance on David Letterman; Darlene Love would perform it every year. Great tradition. If you were born anytime before 1980, you're probably wondering why I'm even mentioning such an obvious thing, but to the younguns who don't remember, this was a perennial tradition on par with the lighting of the "Holiday Tree" at Rockefeller Plaza) or "Marshmallow World."

Truly great stuff. And finally:

1.

On December 1st, this is the first CD I always listen to. (I wait until the 1st for my Christmas music, as everyone should.) Start to finish classic. My kids this year embraced both It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, but the Christmas special hasn't really connected with them. Yet, anyway - I've still got 13 days to accomplish this! But, I think my baby boy likes the music at least. Especially this one:

Vince Guaraldi's piano sounds so incredible throughout this album. Outside of hearing the music as part of the special (a Christmas tradition still ongoing, which makes me happy, although it's only a matter of time before our cultural gatekeepers decide it's a code for white supremacy or somedamnsuch) all the time, the music really only came on my radar when George Winston released a tribute to it. I was a big Winston fan in the early-to-mid-90s. I still like him fine, although I only listen to his Hawaiian slack-key compilations these days. But for a few years I was really into his piano records; repeated listening of them led me to many other musicians and composers.

If, perchance, you don't have this one, you really need to. If you have Prime it's included there for free; go and crank it up. (Actually, a lot of the above are. You can have yourself a Dog Star Christmas Party and not spend a penny! Outside of those you already spend on Prime.)

~

Merry Christmas, friends and neighbors!