SOUNDS OF THE SEASON

One's Thanksgiving dinner has scarcely been digested when one realizes that Christmas is a scant twenty-odd days off, faithful blog reader! Over the weekend I brought out my collection of Yuletide CDs and realized that several of the albums I possess are also holdings in the Main Library's music offerings. I enthusiastically recommend each and every one of these CDs to anyone who wishes to be surrounded by joyful seasonal melodies...


A Christmas Gift For You by Phil Spector, 1963
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Phil Spector is more infamous as a murder suspect than recording artist in recent history, but his highly original "Wall of Sound" production technique with girl groups and other artists in the early 1960s led to an American music revolution. His ex-wife, Ronnie Bennett, was the original lead singer of the Ronettes, who feature prominently on this album.

Their rendition of "Sleigh Ride" completely revamped the seasonal favorite; their takes on "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" and "Frosty the Snowman" are similarly upbeat. Darlene Love lends her passionate style to one of my favorite recordings of "Marshmallow World"; she also covers "White Christmas" and was the original artist to perform "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)", which was, sadly, a failure at the time (Bono and U2 would do much better with this maudlin ditty many years later).

The Christmas Gift's release date disastrously transpired on November 22, 1963--the day President Kennedy was assassinated. Due to that unfortunate coincidence the album originally had very sluggish sales; since then, however, the songs it shares have become American Christmas classics.


50 Most Loved Christmas Carols, 2005
The Sheridan Ball Singers with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra
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The sheer volume of carols this compendium offers makes it an ideal selection for Christmas listening. The fifty recordings cover all the standards--"Joy to the World", "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing", and "The First Nowell", among many others--but, at least for me, also opened my ears to several tunes before which I'd never heard. Among them are the "Gloucestershire Wassail", whose lyrics are a bit difficult to grasp (I had to do some research on them before I learned their meaning), but the gist of its final verses are that if the butler of the house where the carolers have come doesn't bring them something to drink, they'll resort to stampeding down the door. Ah, the holiday traditions of merry Olde England...

"Break Forth, O Beauteous, Heavenly Light", played with a resounding pipe organ's accompaniment, was another treasure I delighted in discovering. "O Sing a Song of Bethlehem", whose verses relay the stages of the life of Christ from Bethlehem to Calvary, was a third, and I enjoy this collection especially because these two lovely carols are part of it.

Christmas Around the World with Andre Rieu, 2006
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Andre Rieu has revitalized interest in classical music like no other artist in recent decades, and his holiday musical performances are perennial hits. Rieu, his orchestra, and various vocalists lean heavily on German-derived carols on this album ("Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht", "Sah Ein Knab Ein Roslein Stehen", and "Abends Will Ich Schlafen Gehen"), but other nationalities (The United States, Italy, France, England, and the Netherlands among them) are indeed represented. A rollicking, sprightly performance, the likes of which Rieu fans have come to know and adore.


A Nostalgic Merry Christmas to You, various artists, original recordings from 1915-1949 (released 1999)
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Nat "King" Cole toodling "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..." (the first line of "The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You"), 1946. Pennsylvania's native son, Perry Como, extolling a "Winter Wonderland" (also from 1946). And for anyone who grew up among Americans of Eastern European descent (as did I), the galloping gleefulness of "The Merry Christmas Polka"--sung by Dinah Shore in 1949 on this album--most certainly inspires sentimental nostalgia.

However, it's the arcane tunes on this CD which I found of even greater interest. Arthur Tracy, a British baritone of lengthy career, recalls "The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot"--a reminder that many children experience the same hardship and suffering on Christmas Day as they do the rest of the year, even if the aspersions cast on the jolly old elf seem rather gratuitous (who can imagine Santa actually overlooking one of his little devotees?). One of Ireland's premiere opera stars, John McCormack, gives a stirring (if static-ridden--but then, it was recorded in 1915) rendition of "Adeste Fideles" (the original Latin of "O Come, All Ye Faithful"). And Peter Dawson recounts "The Miner's Dream of Home", telling of a lonely miner whose unconscious mental meanderings find him back at his homestead at New Year's, reuinted with his long-since-seen mother and dad (recorded in 1930).

Bing Crosby's Christmas Classics by Bing Crosby, recorded from 1950 through 1977 (released 2006)
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Mr. Bing Crosby may well be referred to as "Mr. Christmas", so ubiquitous has his vocal presence been among holiday music since the 1930s. The first track is, appropriately, "White Christmas", Bing's signature Christmas offering, made wildly popular by the sentiments of American servicemen and women serving abroad in World War II; it also featured prominently in the film of the same name in which he starred in 1954.

Other wonderful ditties include "Do You Hear What I Hear", "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", and "What Child Is This?". His now-classic duet with David Bowie, "Peace on Earth/The Little Drummer Boy", was recorded in September of 1977, a few short months before Crosby's death. Generations have happily welcomed Bing Crosby's crooning style into their lives at Christmastime, and if you haven't, I invite you to do the same!

HAPPY LISTENING!