Christmas Album ReviewsOf course I collect all kinds of LPs. My Christmas-themed radio show is due, and I am slowly working through listening to a number of the ones that I have turned up throughout the year. Most of these were found sitting out on the curb about a month ago.
I hope you enjoy these short reviews. When you go junking for albums perhaps this guide will help you know which ones are worth getting, and which other ones are best left for others to buy. Ratings are 0-5, with “5” being “Excellent” and “0” meaning “Not Worth It.”
Christmas with George Beverly SheaRCA Camden CAL-850 (1964)
This is a Camden reissue of a Mono LP that was originally made in the early 1950s. Some reading this might be surprised that I’d even take interest in such an item. My grandparents (Rev. Lewis and his wife Mary Evelyn) used to listen to Bev Shea all the time, and of course I’d see him on the Billy Graham Crusade, as we watched it as a family. I like baritones, and Bev Shea was the first good one I ever heard other than Jim Reeves.
Shea is more of a baritone than a bass, and he does pick material sometimes that’s a bit low-lying for him, such as “Thou Did’st Leave Thy Throne” presented here. In his head, sometimes he’s modeling to Paul Robeson’s sound, and at others he seems to be hearing Nelson Eddy. Frankly, Shea does a bit better when he’s modeling after Eddy. His “O Holy Night, which opens the album, is really not very good, as he runs off the rails in a couple of spots, and swallows some notes that I’m sure Bev would loved to have had back. I can’t believe the original RCA producer didn’t want to try that one again.
But his “O Little Town of Bethlehem” is awesome, as are some of the other things on the album. No self-respecting collection of Christmas music should be without his “Put Christ Back Into Christmas,” and his version of “C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S” is definitive. In terms of backings, Bev comes off better when he is backed by just Paul Mickelson and Tedd Smith (organ and chimes respectively) as compared to when he has to contend with a commercial RCA studio chorus.
At 91 the old foghorn is still out there, even singing a bit, for Billy Graham; it’s astounding that any formal singer of such an advanced age can even raise a voice of any kind. While the fog is still there, the horn has left the building. “Christmas with George Beverly Shea” represents him at his peak as a singer, even if the settings and selections are, in some cases, a little less than what they should be.
J. S. Bach: Christians, Engrave Ye This Day (Cantata No. 63)Margit Opawsky, Hilde Rossl-Majdan, Walder Kmentt, Harald Hermann, Vienna Chamber Choir, Vienna State Opera Orchestra, directed by Michael Gielen.
The Bach Guild BG-518 (1952)
This is the Christmas Cantata BWV 63, “Christen, ätzet diesen Tag!” Gielen would have been 25 years old when this was made as a runaway classical album destined for the budget racks and made by the Solomon brothers. One would expect a typically hideous and overscale rendering of Bach, but Gielen uses a stripped-down chamber configuration of the VSOO and keeps the tempos zippy in the choral sections. The soloists are rather old-fashioned, but not bad, and the chorus is very good. The performance does bog down a bit during the solo numbers, as the tempos employed therein are very slow – overall this performance as a whole is nearly ten minutes longer than the current average.
Maestro Gielen can pride himself on having, in 1952, produced a low budget Bach album that compares favorably to the recordings being made by Karl Richter and Harnoncourt. The Solomons probably didn’t realize what they were getting, and to my knowledge this performance has never appeared on CD.
The LIFE Treasury of Christmas MusicChorus and Orchestra under the direction of Lehman Engel
Time Life 100 (1963)
This album was designed to go with a book, “The Life Book of Christmas.” It consists mostly of very short, vignette-like versions of traditional Christmas carols, some being uncommon, meant as illustrations to the text. Perhaps the most startling thing about it is that the “musical arrangements” are credited to the team of Joseph Byrd and Dorothy Moskowitz, who a few years later would roll out one of the weirdest and most confrontational of the 1960’s hippie rock acts, The United States of America. But these are sober and respectful arrangements that are at times imaginative – “Rocking Carol,” “Masters in This Hall,” “Deck the Halls” and “Patapan” in particular. It’s a shame that everything on the album is so short.
By the way, the version of “The Boar’s Head Carol” here made me think of a parody:
The Boar’s Head
It’s nice and dead
When it was alive we called it “Fred”
The Boar’s Head
Golden brown and red
On it now we’ll all be fed.
Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Christmas AlbumA&M SP 4166 (1968)
“The Bell That Couldn’t Jingle” is the hit from this outing, and is still piped into malls all over this land. The arrangements are by Shorty Rogers, which makes one wonder why this isn’t better than it is. Someone needed to get to Herb Alpert and explain to him that he really shouldn’t sing anything. “Jingle Bell Rock” really sucks on this album; I’m not fond of the number anyway, but hearing the Tijuana Brass do it makes it worse.
I’m as a much of a fan of the warm, familiar early A&M sound as any child of the 1960s. But Herb Alpert experienced such success within his limited format that he felt he could apply to anything and everything. With all the albums he made, now permanent fixtures in the thrift shops across America, Alpert never achieved again the artistic success won with his first album, “The Lonely Bull.” Most of the others come nowhere near it’s standard, and the “Christmas Album” falls far short of it.
It’s just so cynical and commercial, an obvious album to hang a single on. Shorty Rogers probably produced these arrangements in an afternoon’s time, although “Las mananitas” was contributed by Julius Wechter, and is not one of his more distinguished efforts. In the case of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Christmas Album, the executive won out over the artist – making a “good” Christmas album would’ve cut too far into the profit margin, and Alpert decided in favor of the bottom line over quality. His instincts were “right” in that this dud sold millions of copies – he would’ve been remiss had he not made a Christmas album in 1968 when the Tijuana Brass could do no wrong. If you like the single, try to find it as a 45. Otherwise, leave this dog in the bin.
The Harry Simeone ChoraleSing We Now of Christmas
Twentieth-Century Fox 3002 (1958)
The familiar “The Little Drummer Boy” version of this album actually came later, about 1964. This is its original form, which is seen less often and hard to find in good condition. It’s sequenced differently and the later version might have some material that is redone. I’d love to know if this release ever appeared in stereo, but it still sounds good in mono – better than the later version.
“Sing We Now of Christmas” was a landmark offering in many ways, as it demonstrated the commercial potential of Christmas albums. But beyond that, the arrangements are of excellent quality and the cinematic approach to the sequencing keeps it moving. The sound, originally taken from 35mm soundtracks, is antiquated, but that’s one of the things that makes the album charming. That’s why it’s important to have a good copy to really experience it. The stereo pressings of “The Little Drummer Boy” made in the 1970s really don’t sound very good, and might’ve been made from a copy of a copy of a tape taken from the soundtrack.
And finally, there’s the big song itself. Everyone accepts it as traditional Christmas carol, even though it isn’t one. Harry Simeone, in fact, died earlier this year at the age of 94, pointing up how recent “The Little Drummer Boy” really is. At the end of the title track, a soprano goes into the stratosphere, an effect that my wife found a bit over the top. But this is Christmas music, and I can recall the fellows in Chanticleer doing the same thing much more recently. Harry Simeone’s work is truly eternal, and this album set the bar for traditional Christmas fare a good bit higher in its time.
Jackie GleasonMerry Christmas
Capitol W 758 (1956)
This is the bleakest, most depressing Christmas album I’ve ever heard. Sometimes Gleason’s super slow tempo and coloristic restraint in popular romantic ballads can be affecting, but in Christmas material it’s like laying out Santa in a pine wood box with a couple of scented candles on either side. The version of “Jingle Bells” is literally funereal; my wife asked midway through it “are they ever gonna get there?” As it ground slowly to a hushed close, I commented that “I think they just slid slowly into the frozen pond.”
“Merry Christmas” is the Christmas album for those afflicted with seasonal affective disorder, the “kill yourself” Christmas record. Even the front cover establishes the mood, an eerie and surreal image at night showing the mailbox of a deserted country farmhouse brimming with small, book-sized presents. This brings to mind these things:
1) No one saw fit to go out and get the mail.
2) The resident of the house stands outside at night, looking at the presents in the mailbox. Standing ass-deep in snow, unable to move. “The presents are here” they think, “but I’m not worthy of them.” But they are unable to make it back to the house, and find warmth. So they remain outside, staring at the mailbox…
Whereas the Herb Alpert LP is no good as they didn’t invest any worth in it, Gleason’s album is in no way off his usual M.O. in terms of music making. It’s just that his basic style is completely incompatible to the theme of Christmas, and results in something that is quite different from the usual, but not better for it.
Uncle Dave Lewis
uncledavelewis@hotmail.com