Songs Of The Season is a wonderful compilation CD of great Christmas songs.  It is one of my favorite Christmas compilation CDs and one of the first Christmas CDs I ever purchased.  It is produced by Sony Music Entertainment Inc., and they do a terrific job with their Christmas compilations.  I have many.

The cover is pleasant and features a slightly out of focus picture of gold Christmas ornaments.  The CD title is overlaid in the middle of the front cover.  The back of the CD has a similar picture to the front and features a numerical track listing with performing artist credits.

The cover opens along a single fold-out but there is no information inside; both sides are blank.  Bummer.  This is something I have come to expect from the Sony Music Entertainment Inc. CDs.

The back of the CD insert has the same photograph as found on the back of the CD.  There is a similar numerical track list featuring time signatures.  Below the song title are writer / arranger credits and below that are performance artist and orchestra leaders if included.  And in a few cases copyright years are given.  That is always helpful.

The CD features traditional Christmas carols, secular Christmas songs and a few that are familiar to me but may not be to the casual listener.  There are 14 selections included, which is about average.

Some of the best songs of the Classic Christmas Music Era are here.

The CD starts off with Johnny Mathis singing Christmas Is… from 1970. It’s a soft endearing endorsement of what Christmas is.  It is punctuated with piano and floating strings provided by Ernie Freeman & his Orchestra.  The background chorus sounds remarkably like the Percy Faith Chorus but with Ernie Freeman as the arranger, I’m not sure who they are, but it does sound like Percy Faith.  The voices seem to be the same as found on Percy Faith’s own version of this song.

Diahann Carroll begins the second song, Silent Night amidst soft instrumentation that features acoustic guitar, a string quartet, xylophone and flute.  Her soft vocals carry this, the most recorded Christmas carol, beautifully.

Robert Goulet offers White Christmas from his 1963 Christmas album, This Christmas I Spend With You, with an orchestra directed by Ralph Hunter.  You may not recognize the song right away because it is one of the few versions that features the original opening verse.  Robert Goulet’s deep baritone voice delivers a powerful rendition of this Christmas classic.

The pace changes instantly with the fourth song, a medley of Here Comes Santa Claus / Frosty The Snowman delivered by Lester Lanin And His Dance Orchestra from 1959.  It is a resounding, jumping tune.  I’m not a trained dancer and don’t see how anyone could keep up with the pace Lester Lanin sets up here.  Lester Lanin’s Dance Orchestra was very popular in the late 1950’s and he produced many albums of everything under the sun turned into lush, melodic tunes easy to dance to.

The pace returns to soft and solemn with the fifth song, Rocking (Little Jesus, Sweetly Sleep), also known as The Rocking Carol, recorded by Julie Andrews in 1975.  It is a Czechoslovakian Christmas carol unfamiliar to most people.  It is a lullaby to the baby Jesus while rocking him to sleep.  Julie Andrews delivers the perfect lyrics surrounded by soft choral voices.  Orchestrations are provided by Ian Fraser & his Orchestra.

I must tell you about the sixth song, Little Altar Boy.  Andy Williams delivers one of the most moving Christmas songs I am familiar with.  It is in a tie with Vikki Carr’s What Child Is This? for my # 1 Favorite Christmas Song.  It is a solemn passage about a man down on his luck and goes to an altar boy to ask him to ask God for his forgiveness.  I always wanted to be an altar boy, and this song must strike me in a soft spot.  It is backed fully by a wonderful string orchestra conducted by Robert Mersey and comes from Andy Williams’ most popular Christmas album, Merry Christmas, released in 1965.

The pace picks up again with the seventh song, the super classic We Need A Little Christmas.  Percy Faith And His Chorus delivers what has become a defining song of the holidays.  It is Percy Faith at his best with an orchestra full of strings and reed instruments.  This was recorded in 1965 and appeared on Percy Faith’s Christmas Is… album.

The eighth song is performed by an uncommon artist to most people.  You are familiar with the song, The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire), but you are probably not familiar with the version by Carol Burnett.  She has a deeper voice than most female Pop singers of the time, but Carol Burnett can sing.  Her voice delivers a terrific version of one of the most popular Christmas songs ever written.  Considered mainly a comedienne, Carol Burnett released over 10 albums of her singing throughout her career, but alas, she never released a Christmas album.

Bobby Vinton provides one of his better-known Christmas songs with My Christmas Prayer.  It comes from his 1964 Christmas album.  It uses the melody of Auld Lang Syne, and the words reflect a wish for “peace on earth and goodwill towards men”.

More instrumental Christmas is featured in the tenth song, the Victor Herbert composed medley March Of The Toys / Toyland.  Andre Kostelanetz & his Orchestra begin the song as a full marching song and as trumpets bring the song to a close, it changes into a much softer lush string arrangement of Toyland.  Both are from the Broadway production Babes In Toyland.  They’re not really Christmas songs per se, but they do speak of toys and do show up on a few other Christmas compilations.

The eleventh song features Engelbert Humperdink performing one of his most popular Christmas songs, the traditional Christmas carol O Little Town Of Bethlehem.  It comes from his Christmas album released in 1980.  It does feature a full orchestra, but more modern instrumentation sets it apart from the other Christmas songs recorded at an earlier time.  It is accompanied by a raucous chorus that shouts the refrains.  It is a powerful Christmas song.

Aretha Franklin sings a terrific version of Winter Wonderland that comes from a single she released in 1964.  This was when Aretha Franklin was on Columbia Records in the early 1960s and at a time when Columbia produced some of the best albums in Pop music.  Belford C. Hendricks provides the orchestrations.

Jerry Vale has the perfect voice for Christmas music.  He delivers a solemn version of The First Noel highlighted by a wonderful unknown chorus.  This comes from his 1964 Christmas album Christmas Greetings.

In the last of the 14 songs, Maureen McGovern delivers a slow, endearing version of Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas from 1990.  It is the most recent song on here and mixes in very well with all the other songs from the 1960s and 70s.  That is due to the classic orchestrations and arrangements that are used.  It comes from Maureen McGovern’s Christmas CD Christmas With Maureen McGovern.

This is a great CD of Christmas standards and is very similar to other Sony Music Entertainment Inc. releases.  I have many.  Many of the songs come from artists that were on Columbia Records, and I think Columbia Records produced some of the best Christmas music of all time.  There is not a bad song on here.  If you seek traditional Christmas songs all your friends will be familiar with and performed with traditional arrangements that feature full orchestras, you can’t go wrong with this CD.

I give this CD :

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