It is simply amazing that this album did not chart at all on Billboard’s Pop or Christmas charts in 1962.  Frankie Avalon has one of the best voices ever put on record, but I guess because he was focused more on his acting, his singing wasn’t being taken seriously, at least not in 1962.

Francis Thomas Avallone was born in Philadelphia, PA in 1940.  So were a couple of other guys, but we’ll get to that in a minute.  Frankie Avalon was a first-generation Italian American.  Both of his parents were natives of Italy.

While not yet a teenager, Frankie Avalon made his first television appearance in 1952 on The Jackie Gleason Show.  He played himself as well as the trumpet.  Frankie Avalon’s singing career started in the mid-1950s.

By 1957, Frankie Avalon got his first part in a Hollywood movie, and in 1959, he charted two songs at number 1 on Billboard’s Singles chart.

Frankie Avalon was from Philadelphia, and so were Fabian and Bobby Rydell.  And so was American Bandstand.  What a great combination.  The competition was tough in the teen market and Frankie Avalon was a star player.

While still a teen idol, he started getting more and better parts in movies.  Thinking ahead, he concentrated on acting starting in 1962.  And it’s a good thing, because in 1964, it was over for all of them when The Beatles took over.

In 1962, Frankie Avalon took the time out from his busy schedule to squeeze in a Christmas album.  And I’m glad he did.  Frankie Avalon’s Christmas Album is a terrific Christmas album.

This exact replica of Frankie Avalon’s Christmas Album comes to us from Taragon Records.  They went the extra mile with the original artwork.  It is all here.

The front cover of the CD is an exact copy of the front of the album.  It features a head and shoulder shot of Frankie Avalon in a dark suit with a silver tie.  His portrait is on a red background which is surrounded by green rectangles with decorative holly leaves.  Frankie’s name and the album title appear across the top.

Most of the space on the back of the original album features a review of the album, (it’s really good, I should just copy that 😊.)  Below the review, there is a personal note from Frankie Avalon.  To the right of both, there is a numerical track list bordered with festive holly leaves.

The back of the CD is almost an exact copy of the back of the album.  The graphics are the same, and the border around the numerical track list is the same.  The main difference is on the CD, everything is placed on a green background and on the back of the original album, it is a white background.

The one thing missing is the personal note from Frankie Avalon that exists on the back of the original album.

The front cover comes out, but does not open, it is a double-sided piece of paper.  The back of the front cover is where we find the personal note from Frankie Avalon that was missing from the back of the CD.  Even the fonts have been duplicated.  Below are arranger and production notes that existed on the back of the original album under the song list.  To the right of all this, on the back of the CD cover, is an exact copy of the numerical track list, the same as found on the back of the CD.

All the artwork from the original album is here.  And for the most part, it is duplicated exactly.  What isn’t on the back of the CD, is found inside.  The one thing missing from the original album and the CD are song writer credits.  It’s not that big of a deal, but there are four original songs on here, but their authors can be found in the text of the review on the back of the CD / album.  But including lyrics would have been a super deluxe extra bonus.

There are a total of twelve songs on this reissue, and all are in the same order as on the album.  There are only two traditional Christmas carols here but track # 10 is a medley of three carols so I guess we get four altogether.  That means that the rest of the CD’s ten tracks are secular Christmas songs from the 20^th century.  That is true, but only six will be familiar because four are original to this album.

The CD begins with one of those original Christmas songs, A Merry Christmas (From Our House To Your House).  It begins with a female chorus jubilantly “aahing” the melody.  They stop, and we hear the lush orchestra accompanied by bells.  Frankie Avalon tenderly sings a Christmas wish of merriment and cheer.  At the start of his vocals, Frankie Avalon is using the lower register of his voice; it doesn’t really sound like him, but as the song builds, Frankie’s voice climbs higher.

If you are familiar with Frankie Avalon only through his Beach movies with Annette Funicello or his teen Pop hits of the 50s and 60s, you may be surprised with what you hear on his Christmas album.  All the orchestrations are provided by Gianfranco Intra & his Orchestra.  They are accompanied by an uncredited chorus.

The 2^nd song, Blue Christmas, is sung by a different Frankie Avalon than you’re used to I bet.  Again, he uses the lower register of his voice to open the song.  The orchestra provides lush strings, and the chorus comes through the roof with their harmonies.  Overall, the song is paced slowly, one of the most modest arrangements I’ve heard for this Christmas classic.

The 3^rd song, Christmas Magic (The Meaning Of Christmas) is another original Christmas song.  Frankie Avalon’s voice is subtle while he sings of love as being the magic of Christmas.  I like the arrangement very much.  It is hard to describe.  It’s six notes to a bar that repeats over and over and over.  It is supplemented with lush strings and soaring choral vocals.  This is a really good, well produced original Christmas song.

White Christmas and You’re All I Want For Christmas are given the same treatment as the first two songs.  Strong, subtle vocals that deliver the perfect Christmas song surrounded by beautiful orchestral arrangements.

Another original, Christmas Holiday, tells the dour story of a lonely man as he’s missing a girl he once knew.  (I get the impression that she was his wife, and she passed away).  In the second part of the song, his mood begins to change as he knows he can’t avoid all the seasonal highlights coming up.  A beautiful orchestral arrangement is accented with piano and bells.  This is the first song on the CD not to feature the chorus.

The 7^th song is the last original Christmas song presented here.  Christmas And You is an arrangement of strings, flutes and piano that blend beautifully.  Once again, the rhythm is repeated within each bar while the strings cascade up and down.  Frankie Avalon’s vocals are soft and endearing.  And the chorus is back from break.

All the original songs on here are really good Christmas songs.  They don’t seem like they were pushed out just to fill an album.  Rather they are well written, and all speak of Christmas in an endearing manner.  And if there were any other doubts, Gianfranco Intra does a terrific job with the orchestra.

One of the more uncommon Christmas carols is Dear Gesu Bambino.  Sung in Italian, the chorus opens the song and then Frankie comes along to deliver the lyrics.  I don’t speak Italian, so I don’t know what he is singing about, but it sure sounds nice.  This chorus is terrific.  There is a female voice in there that can really hit the high notes and hold them.  It sounds like the chorus is mostly female voices.

I went online to look this song up and there are only two versions mentioned and most of them were by Frankie Avalon.  I think I recognize one of the writers, so perhaps this is not an old Christmas carol, but a new one written in 1962 for this album.  If so, then that would put five original songs on here.  That’s very unusual for this kind of Christmas album, but since they’re all great Christmas songs, it adds a lot of uniqueness to this album and to my own personal Christmas music collection as well.

The 9^th song, The Christmas Song, is given the traditional treatment in every way.  It is one of the best songs on here.  This one shows up in my Top 500 Classic Christmas Recordings also.

The other traditional Christmas carols are found in the only medley featured on the album.  The First Noel / O Little Town Of Bethlehem / Silent Night are the carols included.  The tempo and orchestrations remain pretty similar as the songs change.  Sometimes the songs included in a medley are arranged opposite to one another, but here they blend seamlessly.

The 11^th song, I’ll Be Home For Christmas, opens with soaring strings before Frankie Avalon delivers a passionate declaration of being home for Christmas.  The strings really showcase this arrangement.  The chorus is impossible to ignore.

The last song, the 12^th, is Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, which is a great way to end the CD.  It features traditional arrangements with the chorus and orchestra.  Frankie Avalon wraps up a wonderful Christmas CD with the best wishes the season has to offer.  This too, is in my Top 500 Classic Christmas Recordings.

If you were to expect Teen Rock & Roll with a Frankie Avalon Christmas album, you would be sorely disappointed.  This is about as far away from that as you could possibly get.  I can’t remember how I came to have this.  It was probably from a CD catalog.  I’ve had it a long time, long before Amazon was around.   I make a point of playing this sometime every year.  If I’m coming to your house for dinner, I’ll probably have this with me, along with about 9 others, just in case.

Frankie Avalon has one of the best tenor voices heard in the 1960s.  He’s overlooked because most of his recordings were marketed to the teen audience.  Looking over the songs featured on his regular albums, it shows him covering a lot of Pop standards, but when he’s pictured at the beach on the cover, it sends the message that he is not up to the standards of Frank, Dean and Bing.  But I’m here to tell you he is.

This is some of the best Christmas music you could hope to find.  This will fit in perfectly with a mixed crowd.  They won’t know what they’re listening to, but they’ll like it.  If you are looking to add Classic Christmas Era CDs to your collection, you must add this.

I give this CD :

*****