This is a great Christmas compilation CD from EMI-Capitol Music Special Markets.  This is almost the only Christmas CD you would ever need.  Not really, but if you wanted to limit yourself to a small collection, then this should be in it.  It features very familiar Christmas songs, but not necessarily by the singers you would automatically think of.  It features some of the best Christmas music artists, but perhaps not performing their biggest Christmas hits.  And in some respects, this is missing some very vital Christmas artists to make it the perfect Christmas CD.

There is no Frank Sinatra, Gene Autry, Burl Ives or Johnny Mathis.  Nor is there any Rosemary Clooney, Doris Day or Judy Garland.  I’m beginning to reason that is due to the reissuing record label.  The artists that appear on these many, many Christmas compilation CDs that I have were artists under contract to that label when these songs were recorded.  You won’t find any Columbia Records or RCA Victor artists on an EMI-Capitol release.  I think companies like Time-Life Music make arrangements with all the major labels and are able to feature artists from many different record labels on one CD.

There are 25 beautiful, wonderful Christmas songs on here.  It has a full 78 minutes of music.  They filled the CD to capacity.  Bonus.

The cover is very Christmassy.  I like nice, colorful Christmas albums / CD covers.  I think people who like to collect Christmas music are partly attracted to the covers.  I know I am.

The CD cover shows a close-up picture of a Santa snow globe.  The CD title appears at the top in red script.  Off to the right side is the secondary title and a list of some of the artists that appear on the CD.

The back of the CD features a numerical track listing with performing artist credits.  The CD title appears at the top in the same script as found on the front cover.  All is in gold lettering against a dark red background.  It makes for easy reading.  At the very bottom are typical copywrite notices and a UPC symbol.

There is no need to take the cover out to gain any new information.  The CD cover is just a single piece of slick paper, and nothing is printed on the backside.  Bummer.

As nice as the artwork is on the front cover, overall, the CD lacks a lot of the information I seek.  Writer credits, orchestra leaders and years of recording are all missing.  But alas, it’s still a great Christmas compilation CD.

There is no way I can write about every song and artist on here and keep it brief, so I’ll start with some quick observations about the songs.  17 of the 25 songs are all familiar traditional Christmas hymns.  Of the other 8, all are familiar secular Christmas songs but only 3 are 20^th century Christmas songs.  Brahms’ Lullaby is not really a Christmas song, but it is a beautiful song nonetheless, and it compliments Christmas collections very well.

The oldest recorded song on here comes from 1952.  It is the extremely reverent Hallelujah Chorus (from “The Messiah”, G. F. Handel) and is performed by Huddersfield Choral Society, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Malcolm Sargent, conductor.

The most recent song comes from 1993.  It is Tanya Tucker singing What Child Is This?  Tanya Tucker pleads the lyrics reverently with just a slight Country dialect.  I think she is about to completely break down from anguish.  The melody is mainly achieved with an acoustic guitar while very light orchestrations provide additional support.  There is a light chorus that provides soft harmonies.

All the songs are spread across the years pretty well, and except for about 8 of them, most were recorded during the Classic Christmas Music Era of 1946 – 1976.  This CD contains 8 songs that are in my Top 500 Classic Christmas Recordings.

Earlier I listed some familiar Christmas artists who aren’t on here.  Now I will tell you some of the ones that are.  Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, Peggy Lee, Nat King Cole, Wayne Newton and Jose Feliciano all have one song each.  Andrew Parrott And The Taverner Consort Choir & Players and the Roger Wagner Chorale each have two.  The rest are of mixed genre ranging from Pop to Choral to Classic Country to Organ Solo.

Another thing that’s missing from this CD are the more Novelty Christmas songs like Frosty The Snowman or Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer.  Santa Claus does make an appearance as Peggy Lee sings Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town from 1960.  Billy May & his Orchestra provide the music.  It is a swinging arrangement with light jazz overtones.  The sweet female chorus that provides syncopated harmonies adds a unique take on this Christmas classic.

One of my favorite Christmas hymns, Lo How A Rose E’er Blooming, is performed a cappella by the New York Choral Artists, Joseph Flummerfelt, Director and was recorded in 1990.

The song that directly follows is also performed a cappella.  Wassail Song is delivered in contrasting harmonies by male and female voices, respectively.  They are The Roger Wagner Chorale.  The CD states that they are accompanied by The Sinfonia Of London.  Perhaps on the 1962 album this comes from, but not on this song in particular.

Another a cappella Christmas song comes from The King’s Singers.  Deck The Hall is from their 1973 Christmas album of the same name.  The King’s Singers are an a cappella British choral group comprising six male voices.

The highest charting song on here is Feliz Navidad performed by the man who made it famous, Jose Feliciano, in 1970.  Although it was released as a single in 1970, it didn’t chart on the Billboard Singles chart until 1998.  This is probably the most recognizable Christmas song on here.

Another familiar Christmas song is Dean Martin singing White Christmas from his 1959 Christmas album.  The music is provided by Gus Levene & his Orchestra and the wonderful chorus that accompanies Dean Martin really makes this song terrific.  The original album liner notes say they are also under the direction of Gus Levene.

Andrew Parrott And The Taverner Consort Choir & Players have two songs, While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night and God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen.  Both are highly orchestrated carols sung by a large British Choral group that got its start in 1973.  The music is performed by musicians that specialize in Baroque music from the 15^th to the 17^th century.  The songs were recorded in 1991 and 1988, respectively.

One of the more uncommonly found Christmas artists is The New Christy Minstrels performing Angels We Have Heard On High.  I have the only 2 Christmas albums they recorded that I am aware of, and this song is not on either of them.  I’m not sure when this was recorded.  If you are not familiar with the New Christy Minstrels, you can read a review of their Christmas album found elsewhere in this blog.

Another mid 1960s vocal group is The Lettermen.  They perform O Holy Night from their 1966 Christmas album.  The light orchestrations are provided by Richard Hazard & his Orchestra.  The Lettermen’s three-part harmonies produce very solemn Christmas hymns.

And yet another male vocal group from the 1960s is The Beach Boys.  They perform We Three Kings.  This song was originally released on their chart-topping Christmas album from 1964.  Most of the songs on that Christmas album are upbeat, classic Beach Boys’ stuff; ‘Fun in the Sun’, Southern California Christmas songs.  Here, they deliver this familiar Christmas hymn accompanied only by light organ to start.  While The Beach Boys’ tight harmonies carry the song, they are soft and slow paced.  This is one of the slowest arranged versions of this song I am aware of.

As I’ve tried to say, this is a terrific Christmas CD and if you’re looking to add to your collection, I suggest you seek this out.  This CD covers all the aspects of what great Christmas music should be.  I didn’t cover all the songs; I left a bunch out in order to save space and time.  Trust me, they are also great Christmas songs.  Most would probably be unfamiliar to the casual listener, but many are performed by well-known artists.

This is not the most perfect Christmas CD, but if you have the common ones with Gene Autry, Andy Williams, Doris Day and Perry Como, this is the CD you need to compliment those.  Same time frame of recording, and all are from artist released Christmas albums from the 1950s – 1990s.

I give this CD :

****