This Christmas compilation CD is the first in the Kohl’s Cares for Kids® series of CDs Kohl’s Department Stores made available for purchase in their stores during the Christmas season.  This is a great Christmas compilation CD.  It’s not difficult to obtain this CD, but you would need to get it in an on-line marketplace.  I shop Kohl’s often so when these first started coming out in 2000, I looked for them every year afterwards.  They used to sit next to the cash register, and you could pick them up for $5.00 as you were checking out.  I don’t know if they sold out quickly or what, but years later into the series, I wasn’t seeing them in the stores. It has taken me considerable effort to track down the ones I was missing.  I’ve done a lot of research into the series and think I have them all.  2015 is the last year I have, and I don’t think they released any after 2015.  If you have any further information, I would surely appreciate any help in finding out if I am missing any or if I have them all.  You can leave your comments below.

The CD artwork is nothing spectacular, but it is festive, nonetheless.  The CD cover has a small picture of a table-top decoration of two snowmen standing facing each other holding a red heart.  The picture is placed inside a white and silver border and that itself is superimposed against a cobalt blue background.  The CD title runs inside a silver bar that runs across the middle of the cover.  The silver bar is meant to resemble a silver ribbon surrounding the CD.  The Kohl’s Cares for Kids® logo sits in the bottom right corner.

The back of the CD features a track listing with performing artist credits.  The same silver bar runs across the back of the CD but contains no words or graphics.  Again, the Kohl’s Cares for Kids® logo sits to the right side, and it has a small mission statement included.  All is presented with the same cobalt blue background.  Typical copywrite notices appear at the bottom.

The CD cover comes out and opens along a single fold-out.  The inside of the cover features only a track listing of the songs on this CD.  There are no other graphics or messages, just the song titles.  In addition to performing artist credits, writer credits are given, and some have publishing credits as well.

The back of the CD cover shows a close-up picture of our snowman couple from the front but in a reverse image.  The same silver bar runs across the back of the CD cover, which is also cobalt blue.  At the top is a personal thank you from Kohl’s Cares for Kids®.  The message reads, “Thank you for helping Kohl’s improve health and educational opportunities for children in our communities. Profits from your purchase of this holiday CD, part of the Kohl’s Cares for Kids® holiday collection, will be donated to children’s hospitals.  We at Kohl’s want to wish you and yours the happiest of holiday seasons”.

This was sort of a surprise CD for me.  I expected the same overused, familiar Christmas songs that show up on a lot of generic Christmas compilation CDs.  But I was pleasantly surprised to see that there are many songs on here that don’t.  There are only 12 songs included, and that is typical, but the variety of the artists makes up for it.  All the songs are familiar Christmas songs, but not necessarily by the artists that made them popular.

All the songs, except for The Nutcracker Suite by Les Brown And His Band Of Renown, are 20^th century, secular Christmas songs.  None even come close to an old Christmas hymn.  Not even Silent Night, the most recorded Christmas song, is included.  That makes for a festive, fun-without-the-guilt, Christmas CD.  Six of the 12 songs are in my Top 500 Classic Christmas Recordings.

The CD begins with Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! by Bing Crosby, recorded for his 1962 Christmas album, I Wish You A Merry Christmas.  Bing’s 1962 Christmas album is one of my favorite Bing Crosby Christmas albums.  His first Christmas album from 1941, and reissued in 1945, and again in 1955 with the iconic “Bing in a Santa hat” cover, is probably the best-selling Christmas album of all time, but I still like the one from 1962 better.  The arrangement on Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! is light and the vocals are traditional.  Bing’s voice is still in great shape in 1962.

The 2^nd song, Rudolph, The Red Nosed Reindeer, comes from Dean Martin’s 1959 Christmas album, A Winter Romance.  Gus Levene conducts the orchestra and chorus that provides light instrumentation and light harmonies.  The celesta is paired with sleigh bells and used to great effect while Dean gives the song his typical lounge cantor.

The 3^rd song is Jingle Bell Rock, presented by Bill Haley And His Comets.  Recorded in 1958, it was released just one year after Bobby Helms had a hit with the original in 1957.  Bill Haley records a straightforward arrangement of this Christmas rocker that sounds awfully close to the original.

The Beach Boys deliver their classic from 1963, Little Saint Nick.  This Southern California Surf Christmas song should be very well known to most listeners.  In my opinion, it was one of the first popular, modern era Christmas songs that ventured in a different direction than traditional Christmas songs.  The Beach Boys provide their familiar five-part harmonies in a festive manner as they sing of the virtues of Santa Claus with a West Coast vernacular.

The 5^th song is one of two instrumental Christmas songs on this CD.  The Nutcracker Suite was recorded by Woody Herman And His Band Of Renown in 1957.  It is a swinging arrangement of the Tchaikovsky classic.  The Nutcracker Suite combines 8 of the passages from the complete Nutcracker ballet.  Tchaikovsky had originally put the suite together after the score had been composed, but before the ballet premiered.  As the movements change, so do the arrangements.  Straight Big Band Swing arrangements glide into softer melodies and even Afro Cuban influences are presented before everything returns to the same Swing arrangement found at the beginning to finish the song off.  It is a rather long Christmas song as it clocks in at over 6 ½ minutes.

The 6^th song is the seasonal classic White Christmas, sung by Frank Sinatra.  This version comes from a single Frank Sinatra recorded in 1954 for Capitol Records.  Nelson Riddle conducts the lush orchestra.  He also conducts the soft chorus that provides wonderful harmonies during the choruses.

The other instrumental Christmas song on here is the proverbial Linus & Lucy, from A Charlie Brown Christmas, recorded in 1964.  Everyone knows the song, but many do not know the name.  This is the song that is played during the famous dance scene.  An interesting, little-known tidbit about the soundtrack Vince Guaraldi & His Trio recorded for Charlie Brown’s first TV Special is that the music was recorded before the cartoon was drawn.  Charles Schultz took his inspiration from the music.  Usually, it is the other way around.  Regardless, this has been a Christmas Classic since 1964.

To me, Classic Christmas songs from TV specials from the 1960s are some of my favorite Christmas songs because the whole boomer generation grew up on them.  A Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town and Frosty The Snowman are all classic TV Specials and contain great familiar Christmas songs.  (Look for reviews of all those Christmas TV Soundtracks in this blog’s future.)

Okay, back to this review.  With the help of Frank De Vol & his Orchestra, Ella Fitzgerald delivers Sleigh Ride from her 1960 Christmas album.  The arrangement incorporates Big Band instrumentation to produce a swinging arrangement of this familiar Christmas standard.  Ella provides a great jazz influenced vocal as she glides effortlessly through the lyrics.

The 9^th song, Boogie Woogie Santa Claus, is another rousting, swinging, R&B Christmas song.  Lionel Hampton & his Orchestra recorded this in 1950.  It was first recorded by Mabel Scott in 1948.  Sonny Parker delivers hip lingo influenced lyrics.  Lionel Hampton’s Big Band featured a large ensemble of traditional Big Band musicians and his technique on the vibraphone is displayed well throughout the song.

The 10^th song, Jingle All The Way, comes from Lena Horne’s 1966 Christmas album.  It is a swinging version of Jingle Bells.  The arrangement that Jack Parnell & his Orchestra provides is unique in that the arrangement is slow, then fast, then slow, then fast, then slow again as the song fades away.  Lena Horne syncopates her vocals in a jazzy manner.  Lena Horne would take familiar Pop Standards and give it her own signature sound.  That is accomplished very well here.

The 11^th song, Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town, has Lou Rawls delivering his trademark swinging Jazz vocal treatments as well.  H. B. Barnum & his Orchestra provide the Swing in this Christmas standard from Lou Rawls’ 1967 Christmas album.  It is Lou Rawls’ vocal styling that makes this song different than any other recorded version.  He has a way of swinging the lyrics by using hip slang improvisations like no one else does.  Towards the end, Lou Rawls breaks into an a cappella soulful finish.

The final song on this terrific compilation CD is fittingly, The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You) by the man who made it famous, Nat King Cole.  Nat King Cole recorded three different versions of this song.  The first was with his Trio in 1946.  The second was in 1953 with Nelson Riddle & his Orchestra.  This version comes from his 1963 Christmas album, which was really a reissue of his 1960 Christmas album, but with two songs replaced with two new ones.  The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You) was one of those songs.  Ralph Carmichael directs the orchestra in the lush arrangement.  This is the Nat King Cole version most people will be familiar with.  It is also the Classic recording of this Christmas standard written by Mel Torme and Robert Wells.

I like this Christmas compilation CD because it contains familiar songs but not necessarily using traditional arrangements.  And it contains at least six songs that are in my Top 500 Classic Christmas Recordings.  It has a lot to offer from a CD that only contains 12 songs and initially cost only $5.00.  All were recorded during the Classic Christmas Music Era of 1946 to 1976.

This CD contains soft, endearing Christmas classics, Big Band swinging arrangements and Jazzy interpretations of familiar Christmas songs.  The variety of genres represented on one CD is what makes this a great CD to have in your collection.  If you had the entire Kohl’s Cares for Kids® collection, you would have over 150 terrific Christmas songs for less than $100.00.

There’s nothing on here that anyone could find boring, but the arrangements of the two R&B based songs, Boogie Woogie Santa Claus and Lou Rawls’ Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town, might make people wish for them to be over quickly if they’re not used to funkier Christmas songs.  They are not typical Christmas songs.  Most people wouldn’t know the difference between Bill Haley’s Jingle Bell Rock and the Bobby Helms original, so that wouldn’t be an issue.  The rest of the CD is standard, familiar Christmas fare.

I give this CD :

****