The Firestone series of Christmas albums was immensely popular during the 1960s.  Almost every household had at least one, if not many.  Almost all the Christmas albums featured two or three artists accompanied by the Firestone Orchestra And Chorus, who performed some songs by themselves.  Few, if any songs, are duets sung by the featured artists.  Most songs feature only one singer of the song but may be accompanied by the featured chorus.  Only one album was a dedicated album, Volume 5, which featured Julie Andrews with Andre Previn conducting The Firestone Orchestra And Chorus.  Many of those selections appear on other compilation CDs of Christmas music and Julie Andrews’ Christmas compilation CDs.  As far as I can tell, all of these recordings were done specifically for this Firestone series.  Many times, with Christmas albums of this type, many of the songs are taken from the featured artists’ own Christmas records.  But I have not been able to find any of the songs in the Firestone series on any artists’ Christmas albums released at the same time or earlier than the Firestone records were released.  Yes, many of the songs might show up on later Christmas compilation CDs of the featured artist, but as far as my knowledge goes, the songs featured on the Firestone Christmas albums were recorded specifically for the series.

Featured artists in the series include :

Volume 1 – Rise Stevens & Brian Sullivan

Volume 2 – Rise Stevens, Brian Sullivan & The Columbus Boychoir

Volume 3 – Gordon MacRae, Martha Wright, Franco Corelli, Roberta Peters & The Columbus Boychoir

Volume 4 – Julie Andrews, Vic Damone, Dorothy Kirsten, James McCracken & The Young Americans

Volume 5 – Julie Andrews With Andre Previn

Volume 6 – Jack Jones, Roberta Peters & Vienna Choir Boys

Volume 7 – Leontyne Price, Vikki Carr, John Gary, Nicolai Gedda & Vienna Choir Boys