There were two Jimmie Rodgers.  The first was a pioneer in the early days of Country & Western music.  This Jimmie Rodgers is the other one.  It’s easy to get them confused.  Both were big stars in their days.  It’s just that their days did not coincide because that Jimmie Rodgers died the same year as this Jimmie Rodgers was born.  This Jimmie Rodgers was born in Washington state in 1933 and developed an interest in music at a very young age.

After singing locally in Washington, and while in service during the Korean War, as luck would have it, Jimmie Rodgers got stationed in Nashville at Stewart Air Force Base.  It was around this time that he won $700.00 on the Arthur Godfrey Talent Show.

After the war, he signed to Roulette Records in New York.  One of his earliest singles, Honeycomb, was an instant hit.  It became his signature song.  He followed that with other big hits such as Kisses Sweeter Than Wine and Oh-Oh, I’m Falling In Love Again.  Because of his chart successes he got a lot of exposure on television, and even had his own show in 1959.

The next logical step in his career seemed to be to release a Christmas album.  This is that album.  Recorded and released in 1959, it features Joe Reisman & his Orchestra And Chorus.

This reissue of Jimmie Rodgers only Christmas album, from 1959, is released by Collectors’ Choice Music.  Collectors’ Choice Music has been around for a long time and they do a terrific job of remastering and re-releasing CDs of music from the 1930’s onward.  I have many releases from Collectors’ Choice Music throughout my Christmas collection.

True to form, Collectors’ Choice did a great job of reproducing the original artwork.  The CD cover features a picture of Jimmie Rodgers superimposed over a slightly out of focus Christmas tree.  The lettering consists of the album title, followed by Jimmie’s name and With Joe Reisman And His Orchestra.  Below is a list of songs included.  The cover of the CD is an exact duplicate of the original album cover.  But it’s not.  Discogs.com shows two different covers for the original album.  Both were released on Roulette Records in 1959, and both have the same catalog number.

I rather like the other cover better.  It’s a picture of Jimmie Rodgers and his wife holding their newborn baby surrounded by Christmas presents next to a gold Christmas tree.  It is the perfect 1959 Christmas setting.  Lots of big, brightly wrapped presents; dress and hairstyles that were only seen during the late 50’s; all with a gold aluminum Christmas tree!  This was around the time that brightly colored aluminum Christmas trees became all the rage.

The artwork on the back of the CD features a numerical track listing with time signatures, writer and arranger credits as well as publishing credits.

The CD cover opens to a single fold-out that features a biography of Jimmie Rodgers and the story behind the recording of this album that fills both sides of the inside pages.  Most of the story focuses on the arrangers Maury Laws and Jim Tyler and their experiences working on this recording.

The back of the CD insert is an exact copy of the back of the original album except here it is placed on a sea green background whereas the original has a white background.  But you get the original cover, front and back, with this CD reissue.

Also true to Collectors’ Choice Music, the track listing is the exact same as the original.  And that’s okay for me.  I don’t need bonus tracks on all my CD reissues.  I like having the original album in its original form with original artwork, etc.

When Jimmie Rodgers was approached to do a Christmas album, he wanted to focus on Christmas hymns more than what he called novelty records such as I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.  And he wanted to use a large orchestra to give it that lush, soft sound.  Up until this album, most of his records were up-tempo Rock and Roll songs with a small combo backing him up.

This CD contains the original 12 songs in their original order.  Like I stated earlier, Jimmie wanted to focus on carols and the first 9 songs are traditional Christmas carols and hymns.  This CD begins with one of the finest Christmas songs ever recorded.  O Holy Night is an absolute, incredible rendition of this traditional carol.  A soft introduction with solo guitar builds into a crescendo of symphony and choruses.

Joe Reisman’s Chorus does an exceptional job of backing up Jimmie Rodgers.  They are in full voices at the start of Silent Night while dropping off before Jimmie comes in with one of the softest, slowest arrangements of this song I’ve ever heard.  All the hymns are given a soft orchestral treatment; O Little Town Of Bethlehem, What Child Is This, It Came Upon A Midnight Clear.  There is not a bad one in the bunch.

The message in the music changes with the 9^th song.  That’s when the carols stop, and more secular songs are featured.  There are only 12 songs on here so that leaves only 4 that are not traditional carols.  Most of the songs included on here are much slower in pace than you will be familiar with.  That is not a bad thing. 

White Christmas is also one of the standout songs on here.  That, along with I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day and The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You) are given the same soft gentle arrangements as found during the carols heard earlier.  The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You) is the last song on the CD, and it ends with a warm Christmas greeting to the listeners.

But I’ve saved the best for last.  The title track, the 11^th song, It’s Christmas Once Again, is a personal favorite.  It is a cover version of a Christmas song Frankie Lymon did in 1957.  Here the song opens with full trumpets, bells and chorus before gliding into one of the prettiest Christmas songs ever put on record.  To me, it has the perfect blend of solo voice, chorus and light instrumentation that defines how I feel about Christmas.  I love Christmas!  I love Christmas music!  This song is one of the reasons why I wanted to start collecting Christmas music.  There are so many beautiful Christmas songs out there and this is one of the best!  It is definitely included in my Top 500 Classic Christmas Recordings.  (Look for my Top 500 Classic Christmas Recordings list elsewhere in this blog).

Jimmie Rodgers had one of the best tenor voices that ever came along.  He is usually not mentioned along with Frank, Bing or Andy and you could have a conversation about the best tenors of the 50’s and 60’s, including Jim Nabors, Perry Como, John Gary, Johnny Mathis, Dean Martin, etc. and Jimmie Rodgers’ name probably wouldn’t come up.  That’s because all his charted hits are upbeat, fast tempo Pop and Rock & Roll from the late 50’s.  Jimmie’s career did not last as long as some of the others, but when it came to soft Pop arrangements, he was one of the best.

This Christmas album is probably not in a lot of people’s Christmas music collections.  It is not by one of The Top Ten, it did not sell that well when originally released and it did not chart on any of Billboard’s album charts.  I think of it as a gold nugget.  It’s one of the best Christmas albums there ever was, and a lot of people are not familiar with it.  What a shame.

Jimmie Rodgers, along with Joe Reisman, Maury Laws, Jim Tyler and the Joe Reisman Chorus make for a wonderful Christmas album.  There is not a bad song on here.  You will be familiar with all these selections, short for the title song, and I think you will find it to be as pleasing to listen to as I do.

If you are looking to add to your Christmas music collection and you have run out of ideas, you must consider this wonderful Christmas album from 1959.  There is absolutely nothing that can be better about this CD reissue!

I give this CD :

*****