VA – A Big Band Christmas

Boy oh boy!  Can CD covers be a little deceiving.  You cannot judge a CD by its cover, but many times you HAVE to judge a CD by its cover.  (More on that later elsewhere in this blog).  When I went to pull this CD off the shelf to review it, I thought, “Oh, here is another of those non-descript Big Band studio orchestras doing a Christmas record.”  I have many of those.  Non-descript Christmas CDs that don’t list a band or performers because they are cranked out in studios that just record, record, record.  A great job if you can get it, but I like to collect classic, vintage, unique Christmas records from all genres.  And non-descript studio orchestras are nothing to brag about.

With that being said, I was WRONG!  I have so many Christmas CDs that, yes, it is hard to remember everything about a CD just by looking at the front cover.  Especially compilation CDs of which this is one.  But this is one of those great compilation CDs to have.  The CD features original songs, original artists and original recordings of some of the best Big Bands and singers of the 1940’s and 1950’s.  All the greats are here.  Great singers.  Great bands.

As I said, I find the CD cover to be a little deceiving, but the insert contains a list of songs with the orchestra leaders, and the lead vocalists in addition to writer credits.  I had to research the recording dates.  The back of the CD insert is a duplicate of the inside information without writer credits.  So, you get singers, band leaders and writers on what appears to be a low budget CD.  Sometimes that information is hard to come by.  This compilation CD offers 13 tracks.

The CD opens with one of the best Christmas songs ever recorded.  Doris Day performing the classic The Christmas Song, written by Mel Torme and Robert Wells.  Recorded in 1946 with Les Brown & his Orchestra, Doris Day gives this song her wonderful, pillow soft treatment.  Yes, I am a big Doris Day fan.  I think she was the best female Big Band singer of all time.  Hey, we all have our favorites.  Doris Day took this song all the way to #12 in 1947 on the Billboard Pop charts.  (Look for Doris Day’s Christmas CDs elsewhere in this blogs future).

Track 2 features Russ Morgan, his chorus and his big band performing I Want You For Christmas, from 1937.  Gotta love it!

The CD follows with Mildred Bailey singing I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm with Red Norvo & his Orchestra.  1937.

Number 4 has Artie Shaw & his Orchestra playing There’s Frost On The Moon with Peg LaCentra handling the vocals, all from 1936.

Track 5 features a more orchestral arrangement with White Christmas performed by the accomplished trumpeter, Harry James & his Orchestra.  Harry’s lead vocalist is Marion Morgan.  A very soft treatment to the biggest selling Christmas song of all time.  1946.

The next song that follows is one of my favorite Christmas songs of all time, a jumping number called Winter Weather.  Benny Goodman gives this classic a jumping arrangement with the great Peggy Lee & Art Lund sharing vocals.  This song shows up on a lot of Christmas compilations, whether Big Band or Classic Christmas songs.  This is a classic that is still played on the radio during the Christmas season.  Big Band Christmas doesn’t get any better than this.  Peggy Lee took this all the way to #24 in 1942.

Track 7 is a unique Christmas song.  It’s really just a winter song, but fills in at Christmas just fine.  Little Jack Frost is performed by Frankie Carle & his Orchestra featuring Marjorie Hughes on vocals from 1947.  There are not that many cover versions of this song.  I only have one other that isn’t performed by Marjorie Hughes.  I am very familiar with the song as I have a lot of Big Band Christmas collections, and this is really the only version of the song most people will be familiar with.

Lester Lanin & his Dance Orchestra show up on track 8, performing a very upbeat rendition of the Johnny Marks classic, Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer from 1959.

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town is given the old collegiate treatment by The Kaydets, the vocal choir of Sammy Kaye’s orchestra. This is one of my favorite Big Band Christmas songs.  1952.

Track 10 is one of the more recent songs recorded.  Tex Beneke, the original crooner with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, was by 1965, fronting his own big band, and had been since around 1948.  Here we get an instrumental version of the Leroy Anderson classic, Sleigh Ride.  Tex presents a very swinging arrangement that is far removed from the traditional arrangements you hear for Sleigh Ride.

Lester Lanin returns with a swinging version of Christmas Night In Harlem, a song most people know from Louis Armstrong.  Lester Lanin was the premier dance orchestra leader by the late 50’s.  This Christmas song is from 1959.

Tex Beneke returns, again from 1965, with a lush arrangement of Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.  Tex takes the lead vocals on this, backed up by a chorus of female voices.  Tex Beneke has a unique tenor voice that gave the Glenn Miller Orchestra it’s best vocals.  This song features Glenn Miller type arrangements throughout.

What I love about collecting Christmas music is finding unique songs that only show up in one or two places.  The final song on this wonderful compilation of Big Band Christmas songs is one of those songs.  Popular duo of the radio era during the 40’s, Cathy & Elliot Lewis perform a song called Happy Holidays.  This is not the same Happy Holidays that future pop singers would cover.  With orchestrations by Ray Noble, the ‘song’ is really Cathy & Elliot Lewis having a romantic conversation about all the wonderfulness of the Christmas season.  Between the spoken passages is a choir adding texture and softness.  A one point a baritone voice sings God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen for one verse.  It sounds remarkably like Thurl Ravenscroft, but I haven’t found confirmation on that.  It’s quite long, especially for Christmas songs.  It times out at 6:15.  It’s from 1947.

As I mentioned earlier, this CD contains some of the best Big Band Christmas songs ever recorded.  Swinging numbers that are great to dance to.  (If you know how to dance like it’s 1937).  And unique Big Band Christmas songs you won’t find on the average Big Band Christmas compilation.  If you can find this CD, I highly recommend it.  There are only 13 songs on it, and there are a lot of 2-disc compilations that contain a lot more songs, but you won’t get too many duplicates of songs with this one in your average collection.

I give this CD :

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