I've downloaded a compilation from ITunes called "The Complete Columbia Christmas Recordings of Robert Goulet" -- so that automatically became my favorite. He has a grand way with Christmas music.
Runners up would be Jessye Norman's "Christmastide", "Christmas at Boy's Town" (only have on lp), the Phil Spector album already mentioned, the Joan Baez album "Noel," and "Christmas with Julie Andrews." I also have the various Pentatonix holiday albums which I enjoy.
90% of my love for this album is due to Percy Faith's contributions, especially "Jesu Bambino" (~10:00 mark).
This was the first of a series of "The Great Songs of Christmas" LPs produced by Columbia Special Products for the Goodyear Company, and sold at a bargain price exclusively at their Goodyear Tire and Auto shops during Christmastime. Nine albums were produced, from 1961 to 1969. In 1970, the tenth and last album, "Best of the Great Songs of Christmas," was released.
From 1971 to 1977, another seven albums were produced. These last seven albums had different titles each year (although the "Great Songs of Christmas" title was brought back for the 1975 and 1977 releases). The last three albums were produced by RCA instead of Columbia.
As none of these albums have appeared on CD, a complete set of these LPs might be worth something. This, despite the fact that few of the individual tracks on these various albums have escaped multiple releases on either LP or CD. (It's reported that most of the albums contained at least one track that was produced specifically for that release.)
Goodyear initially thought 30,000 copies of the album nationwide would be sufficient for Columbia to make. The guy who thought up the idea, a Mr. Stan Arnold, was thinking 3 million. They eventually compromised at 900,000. The success was proven by a simple fact: by December 1, Goodyear ordered its advertising agency to stop all advertising for the record –because there weren’t any left! The print order for the 1962 album was 1.5 million, and almost 2 million for the 1963 album. History repeated itself, and those albums sold out well before Christmas also.
My Dad, a carpenter, painter, and woodcrafter, made a display of diorama figures that he mounted each year on our roof after Thanksgiving (and they stayed on display until after New Year’s Day): Santa in his sleigh with reindeers (Rudolph had a blinking red light for a nose), and large figures of a choir singing. He wired our RCA stereo console from inside our house to outdoor speakers behind the choir figures on the roof. The RCA console had a stackable turntable. Then he’d stack all of the Columbia/Goodyear lps on the turntable, and from sunset until 9 PM each day, he'd play the music on rotation so that anyone walking or driving by got a mini concert of Christmas music. When we acquired the “Christmas at Boy’s Town” lp on a trip to Omaha, he added that into the mix. I believe that he eventually collected all of the Columbia/Goodyear lps – but they were totally worn out with awful groove noise by the time he stopped putting up the display in the 90’s. I absolutely adored those albums – and when Dad passed away last year, several folks who had been neighbors recalled how much they had loved those lps and how much they missed the music playing faintly in the background of their holiday evenings.
I can't say I understood much .. but the singing was sublime (and I did recognise a few of the tunes) ... the first disc from a small box set I bought last year:
Georg Ratzinger ~ Regensburger Domspatzen: Weihnachtslieder (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi label)
Another favourite CD I've been listening to this festive season is Harry Connick's "When My Heart Finds Christmas" (1993). I think he's released 3 Christmas CDs in total, but I find this first one is the best. It's one of his best selling albums too, and worth seeking out if you don't have it. Good stuff.
Does anybody enjoy listening to Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker" during the festive season? My favourite recording is Dutoit/Montreal Symphony which I always make sure to give a spin.
:format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-3319960-1384713806-9055.jpeg.jpg)