Favorite Christmas albums

[polkanut]

Seeing I won an auction on Ebay for the 7 album set of Firestone Christmas albums, I thought we could share our favorites. My big Christmas favorite is a 3 record set issued by Columbia House in 1972. It features the likes of Johnny Mathis, Fred Waring, Bing Crosby, Joan Sutherland, Andre' Kostelanetz, The Boston Pops, New York Philharmonic directed by Leonard Bernstein, and the list goes on.

 

[Cwheeler]

Moya Brennan - An Irish Christmas
Josh Groban - Noel
Enya - And Winter Came

 

[davy1063]

You're gonna make me cry Polkanut

Every year, my dad and I would go get the latest Firestone album and we would stack them up on our old Motorola X-300 console stereo and let them play while we all would decorate. After my mom and dad got rid of the stereo, I took custody of all the albums and we play them while my wife and daughter decorate. One other personal favorite is the Ray Coniff Singers Christmas album.

Ahh memories!

Dave

 

[mr_jms]

Christmas Favorites

My Christmas favorites vary, depending on my mood. Love the Christmas sounds from the 60s....Supremes, Motown, Phil Spector, Paul and Paula, Brenda Lee, Lesley Gore. Also love Helen Reddy, Anne Murray. Of course, love the standards...Bing Crosby etc.

 

[jasonl]

A few of my favorite things...

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[xraytech]

My favorite Christmas albums were from Avon that were given to their reps through the 1970's. Grandma has several editions from her Avon years. I listen to those albums every year

 

[jasonl]

My wife's aunt has some of those Firestone LP's.

 

[hydralique]

"Ella Fitzgerald

Wishes You A Swinging Christmas". This is my favorite Christmas album of all time, recorded in '61 with Ella being backed up by Nelson Riddle and his orchestra.

 

[mrb627]

When I Was Young...

I had a Christmas Album when I was young that got misplaced somewhere. I have searched long and hard for a replacement but no luck. I don't remember too much about it, just that there were a few songs that stick in my mind.

1) A Christmas Song - Carol Burnett
2) Home for the Holidays - Debbie Reynolds
3) Silver Bells - Johnnie Mathis
4) Sleigh Ride - Boston Pops

If anyone knows of this album or by chance has it, I would love a copy. Hell even a picture of the album cover would be awesome.

Malcolm

 

[vacbear58]

This is my favourite

For me it is THE Christmas album

Even better for me, the BBC did a radio documentary last year about the making of the album - I did not know until then that it was not a hit at the time, and it was only upon it's re-release in 1972 that it became a cult classic. Its what I will be playing on Christmas morning, probably the documentary as well. Despite the subject matter, it was actually recorded in the summer of 1963. Here it is .....

 

[angus]

Yes, the phil spector album is a perennial favorite. It wasn't a hit upon its release, that's true, but it was also released on November 22, 1963, the date Kennedy was assassinated so the mood of the country was anything but festive. I will say that I have had both the LP album and the CD, and you really do not get the full impact of the "wall of sound" instrumental that the LP and cassette has - not sure why. It is particularly noticeable on Sleigh Ride, The March of the Wooden Soldiers and Here Comes Santa Claus. But it doesn't seem like Christmas until I hear those tunes.

I remember that when it was released, we had gone downtown Brooklyn to Christmas shop and EJ Korvettes was playing that album over and over and had loudspeakers set up so that shoppers on Fulton Street could hear the music. You could hear it a block down at Abraham & Straus and Martin's. My mother and Aunt Jennie each bought an album and it became our Christmas standard

I like others, like the Johnny Mathis Christmas Album, Christmas with Dino, and most of the assortments on the WCBS - 101FM Christmas CDs. Then there is Ray Conniff and the Firestone series....I guess I liked a lot more than I origanally thought...

 

[vacbear58]

CD Quality

This is just a guess, but could it be that the CD has been re-mastered (actually from the cover re-re-mastered) because, surprisingly the origional album was recorded in MONO - yes although stereo recording has been around a long time the sound engineer confirmed that this was not a stereo recording in the documentary.

I only nead to hear two bars of "Sleigh Ride" to start feeling in a happy Christmassy mood

Al

 

[whitekingd]

My favorite is June Christy's This Time Of Year. All original material that is beautiful.

 

[twinniefan]

Favourites for Christmas

Mine is a cd a bought from Grace Bros,now Myer and it is called "Favourites for Christmas",my favourites on it are Atlantic Starr singing Silver Bells, Anne Murray singing O Holy Night, Boney M's version of Mary's boy child and Jose Feliciano Feliz Navidad.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas hey!!!!!!!
Cheers.
Steve.

 

[mattl]

I have a lot of Christmas music, perhaps too much, but I do have a few favorites. A Winter's Solstice 5( I think...) is one of my favorites, along with the one of the Late Great Rosemary Clooney's last recordings "White Christmas" Her voice shows the years, but that makes it all the more special, there is a wistfulness, and the sound of experience there.

 

[bugsyjones]

Gives me goosebumps!

LOVE YOU FLORENCE!

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~Tim

 

[rollermatic]

what a great christmas

tribute to florence ballard! very touchuing and a bit sad to me. really enjoyed it!

 

[mr_jms]

Florence's Christmas solo is featured on cd, don't remember the name of it(don't have it with me right now). Flo sings lead on the "We Remember Sam Cooke" album. Great voice!

 

[tomturbomatic]

The Virgil Fox Christmas Album, Boston Pops holiday recordings and the Robert Shaw Chorale's Christmas Album. I love the arrangements of Christmas music by Robert Russell Bennett and Leroy Anderson when the carols transition from one into another with beautiful modulations between them.

In the late 80s, when Robert Shaw was conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, PBS did a special featuring the Christmas concert which included an interview with Maestro Shaw. He told of the days when the radio networks had money to maintain private orchestras. On Christmas Eve, the networks would start live performances that went all through the night with various choirs, chorales and choruses singing. It's hard to imagine all of that beautiful music going out into the night and probably never recorded. Then things changed; the orchestras like the NBC Symphony of the Air were not needed on a regular basis and were gradually disbanded. The network facilities with the theater organs and performance spaces for full orchestras and choruses were downsized or relocated to places without space for such productions and the live broadcasts ended. Television had replaced radio as the place where the broadcasting networks put their money.