🎄 Holidays! Herb's Christmas vocal intros: Which one is best?

Which Christmas vocal intro do you like best?

  • Winter Wonderland

    Votes: 1 14.3%
  • My Favorite Things

    Votes: 2 28.6%
  • Jingle Bells

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Sleigh Ride

    Votes: 1 14.3%
  • The Bell That Couldn't Jingle

    Votes: 1 14.3%
  • I would rather the intros had been left on the cutting room floor

    Votes: 2 28.6%

  • Total voters
    7
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Mike Blakesley

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OK, things are a little dull here in Holiday Forum Land, so I thought maybe we could debate the merits of the vocal intros on Herb Alpert's CHRISTMAS ALBUM. Without considering the song as a whole, which vocal intro do you like the best? Or do you wish Herb had left the intros off altogether?
 
I think the ...Let It Snow, let it snow...LET IT SNOW... of "Let It Snow", which sounds sung by the background vocalists of Partridge Family albums (and are usually good, but here, obviously trying to rope in folks who are NOT your typical TjB fans!) could be omitted... Really! When I heard The Herb Alpert & TjB Christmas Album playing in the store, I would've easily NOT have recognized it, without the tracks that start off with Herb's trumpet, or which are not "Winter Wonderland", "Sleigh Ride", "My Favorite Things" or the Heee-Yaaah! of "Jingle Bell Rock", just to name a few!


Dave
 
I am one who never much cared for the vocals -- more often than not I find my self waiting for them to end so I can finally hear the TJB. So I voted for the cutting room floor.

That being said, though, I love the way the vocals are integrated into many of the songs themselves...

But if I had to pick a favorite vocal intro it would be "Las Mananitas." Just kidding.

--Mr Bill
 
"My Favorite Things" gets the nod here, and "Winter Wonderland" is a close second, since it's in my DNA as being the beginning of one of my favorite holiday albums. :D I've listened to them without the intros--they just don't sound right without them.
 
I'm mostly in agreement with Rudy. For me it's easier to pick the one I like the least -- "Sleigh Ride." For my favorite, it's pretty much a coin flip between WW and MFT.
 
I actually thought "Sleigh Ride" was the best of the vocal intro, but by then the vocals were getting old. I wonder how much time would be shaved from the album if the vocal intros were deleted? Might only be a 27 minute album without them.


Capt. Bacardi
 
While I think the vocals are OK, I think they made a slight mistake in opening tracks 1, 2 and 3 on the album with them. Maybe an intro-less track could have been put in the #2 spot and it might have been a little better. I've warmed up to the vocals over the years -- when the album first came out I didn't like any of them much.
 
The vocals have been a part of that album throughout my life, so I can't really get comfortable hearing the songs without them. I think I liked them better when I found out it was, I think, Shorty Rogers who did the vocal arrangements. (The chords certainly sound like his.)
 
It all sounds perfectly natural to me. The vocals were always there, and with the exception of the shortened "Winter Wonderland" on SOMETHING FESTIVE, they'll always be there.

Harry
 
The more I think about it the more I have to agree with the Cap'n... "Sleigh Ride" is the least objectionable. Especially on the remastered Shout!Factory version. On my car system the male basses singing "Booom... booom... booom... booom" really resonate well! I'm actually finding myself looking forward to this one intro lately!

--Mr Bill
who finds it odd that his two least favorite tunes were the two tunes on the first 45 from the LP...
 
While sitting in traffic recently and listening to the TjB CHRISTMAS ALBUM (actually, I was giving a listen to the UK import version from 2000 called HERB ALPERT & HIS TIJUANA BRASS AT CHRISTMAS), I remembered this thread and decided to use the CD player's timer to note how long the intros were. Here's what I got:

Winter Wonderland - 0:39
Jingle Bells - 1:06
My Favorite Things - 0:24
Sleigh Ride - 0:55
The Bell That Couldn't Jingle - 0:33

With the whole album being 31:35 including the intros, then removing from these tracks would result in an album of 3:37 shorter length, or a total time of 27:58.

Harry
...with more semi-useless information from your moderator team, online...
 
So the most popular of the intros (according to this wildly-unscientific poll) is the shortest. And the least popular is the longest. Hmmmm.
 
I can't believe there are only seven votes total...I'm sure more people have heard this album! :mad:
 
That's the one. There is only one Herb Alpert Christmas album (Harry has an import version with a different title, but the content of the record is the same.)

I'm surprised at the lack of votes, too. Thought this would be a hot topic or at least generate some good arguments! :wink:
 
Well, at times this sounds like a true Herb Alpert & TjB album, other times it seems as though Herb reverted back to anonomous studio musicians on some of the tracks... (like on my least-favorite, "Let It Snow...") The vocals make this outing good and not-so-good, though depending on which songs...

Again, this is likely to be the only Herb Alpert & TjB album a typical EZ-Listening Listener is likely to own, though with it coming after Beat Of The Brass, a fair introduction to the rest of the catalog for the novice not yet into Ninth or ready for anything like Whipped Cream... :goofygrin:


Dave

...Hopefully "Generating" Something, online... :badteeth:
 
the Krayola Kid said:
...this is likely to be the only Herb Alpert & TjB album a typical EZ-Listening Listener is likely to own, though with it coming after Beat Of The Brass, a fair introduction to the rest of the catalog for the novice not yet into Ninth or ready for anything like Whipped Cream...

What?
More time in Coventry for thee...

--Mr Bill
 
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