🎄 Holidays! Â¡SOMETHING FESTIVE! - Various Artists (SP 19003)

When did you first acquire SOMETHING FESTIVE?

  • Sometime in the 1970s

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Sometime in the 2010s

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Never heard it

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    13

Harry

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SOMETHING FESTIVE
Various Artists
A&M SP 19003

sp19003.jpg


  1. Herb Alpert & The TJB: Winter Wonderland (same as the TJB's album version, except the choral introduction is edited off)
  2. Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66: The Christmas Song (never released on a Brasil '66 album)
  3. Liza Minnelli: Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy
  4. Julius Wechter & Baja Marimba Band: Partridge In A Pear Tree
  5. We Five: My Favorite Things
  6. Burt Bacharach: The Bell That Couldn't Jingle (never released on a Bacharach album)
  7. Pete Jolly: It's The Most Wonderful Time (never released on a Pete Jolly album)
  8. Claudine Longet: Snow
  9. Julius Wechter & Baja Marimba Band: God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (never released on a BMB album)
  10. Herb Alpert & The TJB: Jingle Bell Rock (slightly different mix from the original album version--this features a glockenspiel instead of a marimba in the beginning)
This is our nearly annual thread for this great promotional holiday album from the golden age of A&M Records.

I've got all of these tracks interspersed on my annual Christmas compilation, but this album always demands a separate play in its original order, just like Herb's CHRISTMAS ALBUM and the two Carpenters Christmas albums.
 
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You know, I think this album is the sole reason my dad still owns a turntable! :laugh: My dad had a small but amazing vinyl LP collection when I was growing up, and I think he was gradually able to repurchase them all on CD, save for two: Jimmy Ruffin Sings Top Ten (which supposedly did exist on CD very, very briefly in the '80s but is absolutely impossible to find anymore; believe me, I've hunted high and low for a copy) and this one. I can always count on my dad asking around the holidays, "So have they got around yet to reissuing 'Something Festive'? What gives???" Honestly, I think my dad would even consider reissuing it himself if we had any idea how to go about buying the rights to it. This album is really that dear to us! :D
Needless to say, this is easily my family's favorite Christmas album. (Johnny Mathis' first Christmas album would definitely be the runner-up.) There's just something really magical about it. My three personal favorites are the rarest ones in the lot: Burt's "The Bell That Couldn't Jingle" (one of the most underrated Christmas songs of all-time, I think; I never hear it on the radio or in stores during the holidays, but it'd sure put a big smile on my face if I did!), Sergio's reworking of "The Christmas Song" (on paper, this shouldn't work, but somehow he manages to pull it off), and Pete Jolly's version of "It's the Most ...", which is second only to the definitive version by Andy Williams as my favorite recording of that song; the lyric to that song is really fantastic, so, by all logic, an instrumental version of it shouldn't work nearly as well, but Jolly does a remarkable job of translating the message and spirit of the lyric into an instrumental arrangement.
Another highlight for me is the BMB's take on "Partridge in a Pear Tree." Normally, I'm not that crazy about that particular Christmas song, but the groove that Wechter and company are able to inject into that song make it so, so much cooler.
 
I've always found the tracks by B'66 and Pete Jolly to be touching. A full Christmas album by Jolly would have been an excellent venture.
 
¡SOMETHING FESTIVE! tracks that remain unavailable on CD:

Partridge In A Pear Tree - Julius Wechter & The Baja Marimba Band
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Julius Wechter & The Baja Marimba Band

Technically, these two are also unavailable in the form used on ¡SOMETHING FESTIVE!:

The Christmas Song - Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 (the YULESVILLE version has an edited instrumental bridge that repeats twice)
Jingle Bell Rock - Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass (different mix than CHRISTMAS ALBUM)

Harry
 
I think that I've posted this once before - Uni Japan released "music diary - December - christmas time in 2007 - UICY-4429
these are the A&M tracks included:

Track Title Artist
2 I Don't Intend To Spend Christmas Without You Claudine Longet
3 The Bell That Couldn't Jingle Burt Bacharach
10 It's The Most Wonderful Time Pete Jolly
12 A Partridge In A Pear Tree Julius Wechter & The Baja Marimba Band
17 The Christmas Song Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66
18 Snow Claudine Longet
 
Yes, Steve, you did. I once found a listing for it on Amazon and tried to order it. It sat there for months before Amazon finally gave up trying to obtain it for me. Given its rarity, one could still claim that some of these tracks are essentially "unreleased" on CD. I'd still love to find one of those - gee, given my recent luck, I should go looking again!

Harry
 
Damn! Amazon Japan has a copy of that disc listed for sale, but they won't ship to the US apparently.

Harry
 
Yes, Steve, you did. I once found a listing for it on Amazon and tried to order it. It sat there for months before Amazon finally gave up trying to obtain it for me. Given its rarity, one could still claim that some of these tracks are essentially "unreleased" on CD. I'd still love to find one of those - gee, given my recent luck, I should go looking again!

Harry

It does appear to now be out of print, but for future reference, I would use CD Japan. They always come through and you can receive advance e-mails for the artist that you follow.

Steve
 
It does appear to now be out of print, but for future reference, I would use CD Japan. They always come through and you can receive advance e-mails for the artist that you follow.

Steve

Oh, I would have tried them - and DID. But by the time I was made aware of the set, it was already out of print. Apparently it was a very limited edition like that A&M 100 set that I missed out on.

I've searched HMV Japan and Amazon, and Amazon was the only one I've had a sniff on. US Amazon couldn't come through, and now Japan Amazon won't ship it here.

Harry
 
Damn! Amazon Japan has a copy of that disc listed for sale, but they won't ship to the US apparently.

The two offers for this title are listed by third party sellers who won't ship to the US. If Amazon.JP stocked it themselves, they'd ship it over. With the prices listed, though, the cost would be around $280 for the used copy and $310 for the new.

http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/offer-listing/B000W05NIW

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