🎄 Holidays! Any new Holiday LPs or CDs this year? (2004 season)

[Rudy]

Unlike past years, I have hardly bought any new Xmas CDs this year. Three, to be exact, and one of those was from last January!

Stan Kenton: A Merry Christmas--a CD reissue of a Capitol LP from 1961. Interesting bonus tracks: a 1963 Kenton single, and a 1960 Maynard Ferguson suite called "Christmas For Moderns" which was on a rare Roulette single.

Peggy Lee: Christmas--the tray insert says this is a compilation of Lee's Christmas songs all on one disc. All appear to be from her Capitol era. I barely knew Peggy Lee's recordings until earlier this year, when I got two of her remastered Capitol albums on the S&P reissue label ("Bewitching-Lee" and "Latin Ala Lee"). Now I'm hooked.

Brian Setzer Orchestra: Boogie Woogie Christmas (Target Special Edition)--had to get this for the two new tracks, "Christmas Island" and "Santa Drives A Hot Rod". I already had the original CD release, plus the Japan EP with the four other Xmas bonus tracks. By adding these with the songs from the "Jingle All The Way" soundtrack (featuring Setzer's orchestra with guest vocalists), and an instrumental version of "Jingle Bells" from the Merry Axemas Vol. 1 CD, it makes a nice collection.

That's it for this year!

 

[jimac51]

Nothing to blow a hole in my stocking ,but new to the collection:the James Taylor Hallmark CD-a pleasant but not very exciting disappointment-the free download track,Joni Mitchell's "River" is actually the best of the session;Henry Mancini's GREATEST CHRISTMAS SONGS-a BMG repackaging of the original RCA album where the bonus tracks make sense;Joe Pass' CHRISTMAS GUITAR DREAMS-a Laserlight budget CD priced even lower in an OddLot cutout bin- aka 12 STRING SANTA and features John Pisano on rhythm guitar-nice;VA-JUSTIN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS 3-the Canadian jazz label's 2001 offering-a record show bargain at a buck-includes the World Saxophone Quartet's reading of "Silent Night";VA-THE ESSENTIAL CHRISTMAS-42 Sony/Legacy cuts from 1944s Sinatra to 2001's Destiny Child-a bit schizophrenic but a real bargain at 15 bucks-a Target exclusive that seems to have been sitting in Sony's warehouse since 2002. But none of them add up to the nice,clean vinyl copy of Kenny Burrell's HAVE YOURSELF A SOULFUL LITTLE CHRISTMAS- also obtained at the recent record show. I haven't found the current Goldmine issue with Tim Neely's annual review and Tim and I need to have a nice long phone chat so I'm sure there were a few goodies missed-including,evidently out of my hands this year-Capitol's Ultra Lounge box which contained Vol 1 and 2(available seperately for years) and Vol 3(only available with the box) for 30 bucks total-decent and decadent,I'm sure. Mac

 

[Rudy]

An Ultra Lounge box set? I should probably track that one down. I thought I had maybe Vol. 1 and/or Vol. 2, but don't recall.

I forgot--I won a CD on eBay that supposedly had that rare Shawn Phillips Christmas track on it ("A Christmas Song"), but I got the CD and it's the wrong track! Well, I didn't have that "Band Aid" single anywhere, and this CD has it...so I'm not crying over the $4.72 I spent on it.

One CD I'd like to find would be that two-LP Capitol set my Dad had, It had the red gatefold jacket. I believe it made it to CD at one point, but I don't remember the title. (We did discuss it here awhile ago, I thought...or maybe it was the old forum.)

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I haven't bought any this year. (Saving up for TJB reissues!)

Last year I bought The Moody Blues' DECEMBER and Chicago's 25, but after a couple of listens they wore thin. I think I even endorsed them last year, but I haven't even played'em this year.

 

[Rudy]

I was so-so on the Chicago. It's neat, but yeah, it is not something I'd have in heavy rotation.

I haven't even dug out Something Festive yet!

 

[DAN BOLTON]

Check out Chris Isaak's CHRISTMAS...


Dan

 

[Tim Neely]

One CD I'd like to find would be that two-LP Capitol set my Dad had, It had the red gatefold jacket. I believe it made it to CD at one point, but I don't remember the title. (We did discuss it here awhile ago, I thought...or maybe it was the old forum.)

Might you be thinking of The Best of Christmas? This came out as a 2-Lp set on Capitol STBB 2979 (1968). And yes, it came out on CD for a millisecond or so on Capitol CDP 7 97458 2 in 1991. My copy came from the BMG Music Service (D 182743), and they might even still have it!

Among the 20 songs it includes are "Late in December" by Jackie Gleason (I think that was mentioned in another thread) and the you-gotta-hear-it-to-believe-it "The Little Drummer Boy" by Marlene Dietrich, sung in German!

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Oh yeah, I neglected to add my acquisition of SOMETHING FESTIVE last year too...it was the best addition to my Christmas collection last year.

I gave my wife the Clay Aiken Christmas album and the Polar Express soundtrack as gifts. The Aiken was sort of strange -- very traditional sounding, I was expecting a bit more rock'n'roll, but it's good. Polar Express contains movie music plus some traditional songs (Bing Crosby etc.) so it's a nice listen.

 

[Rudy]

Among the 20 songs it includes are "Late in December" by Jackie Gleason (I think that was mentioned in another thread) and the you-gotta-hear-it-to-believe-it "The Little Drummer Boy" by Marlene Dietrich, sung in German!

That must be the one, Tim. It also had Dean Martin's version of "Rudolph...", Peggy Lee's "Jingle Bells (I Like A Sleigh Ride)", and Lou Rawls doing "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas". I wasn't able to get to the LP this year--it's stored in a room in the basement and I couldn't get to it.

I may see if BMG has it--never know! Thanks for the tip!

Mike: we saw Polar Express here in 3D at the IMAX. It's a mediocre film, but seeing it presented like that, it was breathtaking. Sort of takes your mind off the rest of the film, IMHO.

 

[PJ]

Neil -really glad you discovered Peggy Lee's Christmas set ....this is one of my favourites ....released previously under various titles including Christmas Waltz that I obtained ....aside from Festive classics ....Lee wrote several charming originals for this set ....

Peter

 

[Tim Neely]

That must be the one, Tim. It also had Dean Martin's version of "Rudolph...", Peggy Lee's "Jingle Bells (I Like A Sleigh Ride)", and Lou Rawls doing "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas". I wasn't able to get to the LP this year--it's stored in a room in the basement and I couldn't get to it.

I may see if BMG has it--never know! Thanks for the tip!

Check. Check. and Check. All three are on that set!

 

[Rudy]

Might you be thinking of The Best of Christmas? This came out as a 2-Lp set on Capitol STBB 2979 (1968). And yes, it came out on CD for a millisecond or so on Capitol CDP 7 97458 2 in 1991. My copy came from the BMG Music Service (D 182743), and they might even still have it!

Guess what? YourMusic (http://www.yourmusic.com) has it!! The BMG club catalog number even matches it. The description was scarce, but I came back here and searched for your reply here.

Capitol also has an UltraLounge 3-CD "Christmas Cocktails" set that probably has a few of the same songs on it. I may get both! The 3-CD set is only $17.97 there.

Neat!

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

I was at my local record store the other day, had not been in quite a while, I ended up spending 3 hours there. The owner had just brought in 5 or 6 boxes filled with goodies from LP's to 45's all super clean and I mean clean labels everything. I was like a kid in a candy store. Most of the 45's were 80's music top 40 stuff all with pic sleeves. No promo stuff. I did end up with some 45's to tickle my fancy. One from those boxes was a Carpenters 45 Solitaire/Love Me For What I Am, I already had this but when I previewed it on the listening station I was blown away at how clean it was so I had to buy it for $2.00.

Browsing around the rest of the store I ended up looking through some crates of LP's I stumbled upon this LP:

I took the LP up to the lisening station and listend to a few of the tracks and enjoyed it, there was a little bit of surface noise but not too bad. I had heard one track off this LP on the radio last week, it was Sleigh Ride and I really enjoyed that.

This thread is titled just right, So if this was your only Christmas CD/LP that you bought this year, would you buy the LP or would I be better off with the CD, I know the CD was recently remastered correct? But I could proably go back and get this LP at the record store for about 5.00 or less and burn it to CD myself.


Oops, I just realized I posted this on the 2004 thread and didn't see Rudy's 2005 thread this year, sorry, feel free to move it you want.

 

[Ed Bishop]

I'm still raving to friends about the Moody Blues' DECEMBER, one of the more underrated(and unnoticed)holiday albums in recent years. Not everyone likes this sort of thing, from the upbeat "Don't Need A Reindeer" to the melancholy "December Snow," but it has real feeling and warmth, not perfect but very fond of it:

ED