Carpenters: Christmas Portrait CD Pressings

[Harry]

Speaking of CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT, someone in another forum brought up the subject of early pressings of the Special Edition CD. They were often made in Japan for US consumption as that was one of the few CD pressing plants open in the world at the time.

My Special Edition CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT was an early purchase, probably in late 1984, and in looking at the package now, it's evident that it IS really old.

The jewel case has a smooth top and bottom, unlike the typical ridged type. The disc itself is rather odd, in that there are no logos on it of any kind. Typical discs of that era had an A&M Records logo, a Compact Disc Digital Audio logo, and an AM+ logo (meaning Audio Masters Plus). But this disc has none.

Around the hub ring is simply CD 3610 1A1 5Y.

Harry

 

[Rudy]

Interesting...I just pulled my copy, and never realized it didn't have any A&M logo on the disc. Inner ring says CD 3210 and 180 degrees from that, 1A4 68.

Mine's almost like new, as I played it once and it wasn't like the LP, so I rarely ever played it at all. It has one flaw in the plastic on the label side though, but I don't recall it ever having a problem playing back.

The very bottom of the label says CD 3210 DIDX 186. It does have the smooth-sided jewel case.

 

[Harry]

Yeah. Several others mentioned the "1A4 68" but mine reads "1A1 5Y". Otherwise they seem identical.

Harry

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Mine has the logos on the disc and it has CD 5173 DIDX 186, must be a newer edition. I hardly ever play the special edition CD.

 

[richard_sloat]

What's cool in the special edition is the original mixes of the Christmas portrait songs... otherwise unavaliable for anyone who hasn't had the chance of listening to the vynil or German CDs.

 

[Rudy]

That's true--the versions on the 2-CD "Collection" are nothing like the originals. To coin a phrase, they have too much "gloss" for me.

Harry--it could be that these were made on different presses or from different master parts. IOW, they could all have been made at the same time at the same manufacturing plant, but could have come from two different production lines. Hence, the different suffix of numbers. I'm not sure how the pressing plants numbered different releases. I would wager these are the exact same (bit-identical, IOW) masterings.

My memory may be fuzzy, but...wasn't this or a similar "special edition" also released with the Old Fashioned Christmas title? I seem to recall picking it up, seeing essentially the same running order and passing it by.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Interesting notations here. I got my Special Edition as soon as I heard about it, but mine has all of the usual features of older A&M CDs -- the logos as Harry mentions, plus the typical ridged jewel box. But, it's entirely possible that mine came from a later press-run than Harry's did. Mine has the same numbers as Chris - An Ordinary Fool's.

I haven't played this in a long time either. I keep it at the Roxy and we occasionally have played it or the TJB disk around Christmastime, but in recent years we've turned on the XM radio to the classic-Christmas channel (#4) instead.

 

[Harry]

My memory may be fuzzy, but...wasn't this or a similar "special edition" also released with the Old Fashioned Christmas title? I seem to recall picking it up, seeing essentially the same running order and passing it by.

No. Recall that CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT: SPECIAL EDITION's whole raison d'être in the first place was to fill out a CD's capacity with as much material from both albums as possible, with Richard overseeing the marriage of the tracks on the disc.

And *because* of that, he must have felt (well into the '90s) that that recording sufficed, and neither full album had ever gotten a proper full release in its own right. The exception of course was the errant West German CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT with its original mix and running order intact that was later withdrawn.

It wasn't until the mid '90s that we got word that both albums were to be combined into a CHRISTMAS COLLECTION in, I believe, Great Britain. That same package made it to the US a year later and is the one that we all bought that has the remix version of CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT and the original mix of AN OLD FASHIONED CHRISTMAS.

Both titles have since re-appeared in expensive Japanese box sets (in the same remix/no-remix editions).

The only other Christmas package released was the Polygram Special Markets/Time-Life set called CHRISTMAS WITH THE CARPENTERS in 1992. It was mail-order only, I believe, contained two discs, with a mere 13 tracks on the first, and only 10 tracks on the second. It's a mish-mash of tracks from both albums with no real gain of anything new to compact disc other than one of Richard's remixes of "Merry Christmas, Darling" that's never appeared anywhere else.

It's his typical louder, stereo-piano affair, with Karen's vocals from her second recording.

Harry

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Interesting notations here. I got my Special Edition as soon as I heard about it, but mine has all of the usual features of older A&M CDs -- the logos as Harry mentions, plus the typical ridged jewel box. But, it's entirely possible that mine came from a later press-run than Harry's did. Mine has the same numbers as Chris - An Ordinary Fool's.

I remember too that I bought this as soon as it was released, as Mike mentioned above, when I read this I said I bet mine is the first pressing but it has the typical ridged edges to the jewel box. So it could be as Rudy mentioned in his post.

 

[Harry]

I remember already having the disc in my possession and seeing the review of the disc as new in a stereo review magazine that I looked through in a store, where the author claimed that the choir on "Ave Maria" was added to cover-up a flaw in the recording of Karen's lead vocal.

I'm sure the differences in matrix numbers, logo and jewel box styles had to do with getting a large number of these discs out to the public while there were very few CD pressing plants in operation. So they ALL probably had orders from A&M to get the huge inventory out to the stores.

Remember when you'd go into a record store and there would be ten copies of the album you were looking for in the racks? A few years ago you'd be lucky if there was one. Today, you're lucky if you can find a record store!

Harry

 

[Rudy]

My memory may be fuzzy, but...wasn't this or a similar "special edition" also released with the Old Fashioned Christmas title? I seem to recall picking it up, seeing essentially the same running order and passing it by.

No. Recall that CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT: SPECIAL EDITION's whole raison d'être in the first place was to fill out a CD's capacity with as much material from both albums as possible, with Richard overseeing the marriage of the tracks on the disc.

I probably wasn't too clear--I seemed to recall "Old Fashioned" rather than "Portrait" on the CD at one point. Basically the same CD but with revised packaging. Then again, like I said...fuzzy memory. It's just that I'd never heard of "Old Fashioned" until I thought I'd seen it in a store somewhere, and that was before we had the Corner. I never browsed their LPs in used record shops, so that's not where I'd seen it.

I made my own "Deluxe Edition" out of the 2-CD set that plays so much better than the existing single-disc "Portrait S.E.". It includes all of KC's vocals, Richard's additional piano feature, and fits nicely within 80 minutes. I have no clue where I put it, though...lost in several bins or boxes that will probably remain packed for years now.

I still remember the first time I played "Portrait S.E."...I was aghast at how leaden and sappy the new beginning of the disc was, compared to the sprightly overture of the original album which really set an upbeat mood for the whole set. That soured me on playing the disc beyond that point, and it has remained in its case for the better part of, what, 20+ years now? I probably opened it up a couple of times to extract a few tracks for various compilations over the years, but no, I actually could not tolerate playing it straight through with all the changes...

YMMV, of course.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I did always wonder why Richard chose to open CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT, special edition, with a whole range of music that was not from CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT, the album!

 

[Harry]

I did always wonder why Richard chose to open CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT, special edition, with a whole range of music that was not from CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT, the album!

He was probably really proud of his new work that he'd just done (like a year before) for AN OLD FASHIONED CHRISTMAS and wanted to start off the Special Edition with it to get more folks to hear and appreciate it.

Recall that he has said he was upset at A&M releasing AN OLD FASHIONED CHRISTMAS as a mid-line title since he'd spent so much time and energy on it.

I tend to prefer the first album's opening, as apparently do most here. I do like the SONG "An Old Fashioned Christmas" but not as the centerpiece of an album opener.

Harry

 

[davidgra]

Hi all.

I bought the CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT: SPECIAL EDITION as sound as I found out about it as well -- I bought my first CD player around October of 1984, and among the first CDs I bought were VOICE OF THE HEART and THE SINGLES: 1969-1973.

I wrote to the fan club some time after that, asking if any more titles were expected to be released on CD, and I got a very nice letter back telling me that CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT had already been issued in the new special edition. Of course, I couldn't find it anywhere, despite going to a dozen or so record stores. I ended up having a store place a special order for me, and I had to wait a couple of months to get it. It was some time in 1985 before I actually got the CD.

My pressing has the jewel case with the flat top and bottom (like the jewel cases for VOTH and SINGLES), but my CD has the A&M logo, the AM+ logo, and the other usual logos. The numbers printed around the hub are DIDX 186 11A1.

I did have the CD in my possession when the magazine article was published talking about the flaw in "Ave Maria," because I remember immediately playing the CD to see if I could hear what they had mentioned.

David

 

[KeithH]

My Japan-for-U.S. Christmas Portrait CD is the CBS/Sony pressing. It has "CSR COMPACT DISC" repeating in the plastic ring, and the matrix code is "DIDX-186 11A1". Here is the disc:

I need to find that Denon pressing. It's an odd one by virtue of the missing logos.