🎄 Holidays! Rank the tunes on Herb's CHRISTMAS ALBUM

[Mike Blakesley]

Here's an idea for some Christmas fun. Put the 10 tunes on Herb's CHRISTMAS ALBUM in the order you love'em, with your favorite on top. Explain your choices too!

Mine:

1. My Favorite Things
This is not only my favorite cut on this album, but one of my favorite Herb tracks of all time. I really like the piano break in the middle - it is what turns this non-Christmas song into a Christmas song.

2. Winter Wonderland
The perfect kick-off to the album. Another surprising arrangement the way the melody counters with the trombone line. The first time I heard this, I didn't know it was Winter Wonderland until I looked at the label...but now I almost can't help singing along with it.

3. Jingle Bells
Only complaint here is it's too short. This has great Julius Wechter marimba work and the trombone work is excellent.

4. The Bell That Couldn't Jingle
I'd never heard this before the TJB did it. One of the best parts of this album. It'd be in the top three except for the greatness of the three ahead of it. Herb's "casual" vocal on this is just perfect for the song. This is probably the Herb vocal that has the least amount of trumpet -- no solo, and just about 10 seconds worth of 'accents.'

5. Jingle Bell Rock
To me this is the definitive arrangement of this song. It's got everything that's great about the Tijuana Brass, with a touch of BMB ragtime-style thrown in. A real foot tapper.

6. Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow
I didn't like this when I first heard it, but it's really grown on me over the years. I was expecting an upbeat TJB treatment of this song - but that's how everyone ELSE does it, so why should Herb? Nice Edmondson trombone in this, too.

7. The Christmas Song
When I first heard this I didn't like it, but it's joined my list of favorites because it's so easy to sing along with. Herb sounds totally casual. This is in my top-ten of Alpert vocals.

8. Las Mananitas
I'm torn between this version of this song and the Baja Marimba version - both are excellent. (And supposedly recorded at the same session, just a different mix!) Apparently this isn't really a Christmas song but it fits the season - and the rest of the album - perfectly.

9. Sleigh Ride
The last two are the only ones that I really have a hard time warming up to. Sleigh Ride's vocal intro goes on too long and doesn't fit the song; and the stop/start/tempo change that works so well on My Favorite Things falls flat here. (Just my 2¢, folks!)

10. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
A good album closer, and it's nice to see Herb give a nod to the 'reason for the season.' A nice performance, but is more of a Herb solo track than a band track.

 

[Mr Bill]

Overall, I like the sound of the S!F version over the original. I'm sure that if I played the clean vinyl A&M copy I have I'd probably like that one best of all... Mainly I like the way teh voices come across better than I've heard them before -- particularly the male basses. (There's a nut-load of testosterone in those Shorty Rogers vocal arrangements!)

1 - The Bell That Couldn't Jingle - A fairly uncommon tune, this one could easily have become as uniquely a "Herb Song" as "This Guy..." if it had become a hit and would've been forever associated with him much as "White Christmas" is der Bing-meister's. Alas, it did not happen that way...

2 - Winter Wonderland - I just enjoy the rolicking TJB mood that the band (particularly Nick Ceroli) puts in it. Same for...

3 - Jingle Bell Rock - I only wish they'd out the Something Festive "bell" version on here as a bonus track.

4 - Jesu, Joy Of A Man's Desiring - To some it's nothing more than a scale or arpeggios workout, but to me it's the closest we have to Herb doing a classical tune (though some could say that of "Carmen" off Ninth). As Mike says it closes the album out in style.

5 - Sleigh Ride - We played this in my Junior High Band's Christmas show. I loved it then and I love the Herb version here. Again, the TJB sound fits it well!

6 - Jingle Bells - I like how the TJB made this their own, but much like "Yankee Doodle" off Just You And Me it kind of leaves me wanting more flourish or zing than I got from it...

7 - Let It Snow - I don't dislike it, but it doesn't do much for me. I do love that Bob Edmondson and John Pisano get to stand out a bit on it. Unlike the rest of the album I think the vocals are a little more intrusive.

8 - Las Mananitas - Why recycle a trumpet-heavy BMB tune when another Christmas tune would've meant so much more to the fans? And my hispanic friends tell me this tune is more associated with birthdays or latin "coming of age" celebrations than with Christmas anyway.

Last is a virtual two-way tie for me (these two I almost always hit the 'skip' button on):

9 - The Christmas Song - Even Mel Torme's version irritates me. Of course A&M put my two least favorites back to back on the featured single release from this LP (no no no -- "Bell That Couldn't Jingle" should've been the hit)...

10 - My Favorite Things - Someone please tell me why this is considered a Christmas tune! IIRC this tune doesn't even occur in a winter scene in The Sound Of Music...

--Mr Bill

 

[Dave]

1. My Favorite Things -- My Favorite Cut, too... Especially the Piano Break...--Superb!

2. Winter Wonderland -- Sets the mood for this album as it does for the Winter Season... The special bonus is the bit from "12-Days Of Christmas" thrown in...

3. Sleigh Ride -- I thought this was a fairly "slow" take on a usually moving piece... The Start/Stop/Start tempo works pretty well, too... How neat it was for it to be playing at a recent visit at my Local Supermarket (which was NOT in 1968 when it came out--I wasn't around back then...!)

4. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring -- Herb seems to have concentrated on the Spiritual Aspects of this piece despite it being of a fairly Religious nature and Righteously so... It conveys his Interpretation of the Holidays, --Instrumentally...!!!

5. Jingle Bells -- The most thought-up song 'round this time of year and the Marimba & Trombone parts add that extra dimension...!

6. The Christmas Song -- The "second most..." I would'a liked to have rated this one much higher, especially since it is one of Herb's best vocals... Just too much of a complacency of it being a Holiday song, as opposed to it meant really be heard year 'round like of course something like "This Guy's In Love..." is meant to be...

7. Jingle Bell Rock -- I so much enamor the version by Boobby Helms that I'm not quite used to a TjB version... Guess I miss the lead vocal...

8. The Bell That Couldn't Jingle -- I like this number ('specially the version Burt Bacharach did on the iSomething Festive! set and by Bobby Helms) and it's one I could easily do myself, so that's why it's one I can all but think highly of it being a Herb Alpert & TjB song, let along a "solo Herb"...! "Should'a been a Hit?" Nice try, though...

9. Las Mananitas -- Man, we're getting into one that to be is barely seasonal, 'cept perhaps in Mexico...! It's another I think fits any time of year, though it being "South Of The Border" is included here like it was originally done by The Baja Marimba Band just for its own sake...

10. Let It Snow -- When I heard this track playing in a store a couple of years ago when the CD reissue came out, I did NOT recognize this as being Herb's Christmas Album but something by Ray Conniff or what Percy Faith would do...! I headed straight for the EZ list'nin' section looking for "the source of what was playing" 'til something a lot more familiar from this album came on, then of course I asked about it...! Is this number my LEAST FAV'...?! -- --Yes, it IS...!!!



Dave

 

[seashorepiano]

I agree with you, Mr. Bill. It vexes me how "My Favorite Things" became a "Christmas" song when it has no discernable connection to Christmas outside the mention of gifts... which themselves could refer to a multitude of holidays.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

There are lots of songs that really aren't "Christmas" songs -- they just mention Christmas. Such as Joni Mitchell's "River." Or Dan Fogelberg's "Same Old Lang Syne" or Elton John's "Cold As Christmas."

Then there are lots of other Christmas songs that not only aren't about Christmas, they don't even mention Christmas, ...such as the majority of songs on the Herb Alpert album being discussed here.

 

[Dave]

10. Let It Snow -- When I heard this track playing in a store a couple of years ago when the CD reissue came out, I did NOT recognize this as being Herb's Christmas Album but something by Ray Conniff or what Percy Faith would do...! I headed straight for the EZ list'nin' section looking for "the source of what was playing" 'til something a lot more familiar from this album came on, then of course I asked about it...! Is this number my LEAST FAV'...?! -- --Yes, it IS...!!!



Dave

And much as I'm a fan of Vocal Choruses by those guys, among others, the reason I dislike this track is because it suits them much more than it suits Herb... Funny how my CD sounded when I played these songs in this order...!



Dave

 

[Rudy]

8. Las Mananitas
I'm torn between this version of this song and the Baja Marimba version - both are excellent. (And supposedly recorded at the same session, just a different mix!) Apparently this isn't really a Christmas song but it fits the season - and the rest of the album - perfectly.

Close enough: it's a traditional Mexican birthday song.