🎄 Holidays! Really? Another ¡SOMETHING FESTIVE! thread?

[Harry]

For the past twenty-five or so years on this forum, we've trotted out a nearly annual ¡SOMETHING FESTIVE! thread, that funny little 10-track holiday compilation album that A&M released back in 1968. Initially, it was supposed to be a limited edition release through B.F. Goodrich Tires, but it continues to be plentiful and easily found today, even in still-sealed packages. Because of contracts and rights and legalese, it's never seen release in a CD or digital format, though a number of tracks have, in one form or another.

One could spend a good chunk of time exploring our annual threads to this album. Here are some of the more recent:

🎄 Holidays! - Our Nearly Annual ¡SOMETHING FESTIVE! Thread

The little tire-store LP that we never "tire" of. :) Over on Discogs, there are 11 different variations/pressings of ¡SOMETHING FESTIVE!. I thought it might be interesting to see which ones we all have. 1. My original 1968 copy that actually came from a BF Goodrich store in Ardmore, PA is...

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🎄 Holidays! - ¡Something Festive! (A&M SP-19003)

It's December - time to start hauling out the Christmas music. And around these parts, that means: ¡SOMETHING FESTIVE! (A&M SP-19003) in conjunction with B.F.Goodrich I thought it was interesting to look this album up on Amazon.com. It's never had an official CD release, and yet a...

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🎄 Holidays! - Something Festive for the holidays!

From our own site: “¡Something Festive!” for the Holidays! The "expanded" ¡Something Festive!

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🎄 Holidays! - ¡SOMETHING FESTIVE! - 2014 Thread

¡SOMETHING FESTIVE! Various Artists A&M SP 19003 Herb Alpert & The TJB: Winter Wonderland (same as the TJB's album version, except the choral introduction is edited off) Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66: The Christmas Song (never released on a Brasil '66 album) Liza Minnelli: Raggedy Ann and...

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

SOMETHING FESTIVE Various Artists A&M SP 19003 Herb Alpert & The TJB: Winter Wonderland (same as the TJB's album version, except the choral introduction is edited off) Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66: The Christmas Song (never released on a Brasil '66 album) Liza Minnelli: Raggedy Ann and...

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🎵 AotW Classics - ¡SOMETHING FESTIVE! - Various Artists (SP 19003)

¡SOMETHING FESTIVE! Various Artists 10 OUTSTANDING SELECTIONS FROM A&M RECORDS! A&M SP 19003 LIMITED EDITION from B.F.Goodrich Herb Alpert & The TJB: Winter Wonderland (2:26) Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66: The Christmas Song (3:54) Liza Minnelli: Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy (3:33) Julius Wechter...

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The 2008 SOMETHING FESTIVE thread

SOMETHING FESTIVE Various Artists A&M SP 19003 Herb Alpert & The TJB: Winter Wonderland (same as the TJB's album version, except the choral introduction is edited off) Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66: The Christmas Song (never released on a Brasil '66 album) Liza Minnelli: Raggedy Ann and...

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As I listened to the album this afternoon, I thought of a few things that I don't think I've posted about in the many prior threads.

- Has anyone ever come across a white-label promo of the album? I suppose since it was a retail release through B.F. Goodrich, it probably wasn't promoted to radio.

- Has anyone ever come across a mono version of the album? Discogs lists a Brazil release that claims to be mono, but it either really isn't, or it was just folded down from stereo.

- I ran across a blog today about the song "The Bell That Couldn't Jingle" from about 2020, where the song appears to be rather unknown in spite of it having been performed by both Herb Alpert and Burt Bacharach. Once heard though, the reaction seemed favorable.

- Which songs are the toughest to find anywhere else? The Baja Marimba Band's "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" is really obscure. Burt's version of his song isn't found too many places. Pete Jolly's tune shows up on a few CD compilations but I believe is always a needledrop. Sergio's "The Christmas Song" is rarely found in its original state. It seems that after the Shout! reissue on a comp called YULESVILLE where the song was artificially and badly edited to a longer version, it's appeared that way since. If you find it listed over 4 minutes, it's the altered version. If it's under 4, it's likely the original length, but again, most of these reissues tend to be needledrops.

Some of the obvious things that are probably noted in the above threads are:

- The two Herb Alpert Tijuana Brass tracks are slightly altered from their appearance on CHRISTMAS ALBUM, with Shorty Rogers choral part omitted from "Winter Wonderland" and the tinkly bells put in place of a marimba part on "Jingle Bell Rock" making that one a unique mix.

- Liza, Claudine, and We Five have all had proper digital releases over the years.

- Our fearless leader Rudy has put the whole album up on YouTube with expansions from other holiday tracks from A&M.

So what makes this little album such a special occasion each year? It's almost always the first thing I reach for post-Thanksgiving when I start playing Christmas music - and it always delights - even when "de weend blows thwoo de twees"

 

[Rudy]

and it always delights - even when "de weend blows thwoo de twees"

My annual seal of approval.

 

[Rudy]

The video of an "extended" version of the album I made many years ago, adding a handful of tracks that appeared on other A&M albums in the same era.



I had planned to redo this with newer, better sources and equipment but due to my schedule this year, I have no spare time to do it in. I think I have most of the sources I need (including one that arrived a year ago that I haven't cleaned yet), but am awaiting another change in cartridge for the turntable and the time to properly set it up. As it is, the status of this video is shaky--if I edit the video description in anyway, YouTube flags it for copyright and blocks it. So even if I did upload a new one, chances are it may not even show up!

The video above has so many nice comments from people who heard this in the 60s and 70s and haven't discovered it since! Seems we're not the only ones who have fond memories of this record!

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Too bad about those "rights" issues -- a collection of Family Portrait, Music Box, and ¡Something Festive! would make a nice little box set.

My own personal holiday kickoff tradtion is to play at least one track from the TJB Christmas album. I usually wind up listening to the whole thing, but this year it was just "My Favorite Things" because I was on a time crunch.

 

[Harry]

a collection of Family Portrait, Music Box, and ¡Something Festive! would make a nice little box set.

Don't forget the A&M Million Dollar Sound Sampler!

 

[Bobberman]

Don't forget the A&M Million Dollar Sound Sampler!

"The one that Started it all" ( as far as these kind of compilations Are Concerned)

 

[rockdoctor]

Other than 3 spoof Christmas songs by P.D.Q. Bach, The only Christmas lp's that I have are Herb Alpert Christmas Album and Something Festive. Both get played a few times over the season. The latter is so much fun with all the different artists and I do not hear them on the radio when Christmas music is being played.

 

[Harry]

One of the other compilations out there that contains Sergio's "The Christmas Song" in its track list is from Germany called CHRISTMAS RARITIES. An oddity is the fact that they sort of stumbled onto an accurate accounting of the artists, Sergio Mendes & Lani Hall. From what I recall, the track had been hastily thrown together and the only member of Brasil '66 involved was Lani. So Sergio provided the piano, Lani sang, and I suppose Dave Grusin did the rest.

This is one of the comps that likely has the lengthened version with the bad loop in the middle. (I don't own it.)

 

[Mike Blakesley]

To me Sergio "Christmas Song" sounds like it was recorded around the same time as the Crystal Illusions album. The production style and Lani's vocal style matches up along with the release year, at least.

 

[jfiedler17]

Still easily one of my five favorite holiday albums of all-time, if not possibly even my Number One choice. [Johnny Mathis' first Christmas album is right up there for me as well. That one's admittedly a bit more traditionally Christmas-sounding in its arrangements, though, i.e. the sleigh bells, pizzicato strings, etc., so it's a bit hard to compare the two albums.]
I think it's really worked immensely to Something Festive!'s advantage that it doesn't seem to get any radio play this time of year. Too much airplay has ruined a lot of holiday songs for me that I used to enjoy, and there are few songs in high rotation on FM radio at Christmastime that I can still appreciate at this point (Carpenters and Nat King Cole are both special exceptions, however - they've both held up remarkably well over the years in spite of the saturation - now if only one of them landed at the top of the pop charts each Christmas a la Mariah's "All I Want ...," which I don't care if I ever hear again at this point ). Everything on Something Festive! still sounds fresh, though. You're not terribly likely to hear the likes of, say, "Snow" or "The Bell That Couldn't Jingle" - by ANY artist, actually - on holiday radio, unless maybe you're listening to SiriusXM, and even though you hear, say, "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting) ...." or "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" countless hundreds of times each year, you don't hear them performed anything like the way that Brasil '66 or Pete Jolly do them, so they still sound remarkably fresh and not at all tiresome. [Jolly's recording in particular, while having a completely different vibe from the more famous Andy Williams version, is actually the more relaxing and arguably warmer rendition of the two and makes for the much better listen at home..]

 

[rockdoctor]

Still easily one of my five favorite holiday albums of all-time, if not possibly even my Number One choice. [Johnny Mathis' first Christmas album is right up there for me as well. That one's admittedly a bit more traditionally Christmas-sounding in its arrangements, though, i.e. the sleigh bells, pizzicato strings, etc., so it's a bit hard to compare the two albums.]
I think it's really worked immensely to Something Festive!'s advantage that it doesn't seem to get any radio play this time of year. Too much airplay has ruined a lot of holiday songs for me that I used to enjoy, and there are few songs in high rotation on FM radio at Christmastime that I can still appreciate at this point (Carpenters and Nat King Cole are both special exceptions, however - they've both held up remarkably well over the years in spite of the saturation - now if only one of them landed at the top of the pop charts each Christmas a la Mariah's "All I Want ...," which I don't care if I ever hear again at this point ). Everything on Something Festive! still sounds fresh, though. You're not terribly likely to hear the likes of, say, "Snow" or "The Bell That Couldn't Jingle" - by ANY artist, actually - on holiday radio, unless maybe you're listening to SiriusXM, and even though you hear, say, "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting) ...." or "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" countless hundreds of times each year, you don't hear them performed anything like the way that Brasil '66 or Pete Jolly do them, so they still sound remarkably fresh and not at all tiresome. [Jolly's recording in particular, while having a completely different vibe from the more famous Andy Williams version, is actually the more relaxing and arguably warmer rendition of the two and makes for the much better listen at home..]

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year has been used in Clariten allergy medicine ads over the past year so much that I mute the TV or change the channel when the ad is on. I do not look forward to hearing it this Christmas Season.

 

[Harry]

While riding around at the lunch hour today with the radio on, I actually heard a commercial for B.F. Goodrich Tires. I'm one of the few who would find something festive in that!

From what I understand, the Goodrich company long ago sold off its tire division to Michelin, but I guess they kept the name as a brand. The rest of the company is now in the aerospace industry.

 

[Rudy]

Yeah, there's been a lot of consolidation. There are only two types of tires I won't buy. 1) Anything related to Firestone (which includes Bridgestone). 2) Any of the cheap hordes of generic chinese tires flooding into our markets now. I'm no Michelin fan (I got tired of paying the Michelin Tax), but it's nice knowing BFG is in good hands. Their tires are well regarded in offroading these days.

 

[RichardWarner]

To me Sergio "Christmas Song" sounds like it was recorded around the same time as the Crystal Illusions album. The production style and Lani's vocal style matches up along with the release year, at least.

Love the feel of this cut. I thought it was arranged by Dick Hazard and recorded along the time of "Look Around."

Also love Pete Jolly's contribution. They could have kept going another several bars. It really cooks.

 

[Harry]

My fading memory tells me that Sergio's track fell right in between LOOK AROUND and FOOL ON THE HILL. That might account for the fact that it was just Sergio and Lani as the old group had just been let go and the new one might not have come aboard yet. Makes sense to me timewise, anyway.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

To me the clue is the Grusin orchestration. It sounds quite a bit like the ones from Crystal Illusions.

 

[Rudy]

My fading memory tells me that Sergio's track fell right in between LOOK AROUND and FOOL ON THE HILL. That might account for the fact that it was just Sergio and Lani as the old group had just been let go and the new one might not have come aboard yet. Makes sense to me timewise, anyway.

There is a percussion part present (congas, I believe) so that could either be one of the new B66 guys (probably Rubens Bassini), or just an unnamed studio musician. Sergio prior to B66 had worked with many musicians like Tiao Neto, so it's natural they would all be part of his sphere and ready to participate as needed.

One interesting thing I realized later on in life is that the group in the 2nd B66 were already well known and active in Brazilian music (Bassini, Neto and especially Romao were all very well known in Brazil at the time, Romao even having worked as Jobim's drummer for a while), where the original B66's musicians were lesser known. Almost like Sergio built a "dream team" of musicians to back him.

Also love Pete Jolly's contribution. They could have kept going another several bars. It really cooks.

In a live gig, he probably would have cooked for a good ten minutes with that tune. I could do without the added orchestration and vocals though, but it does give it the song a similar feel to the TJB's Xmas album. It's uncredited, but I wonder if Shorty Rogers did the vocal arrangement for that song.

 

[Harry]

Here's someone reviewing SOMETHING FESTIVE on YouTube. His handle there is garyzephed; I don't know if he's a member here or not. The audio from his selections sound somewhat scratchy, but the cover he shows is pristine.

 

[rockdoctor]

There is a percussion part present (congas, I believe) so that could either be one of the new B66 guys (probably Rubens Bassini), or just an unnamed studio musician. Sergio prior to B66 had worked with many musicians like Tiao Neto, so it's natural they would all be part of his sphere and ready to participate as needed.

One interesting thing I realized later on in life is that the group in the 2nd B66 were already well known and active in Brazilian music (Bassini, Neto and especially Romao were all very well known in Brazil at the time, Romao even having worked as Jobim's drummer for a while), where the original B66's musicians were lesser known. Almost like Sergio built a "dream team" of musicians to back him.


In a live gig, he probably would have cooked for a good ten minutes with that tune. I could do without the added orchestration and vocals though, but it does give it the song a similar feel to the TJB's Xmas album. It's uncredited, but I wonder if Shorty Rogers did the vocal arrangement for that song.

It seems to me that two of the three that came in for Fool On The Hill and the next two followup albums had previously worked with Mendes as part of The Sergio Mendes trio.

 

[Rudy]

Tiao Neto did work with Mendes from the early days in the Trio (and I believe, even prior to that), but Chico Batera I don't recall seeing on any Mendes albums past the trio. But paths had crossed quite a few times so it's no surprise the second Brasil 66 had its ace rhythm section. It would take some research to figure out who Mendes worked with on various gigs and albums. I would think it to be quite a cross-section of well-known Brazilian names!

 

[rockdoctor]

Tiao Neto did work with Mendes from the early days in the Trio (and I believe, even prior to that), but Chico Batera I don't recall seeing on any Mendes albums past the trio. But paths had crossed quite a few times so it's no surprise the second Brasil 66 had its ace rhythm section. It would take some research to figure out who Mendes worked with on various gigs and albums. I would think it to be quite a cross-section of well-known Brazilian names!

I have two of the Atlantic albums that Sergio Mendes had with them-Great Arrival and Favorite Things. The former does not list personnel other than arrangers. The latter does(1968) and Dom Um Romao is listed for drums. I think he was from Trio but I am not 100% sure on that. John Pisano was also listed with Dave Grusin as arranger so this was probably recorded about the same time as Fool On The Hill. Great Arrival does not have a copyright date on the cover. It does have Dick Hazard as an arranger so I guess it is from prior to Look Around. Ironically, though I bought them over 35 years apart, they have the same inner sleeve that was probably from their original release time. Both have Swinger From Rio and In Person At El Matador listed.
Two prominent Brazilian artists listed on Favorite things are Moacir Santos and Joao Donato.

 

[Harry]

I've actually appropriated the song "My Favorite Things" from that Atlantic disc. It adds another "Christmas" tune to his limited library.

 

[rockdoctor]

To me the clue is the Grusin orchestration. It sounds quite a bit like the ones from Crystal Illusions.

The orchestration for Raggedy Ann and Andy does have a moment that sounds like a similar point from When Summer Turns To Snow by Dave Grusin so he might be the arranger for that selection. The strings for Christmas Song sound a bit more subdued to me as in Like a Lover. For other songs, maybe Shorty Rogers or even Nick DeCaro may have done some of them.

 

[rockdoctor]

My fading memory tells me that Sergio's track fell right in between LOOK AROUND and FOOL ON THE HILL. That might account for the fact that it was just Sergio and Lani as the old group had just been let go and the new one might not have come aboard yet. Makes sense to me timewise, anyway.

Your timeline sounds about right. I hear the guitar in the track that makes me think of John Pisano and he was there right through Fool On The Hill.

 

[Harry]

"Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy" was arranged by Dick Hazard if I'm reading this cover correctly: