davidgra
Active Member
Hi all.
I've been rearranging my playlists on iTunes to switch off anything that falls into the "holiday" genre, and I got to thinking about all the different versions of "White Christmas."
We have:
1978 version from CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT -- segues from "Silver Bells," has almost no reverb on the lead vocal, then segues into "Ave Maria" using an electric piano solo.
1984 version from CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT: THE SPECIAL EDITION -- essentially the same as the 1978 version.
1990 version from FROM THE TOP -- clean start, no segue from "Silver Bells" (as "Silver Bells" isn't on the album), reverb has been added to the lead vocal, and no piano solo at the end, hence, no segue to "Ave Maria." This is the only stand-alone version of the song.
1992 version from CHRISTMAS WITH THE CARPENTERS (Time-Life) -- clean start, as it does not follow "Silver Bells." Reverb on lead vocal. New "electric piano"-sounding solo segue into "Ave Maria" at the end.
1996 version from THE CHRISTMAS COLLECTION -- back to the segue from "Silver Bells," and keeping the reverb on the lead vocal from later mixes. Yet another new piano solo at the end, this time a "real" piano sound, to create the segue into "Ave Maria."
(The version from THE ESSENTIAL COLLECTION box set is the same as the 1990 version on FROM THE TOP.)
So what do you think made Richard want to tinker with this particular track so much? Is it a favorite of his? Most of the CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT tracks have the same mix on the Time-Life CHRISTMAS WITH THE CARPENTERS and on the CHRISTMAS COLLECTION (with the exception of "Merry Christmas Darling"), so what prompted Richard to do additional re-recording for the 1996 version?
David
I've been rearranging my playlists on iTunes to switch off anything that falls into the "holiday" genre, and I got to thinking about all the different versions of "White Christmas."
We have:
1978 version from CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT -- segues from "Silver Bells," has almost no reverb on the lead vocal, then segues into "Ave Maria" using an electric piano solo.
1984 version from CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT: THE SPECIAL EDITION -- essentially the same as the 1978 version.
1990 version from FROM THE TOP -- clean start, no segue from "Silver Bells" (as "Silver Bells" isn't on the album), reverb has been added to the lead vocal, and no piano solo at the end, hence, no segue to "Ave Maria." This is the only stand-alone version of the song.
1992 version from CHRISTMAS WITH THE CARPENTERS (Time-Life) -- clean start, as it does not follow "Silver Bells." Reverb on lead vocal. New "electric piano"-sounding solo segue into "Ave Maria" at the end.
1996 version from THE CHRISTMAS COLLECTION -- back to the segue from "Silver Bells," and keeping the reverb on the lead vocal from later mixes. Yet another new piano solo at the end, this time a "real" piano sound, to create the segue into "Ave Maria."
(The version from THE ESSENTIAL COLLECTION box set is the same as the 1990 version on FROM THE TOP.)
So what do you think made Richard want to tinker with this particular track so much? Is it a favorite of his? Most of the CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT tracks have the same mix on the Time-Life CHRISTMAS WITH THE CARPENTERS and on the CHRISTMAS COLLECTION (with the exception of "Merry Christmas Darling"), so what prompted Richard to do additional re-recording for the 1996 version?
David