šŸŽ„ Holidays! THE OFFICIAL REVIEW: [Album] "AN OLD-FASHIONED CHRISTMAS" SP-9107

How Would You Rate This Album?

  • ***** (BEST)

    Votes: 13 22.4%
  • ****

    Votes: 28 48.3%
  • ***

    Votes: 15 25.9%
  • **

    Votes: 1 1.7%
  • *

    Votes: 1 1.7%

  • Total voters
    58
Hard to believe itā€™s almost that time of year! I was thinking that we had just passed Old-Fashionedā€™s anniversary, but itā€™s anniversary is on the 26.
 
Iā€™m just listening to ā€œHoly Nightā€ on the DVD ā€œCarpenters Christmas Memoriesā€ and I noticed that Richardā€™s piano, and even towards the end the backing instruments are different from whatā€™s on AOFC.
 
I was in the Carpenters' fan club, and had no clue about An Old Fashioned Christmas being released. I was looking through Christmas LP's at Musicland and found it, at first I thought it was a re-issue of A Christmas portrait, but once I took a better look, I found out it was a "new" LP! Took it home and played it at once even though it was still late November! I loved it and am thankful for this Carpenters Christmas treasure. Christmas isn't Christmas without the Carpenters!
 
My memory matches Richard's.
1. The album was a midline release with a 5.98 list price (other new albums at this time were 8.98 or 9.98).
2. The only reason I knew this album was released was by reading Billboard. Otherwise, I would have known nothing about it.

The album ultimately sold well because it is a phenomenal album. As I mentioned in an earlier post, it's one of the best albums released after 1980 by any artist in any genre. And I should mention that I am a huge fan of music in general, not just the Carpenters. I have been a music critic for since writing album reviews for my high school paper in the 70's. I have a massive music collection that spans from country to rock to r&b, & even rap. When I noticed 8 people rated this album under 4 stars, it was the most disturbing thing I have encountered on this board.
I paid $7.99 for my original copy in 1984
 
For the AOTW series there are no albums corresponding to SP 5169, 5170 or 5171. 'OLD FASHIONED CHRISTMAS' is discussed here (5172), and the next item is SP 5173, 'CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT SPECIAL EDITION' from 1987. From this point I plan to move forward to '5174' next week.

JB
 
For the AOTW series there are no albums corresponding to SP 5169, 5170 or 5171. 'OLD FASHIONED CHRISTMAS' is discussed here (5172), and the next item is SP 5173, 'CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT SPECIAL EDITION' from 1987. From this point I plan to move forward to '5174' next week.

JB
Wasnā€™t CPSE released in 84 at the same time as AOFC?
 
Iā€™m just listening to ā€œHoly Nightā€ on the DVD ā€œCarpenters Christmas Memoriesā€ and I noticed that Richardā€™s piano, and even towards the end the backing instruments are different from whatā€™s on AOFC.
Tom, Richard re-recorded a lot of the stuff that was featured in the TV specials. The instrumentals were recorded at Abby Road in London, England. Kinda neat with The Beatles connection
 
Tom, Richard re-recorded a lot of the stuff that was featured in the TV specials. The instrumentals were recorded at Abby Road in London, England. Kinda neat with The Beatles connection

The previous poster wasnā€™t comparing the DVD version with the TV special, they were comparing it with the version on the 1984 album. Iā€™ve not done a back to back comparison but if they are different does that mean itā€™s been tinkered with again since 1984?
 
Tom, Richard re-recorded a lot of the stuff that was featured in the TV specials. The instrumentals were recorded at Abby Road in London, England. Kinda neat with The Beatles connection
He may have done that, but the original special was in mono, whereas the DVD is in stereo. The only prior stereo mix was the AOFC, and when you listen to the DVD, Richard used the AOFC mix of ā€œSanta Claus Is Coming To Townā€, while the 1974 mono mix showed up on the Perry Como DVD.
 
Upon further listening, it sounds like the special mightā€™ve had ā€œO Holy Nightā€ recorded right to videotape, in 2-Channel mono, where Richardā€™s piano was on track 2 and the orchestra was on track 1 (I remember being taught this in college with linear editing, put your most important stuff on 2, such as the reporters voice, because that was the inside track, whereas 1 was the outside track, which was recorded on the very edge of the tape, and if something happened that caused the tape to get damaged there, then you would only loose or have damage to your sound effects and other non-important audio), and it on the DVD it sounds like Richard has tried to mix the AOFC orchestra in to give that stereo sound, while retaining his original mono piano, and some of the mono orchestra. This remix of ā€œO Holy Nightā€ is exclusive to the DVD, as itā€™s not on any CD.
 
on the DVD it sounds like Richard has tried to mix the AOFC orchestra in to give that stereo sound, while retaining his original mono piano, and some of the mono orchestra.

If this is the case, it begs the question: why bother go to all this effort? The AOFC mix was readily available to superimpose onto the DVD clip.
 
I was just watching the DVD. Richard plays the piano more forcefully in one section of ā€œO Holy Nightā€, which is different from the 84 piano. (Although the 77 piano track contains a lot of tape hiss, which it seems Richard was able to drown out when the orchestra plays with the stereo mix, but when itā€™s just the piano it is very noisy, even for a mono recording. Iā€™m not to sure why he wasnā€™t able to use a digital filter to try and lower the hiss.).

But the DVD needs itā€™s own page on the resource, because it got a lot of remixes that have appeared nowhere else (even the Winter Wonderland/Silver Bells/White Christmas medley is a different edit as parts of the interludes between songs are missing things that are on the CDS, and White Christmas is missing the first verse).

(Just watched ā€œAve Mariaā€ and itā€™s the Christmas Portrait original version with no choir).
 
Last edited:
I took the DVD and made a whole complete audio recording including all the speaking parts giving them their own track when the speaking part didn't blend into the next track. I ended up with 17 tracks. I agree some of these are only found here and it's great DVD but also makes for an excellent audio CD.

I imported it into my iTunes library giving it album artwork, love listening to this each season.
 
From Bing to Curly, ā€œSamā€™s Loungeā€ has the spirit of Christmas

From Bing to Curly, ā€œSamā€™s Loungeā€ has the spirit of Christmas


"If, by any chance, you have never heard the Three Stooges warble ā€œAll I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teethā€ or Karen Carpenter sing ā€œSanta Claus is Coming to Townā€ and never gazed upon the accompanying record album cover artwork, this is your time to do so......"
"And then I asked Goldenberg to name his all-time favorite Christmas song.
He thought for only a moment, then said: ā€œItā€™s ā€˜Santa Claus is Coming to Townā€™ by the Carpenters.
The 1984 re-mix by Richard (Carpenter). Itā€™s fantastic, powerful.ā€
He found the album and cued up that song. We were experiencing a holy New Haven moment: sipping the wine Goldenberg had thoughtfully provided, hearing the angelic voice that came out of the Elm City all those years ago.
ā€œThis is a great, great song!ā€ Goldenberg said. ā€œListen to her voice.
Richard slowed it down and orchestrated it, expanded it. Itā€™s perfect.ā€
 
Ironically itā€™s in my car CD player right now. I listened to Christmas Portrait the day before. Just had to listen to them since my West German cd of CP was in the mail today. It was great to hear the original Ave Maria sans the choir on disc this morning for the first time, without getting out my vinyl. Another piece of history for my collection.
 
I loved the new Karen tracks! They are mixed so well and she never sounded better. I could have done without all the orchestral medley and I never listen to it. Itā€™s not as magical as the one in Christmas Portrait!
 
I just remember listening to side A and being disappointed and wondering if Karen would ever put in an appearance. The album is made up of far too much filler. It was said by Richard and Karen that they recorded enough tracks for two Christmas albums, but I disagree; take away the filler and this is only about half an album. I get that he was trying to create another concept Christmas album, and the sequencing flows nicely enough but with all the instrumentals, the momentum is regularly broken - unlike with Christmas Portrait. That said, it was very nice to finally get it on CD as part of the Christmas Collection.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom