🎄 Holidays! THE OFFICIAL REVIEW: "CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT" SP-4726

How Would You Rate This Album?

  • ***** (BEST)

    Votes: 26 81.3%

  • ****

    Votes: 4 12.5%

  • ***

    Votes: 2 6.3%

  • **

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • *

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    32
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Last week Rolling Stone listed The Christmas Collection at #16 on its "Greatest Christmas Albums of All Time". Below is their capsule review (complete with factual error). The more things change...

The Carpenters moved a million copies of 1978's Christmas Portrait. It's been doing pitched battle with Anne Murray's Christmas Album for suburban white-bread dominance in "Honey, a new Volvo! You shouldn't have!" Land ever since. The expanded, two-disc 1984 version is a veritable schmaltz blizzard of vaguely terrifying good cheer. It's almost like Christmas was invented for Karen Carpenter to sing about; her milk-bath vocals fit "Sleigh Ride" and "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve" like a reindeer sweater. Richard's soft-rock production and gloppy orchestral arrangements aren't bad either – a kind of warmed-over, sunken-den-Seventies version of Forties merriment.


Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/the-25-greatest-christmas-albums-of-all-time-20121219/carpenters-christmas-collection-1984-19691231#ixzz2Fmv6BXx9
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook
 
I am certain that many among us are currently enjoying Portrait and An Old-Fashioned Christmas. Let the magic of this treasured music, which unites us here, bring us joy as we experience the wonder of the holiday season and the hope of the New Year... My best wishes to all of you!

James
 
Song4uman said:
A Christmas compilation put together by Randy.


jonathan
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That's awesome, and not even a complete representation of all the performances from the TV specials, etc. Just goes to show that, if he would, Richard could put out one great Christmas DVD minus all the corny skits he doesn't like. There really should have been a companion DVD when Christmas Collection was realeased much like they did with Yesterday Once More.
 
newvillefan said:
I always hated how they abandoned the official logo for this album....
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Hmmm - I dunno about that... I rather liked the "Saturday Evening Post" graphics - matching the Norman Rockwell-esque painting... Classic - and timeless. Goes along with the music inside. Was the regular logo on the album label? I cannot remember!
 
I had to hunt for this thread.
Is it possible to sticky both Holiday Christmas Albums to the top at least till Christmas?

I recently purchased a white label promo LP for the album Christmas Portrait. I still have my original but it's been played so much the past 30 yrs, it was time to get another and I always wanted a WLP. This one is mint, sounds very rich and warm. I noticed a few things:

My original LP is SP-3210 and I know I bought it at a local record store in the mall back then, the cover is made from a heavy cardboard and has a very white background on the cover. It seems after 30 yrs, the inner sleeve is gone, I can't figure for the life of me what happened to it since it's not like me to lose something like that.

This WLP is SP-4726, the cover is made of a much thinner cardboard and the background less white (maybe it's just aged with time) It has the promo sticker on the front and clean labels. This one came with the inner liner sleeve w/ lyrics which is also noted as SP-4726.

I know both these catalog #'s were released in 78 but which was pressed first, the 3210 or the 4726, why use 2 different #'s for the same album released at the same time?

...listening to Christmas Portrait for the first time this season...
 
My LP copy has the SP-4726. As far as I know, that was the originating catalog number for CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT and the 3210 was a reissue in the '80s. I think the story goes that A&M did some catalog reorganizing in the '80s, dropped a lot of albums from print and started up the 3000 series, reassigning the remaining in-print albums. CDs came along in the '80s and many adopted these new 3000 series numbers.

Harry
 
Thanks. That's interesting....I must have thought it was the first pressing when I got it at my record store (back then I really wouldn't have known any different)....you would think lower # means first pressing. So then this WLP I just got is the first pressing and my other is a re-issue.
 
I need to get a WLP of that one also. Can't recall if I have the first pressing run or not--I bought it within a couple of months of when it came out. I imagine WLPs are now hard to find for any of their earlier titles...
 
mstaft said:
Another example of rock critics appreciating their talent and the end product all the while slamming them.
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Rolling Stone has always been stocked with pretentious rock snobs (with a handy thesaurus nearby so they can use all them fancy words). :agree:
 
A&M-4762 is definitely the 1978 first issue of 'Christmas Portrait'. The 3000 reissue came out in the '80's with its own number actually printed on the cover. However, many other titles were simply reshipped to record stores with a sticker affixed that displayed the new catalog number. Doing so effectively covered the old one on the cover and spine. Carpenters examples are 'Passage' and 'A Kind Of Hush'.
 
http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/TheCarpenters/conversations/messages/23121

That's something that's starting to bug me... "the original master tapes are damaged"... that sure as hell didn't stop the HORRIFIC '30th Anniversary Remasters' from happening. A KIND OF HUSH and PASSAGE sounded like they came from bad 8-track cartridges.

What some of you may not know, every album that's recorded, of course has a master tape, but that master is generally duplicated once for every country/territory for which it's to be released.

I can't imagine someone like Richard Carpenter not being able to lay hands on a duplicate master from SOMEWHERE. It makes no sense. If West Germany can roll out a CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT that sounds better than my original LP (and it does, BTW), and the UK can crank out an un-remixed PASSAGE that sounds like it was recorded an hour ago, there's no reason Mr. Carpenter should keep having such alleged problems.
Click to expand...
 
It's really been fun to start this holiday season with my new purchase of the WLP SP-4726 LP, I have ripped it and have been playing it quiet a bit, sounds amazing. I still think the German Pressing of CP is the best digital CD out there and it's the one I always grab as the season gets into swing. However, this year I'll be giving the WLP LP more listening attention, I've been wanting a WLP of this LP for so long that this was the year to obtain it for my collection. For some reason...hearing it on vinyl just takes me back in time, a surreal experience.
 
Simply the best. And perhaps my favorite album cover. I love the nod to the Rockwell inspired Saturday Evening Post cover... One moment - better then the last - and each song a masterpiece. Perfection.
 
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