This was an album my Mom and Dad had and used to be played only on Christmas Day (of course !). My Mom has always been a big Johnny Mathis fan and the guy has a voice as smooth as silk and as rich as Mansa Musa (Google it).

The first track on Side 1 is “The Sounds Of Christmas” and that’s exactly what this LP is, this is what Christmas sounds like to me and has since I was a kid. Finding my very own copy in a charity shop a few years ago for 99p was a good day. There are Xmas classics like “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”, “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer” and “Let It Snow ! Let It Snow ! Let It Snow !” alongside some lesser known festive tunes, Bing Crosby’s “The Secret Of Christmas” and “Christmas Is A Feeling In Your Heart” plus some traditional songs like “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”. Johnny even has a crack at Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” !

Snigger all you like, I don’t care. This is the first thing that gets played in our house on Christmas morning, I have a few others as you’ve discovered but this is always first, and long may it continue.

The Sounds Of Christmas - https://youtu.be/Z8Mr3A4mPiQ?si=4FWmuXbGXcDYJw3j

As you may have noted following the last two blog posts and are surely about to realise with this one, my Christmas album collection, outside of one record, has a theme…coloured vinyl. This one is on Blue vinyl, a not very exciting shade of dull navy blue granted, but if you aren’t familiar with my penchant for coloured vinyl by now then you can’t have been paying very close attention for the past year.

It also helps that it’s a bloody great record regardless of the Christmas theme. It was originally released in 1963 under the title “A Christmas Gift For You From Philles Records”, Philles being the record company formed by Phil Spector and Les Sill in 1961, but these days is most commonly known as “Phil Spector’s Christmas Album”. It consists of the Philles artists of the time (Darlene Love, The Ronettes, Bob B Soxx & The Blue Jeans and The Crystals) belting out a selection of Christmas standards all supported by Spector’s patented “wall of sound” production.

You get “White Christmas”, “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”, “Frosty The Snowman”, “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”, “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer”, “Winter Wonderland” etc. etc. and it all ends on an excruciatingly cheesy (American) “Silent Night”. Cher sings (uncredited) backing vocals throughout and the Beach Boys Brian Wilson played piano on “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”…but his performance was so bad it wasn’t included.

Special mention has to be made of the one song written for this record, Darlene Love’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”. It’s an absolute banger and unbelievably, on first release as a single in 1963 and again in 1964, it didn’t chart, not doing so for the first time until 2018 ! That tells you everything you need to know about the great record buying public, deaf as gate posts the lot of em !! Thankfully it’s now regarded as a Christmas standard.

Yes, Spector indelibly marked his copy book eventually but Christmas just wouldn’t seem like Christmas without this.

Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - https://youtu.be/4EvZOXEoJ84?si=2mLhJ1mCzUjD9rYa

…and again, Christmas songs played by a rock & roll, boogie woogie big band this time pressed on lush red and white splatter vinyl…we’ve been here before haven’t we ?

Mr Setzer and his Orchestra’s second volume of boogie-woogie-fied Xmas tunes follows the same formula as the first. It’s a selection of Christmas standards (“White Christmas”, “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”, “Jingle Bell Rock” still getting the picture ?) sprinkled with 3 Setzer originals, his “Santa Drives A Hot Rod” is pretty cool. Some of the selections this time are less obvious which makes it a little more interesting as Xmas albums go.

I gotta point out that both of these albums have fantastic artwork, all very early 60’s comic book style, think The Jetsons and there you have it. This one finishes with a look forward to the New Year too…which is nice…

Santa Drives A Hot Rod - https://youtu.be/ZFoiN_qtPQQ?si=4GBJ6Ooq8usNHclc