Christmas albums to treasure

“I have looked forward to making this record my entire life,” says Michael Bublé in his liner notes to his Christmas album. “Same here,” I say. Well, not my entire life but for several years. Each time I come to the last of the six cuts in his Let It Snow EP during these past Christmases, the thought that enters my mind is, “When on earth is this guy going to make a full-length Christmas CD?”

Let It Snow was so wonderful. But it had only five songs with the sixth a reprise of the title track. Bublé’s phrasing, diction and Rat Pack style so suits every one of them and he seems to be singing with a smile. Truly enjoying himself, so full of charm and the Christmas spirit. Play it every year and you cannot help but long for more. I waited and waited. Then this year it finally happened.

Christmas by Michael Bublé is out in the market and it is everything I imagined it should be. And what do you know, not a single song was compiled from my favorite EP. Christmas is made up of all new recordings with swinging, uplifting arrangements we associate with the season. Sadly, this also meant being without Let It Snow, My Grown Up Christmas List and other songs from the EP. So, I will just play the two CDs one after the other and have more Bublé Christmas music to enjoy.

It is great that his usual collaborators are present to help him put this together. His discoverer David Foster produced and played keyboards for It’s Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas, which beautifully sets the mood; White Christmas, a duet with the much-missed Shania Twain; Holly Jolly Christmas, Ave Maria, I’ll Be Home For Christmas; and one of the best of the lot, Silent Night where a brassy intro makes way for a sweet kids’ chorus.

I like it that he has a male version of the Eartha Kitt standard Santa Baby where he asks for a Rolex instead of sable and of decorations bought from Mercedes instead of Tiffanys. I like how he got Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You all suave and sexy. And nice of him to come up with a new song co-written with Alan Chang and producer Bob Rock in Cold December Night that might soon become a Christmas standard.

Also included in Christmas are Santa Claus Is Coming To Town; a big band Jingle Bells featuring the Puppini Sisters; Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas; a rocking Blue Christmas; two duets with Latina superstar Thalia, Mis Deseos and Feliz Navidad and the one I like best, Christmas (Baby Please Come Home). Bublé did not change much from the Darlene Love original from the ’60s. But because his style is so much his own, the song still came out new and different.

Thanks to his Duets II album, a lot of people including kids who had not bothered listening to him before, are in a Tony Bennett mood. And since we are now all in Christmas mood, I am sure you will love getting hold of the perfect companion CD to Duets II. What else but The Classic Christmas Album by Bennett? This is made up of a whopping 18 songs, that Bennett himself picked out of several previously released Christmas albums.

This is gorgeous Christmas music with well-loved carols like O Come All Ye Faithful, O Little Town Of Bethlehem, Silent Night and Deck The Halls recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra. Bennett, as always, is an impeccable vocalist whether swinging with Count Basie in Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, Silver Bells and I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm, a duet with his daughter Antonia Bennett or waxing sentimental in the ballads Christmas In Herald Square and White Christmas.

The Classic Christmas Album by Bennett also has My Favorite Things, Christmas Time Is Here, The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire), Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, I Love The Winter Weather, I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm, I’ll Be Home For Christmas, What Child Is This, Winter Wonderland and The First Noel, a duet with opera legend Placido Domingo.

I listen and I like what I hear and I think. Wouldn’t a Bennett duet Christmas album be great for next year.