The classic Christmas albums

Writing this column these past many years has given me something extra special to look forward to come Christmastime. These are the new Christmas albums. I have realized that I now recall particular Christmases in relation to what great Christmas album came out that year. And as the years pass, I take out those CDs, cassette tapes or LPs again and I play them and I remember the Christmas of that year.

This is why I remember that I bought my first CD in 1990 and it was O Holy Night by Luciano Pavarotti. 1993 was the year of the David Foster Christmas Album. 2012 was Merry Christmas Baby by Rod Stewart and Going Home To Christmas by Jose Mari Chan. The year before that belonged to Michael Bublé Christmas. 2010 marked the release of the first Christmas album by the cast of the TV show Glee. I do not know how it will feel to play the Glee CD so soon after the death of star Cory Monteith. 

This year, I am looking forward to getting three really exciting Christmas albums by fantastic singing females. These are Wrapped In Red by Kelly Clarkson, Home For Christmas by Susan Boyle and A Mary Christmas by Mary J. Blige. I might download a few songs from these CDs to make my deadlines if they don’t come on time. But you can bet I would still want to have the CD copies to be able to take out again and again year after year and remember.

Now, while waiting for 2013’s Christmas cache, I decided to give a listen to a batch of great Holiday albums from Sony Music’s The Classic Christmas Album series. This collection is made up of recordings by the biggest names from the label. And when you say Sony, that also means Columbia, which was established over a hundred years ago.

That really means big, as in Barbra Streisand, Bob Dylan down to Mariah Carey, Alicia Keys and Kings of Leon, plus of course, those from acquired labels like Barry Manilow and Kenny G from Arista. The CDs are mostly repackaged compilations of early recordings but all of them are true classics, produced by the best in the business and performed by the biggest stars.

If I remember it right, the series started in 2011. That was when I got the jazzy Classic Christmas album by the great Tony Bennett with the surprising inclusion of the standard, Violets For Your Furs. I do not know if violets bloom in winter but furs come out when the weather is cold, which can mean the Christmas months. Besides, it is a nice love song.

This was followed by the Elvis Presley, John Denver, Kenny G and Barry Manilow CDs last year. And now that it is once again the Christmas season, I was glad to find out that more albums have been released. And what an excellent batch, 2013’s harvest turned out to be with albums by Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond and Andy Williams.

Andy Williams. Nobody sang Christmas carols like the late Andy. He had such a happy lilt to his voice that makes the joyful doubly joyous. Can you think of any recording that best captures the joy of the Christmas Season better than Andy’s It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year? You hear the song and you feel like smiling at everybody. It simply makes you want to dance and burst into song in celebration. 

It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year closes Andy’s Christmas set. Before that, he alternates between recent carols like Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!, The Christmas Song, Winter Wonderland, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, The Little Drummer Boy and the traditional favorites, Silent Night, Joy To The World, O Little Town Of Bethlehem, What Child Is This, Angels We Have Heard On High, O Holy Night and a heartfelt Ave Maria.

Barbra Streisand. Of course, nobody sings like Barbra and she also does her Christmas singing her own way. Her arrangements of Sleep In Heavenly Peace (Silent Night) and Jingle Bells? are definitely for the books. Now, if this is a compilation of her early Christmas albums, I must say I was disappointed to find out that her deeply moving rendition of The Lord’s Prayer was not included. 

But I was also glad the pop songs like A Christmas Love Song, The Best Gift, It Must Have Been The Mistletoe, I Remember, I Wonder As I Wander, Snowbound and Christmas Mem’ries are here. Check out, too, her version of My Favorite Things, the song from the musical The Sound of Music that has over the years become a Christmas favorite. This is how it would have sounded had Barbra and not Julie Andrews played Maria in the movie.

Neil Diamond. I have never associated Neil with Christmas songs. I have always felt that he was best suited to anthemic rock ballads like I’m A Believer, Sweet Caroline, rather than softly-crooned Christmas songs. So, this album is quite a surprise. Neil has his own appealing take to Christmas and it is so warm and pleasant. His easy singing here has a down home country charm that gets you thinking of eggnogs to ward off the cold, dinner with the family and that relaxing time when all the presents have been opened, all the guests have left and you can finally truly celebrate.

He sings White Christmas, Joy To The World, O Come All Ye Faithful, The First Noel, Winter Wonderland, You Make It Feel Like Christmas, The Christmas Song, O Holy Night, Silver Bells, Sleigh Ride, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas and Silent Night.

And he says in his liner notes: “I can’t help thinking of the timelessness of this great Christmas music which will be loved for as long as love is a part of the world. In other words… Forever.”