i'll be home for christmas, the album

Feeling nostalgic this holiday season, I'm diving into Christmas records that my family owned when I was a kid. 

And now, the other Christmas record I put on repeat as a kid, I'll Be Home For Christmas, which was produced by one of the largest purveyors of "junk" records.

Pickwick was a budget label which hit its peak during the 1960s and 1970s. They released anything from covers of current hits by anonymous studio ensembles to re-releases of albums from major labels that dropped a track or two. Quality was not always Pickwick's highest priority. My guess is that this record was purchased at a discount department store in a sale bin. 

In this case, just as Christmas Pleasures used Columbia's catalogue, this 1976 album digs into Capitol's vaults. Since, being a Pickwick product, this album only has ten tracks, let's plow through all of them...

SIDE ONE

Dean Martin - Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer

This track amused me as a kid, having already sensed Martin's persona as an easygoing boozer. This rendition is Rat Pack loungeyness to the nth degree, including its casual reference to our hero as "Rudy." Enjoy a classic cocktail lounge drink while listening to this one.

Nat King Cole - Caroling, Caroling

   

After a fun opening, time to settle into the elegance and joy of Nat King Cole. Listening to this has always made me visualize a town or city alive with the spirit of the season. 

Peggy Lee - The Christmas Song

   

A nice, straightforward version of Mel Torme's holiday salute to chestnuts roasting on an open fire (and here's my favourite story about Torme and the song). 

Tennessee Ernie Ford - The Twelve Days of Christmas

 

This is the better version of this tune I promised earlier this week, with an energy forcefulness the Dinah Shore version lacked. 

Al Martino - Silver Bells

  

Led in by the first (bearable) verse of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," like Nat King Cole's contribution to the album, this evokes a feeling of Christmas in the city. A good way to wind down side one.

SIDE TWO 

Lou Rawls - The Little Drummer Boy

 

While driving Louisa to work this morning, CBC Radio's The Current featured a discussion of Christmas songs. The host admitted this was her favourite version of "The Little Drummer Boy," and I don't blame her. In most versions that echo the chorale versions recorded in the 1950s, the "pa-rum-pum-pum-pum" can feel lethargic. Not in this case. It's energetic, it's soulful, and it gets side two off to a good start.

Sandler and Young - Hark the Herald Angels Sing

 

If side two started off well, it derails with this track, which is possibly the worst on this record. As a kid, I wondered what the heck this was doing here. Maybe I found the beginning, meant to evoke chanting monks, off-putting. Maybe the blending of two songs through the rest of the track was too distracting. Also, who the hell were Sandler and Young? I'd heard of, or figured out, who everyone else on the record was. 

Speed ahead a few years to discovering SCTV reruns. The show mercilessly parodied Sandler and Young, with Eugene Levy and Martin Short depicting them as a corny, clueless act with giant chiclet teeth. Hilarious stuff, which provided evidence my younger self had the right inclination about the duo.

But I still hadn't actually seen Sandler and Young in action...

Oh my.

So it turns out Eugene Levy's imitation of Ralph Young was dead on. Including the chiclet teeth. 

SCTV was brilliant. 

Guy Lombardo - Jingle Bells

 

Speaking of things Canadian, London, Ontario's most famous bandleader lifts the album back up with a fun rendition of "Jingle Bells." Perhaps the compiler felt "Auld Lang Syne" was too associated with New Year's to include. 

Beach Boys - I'll Be Home For Christmas

    

The title track showcases the Beach Boys' harmonies. This rendition, from 1964's The Beach Boys' Christmas Album, was arranged by Dick Reynolds, who was known for his work with one of Brian Wilson's vocal idols, the Four Freshmen. 

The group picture used on the front of the album looks like an outtake from the session for the cover of their final album during their original run on Capitol, 1969's 20/20. Also, who makes a picture of the Beach Boys - and nearly everyone else on the cover - smaller than Sandler and Young?

Nancy Wilson - The Christmas Waltz

    

A gentle, mellow way to end the album, easing you into the next round of holiday activities. 

Overall, a stronger album than Christmas Pleasures. If I were remixing it, I'd go back to the Capitol catalogue from the 1950s and 1960s and figure out, barring rights issues, who who replace Sandler and Young. There's Frank Sinatra, who recorded A Jolly Christmas From Frank Sinatra for Capitol in 1957. There's Ella Fitzgerald's beautiful 1967 album of religious-themed Christmas standards. You could raid Glen Campbell's 1968 collection That Christmas Feeling. I suspect Buck Owens' Christmas backlist had too many novelty songs and possibly a little too much country in it to fit this album.