Hi-Fi Holidays: Christmas With Glen Campbell

Glen Campbell - "Christmas With Glen Campbell" (1971) - Capitol Records

Hello Friends,

This 1971 Capitol Records release is a bit of a hatchet job.  It's a record with only five Glen Campbell holiday tunes, most of which already appeared on Campbell's 1968 album, That Christmas Feeling.  The rest of the tunes on this LP are pretty much filler courtesy of The Holiday Pops Orchestra and a choral group who call themselves The Voices of Christmas.

Still, Campbell's takes on "I'll Be Home For Christmas", "Silent Night" and Sammy Cahn/Jimmy Van Heusen's "It Must Be Getting Close To Christmas" are alone worth the price of admission!

RATING: 3 wives charcoal broiling steaks coming up with dishes they'd refuse to make* out of 5 

* These are actual lyrics in the song "It Must Be Getting Close To Christmas" which also includes the humdinger:

Suddenly your slightest wish is their command,

And all at once your favorite things are close at hand, 

And suddenly Lombardo is their favorite band,

It must be getting close to Christmas...

Charles Brown - "Merry Christmas, Baby" (1984)

Its the holidays friends!

Here's some slow & low nightclub blues courtesy of Mr. Charles Brown to help you through your holiday Friday!

Enjoy!

Cheap Trick - "I Want You For Christmas" (2012)

Who doesn't love a little Cheap Trick to you beat those Holiday Blues?

Bing Crosby - "Do You Hear What I Hear" (1963)

Hello Friends,

This familiar holiday song was written by a married couple, Noël Regney and Gloria Shayne Baker, in October 1962 as a plea for peace during the very tense days of the Cuban Missile Crisis.  As the Western World teetered on the brink of all out nuclear annihilation, this song (as performed by the Harry Simeone chorale) became a top-selling hit for the 1962 Holiday season.

A year later, Bing Crosby would record his own hit version which would reach # 2 on the Billboard charts, as well as provide a melancholic backdrop to the days and weeks following the assassination of JFK.

Might be a good Holiday theme song for 2016!

Cheers!

Hi-Fi Holidays: The Nutcracker

Antal Dorati conducting the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra - "Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker, op. 71 - Complete Ballet" (1955) - Mercury Records

Hello Friends,

Another edition of Sunday Morning Classics.  Drinking some strong black coffee and cleaning the empty bottles and ashtrays from last night.  

And there's no better way to dance a holiday hangover away than with Tchaikovsky's famous Nutcracker Ballet from 1892.

This is a nifty double-album of the complete Nutcracker Ballet with some pretty impressive packaging.  

Mercury Records claims that this is the first complete recording of Tchaikovksy's most famous work.

Everyone, of course, is very familiar with the far more famous, Nutcracker Suite, which is pretty ubiquitous this time of year.  The suite runs usually about a half an hour whereas the complete version runs closer to 90 minutes; its like the Nutcracker's Greatest Hits.

Pretty extensive liner notes with some cool Wes Anderson-y illustrations throughout the accompanying pages.

RATING: 4.5 Sugar Plum Fairies out of 5

RIP Greg Lake - "I Believe In Father Christmas" (1974)

Man, another one bites the dust in an evergrowing list of dead rock stars in 2016!

We just found out that Greg Lake passed away at the age of 69.

We'll always love Greg Lake for his work on that first King Crimson record, as well as most of the stuff he did with prog rock juggernauts, Emerson, Lake & Palmer.  (Especially the early stuff... no thank you Love Beach!)

Plus, 'tis the season... we've always been suckers for his prog rock lite take on the holidays on this song penned by Lake and Peter Sinfield, whose credits include penning lyrics ELP, as well as for those first four Crimson records! 

RIP Greg Lake... oh what a lucky man you was!

Hi-Fi Holidays: Happy Holiday

Peggy Lee - "Happy Holiday" (1965) - Capitol Records

Hello Friends,

We're off to a pretty swinging start this year!

Happy Holiday is Peggy Lee's second Xmas LP, following 1960's Christmas Carousel. Actually, Happy Holiday is more of a re-packaging of the former LP with 9 of its 12 songs already existing on the former.

Pretty decent record overall.  There's definitely some jazzy, swinging tracks to help make your cocktails go down a little too easy ("Winter Wonderland", "I Like A Sleighride (Jingle Bells)", "Happy Holiday"), but there's a few cornball tracks thrown in that are kind of like inviting little kids to a late night soiree at the tiki bar!  No thanks!

Peggy Lee has always been at her best with a smoky & sultry ballad and here we get three great ones: Mel Torme's "The Christmas Song", Jule Styne & Sammy Cahn's "The Christmas Waltz" and Irving Berlin's "White Christmas".

Its getting late... Time for another cocktail!

RATING: 4 don't get caught under the mistletoes out of 5

Hi-Fi Holidays!

December's here kids and you know what that means!  We're getting ready to crank up good old fashioned holiday cheer on the holiday turntable!  

We got the records picked out.  Candles are lit.  The tree is up and ready to go. The tiki bar is decorated and well-stocked.  Its cold outside but its as warm as a glass of eggnog in here! 

2016 has been a year full of highs and lows, but we can't say that we'll be sad to see it go! Its nothing a little nostalgia and whiskey won't cure! 

D Generation - "Piece of the Action" (2016)

Happy Friday Friends!

Thank god for some good ol' fashioned rock & roll.

NYC's D Generation has released their first record in over 17 years earlier this year and its a welcome return to the fold for Jesse Malin and the boys.

Like we said, good ol' fashioned rockin' & rollin'.  Like your dad used to like!

Enjoy!