Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass - "Christmas Album" (1968) - A&M Records
Hello Friends,
Wow! What a great schmaltzy & swinging Christmas record by everyone's favorite Jewish, trumpet-playing Santa Claus!
Its like the soundtrack to a Holiday-themed wrap party on The Dating Game featuring plenty of Dubonnet on Ice (how nice!), Leisure Suits, mustaches, side burns and lambskin condoms where you're hoping like heck that the wet spot you just sat down in is someone's spilled cocktail and nothing more!
Oy Vey!
Ten tracks all performed in the TJB style featuring a hybrid of lite jazz and latin arrangements, weaving vocal choruses, zippy time changes and Herb Alpert's signature overly-accentuated trumpet playing.
For better or for worse, its unlike any other holiday record in our collection.
Songs like "Winter Wonderland", "Jingle Bells" & "Sleigh Ride" all begin with a melodramatic "whimper" and end with a spastic and bombastic bang. Hold on to your sombreros, amigos!
"My Favorite Things" sounds like a mariachi mash-up of The Sound of Music and an early Bond film.
Herb even steps out from behind his trumpet to sing Mel Torme's "The Christmas Song" and Burt Bacharach's "The Bell That Wouldn't Ring".
We're not sure what it has to do with Christmas, but there's even a smooth as silk take on the traditional Mexican birthday song, "Las Mananitas". ¿Porque no?
You can definitely slow dance to Alpert's dreamlike pacing on "Let It Snow" while looking forward to a striptease by the end of "Jingle Bell Rock" all to be lulled into a gentle and graceful sleep by the strains of Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring", the album's closer. Classic!
RATING: 4.5 chestnuts roasting on an open fire out of 5
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