Ho Ho Ho! - Upcoming Holiday / Christmas releases?

Here's my guide to this year's best new releases (Sia, the Minus Five, Cheap Trick) and a few I was not so high on (Gwen Stefani, Lindsay Stirling).

A nice late entry: volume 2 of Rodney Bingenheimer's "Santa's Got a GTO" series, two decades later.

I also threw in a very nice new EP, "(Chuck) Berry Christmas," which comes with an important asterisk.

Holiday Albums Reviewed: Sia, Gwen Stefani, Cheap Trick, Fantasia Lead Parade of Christmas Releases

 

And just for the sake of completion the video. Last time I swear.

 

I agree with your review of the Cheap Trick album!

 

Very good!

 

My favorite on the original album is "Christmas" from The Who's "Tommy", an unlikely Christmas tune if ever there was one.



From the deluxe, I really like the Sara Bareilles/Ingrid Michaelson tune, "Winter Song":

Leslie Odom Jr. - Winter Song (Audio Only)

 

Good article here on new Christmas albums:

Holiday Music for the Joyful, the Lonely and the Skeptical

 

Anyone come across London Sound 70 Orchestra’s Christmas album from 1970 ? Ive heard a few songs on SiriusXM’s Holiday Traditions channel 3. Of course I went looking online and Amazon had a copy for over $100. Too steep for a VG vinyl copy

 

Entertaining review of 40 new Christmas albums. I was aware of about half of them before reading this.

40 New Christmas Albums, Reviewed – Rolling Stone

 

Was Booker T and the MGs “ In the Christmas Spirit” ever reissued ? Cannot find it anywhere.

 

Yes, back around 1999. Amazon has it and probably most similar places.

 

Here's an Amazon link; it's currently available there:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...p/B0000034CL&usg=AOvVaw0ZWRljj1WgBwcKa3Sfm4uW

 

Thank you very much. Too bad the reissue Sundazed LP is out of stock. Heard a few of their selections on SiriusXM and they sounded excellent.

 

Available direct from Sundazed. And with their labelwide sale still going on, cheaper than the CD from Amazon:

Booker T. & the MG's - In The Christmas Spirit LP

 

So... is it too early to ask? 2020 vinyl Christmas releases? Any specific website I should keep watching for updates? It’s freakin’ hot here in the south and I’m over it! Dreaming of Christmas!



I noticed Capitol is releasing “Peggy Lee’s Ultimate Christmas” vinyl this year. It’s a double album. But my guess is they’re simply taking her two solo Christmas albums she released and putting them together under one album?

 

I love that cover!

 

Unfortunately, no. The tracklist is here. It's missing The Christmas List and The Christmas Riddle from the Christmas Carousel album. Admittedly, those aren't great songs, but it would be nice to see them included for the sake of completeness, particularly since they did make room for Here's To You, which isn't even a Christmas song (and Steve knows how bitchy I get when they put non-Christmas songs on Christmas records). They also omitted The Christmas Spell. This just makes me want even more for Real Gone to compile a complete Christmas sessions on Peggy.

 

All the recent Peggy Lee Christmas CDs have omitted one or more tracks from 1960's Christmas Carousel and it's maddening. As you said, not everything on that album is first class, but as a whole Christmas Carousel is a classy affair and it's a wonderful time capsule of holiday seasons of yore. I rank it among my absolute favorite Christmas albums alongside June Christy's This Time Of Year, Doris Day's The Doris Day Christmas Album, Ella Fitzgerald's Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas, Bing Crosby's Merry Christmas, Nat King Cole's The Christmas Song, Frank Sinatra's ...Wishes You A Swinging Christmas, Perry Como's Season's Greetings, The Hollyridge Strings' Christmas Favorites, and Amy Grant's Home For Christmas.

 

I have seen Christmas albums being announced as early as August before, so I guess we'll see a few soon.

 

Dolly Parton's Holly Dolly Christmas has been announced recently! Yay!

 

Yes there’s a separate thread for it!

New Dolly Parton Christmas album "A Holly Dolly Christmas" w/Miley, Willie, Bublé, etc (10/02/2020)

 

There is a Bear Family comp from 2018 that was cd only that looks nice.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08DC3ZCSC?ref=ppx_pt2_mob_b_prod_image


• At the special request of our customers and fans, we are now releasing the 2018 Christmas collection as a vinyl LP!
• A particularly danceable compilation with Christmas songs from the genres Jazz, Swing and Rhythm & Blues.
• Nostalgic Christmas with 14 'Lindy Hop-Jitterbug-Boogie-Jive and Easy Listening' rarities from 1935-1959.
• These include the two rare songs from Louis Armstrong's 1953 novelty Decca single and the original version of Kay Starr's title Waiting For The Man With The Bag, made famous by the Brian Setzer Orchestra.
• Also included: the breathtaking Christmas classics of the Mills Brothers and Johnny Mercer, rousing danceable rhythms until the Christmas tree wobbles!
• Also included is a rare R&B title by Thelma Cooper, often confused with Dolly Cooper!
• A compilation that won't only inspire swing friends - every cake bakes itself easier at Christmas with this music, and the dance addicts always get their money's worth!

 

Goo Goo Dolls have a Christmas album coming out!

...Yes, seriously!

...it's 2020, that's why!

 

Apparently, Real Gone will be issuing no further Christmas CD's for 2020 other than the Felix Slatkin CD already released in July.

 

Yes indeed, this seems to be the case. It is bittersweet for me to be so intimately involved with the Felix Slatkin project as it truly is a glorious sounding orchestral holiday album. I was so hoping that this special early Christmas In July release would be followed-up with some other releases, but it appears that the worldwide Covid 19 epidemic has also affected some of the licensing agreements between the independent labels and the major record companies. Though a rather small issue compared to the human toll this epidemic has brought to the world, music does provide a wonderful and soothing escape from some of this turmoil, so this lack of cooperation between the various record companies is a bit depressing to say the least. Hopefully, things will return to normal by early next year. Nevertheless, I am very proud to have had a role in getting Felix Slatkin's Seasons Greetings remastered and reissued on CD for the very first time. Forty-five strings on one side of the stereo channel and forty-five strings on the other side. Let's talk about wide stereo!

 

Those recent Bear Family comps over the past few years have been a lot of fun, but disappointingly I've found that they've used lossy sources for some of the tracks. I hope that's not the case with this one, but I'm not optimistic.