Favorite Christmas Singer

I have never really liked Elvis' music too much, and I can only really stand his version of Here Comes Santa Claus. Ralph Carmichael did some wonderful Christmas arrangements whether it was for Nat on his Christmas album, or Bing on Do You Hear What I Hear. Johnny Mathis does very good for Christmas, I don't really like his other music, but his Merry Christmas album is a favorite. Michael Buble has that great Christmas album, I just hope it doesn't overtake Bing's #2 best selling Christmas album, I love his rendition of It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas, and that version seems to have inspired the orchestral overdubs of Bing and Perry's versions of It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas last year with lush orchestral openings leading into the original arrangements.

 

I was wondering where Bing was . He is personally my favorite because of his very apparent warmth that, to me, hasn't been fully equalled in any capacity. Whether it's the iconic Merry Christmas album, one of his first studio albums Christmas Greetings, his A Christmas Sing With Bing album, his I Wish You A Merry Christmas album, A Time To Be Jolly, or even When A Child Is Born and Sleigh Ride from his Barnes/Moore sessions, he's always had the warmth with playfulness when needed or solumness at other times. Perry Como comes the closest warmth-wise to Bing with Christmas for me, which doesn't surprise me as he would listen to Bing records between breaks in live shows to see if he was singing correctly.

 

It's kind of funny because as it so happens Elvis recorded Reach Out To Jesus (written by Mr. Carmichael) for his Grammy winning gospel album, He Touched Me, and Mr. Carmichael went on record saying that the three greatest vocalists he ever heard, based on range, pitch and projection, were Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Elvis Presley. The quote is in the book, Writing For The King, which documents Elvis's recordings from the songwriters perspective of some of his most well regarded songs.

 

Keith!

 

Nat King Cole and Amy Grant off the top of my head (how's that for some diverse choices?).

 

The Christmas music season doesn't start for me until I've heard the Carpenters' version of "The Christmas Waltz." The Carpenters' Christmas Portrait has been and still is my favorite Christmas album of all time. That gives Karen Carpenter the distinction of being my favorite "Christmas singer."

A few who rank very close in my book:
Julie Andrews
Nat King Cole
Rosemary Clooney
Frank Sinatra
Amy Grant



Oops, it seems I just kicked of the Christmas music season by listening to that. I wasn't quite ready...

 

I am sorry I cursed you with starting your Christmas season this early, don't worry it happened to me in early October by accident-ish, so you aren't alone.

 

It's gotta be Elvis. That first Christmas album is just, well...



A lot of my other Christmas favorites are (largely) instrumental albums (Vince Guaraldi, Bela Fleck, new favorite Joel Paterson). Only close second I can mention here would have to be Nat King Cole.

 

Consider this party pooped on.

 

I've become a fan of Leon Redbone's Christmas album these last few years...

 

Way too early for this thread—not even Halloween!

(Remind me in December to say Shane MacGowan and Kirsty MacColl.)

 

In no particular order:

Andy Williams.
Elvis Presley.
Dean Martin.
Frank Sinatra.
Nat King Cole.

 

Blame Walmart, they put Christmas albums out way too early along with decorations which in turn spurred me to post this.

 

Jack Jones

 

The Jack Jones Christmas Album has to be considered one of the greatest holiday albums ever. His second holiday album for RCA was pretty good as well. Jack Jones has to be one of the greatest and most under appreciated vocalists from his generation. I have always found his version of Sleigh Ride to be one of the top vocal versions ever, probably only matched by Johnny Mathis's version with the great Percy Faith arrangement. Marty Manning handled the stellar orchestral chart for Jack's cover of Sleigh Ride, but one of my favorite parts is at the very end of the song, when Jack delivers a vocal raspberry right after the horse sounding trumpet notes.

 

Bing Crosby and Andy Williams are the definitive Christmas singers.

 

Yes, it's a beloved tradition in our house to "blame Walmart"...even though it's at Costco where we actually see the too-early decorations going up...

 

In our house it’s The Chairman.

 

Home Depot is no better. The one nearest me already decked out their decorations.

 

Although I'm annoyed more at Walmart for not having Christmas CDs out, they have everything else Christmas wise up, even vinyl, but no CDs. If they are gonna get me in the mood early they better supply with some new CDs to buy.

 

John Gary was very much in the same vein as Jack Jones as a highly underrated singer of remarkable range and phrasing, who had some amazing breath control that could easily rival Frank Sinatra's. Check out his stupendous last notes for O Holy Night on this wonderful medley from The John Gary Christmas Album. The background singers were stunned when he went about 30 seconds without taking a breath on the very last "Oh night... Oh night Devine" lines. Peter Matz's arrangement is quite majestic as well.

 

This is personally my favorite version of O Holy Night which, as many of you can see by my profile picture and my name, is no surprise.

 

The late country-pop singer Kenny Rogers once said he believed that O Holy Night was the greatest Christmas song ever written. It is definitely my favorite traditional Christmas carol. Kenny was at the very peak of his career in 1981 when he made his stellar Christmas album with the help of legendary arranger Gene Page (You've Lost That Loving Feeling). I got the chance to hang with Kenny Rogers more than a few times backstage after a chance meeting with one of his record label executives at a Las Vegas hotel coffee shop. Most people are unaware of the fact that in his younger days he was an accomplished jazz singer and bassist and that he actually possessed a nearly three octave vocal range. Check out his splendid version of O Holy Night below:

 

I have this album in mono on vinyl (thrift shop find) and in stereo on CD.

 

Jim Nabors