Nat King Cole - The Christmas Song (1960) SACD from Audio Fidelity

I'm cautiously optimistic. I notice that this album is now also on the Barnes and Noble web site, listed as being in the SACD format, with a release date of Oct. 30, and a sale price of $27.06. They're taking advance orders.

 

my Mom got me into Nat when I was very young...she played his Christmas Song album constantly during the Holiday season...she had tons of his albums and LP box sets...she really appreciated music.

 

thanks so much Clark for the info!

 

Ive got several versions of this, 3 on Cd (they all suck) and 5 or 6 on LP.

The top 2 Lp versions are the 1962 version (logo to the left) and a 1980s "Blue Label" reissue. The "Blue Label" version is the cleanest, technically, you can hear everything clearly, plain as day. But the 1962 version just has that Capitol "Magic", probably due to the EQ they always used when mastering. Its a little bit grainier, yes, but it has that warm, full, wide 1960s Capitol Stereo magic.

 

Sometimes, speculation is fun and that's what follows is - pure speculation!

The tracks on Audio Fidelity releases almost always follow the contents from the original vinyl release of an album. For that reason, I tend to think that this release will contain the 14 tracks that were included on "The Christmas Song" LP in 1963 and that that cover will be the predominate artwork in this release. More people recognize it. However, I also think they will include "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" because of it's appearance on The Magic Of Christmas - and hopefully include that artwork in the booklet. 15 tracks - Steve Hoffman re-mastered. Christmas nirvana.

I would be stunned if we got multiple versions of "The Christmas Song" - if for no other reason than licensing costs. Does this release deserve to have them included? Of course! (The 1953 version hasn't been seen on a Nat Cole Christmas CD in ages!) But as much as I would love to see it, I have my doubts that it could be arranged. (But if the do, they should do the 3 released versions!)

(As for the stray single tracks, I think they would sound out of place on a reissue of The Christmas Song album unless this was being called a complete Christmas collection.)

 

The announcement I've been waiting for since AP and AF first tackled Nat King Cole. Easily the most exciting SACD announcement in a long while.

 

Thanks for the tip. It isn't available on amazon.com yet.

 

Universal/Capitol should release a complete collection of ALL of Cole's Christmas recordings like the Crosby and Como sets.

 

They'd mess it up. Wrong takes, copy tapes, bad SQ, recycled Norberg masterings, you name it.

 

Agreed. I think it's more likely that Real Gone might try to do that at some point, like they did with Perry Como & Andy Williams.

(I wonder if it would ever be possible to do a similar re-issue of Crosby's Merry Christmas album? Or was a lot of that material lost in the Universal fire? The Capitol Sinatra would be nice.)

 

Very excited about this news!

 

Look at all the positivity and excitement here regarding this re-issue/release! And they thought a Nat King Cole Christmas SACD wouldn't be profitable! All they had to do was make it happen and trust that it would sell! Seriously, this is THE re-issue/release of Christmas 2015 for me - and there's a lot of excellent, first-time-on-CD stuff coming down the pike! Merry Christmas, indeed!

 

I bought all of the Nat King Cole SACDs over the last year and a half. I can't wait for this one. Dream come true. I bet the sales from this SACD will be strong enough for another SACD release after this one.

 

Gawd, I hope so!

 

Certainly, this will have the cover of "The Christmas Song" LP, with Nat sitting around the fireplace. Thats what it SHOULD have.

 

Quite a bummer that Capitol released this on vinyl last year, seemingly from some recent digital remaster that wasn't doing it any favors, from what I recall. I wish I still listened to SACDs, this would be an automatic purchase if ever there was one!

 

Actually, there is nothing wrong with al least 2 of the vinyl versions, the 1962 "logo left" and the 1980s
Blue Label". Both beat every version released on Cd, that's for sure.

 

Yeah, as I said in the other thread, my 1980's medium blue label Capitol was my favorite LP version out of the many I listened to. Mine was pressed by Capitol.

 

Where can I find the solo mono version on cd? I'm old fashioned!

 

I don't remember running across a mono CD version of the whole album. Now that possibly would be a nice bonus on the upcoming SACD.

 

CD Universe sent me an email that it is available for preorder. About $33 there.

 

UUGGHHH. You don't want this beautiful, orchestral Lp in Mono. The Stereo is a work of art!!

 

That's high for an Audio Fidelity SACD.