What Are Your Top Five Christmas Albums From The Golden Age (1950's to the 1960's) ?

It really is a great album and of course the iconic hit song, Little Drummer Boy, started out as Carol Of The Drum, before Mr. Simeone got a copy of it after The Jack Halloran Singers recorded it for their great album, and Harry tweaked it just a little and added some finger snaps and suddenly a Christmas classic was born.

 

Dorati's Le Sacre du Printemps on Mercury Living Presence is probably my favorite version. Is Nutcracker the suite or the full ballet?

No one talks about this album. I picked it up for a dollar!

 

My Mom is no longer with us. There are a few places in the song where I can easily pick out her voice; she is one of the contraltos singing the lower harmony line. When I hear this song around Christmas, it is like a postcard from beyond.

She also sang with the Ray Charles Singers, and is on many of the Perry Como Christmas tunes from the late 1950s and/or early 1960s.

 

Novelty aside, "Hang Up Your Stocking" is an absolutely swingin' tune, and when my wife does a Christmas special for her radio show, she always plays this next to "Man with the Bag" by Kay Stevens!

 

I don't think it would be derailing the thread - it might even add to it - but do you have any stories or recollections from your Mom regarding her time working with Perry Como?

 

Another stupendous list. That Antal Dorati Mercury Living Presence 35m is a splender to listen to and our wonderful and very gifted host, @Steve Hoffman steered me to that one as it is one of his favorites as I recall. I also highly recommend Eugene Ormandy's Masterworks CD and though it falls outside the Golden Age Of Christmas period, Valery Geriev's The Nutcracker is a sheer sonic marvel and he gets the whole two act ballet in on one CD by going at a somewhat brisk clip, but it is a true delight to hear.

 

My parents were both session singers in New York and worked steadily from the late 1940s until roughly the mid-1960s - when rock music took over and there was less and less demand for that style of music.

My older brother could provide more details, but I do know that my Mom was on the Perry Como show from the late-1950s to the early- or mid-1960s. During this time, she was also on many of the recording sessions for Perry, as well as the Ray Charles Singers albums on Command.

My parents were not afraid in the least to give your their opinions on celebrities, positive or negative, and my Mom had nothing but the nicest things to say about Perry. He was apparently in real life the same as his public persona.

My brother has some Christmas decorations in his house that came from the set of one of Perry's Christmas specials - 2 bells in a wreath.

There is a guy on YouTube named Anthony something who posts videos of Perry Como and the Ray Charles singers. My Mom is in several of these.

 

I have heard the exact same thing about Perry from my father who was in both radio and television for a number of years during these times. Though he never worked with Mr. Como directly, he always knew from others in the industry who the jerks were in the business. Mr. Como was not one of them and clearly was a class act.

 

Thank you for sharing that, ShockControl. I really appreciate it. It must've been exciting growing up in a household where the parents had professions like yours.

I mentioned the Perry Como Sings Merry Christmas Music album in my list above. I just wanted to share the album cover; it's also one of my favorites.

 

I just love that album cover! Has anyone else noticed how the new pop stars of today are trying to copy the vintage looking Christmas album covers from the Golden Age? John Legend's new holiday album is an almost exact replica of Bing Crosby's Merry Christmas album cover with the red Santa hat and bow tie on the front cover artwork.

 

Each year during the Christmas season, I get out some of the old albums that my sisters and I grew up listening to - like the Perry Como one above - and place them around the house as Christmas decorations. It really adds to the atmosphere and the sentimental feeling of the season.

 

I love the beauty of those vintage albums and I have a couple of them framed and hung in my living room. I have Johnny Mathis's Merry Christmas album with the red vinyl and it is with a Johnny Mathis autographed Complete Christmas Collection that Real Gone Music did a few years ago. I also have a Nat King Cole RIAA CERTIFIED 6 million award that cost me a few bucks at an auction.

 

I think that one pre-dates my Mom's time with Perry. She is on the Christmas album he did in the late 1950s or early 1960s. I'm not an expert. Does anyone know the album I'm referring to?

 

I would guess Season's Greetings From Perry Como from 1959 and his first stereo Christmas album if I am correct, but I believe that @Pierino is the real Perry expert on this fine forum.

 

The Perry Como Sings Merry Christmas Music album pictured above is actually a compilation released in 1956. Side 1 is comprised of songs recorded by Perry in 1953 and Side 2 features songs recorded by Perry in 1946 and 1947. Perry did record another Christmas album in 1959, Season's Greetings From Perry Como. That is probably the one your Mom is featured on. This is the original album cover:

 

That's the one. Christmas music gets reissued so much with different art that it's hard to remember what is what.

 

I do the same. I've gone out of my way to find the original cover art, which can be challenging for some of these.

 

Haven't made it all the way through my Mercury Living Presence box sets yet, but I see that Dorati is included....thanks for the heads up. Now that "Nutcracker" will make my play list this year.

 

Wow, I have probably 300 LP's and CD's in my Christmas boxes, and I'm not even sure I even have five that would apply before 1970...and I was born in '56!

I suppose there's
Vince Guaraaldi's Charlie Brown title, duh...
From the Creative World of Stan Kenton Comes...A Merry Christmas!
John Fahey - The New Possibility
A Merry (Henry) Mancini Christmas

...and maybe, just maybe, some budget-labeled generic-orchestra holiday title picked-up at Kroger's 49-cent-bin before the Kennedy Administration, lost to the sands of memory.

Well that's four.

 

Robert Shaw Chorale - Christmas Hymn and Carols, Vol. 1 (1957)

 

1. A Winter Romance - Dean Martin
2.The Christmas Song-Nat King Cole
3. A Jolly Christmas From Frank Sinatra - Frank Sinatra
4. Merry Christmas - Bing Crosby
5. The Beach Boys' Christmas Album - The Beach Boys

 

Here are my Top 5 (kind of tough for me - I have over 1000 Christmas LP's and roughly 1000 Christmas CD's in my collection - I'm a Christmas music fanatic....) :

1. "Christmas With Conniff" - The Ray Conniff Singers
2. "Season's Greetings" - Perry Como
3. "Music Of Christmas" - Percy Faith
4. "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" - The Ray Conniff Singers
5, "The Williams Brothers Christmas Album" - Andy Williams & The Williams Brothers

And the next 5 :

6. "Christmas Wonderland" - Bert Kaempfert & His Orchestra
7. "Merry Christmas" - Johnny Mathis
8. "Here We Come A-Caroling" - The Ray Conniff Singers
9. "A Very Merry Christmas Volume 3" - Various Artists (WT Grants release)
10. (tie) "Merry Christmas" - The New Christy Minstrels
"Holiday Sing-A-Long With Mitch"- Mitch Miller & The Gang

 

This is a truly fantastic album and the vocals are amazing. Robert Shaw was a fantastic vocal arranger and I highly recommend Real Gone Music's Expanded Edition on CD remastered by the very talented Maria Triana at Battery Studios in New York.

 

I truly admire your fantastic taste in holiday music. Everyone of those albums is in my collection and I think they are all essential to any great Christmas collection.

 

absolutely...it's not Christmastime without them. thanks for the kind words. : )