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I'm not saying anything bad about this album in particular - the songs are a solid selection and so forth. However, if you buy the similar "Elvis Christmas" album, you will get every song on this one (except for "Medley") plus about ten more, and at the exact same price. It's just a better value.
The Christmas song, White Christmas, includes studio chatter. There is a bonus on the CD that many have missed and that should be noted.
His voice, the arrangement of the songs, his musical directors, song selections are all outstanding. What can I say that hasn't been said before about The King.
Nice to hear clean recordings and what an easy way to play the recording. Elvis is right up there with Mozart, Bach, and so on.
The CD is the CD issue of Elvis' first LP. The bonus is not available on Elvis' original LP.
The studio chatter White Christmas is available only on this CD.
No collection of Christmas music is complete without this one. Of course, the R&R DJs, when playing anything from the album, had zeroed in on tunes like Blue Christmas (which actually dates back to 1949 by Ernest Tubb, Russ Morgan, and Hugo Winterhalter) and Lieber & Stoller's driving Santa Claus Is Back In Town.Only when they eventually heard his mellow tones on White Christmas and I'll Be Home For Christmas, the carols Silent Night and Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem, and the four gospel tunes included (especially Take My Hand, Precious Lord), did some of them - not all, mind you, but a few - admit that they had perhaps over-reacted.
This CD release contains the exact songs that appeared on the first Elvis' Christmas Album, released in 1957 on RCA Victor LOC-1035. To reviewer Bon Jovi Fan a bit of history.
In other words, those yabos who were doing all they could to kill R&R at birth. The one you recall with the same title was released in 1970 on RCA Camden CAL-2428, containing a mix of some of the earlier tracks with new ones, including If Every Day Was Like Christmas.
Written by Red West, it was recorded on June 11, 1966 in Nashville and first released that year as a single b/w How Would You Like To Be.As another reviewer points out, this one, when first released, became the target of that element of society self-righteously "scandalized" by the "vulgar hip-swinging degenerate" who was "corrupting our children" led by the son of C&W legend Hank Snow, one Jimmie Rodgers Snow, the most pious of them all. Snow, thankfully, just faded into obscurity.The sound reproduction is excellent, and although there are no liner notes with the insert, you do get nine pages of vintage colour photographs of Elvis.
Several of these recordings have become Christmas classics, still receiving significant radio airplay nearly 50 years after they were recorded.While this was a great album in its day, it has since been superceeded. It was considered very controversial when it was released (as were most Elvis releases during that time), but it was still a huge hit commercially, hitting number 1 on the Billboard album charts (before they created a separate category for Christmas albums).Eight Christmas songs were included in his original 1957 Christmas album along with the 4 Gospel songs from the "Peace In The Valley" EP. This is the original Elvis Christmas Album as released in 1957. All the songs on this album are currently available on the Elvis "White Christmas" CD along with "If Every Day was Like Christmas" and "Mama Liked The Roses" and every song from his "The Wonderful World of Christmas" album which was released in 1971. His original Christmas album was repackaged and re-released in 1970 with the 4 Gospel songs being replaced by "If Every Day was Like Christmas" (which was originally released as a single in 1966) and the non-Christmas song "Mama Liked The Roses". The 1970 edition was then re-packaged and released on CD as "It's Christmas Time" a few years ago.Elvis' performance on the songs here are excellent. Unless you just want to buy this CD for its historical significance, I would recommend that you spend a few extra bucks and buy the Elvis "White Christmas" album instead. You will get a lot more Christmas cheer.
It has several additions and omissions from that one, most notably the lack of "If Everyday Was Like Christmas". When Elvis' christmas recordings were reissued on CD, there was apparently some mixing and matching going on. While I totally love this CD, it is not the same one I listened to that my mom had on LP when I was little. That song can be found on a CD of the same title, but the track listing of another one called "It's Christmas Time" by Elvis looks more familiar as the one I liked as a kid. Elvis' stuff is always great, though, so I still recommend this one, too.
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