While few can disagree that the playing of holiday music shouldn’t start on the radio the day after Halloween, there are many who warm up to listening to Christmas music in December. Recent reissues reflect the two major sides of popular holiday music; fresh new music and tried-and-true staples from the past.
Holidays Rule, although a reissue of a ten-year-old release, very much fits into the category of new holiday sounds. This translucent red, two-LP, vinyl gatefold package features such artists as The Civil Wars, Heartless Bastards, Calexico, Punch Brothers, and The Head and the Heart. Paul McCartney performs “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on An Open Fire),” and the Shins sing Paul’s “Wonderful Christmastime.”
Other than the opening track by fun., the music on this reissue has aged well. The emphasis is on groups and artists with an organic sound and their heartfelt, non-glossy take on holiday-themed music works exceptionally well. The throwback sounds of Irma Thomas with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, with “May Ev’ry Day Be Christmas,” complements the music here from newer artists and the song is an instant classic.
The duet between Sharon Van Atten and Rufus Wainwright, a cover of “Baby It’s Cold Outside” was an instant classic upon release and will be a favorite for some time to come. The album ends with two New Year’s Eve songs, making this a reissue you will want to listen to long after December 25th. There was a Holidays Rule, Vol. 2 CD release in 2017. It will be interesting to see if that release is reissued on vinyl next holiday season (or in 2027). If so, it will no doubt be on green vinyl.
One of the most beloved Christmas albums of all time is A Charlie Brown Christmas, the television soundtrack to the 1965 animated cartoon. The album has been reissued in many formats over the years on vinyl, CD, and digitally. Recently, a 2-LP, standard black 180-gram vinyl edition, with the vintage Fantasy label archival sleeves, has been released, among other editions.
The second disc boasts thirteen unreleased outtakes. There is a new stereo mix, remixed and mastered by Paul Blakemore from the original three-track and two-track analog tapes, and the lacquers were cut at Cohearent Audio. As could be expected by a vintage vinyl reissue cut from the original analog tapes by Kevin Gray, the sound on this reissue is as good as it gets. Derrick Bing provides extensive liner notes.
The producers originally wanted Dave Brubeck for the first Peanuts-themed film, but he declined and was the one who suggested Vince Guaraldi. Guaraldi actually recorded an album of Peanuts-inspired music for a documentary on the characters and their creator in 1964. The documentary didn’t come out, but the soundtrack did and followed two major Guaraldi albums; Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus in 1962 and The Latin Side of Vince Guaraldi in 1964.
Guaraldi offers a wide variety of styles here that range from very straightforward holiday classic arrangements to impressionistic, West-Coast cool. He would only record for another 10 years, passing at the young age of 47 in 1976, but along with his cherished catalog, he will always be beloved for this holiday evergreen.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
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