- Joined
- Jan 12, 2001
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As someone born in the mid-sixties, i have a certain idea in my head what Christmas music should sound like. Certain albums were played by my parents during my childhood; it is a pleasure to be able to go back in time through playing some of those tracks and re-live that childhood wonder and anticipation of the holiday. I still have strong memories that flood back over me whenever I play "Christmas Moods" by 101 Strings or "Christmas in California."
For the longest time the only way to get this music was either to scour the thrift and secondhand stores for the vinyl albums, provided you still had a record player, or find personal blog sites that have created mp3's of the albums and posted them for download. With the shutdown of many file sharing sites, this has been more and more difficult.
Luckily some enterprising souls have seen the value of reissuing older records. For the past couple of years Real Gone Music has been a great resource for doing just that. Not only do they release them with the original artwork, as much as possible they go back to the original tapes and remaster them.
This year they are releasing 12 'new' CDs for the season:
October 9th:
John Gary: The John Gary Christmas Album
The Three Suns: A Ding Dong Dandy Christmas
George Melachrino: Christmas Joy
The Soulful Strings: The Magic Of Christmas
November 6th:
The Living Voices: The Living Voices Sing Christmas Music/The Little Drummer Boy
Bobby Vinton: A Very Merry Christmas
Jimmy Dean: Jimmy Dean's Christmas Card
Lynn Anderson: The Christmas Album
Johnny Mathis: The Complete Christmas Collection 1958-2000
Glen Campbell: The Complete Capitol Christmas Recordings
Jim Nabors: The Complete Columbia Christmas Recordings
The 4 Seasons: The 4 Seasons Greetings
I had pre-ordered all of these, and have already received the first four. I'm patiently waiting to start playing these the day after Thanksgiving (again, a tradition from my childhood), especially George Melachrino's "Christmas Joy".
The other release I am extremely excited about is The Living Voices double album.
I didn't mean this to sound like an advert for Real Gone Music. What I really wanted to do was to inform anyone that didn't know about them, and to discover if there were other Christmas albums of the 60's and 70's being reissued that I wasn't aware of. I follow Real Gone Music, obviously, as well as Collector's Choice. Are there other companies that are doing this?
Also, what are your thoughts on 60's/70's Christmas music in general? I don't mean for this to be a knock on Kenny G or Mariah Carey, but listening to Julie Andrews during the holidays means a lot more to me personally.
Does anyone else love this type of music?
Lastly, what about how we got this music. Isn't it a kick to think that these were originally given away at service stations and banks?
"Honey, I'm headed down to my local Richfield service station for a fill up and to get this year's annual Christmas album. Need me to stop at the store to pick anything up?"
For the longest time the only way to get this music was either to scour the thrift and secondhand stores for the vinyl albums, provided you still had a record player, or find personal blog sites that have created mp3's of the albums and posted them for download. With the shutdown of many file sharing sites, this has been more and more difficult.
Luckily some enterprising souls have seen the value of reissuing older records. For the past couple of years Real Gone Music has been a great resource for doing just that. Not only do they release them with the original artwork, as much as possible they go back to the original tapes and remaster them.
This year they are releasing 12 'new' CDs for the season:
October 9th:
John Gary: The John Gary Christmas Album
The Three Suns: A Ding Dong Dandy Christmas
George Melachrino: Christmas Joy
The Soulful Strings: The Magic Of Christmas
November 6th:
The Living Voices: The Living Voices Sing Christmas Music/The Little Drummer Boy
Bobby Vinton: A Very Merry Christmas
Jimmy Dean: Jimmy Dean's Christmas Card
Lynn Anderson: The Christmas Album
Johnny Mathis: The Complete Christmas Collection 1958-2000
Glen Campbell: The Complete Capitol Christmas Recordings
Jim Nabors: The Complete Columbia Christmas Recordings
The 4 Seasons: The 4 Seasons Greetings
I had pre-ordered all of these, and have already received the first four. I'm patiently waiting to start playing these the day after Thanksgiving (again, a tradition from my childhood), especially George Melachrino's "Christmas Joy".
The other release I am extremely excited about is The Living Voices double album.
I didn't mean this to sound like an advert for Real Gone Music. What I really wanted to do was to inform anyone that didn't know about them, and to discover if there were other Christmas albums of the 60's and 70's being reissued that I wasn't aware of. I follow Real Gone Music, obviously, as well as Collector's Choice. Are there other companies that are doing this?
Also, what are your thoughts on 60's/70's Christmas music in general? I don't mean for this to be a knock on Kenny G or Mariah Carey, but listening to Julie Andrews during the holidays means a lot more to me personally.
Does anyone else love this type of music?
Lastly, what about how we got this music. Isn't it a kick to think that these were originally given away at service stations and banks?
"Honey, I'm headed down to my local Richfield service station for a fill up and to get this year's annual Christmas album. Need me to stop at the store to pick anything up?"