Time I did something about reviewing this. New Year, new brooms and so on.
The sad news is that something went wrong with the burn. Of the seventeen tracks that were billed on the playlist, only eleven registered completely, and one partly. This is a shame because the remaining five tracks sound like really good stuff, except that they generate nothing more than electronic noise.
Anyway, what have we got?
1. Blue Christmas - Porky Pig
An Elvis Presley standard, giving a working over by Tex Avery's dysphasic animated pig. A great treatment for a song that really shouldn't be taken too seriously anyway.
2. Christmas Time Is Here - Vince Guaraldi Trio
Nice bit of gentle Bill Evans soundalike jazz trio spoilt by rather twee voices that are fine for Christmas but a bit cloying on a wet and grey January day.
3. 'Zat You, Santa Claus? - Louis Armstrong
Satchmo does the novelty comedy act for the season. His voice is an acquired taste, of course, and it's hard to imagine wanting to listen to too much of this without a glass or two or port to wash it down. But then this is a seasonal mix and let's not be unfair: it fits the bill perfectly.
4. Baby It's Cold Outside - Ann Margret and Al Hirt
I have special memories of this song. My late ex-partner Frank did a great Dean Martin impersonation and we used to do this together, once as a public karaoke. Frank Loesser wrote it to do with his wife but I don't think he meant hgis wife to upstage him. Here, Ann Margret is all silky vamp and not at all mousy; she steals the show completely.
5. Christmas Island - Leon Redbone
How would I like to spend Christmas on Christmas Island? Not a lot, really, consider that Australia uses it as a dumping ground for its unwanted. ut spending Christmas listening to Leon Redbone would be a deliciously hedonistic experience.
6. Let It Snow! - Ella Fitzgerald
Another standard, and one that in lesser hands I find annoying, but Ella is different. She stamps her personality all over it, backed by a lovely smoky sax, and fills it with joie-de-vivre.
7. Santa Claus Go Straight To The Ghetto - James Brown
This sounds like a rather subdued James Brown. A nice, spicy addition to a festive mix in a more laid-back soul style than I'm used to from him. Something that might bear listening to outside the season though.
8. Feliz Navidad - Jose Feliciano
This reminds me of my father, who had oodles of recordings of Latin-lite dancable ditties like this.
9. The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole
The only track in the mix that I already have. The quintessential all-American Tin Pan Alley Christmas song to me, it reminds me irresistably of Christmases with Momma B in Verona, New York in the 80s, with AM radio playing this sort of thing constantly in the kitchen. While outside is the sort of Christmassy scene that is traditional in England but never happens - knee-deep snow with snowman and bright red birds (but cardinals rather than robins)
10. Holly Jolly Christmas - Burl Ives
Another TPA standard to go with the above. Jolly and cheering and redolent of mulled wine and mince pies with the extended family.
11. O Come O Come Emmanuel - Sufjan Stevens
Magical, thoroughly original, rereading of my favourite Christmas hymn. Very spare but beautiful. People keep recommending Sufjan Stevens to me and I get to like him more and more.
12. Christmas In Jail - The Youngsters
An enjoyable song which I would have wanted to hear more of, if it didn't dissolve into electronic noice halfway through.
The remaining tracks, which didn't come through, were:
13 - Jingle Bells - The Ventures
14. Greensleeves - John Coltrane
15. Santa Baby - Eartha Kitt
16. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - Tiny Tim
17. Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley
As I say, this is a great pity. I's have particularly enjoyed hearing Tiny Tim again!
As this is a seasonal mix, it would be unfair to say that I probably wouldn't want to play this very much at other times of the year, but it is what it is and what it is will no doubt get played often at Christmases yet to come.
Thank you, Kate!
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1 comment:
I'm so sorry, Rosalind. I've been having some issues with the music interface on my computer. I usually give CDs a test play before sending, but I was so busy with the holidays I didn't have the time. I will burn you a new copy and send next week, so you can have a proper version!
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