The Beach Boys' Christmas Album
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The Beach Boys' Christmas Album is a Christmas album by The Beach Boys, released on November 16, 1964. Containing five original songs and seven standards, the album proved to be a long-running success during subsequent Christmas seasons, initially reaching #6 in the US Christmas album chart in its year of release and eventually going gold.
Of the original songs, "Little Saint Nick" was already famous, having been a hit single the year before. "The Man with All the Toys" was another hit during Christmastime 1964. "Christmas Day" is noteworthy for being the first Beach Boys song to feature a lead vocal from Al Jardine.
While leader Brian Wilson produced and arranged the "rock" songs, he left it to Dick Reynolds (an arranger of The Four Freshmen, a group Wilson idolized) to arrange the orchestral backings on the traditional songs to which The Beach Boys would apply their vocals. The album was released in both mono and stereo; the stereo mix, prepared by engineer Chuck Britz, would be the last true stereo mix for a Beach Boys album until 1968's Friends.
Track listing
The Musicians
Orchestra
- Violins: Robert Barene, Arnold Belnick, Harry Bluestone, Jimmy Getzoff, Bernard Kundell, William Kurasch, Alfred Lustgarten, Lou Raderman, Henry Roth, Paul Shure, Marshall Sosson, Darrel Terwilliger
- Cellos: Jesse Ehrlich, Armand Kaproff, Raymond Kelley, Karl Rossner, Joseph Saxon, Frederick Seykora
- Harp: Dorothy Ramsen
- Woodwinds: Gene Cipriano, Billy Green, Robert Jung, Wilbur Schwartz
- Trumpets: Virgil Evans, Henry Laubach, Oliver Mitchell, Al Porcino
- Trombones: Urbie Green, Lew McCreary, Richard Nash
- French horns: David Duke, Arthur Maebe, Richard Perissi
- Tuba: George "Red" Callender
- Piano: Eugene DiNovi
- Guitar: Al Viola
- Bass: Clifford Hils
- Drums: Frankie Capp
- Percussion: Bones Howe
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- Orchestra Conducted by Benjamin Barrett
- Special Arrangements by Dick Reynolds
Singles
- "Little Saint Nick" b/w "The Lord's Prayer" (Capitol 5096), 2 December 1963 US #3 (on Christmas chart)
- "The Man with All the Toys" b/w "Blue Christmas" (Capitol 5312), 16 November 1964 US #3 (on Christmas chart)
The Beach Boys' Christmas Album (Capitol T-2164/ST-2164) peaked at number 6 on Billboard magazine's special, year-end, weekly Christmas Albums sales chart during a 13-week chart stay spread out from 1964 to 1968.
Reissues
- The Beach Boys' Christmas Album was first issued on CD in 1988 (CDP 7 91008-2), with the single mix of "Little Saint Nick" (in mono and with overdubbed sleigh bells) replacing the stereo LP version as the first track. All twelve tracks are in mono.
- It was reissued on CD in 1990 by Toshiba EMI Japan (TOCP-5945), with all twelve original tracks in stereo, plus the single mono version of "Little Saint Nick" and its B-side "The Lord's Prayer" (mono version) added as bonus tracks.
- It was again reissued on CD in 1991 (CDP 7 95084-2), with the stereo "Little Saint Nick" reinstated as the leadoff track and four bonus tracks added: the single version of "Little Saint Nick", its B-side "The Lord's Prayer" (this time in stereo), and alternate takes of "Little Saint Nick" (utilizing the melody from the group's song "Drive-In") and "Auld Lang Syne" (without Denis' message overdubbed). "The Man With All The Toys", "Santa's Beard", "Merry Christmas, Baby" and "Christmas Day" are in mono, while other eight tracks from the original sequence are in stereo.
- 1998 saw the release of Ultimate Christmas, a new CD compilation containing all of the twelve tracks from the original LP (in stereo), all of the bonus tracks from the previous CD except for "The Lord's Prayer", and 11 additional tracks including the 1974 single "Child of Winter" and several previously-unreleased tracks from an aborted 1977 Christmas album.
- Christmas with the Beach Boys, issued in 2004, is essentially a reissue of Ultimate Christmas with a new title and cover art and one song ("Christmas Time Is Here Again") deleted from the tracklist. Like Ultimate Christmas, it omits "The Lord's Prayer" from the "Little Saint Nick" single.
- Christmas Harmonies, a 2009 compilation, includes 11 of the 12 tracks from the original LP (including the single mix of "Little Saint Nick" and rare mono mixes of the other Wilson/Love compositions), as well as the alternate take of "Auld Lang Syne", the "Child of Winter" single, and two of the 1977 tracks.
Sources
- The Beach Boys' Christmas Album CD booklet notes, David Leaf, c.1990.
- Ultimate Christmas CD booklet notes, Brad Elliott, c.1998
- The Nearest Faraway Place: Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys and the Southern California Experience, Timothy White, c. 1994.
- Wouldn't It Be Nice - My Own Story, Brian Wilson and Todd Gold, c. 1991.
- Top Pop Singles 1955-2001, Joel Whitburn, c. 2002.
- Top Pop Albums 1955-2001, Joel Whitburn, c. 2002.
- Beach Boys' Christmas Album CD Versions (in Japanese)
- Allmusic.com
- ^ Badman, Keith. The Beach Boys. The Definitive Diary of America's Greatest Band: On Stage and in the Studio Backbeat Books, San Francisco, California, 2004. ISBN 0-87930-818-4 p. 72
- ^ Allmusic review
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