Christmas Eve and Other Stories

Christmas Eve and Other Stories
Studio album by Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Released October 15, 1996
Length 62:03
Label Lava Records
Producer Paul O'Neill and Robert Kinkel
Trans-Siberian Orchestra chronology

Christmas Eve and Other Stories
(1996)		 The Christmas Attic
(1998)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]

Christmas Eve and Other Stories is the debut album by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

It was released on October 15, 1996, and is the first album in their "Christmas trilogy", with The Christmas Attic (1998) and The Lost Christmas Eve (2004) coming after it. All three albums, as well as their The Ghosts of Christmas Eve DVD, were featured in the The Christmas Trilogy box set.

The story is about a young man who wanders into a bar on Christmas Eve where he encounters a mysterious old man who tells him a tale about the magical effect of Christmas Day on the human race. The album takes familiar classical pieces and adds to them new songs and arrangements from both classic and progressive rock influences for which the group is known. The album also contains a mix of vocal and instrumental songs. The primary musicians on the album are all members of the progressive metal band Savatage (Paul O'Neill, the producer of the album, is Savatage's longtime producer). Jon Oliva, one of the principal songwriters on the album, is also a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and original vocalist in Savatage. (Oliva is also the voice of Mephistopheles on Beethoven's Last Night.) Cover art created by Edgar Jerins.[2]

As of November 2014, Christmas Eve and Other Stories was the ninth best-selling Christmas/holiday album in the United States during the Nielsen SoundScan era of music sales tracking (1991 – present), with sales of 3,430,000 copies according to SoundScan.[3]

On November 28, 2011, Christmas Eve and Other Stories was certified Triple Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipment of three million copies in the United States.[4]

Track listing

  1. "An Angel Came Down" (Franz Gruber, Paul O'Neill, Jon Oliva) – 3:52
  2. "O Come All Ye Faithful/O Holy Night" (John Francis Wade, Frederick Oakeley, John Reading, Adolphe Adam, John Sullivan Dwight, O'Neill, Robert Kinkel) – 4:19 *
  3. "A Star to Follow" (O'Neill) – 3:49
  4. "First Snow" (O'Neill) – 3:53 *
  5. "The Silent Nutcracker" (O'Neill) – 2:22 *
  6. "A Mad Russian's Christmas" (Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Kinkel, Oliva) – 4:42 *
  7. "The Prince of Peace" (Felix Mendelssohn, Charles Wesley, O'Neill) – 3:33
  8. "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24" (O'Neill, Kinkel, Oliva) – 3:25 *
  9. "Good King Joy" (Lowell Mason, Kinkel, O'Neill) – 6:36
  10. "Ornament" (O'Neill, Oliva) – 3:37
  11. "The First Noel" (Traditional, O'Neill) – 0:55 *
  12. "Old City Bar" (O'Neill) – 6:18
  13. "Promises to Keep" (O'Neill, Kinkel, Oliva) – 2:41
  14. "This Christmas Day" (O'Neill, Oliva) – 4:20
  15. "An Angel Returned" (O'Neill, Oliva) – 3:52
  16. "O Holy Night" (Adolphe Adam, John Sullivan Dwight) – 2:39 *
  17. "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" (Traditional) – 1:16 *

There is a 2 CD version of Christmas Eve and Other Stories with one CD containing a Special Narrated Version Of Christmas Eve and Other Stories. The narrated CD contains one continuous track of music, with narration by Russell Horton between songs. This special edit was done by Robert Kinkel and was produced by Taro Meyer.

In 2001, the Target retail chain in the United States issued a version of the album with a different catalog number and a sticker attached to the front shrink wrap stating "Target Exclusive: 2 Bonus Songs Included." The two tracks are not identified on the cover or any of the album packaging, but they are as follows:

  1. "Whoville Medley (Perfect Christmas Night/Grinch)" - 2:38, which originally appeared on the 2000 soundtrack album to the movie Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas
  2. "The World That He Sees" - 4:43, which was added to The Christmas Attic album sometime after its release; it does not appear on original 1998 editions of the CD.

They are located after the two "official" bonus tracks on the original CD.

Some other post-2000 copies of the CD contain "Whoville Medley (Perfect Christmas Night/Grinch)" as an unlisted 18th track, without "The World That He Sees."

Personnel

Performers

Vocals

Solos:

Back-Ups:

Child choir

Conductor:

Choir:

Instrumental

Solos

Orchestra

References

  1. ↑ Allmusic review
  2. ↑ Interview with Edgar Jerins
  3. ↑ "The Gifts That Keep on Giving: Biggest Radio and Album Hits of the Holidays". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. December 1, 2014. Retrieved December 1, 2014.
  4. ↑ "RIAA Searchable Database". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 2011-12-01.

External links