Tag: Darlene Love

Music Box: On The 9th Day Of (Jeffrey)Christ-mas…

The Greatest Holiday Album Of Them All

…Jeffrey gave to you… A CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR YOU FROM PHIL SPECTOR!

Greater minds, critics and philosophers have waxed philosophic about this monumental holiday masterpiece far more judiciously and with more wisdom than I ever could attempt, that anything I can possibly write would be an infinitesimal contribution. But, what I can and will say – before I let you sit back and let the music envelope your very soul – is that on a personal, intrinsic level, no holiday collection ever released has brought me such innate elation for so many years.  From the very first notes of Darlene Love’s “White Christmas” to the last refrain of “Silent Night”, this is a most fantastic brew of classic Rock and Soul voices, Spector’s legendary Wall of Sound and the spirit of the holidays.  30 years after first listen, it continues to warm my very soul.

A few fans uploaded all the tracks as various viral videos on YouTube but who knows how long they’ll last before the YouTube Nazis yank them for their own megalomaniac needs. In fact, the last cut on the album, “Silent Night” performed by Spector’s artists, is non-existent in any form.  But, even minus that track, it’s an exhilarating listen.  So, without any more pontificating, here is (most of) A CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR YOU.

 

Tk 1 Darlene Love – White Christmas
Tk 2 The Ronettes – Frosty The Snowman
Tk 3 Bob B. Sox & The Blue Jeans – The Bells of St. Marys
Tk 4 The Crystals – Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

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Tk 5 The Ronettes – Sleigh Ride

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Tk 6 Darlene Love – Marshmallow World

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Tk 7 Ronettes – I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

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Tk 8 The Crystals – Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer

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Tk 9 Darlene Love – Winter Wonderland
Tk 10 The Crystals – Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers
Tk 11 Darlene Love – Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
Tk 12 Bob B. Sox & The Blue Jeans – Here Comes Santa Claus

Music Box: The 12 Days Of (Jeffrey)Christ-mas

Another year, another Christmas.  My feeling about the holidays always border on mercurial. Mostly, I bask in the beauty of the spirit, but there are those moments in time when I could feel the soul of Ebenezer creep in. Such is human nature, I surmise, but more often than not, I love the spirit that  ’tis the season and find myself bathed in  its emotional pull.

Okay, I’ll admit it.  When it comes to the holiday and holiday music, I’m a big fat sap.

Which, as a logician, and thus a non-believer, puts me in an odd situation.  Some decry or belittle my passion for Christmas and its seasonal tunes – I’m often accused of hypocrisy; “How? You’re an atheist – a non believer!! Blah blah blah!!!” Fair enough (those same town criers say the same because of my love of gospel), but as I alluded earlier, it’s the spirit (yes) but also the ideal of the holiday, and what it should bring out in mankind. It often fails, apparently, but there’s no harm in the yearning. So, I love religious carols too, despite the doctrine. Oh well, it is what it is.

Which brings me here. Because of my unabashed joy of the season, I decided to bring to you these next 2 weeks the 12 Days of (Jeffrey)Christ-mas…a fête, if you will, of some of my favorite carols and canticles, religious and secular, holly and jolly, happy and bittersweet.  Now, these selections are not always sung by the most obvious of artists, and not necessarily performed by household names, and a few might or might not be standards, while others have been played to death.

But all hold a special place in my soul – and that is the common denominator.

As a footnote, I will say this – I could easily have written the 20 Days of (Jeffrey)Christ-mas, or even the 30 Days of (Jeffrey)Christ-mas.  There are literally hundreds of other songs I could have posted and the aesthete would have been the same.

Happy holidays to you all, believers and non-believers alike.

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On the First Day of Christmas, Jeffrey gave to you…Darlene Love singing “Christmas Baby (Please Come Home)” live from last year’s David Letterman appearance.  It’s been a tradition for many years – Letterman invites Love on his show to perform this seminal seasonal classic from what is arguably (or inarguably, if you ask me) the greatest Christmas CD of them all,  A CHRISTMAS GIFT TO YOU FROM PHIL SPECTOR.  Forget U2s smarmy version (Bono? Smarmy? Noooo!!), the Love original – or any live performance thereof – are the only readings of this song you’ll ever need to hear.

Her canon is rich with some of the most indelible Rock and Roll classics, and her voice has held up better than most women half her age – the most amazing thing about Love is that year after year she never loses her innate joy in her recitals and you realize that the thrill isn’t only in our listening.  Like the song, Love remains eternal…