JOHNNY MATHIS - SENDING YOU A LITTLE CHRISTMAS
Johnny's
first collection of new seasonal recordings since the release of The Christmas
Album in 2002, Sending You A Little Christmas is the artist's first holiday
duets album (and first duets album since 1991's Better Together) and finds the
singer sharing the Yuletide spirit with a number of special guest artists
including Susan Boyle ("Do You Hear What I Hear"), Jim Brickman
("Sending You a Little Christmas"), Natalie Cole ("Have Yourself
a Merry Little Christmas"), Gloria Estefan ("Mary's Boy Child"),
Vince Gill and Amy Grant ("I'll Be Home for Christmas"/"White
Christmas"), Billy Joel ("The Christmas Song"), and The
Jordanaires ("Home For The Holidays"). Sending
You A Little Christmas is the artist's sixth album of newly recorded seasonal
sounds since Merry Christmas, his 1958 perennial, established Mathis as a warm
and familiar holiday presence on home and car radios around the world. Few recording artists are more associated
with the sound and spirit of the Christmas season than Johnny Mathis. On Sending You A Little Christmas, Mathis
lends his incomparable vocal stylings to a rich selection of Christmas
standards and future yuletide classics. Sending
You A Little Christmas was produced by Fred Mollin, who first collaborated with
Johnny on 2010's Grammy Award nominated Let It Be Me: Mathis In Nashville. Johnny
Mathis' million-selling previous holiday albums have included Merry Christmas
(1958), The Sounds of Christmas (1963), Give Me Your Love For Christmas (1969),
Johnny Mathis For Christmas (1984), and Christmas Eve With Johnny Mathis
(1986).
Johnny
Mathis - Sending
You A Little Christmas tracklisting: 1. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an
Open Fire) (Duet with Billy Joel) / 2. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Duet
with Natalie Cole) / 3. This Christmas / 4. Sending You a Little Christmas (Duet with
Jim Brickman) / 5. Mary's Boy Child (Duet with Gloria Estefan) / 6. This Is A Time For Love / 7. Do You Hear What I Hear (Duet with Susan
Boyle) / 8. Home for the Holidays (featuring The
Jordanaires) / 9. Merry
Christmas Darling / 10.
Decorate the Night / 11. I'll
Be Home for Christmas / White Christmas (Duet with Vince Gill and Amy Grant) / 12.
Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)
MARY J. BLIGE - A MARY CHRISTMAS
Iconic Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, actress and
philanthropist Mary J. Blige has teamed up with the best musical talents in the
business. Blige, for Matriarch Records/Verve Records/Interscope Records has
completed her first-ever holiday album titled, A Mary Christmas making it the
first album collaboration between Blige and legendary producer and Chairman of
The Verve Music Group, David Foster. "The past few
months have been such an amazing time for me, the highlight being my work with
David Foster. I am so fortunate to have
had the opportunity to make this soulful and classic Christmas album with
David. David's music has touched so many talented artists and I am grateful to
be a part of this collaboration. I am so
proud of what we created and I believe my fans will love the album as much as I
do," says Mary J. Blige. A Mary Christmas
features Blige's soulful interpretation of classic holiday tunes including
"Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas," and "The Christmas
Song." Blige is joined by a number of A-list guests, starting with Barbra
Streisand, who duets with Blige on "When You Wish Upon A Star," along
with Jessie J on "Do You Hear What I Hear" The Clark Sisters join
Blige on "The First Noel" and "Noche de Paz," is a Spanish
collaboration with Mark Anthony. Other highlights on
the album include "Little Drummer Boy," "My Favorite
Things," "This Christmas," "Rudolph The Red-Nosed
Reindeer," and Tino Rossi's "Petit Papa Noel." Track Listing: Little Drummer
Boy, Have Yourself A
Merry Little Christmas, My Favorite
Things,.This Christmas,.The Christmas
Song, Rudolph The
Red-nosed Reindeer, and When You Wish
Upon A Star – Duet with Barbra Streisand.
Andy
Williams didn’t gain the nickname “Mr. Christmas” for nothing. His first
Christmas album, 1963’s The Andy Williams Christmas Album, remains one of the
most popular holiday releases of all time, vaulting to #1 on the charts and
staying there for nine weeks, and re-entering the Christmas charts 10 straight
years after that, twice at #1! It also spawned a #1 holiday hit with his
rendition of “White Christmas” and offered the definitive rendition of “It’s
the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” His second Christmas album, 1965’s Merry
Christmas, also went to #1, this time for “only” three weeks, and re-entered
the Christmas charts for five straight years, twice more at #1 (it, too,
featured a Christmas charting single, the #18 hit version of “Do You Hear What
I Hear?”). Yet, despite all this artistic and commercial success, there has
never been a collection that compiled every seasonal side that Andy Williams
recorded during his legendary career…until now! Andy Williams: The Complete
Christmas Recordings collects all three classic Christmas albums cut for
Columbia—the aforementioned LPs The Andy Williams Christmas Album and Merry
Christmas plus his 1974 album Christmas Present—plus the Columbia single “Ave
Maria,” unreleased Spanish and Italian-language versions of “White Christmas”
and, as a special added treat, the 1955 single of “Christmas Is a Feeling in
Your Heart/The Wind, the Sand and the Star” that were the first two songs the
young singer cut for the Cadence label back in 1955. John Alexander’s notes
touch on the many high points of Andy’s career, and the package also includes
photos from the Columbia vaults. 42 tracks that will form the cornerstone of
any Christmas music collection.
The Andy Williams
Christmas Album (1963): 1. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an
Open Fire); 2. Sweet Little Jesus Boy; 3. O Holy Night; 4. Silent Night, Holy Night; 5. The Little Drummer Boy; 6. Away in a Manger; 7. Kay Thompson's Jingle Bells; 8. Happy Holiday/The Holiday Season; 9. It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year; 10. A Song and a
Christmas Tree (The Twelve Days of Christmas) 11. The First
Noël; 12. White Christmas /// Merry Christmas
(1965): 1. Have Yourself a
Merry Little Christmas; 2. Winter
Wonderland; 3. Silver Bells; 4. Mary’s Little
Boy Child; 5. Some Children
See Him; 6. Do You Hear
What I Hear?; 7. Christmas
Holiday; 8. Sleigh
Ride; 9. Let
It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!; 10. My
Favorite Things; 11. Little Altar Boy; 12. The
Bells of St. Mary's /// Christmas Present (1974) 1.Christmas Present; 2. Joy
to the World; 3. O
Little Town of Bethlehem; 4.Christmas Bells; 5.It
Came upon a Midnight Clear; 6. Ave
Maria; 7. O
Come All Ye Faithful; 8. Angels We Have Heard on High; 9. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing; 10. Ave
Maria; 11. What Child Is This?; 12. I
Heard the Bells on Christmas Day; 13. The
Lord's Prayer /// Singles: 1. Christmas Is a Feeling in Your Heart; 2. The Wind, the Sand and the Star; 3. Ave
Maria /// Unreleased: 1.White Christmas (Spanish Version); 1.White Christmas (Italian Version)
VINCE GUARALDI TRIO - A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS
The 2012
Remastered & Expanded Edition CD will feature the original 1965 recording
newly remastered with 24-bit technology from the original analog stereo master
tapes. It also contains three holiday bonus tracks that did not appear on the
original LP: “Greensleeves,” “Thanksgiving Theme,” and “Great Pumpkin Waltz.”
The digi package includes a 20-page booklet featuring memorable Peanuts
character images from the beloved A Charlie Brown Christmas television special
and engaging new liner notes by Peanuts and Vince Guaraldi historian Derrick
Bang, author of Vince Guaraldi at the Piano (McFarland Press). Concurrently,
Fantasy will issue a 2012 LP pressing of the classic album on green vinyl.
When
Guaraldi’s Charlie Brown Christmas album was inducted into the Library of
Congress, the Library’s media release noted, “A Charlie Brown Christmas
introduced jazz to millions of listeners.” According to annotator and Guaraldi
biographer Bang, “The importance of [that] sentence can not be overstated.”
Children all over the world who had resisted jazz as the music of their parents
were given an introduction. Berkeley-based Fantasy Records wisely released a
soundtrack LP of the San Franciscan pianist’s work on the show. (Completing the
Northern California scenario, Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz built his final
studio in Santa Rosa, and it’s there where the Charles M. Schulz Museum was
established as a permanent home to Snoopy and the gang. So too the sweet voices
heard on “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” are from San Rafael’s St. Paul’s Church
Children’s Choir.)
For this
new edition of the soundtrack for A Charlie Brown Christmas, reissue producer
Nick Phillips and remastering impresario Joe Tarantino resurrected the original
stereo analog master tapes along with the original stereo mixes. Longtime fans
may have purchased the album before, but the sonic differences between the new
edition and the album’s debut CD released in 1988 are vastly different, since
analog-to-digital conversion has improved over the past quarter century as a
side-by-side listening comparison will reveal.
The
album’s centerpiece track, today as it was in 1965, is “Christmas Time Is
Here,” particularly the long, soulful instrumental version that clocks in at
just over six minutes.
MAD MEN CHRISTMAS: MUSIC FROM AND INSPIRED BY THE HIT TV SERIES ON AMC (VARIOUS ARTISTS)
Concord
Records has partnered with Lionsgate to
release Mad Men Christmas: Music from and Inspired by the Hit TV Series on AMC
on October 8, 2013. This 12-track release, available on CD exclusively at
Target® stores nationwide, will feature several iconic 1960s Christmas tracks
and one previously unreleased remix of the celebrated “Zou Bisou Bisou” as
performed by character Megan Draper (played by Jessica Paré) in the season five
premiere. Mad Men
Christmas opens with the familiar Mad Men theme song “A Beautiful Mine” by
RJD2, which has accompanied the opening credits since the show’s beginning,
followed by the sultry and hypnotic voice of Paré in an exclusive remix of the
French pop tune “Zou Bisou Bisou (Scotch + Sofa remix)” by IAMX. The album
continues with many of the era’s best-loved Christmas songs, including Dean
Martin’s “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” Rosemary Clooney’s “White Christmas,” Tony
Bennett’s “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” Otis Redding’s “Merry
Christmas Baby” and Vince Guaraldi’s “Christmas Time Is Here,” to name a few.
Mad Men
Christmas: Music From and Inspired by the Hit TV Series on AMC Track List: 1. “A Beautiful Mine” (The Mad Men Theme) – RJD2 / 2. “Zou Bisou Bisou” Remix (Scotch + Sofa Remix
by IAMX) – Jessica Paré / 3. “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” – Darlene
Love / 4. “Baby It’s Cold Outside” – Dean Martin / 5. “The Christmas Song” – Mel Tormé / 6. “Christmas Waltz” – Nellie McKay / 7. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” –
Tony Bennett / 8. “White Christmas” – Rosemary Clooney / 9. “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” – Johnny Mathis / 10.
“Merry Christmas Baby” [take 1]– Otis Redding / 11. “I
Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” – Teresa Brewer / 12.
“Christmas Time Is Here” – Vince Guaraldi /
BOBBY DARIN - THE 25TH OF DECEMBER WITH BOBBY DARIN
Bobby
Darin was probably the most versatile and fearless vocalist of his generation,
fully capable and willing to tackle The Great American Songbook, rock and roll
and even folk music with his impeccable phrasing and warm tone. So why should
his Christmas album be any less adventuresome? The 25th Day of December with
Bobby Darin alternates between reverential, traditional readings of songs like
“O Come All Ye Faithful,” “Ave Maria” and “Dona Nobis Pacem” to rousing,
gospel-inflected numbers like “Child of God,” “Go Tell It on the Mountain” and
“Jehovah Hallelujah,” with great backing (on the gospel songs) by the Bobby
Scott Chorale. This all-time Christmas classic from 1960 has somehow been out
of print for a while; our Real Gone release offers a first time ever STEREO
reissue, complete with a bonus track (in mono), “Christmas Auld Lang Syne.”
Darin expert James Ritz provides the liner notes and rare single picture
sleeves.
Songs: 1. O Come All Ye Faithful / 2. Poor Little Jesus / 3. Child of God / 4. Baby Born Today / 5. Holy Holy Holy / 6. Ave Maria / 7. Go Tell It on the Mountain / 8. While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks / 9. Jehovah Hallelujah / 10.
Mary, Where Is Your Baby? / 11.
Silent Night / 12. Dona
Nobis Pacem / Bonus
Track: 13. Christmas Auld Lang Syne
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