The vinyl revival continues and we've got a bunch of music joining that parade this Christmas. Also got a lot of old vinyl finally making its way to CD. These are very strange times.
Speaking of strange times, I'm opening with the oddball...just cuz.
If you were like me in the 80s and 90s, you haunted all manner of record stores, picking up any odd little Christmas record you could find. There was no Internet. Your friends didn't tell you, "Dude, you need to check this out." You came, you saw, and you bought...with no clue what a disc was going to sound like when you got it home.
No other dynamic would have led to me possessing "It's A Wonderful Record" by Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet, the Canadian Alt Surf group. I wish I could tell you that that EP was being re-issued. It's not. But three of that band's albums are being re-issued (by Yep Roc) and "Dim The Lights, Chill The Ham" from 1991 includes both "Winterfresh" and "Deck The Halls" among the bonus tracks on the CD and digital re-issues (the vinyl re-issue comes with a download card for the bonus tracks). "Santa's Compromise", which was not on the Christmas EP, is also a bonus track. Look for the re-issue of "Dim The Lights, Chill The Ham" on September 16. And, for those of you without, here's the EP in full.
So let's see what Real Gone has in store for Christmas 2016.
Mantovani: Christmas Carols
Ray Conniff: Christmas With Conniff, We Wish You A Merry Christmas and Here We Come A-Caroling (The Complete Columbia Christmas Recordings) (2-CD Set)
The Norman Luboff Choir: Christmas With The Norman Luboff Choir and Songs Of Christmas (2fer CD)
The Robert Shaw Chorale: Christmas Hymns And Carols, Volume 1 and Christmas Hymns And Carols, Volume 2 (2fer CD)
The Living Strings and The Living Guitars: The Sound Of Christmas and The Joy Of Christmas (2fer CD)
Sammy Kaye: I Want To Wish You A Merry Christmas
Eddy Arnold: Christmas With Eddy Arnold (The Complete RCA Christmas Recordings)
Mitch Miller And The Gang: Christmas Sing Along With Mitch (Expanded Edition)
Jack Jones: The Jack Jones Christmas Album
The Ventures: The Ventures Christmas Album
The Supremes: Merry Christmas
And 2017 will bring Percy Faith's 1959 stereo version of "Music of Christmas". When CDs were brand new, back in the 80s, that was one title Columbia released on CD. But it was released the way a lot of catalog product was released at the time--without proper remastering or informative liner notes. You can bet your Christmas donkey that Real Gone's reissue is going to look and sound amazing.
We've already mentioned "James Taylor At Christmas", Diana Krall's "Christmas Songs", and Ray Coniff's "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" as well as the two "Holiday Soul" Jazz classics. And, on our List, we have release dates planned for Chris Tomlin's "Adore" and the Friday Music audiophile recording of "Once Upon A Christmas" from Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. Another Friday Music audiophile vinyl recording--one I believe that was pushed back from last year--is John Denver's "Rocky Mountain Christmas". I know a lot of Christmas music fans for whom that was their first ever Christmas album.
In the past, a lot of these vinyl re-issues were done by smaller labels licensing the material from the majors. But the major labels are rolling out the vinyl this year as well. Glen Campbell's "That Christmas Feeling" and Merle Haggard's "Christmas Present". More recent albums getting the vinyl treatment include Faith Evans' "Faithful Christmas" and Justin Bieber's "Under The Mistletoe". All four of those are expected to release on September 23.
I've often said that the Christmas music floodgates were opened in earnest when the first "A Very Special Christmas" album was released in 1987. It continues to be a big seller...on CD. But, if you've longed for vinyl, your wish will come true this fall (if it isn't pushed back, anyway).
Also new on vinyl this year are last year's Christmas album from The Count Basie Orchestra, "A Very Swingin' Basie Christmas", and "Jann Arden's Christmas", the latter expected on October 28.