2. Don't Be A Grinch This Year
3. Cool Yule
4. Blue Christmas
5. Christmas Lights
6. Take It Back (I Don't Want It)
7. Good King Wenceslas
8. White Christmas
9. Boogie Woogie Santa Claus
10. Baby, It's Cold Outside
11. The Little Drummer Boy
12. Merry Christmas To All
13. Hey Santa
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Of all the Neo-Swing bands that emerged from the revival in the 90s, Royal Crown Revue may have been the one to have the greatest impact and success (though Big Bad Voodoo Daddy likely would want in on that conversation). RCR took their love of diverse genres--Jazz, Blues, Punk, Rockabilly--put them all together, mixed well--shaken, not stirred--and voila, Neo-Swing was born. Royal Crown Revue were immortalized by their appearance in the film "The Mask"; they played while Jim Carey and Cameron Diaz cut a rug of epic proportions. RCR and their Neo-Swing brethren didn't chalk up many Top 40 hits, but they sold plenty of albums and concert tickets and were highly influential to the round of musicians that have followed. RCR still plays to SRO crowds, though this is their first album since 2007.
Royal Crown Revue's Christmas output, prior to "Don't Be A Grinch This Year", consisted of an awesome promotional single, "Hey Santa", in 1998 and an appearance on Nettwerk's "Maybe This Christmas Tree" in 2004, sharing "Baby It's Cold Outside" with Vicky Tafoya. So this, their first full-length Christmas album, is most welcome. Since their last album, RCR has added vocalist Jennifer Keith to the mix and, on her first RCR recording, she has several duets with front man Eddie Nichols including an all new recording of "Baby It's Cold Outside". From the song samples at Amazon, "Hey Santa" sounds like the original (but I'm not going to swear to it). All told, the album boasts five Royal Crown originals. Correction: "Hey Santa" was recorded anew as a duet featuring Eddie & Jennifer.
For my money, nobody swings like Eddie Nichols and Royal Crown Revue. Nobody. Whether or not you agree on that, if you dug the Neo-Swing scene at all, you have to admit that "Don't Be A Grinch This Year" is a welcome addition to the holiday music catalog. At the moment, Amazon doesn't seem to have hard copies available, but you can order them directly from the band.