[.ca] Greatest Christmas Songs

Love this album!:
I first heard these interesting Christmas songs as a child in the 1960's on "A Christmas Treasure". I begged my father to buy the album for me because it was by my favourite singer, Julie Andrews. The rest of my family didn't like the album, because the arrangements were not traditional, and some of the tunes were different from the ones we knew. However, I fell in love with it, and have played my old record until it is basically just scratches and static now. That's why I was so thrilled to find it again on CD. Julie's voice is amazing, and the arrangements by Andre Previn are stunning, even if not traditional. There are some songs here that I haven't heard anywhere else, but they are all worth listening to over and over again. This is one Christmas album no one should be without.

The magic is there but hope your CD player is programmable!:
I've heard a joke about somebody going into a bank that advertised "Six Month CDs" and saying, "Gee, I don't see how they can really get that much music on one disc!" Well, here's a CD that would need to be almost that long to make all its songs timely, as I'll shortly explain. I came into the world just in time for THE SOUND OF MUSIC to be one of my earliest formative movie experiences, and it got some of those of my generation started off thinking of Julie Andrews as someone who could probably walk on water or something. Naturally when my earliest remembered Christmas came back around then, I really wanted the new Firestone record of Julie Andrews singing Christmas songs. That's why I was most pleased as a grownup just a year ot two ago to find this CD. It has all the songs on that old Firestone vinyl record, and then some bonus tracks. I had grown to love these songs and make them an integral part of my Christmas experience from way back in those childhood days. At first some of them may be not quite what you expect, but they grow on you. It was this collection that first taught me new tunes to "Away In A Manger" and "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear". At first I missed hearing Julie sing the more familiar tunes that I expected here, but since I've come to love these previously unfamiliar tunes as at least as beautiful. But the most unique song in the collection must be "The Bells of Christmas" a song I've never known to be recorded before or since this one recording by Julie Andrews. It is a beautiful song, and I don't know why it has never seemed to become popular. When we get tired of most every christmas collection having such overrated songs as "Jingle Bells" and "I'll Be Home For Christmas", it is so nice to have this song, which deserved as much success, to listen to. When as a grownup I found my old vinyl record wearing old and my old player getting harder and harder to get replacement parts for, I feared this treasured collection might be effectively lost to me. That's why the CD was such a great find, for now I have the songs readily playable and restored to fresh new quality. There are five bonus tracks on the CD, two of which are additional Christmas songs. But the one bafflement of it all is the other three. They come at the end and are not Christmas songs. If you're at all like me, you want your Christmas discs to not end with non-Christmas songs. To increase that bafflement to the point of almost making one wonder if it is a joke, the first of those three songs (hence the one immediately following the Christmas songs) is, of all things, "It Might As Well Be Spring". What a clearer way to seem to say "I sure got out of the Christmas spirit in a hurry" than to follow a collection of Christmas songs by bursting directly into "It Might As Well Be Spring"? So if you're at all like me, I hope you have a fully programmable CD player and can program it to play only the Christmas songs. Then a few months later, get out the disc for a more fitting time to listen to the other three songs.

This Album is Christmas to Me:
I also grew up with "A Christmas Treasure", the orginal album on which the Christmas songs on this CD were originally released. I've listened to these songs over and again over the past approx. 40 years and they remain some of my favourites! The Irish and Wexford Carols are haunting. When I hear this music I think of Christmases past and in many ways this album IS Christmas to me. I'm SO glad it is released on CD with some bonus tracks as well. Too bad they didn't find some more Christmas songs though, such as from "Christmas with Julie Andrews" to include instead of putting non-Christmas songs on a Christmas Album (seems funny). However, I do enjoy listening to Christmas music all year, so it suits me fine.

Beautiful music from Julie and Andre:
This is an outstanding Christmas album, featuring Julie's lovely voice singing in front of an orchestra conducted and arranged by Andre Previn. Most of the songs are traditional, but some of them are obscure, having fallen out of favor down the years. Julie has rescued them and proves that they are just as good as the more famous songs. Even though several of the songs are well-known, they are all well-chosen. Julie and Andre bring out the best in each and every one of them. If I were to name favorites, they would be based on the rarity of the individual songs rather than the actual performances, all of which are absolutely impeccable. The original Christmas album has three bonus tracks which are nothing to do with Christmas, but are still welcome (It might as well be spring, Falling in love with love and Cheek to cheek) as they are every bit as good as the main album. Can Christmas music get any better than this? Not much, if at all, although I think Julie's second Christmas album is even better than this one. Buy them both - you won't regret it !

• Joy to the World
• Irish Carol
• O Little Town of Bethlehem
• Deck the Halls
• Angels from the Realms of Glory
• Lamb of God
• Away in a Manger
• Sunny Bank
• It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
• Greensleeves
• Bells of Christmas
• God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
• Wexford Carol
• Jingle Bells
• It Might as Well Be Spring
• Falling in Love With Love
• Cheek to Cheek