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All three Louis Armstrong songs are a treat, especially Zat You, Santa Claus, where Louis thinks Santa is a prowler. Lena Horne's Jingle all the way is a little too pop to be jazz. There are two scat tunes, Leo Watson's jingle Bells and Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross's Deck us all with Boston Charlie.
That track does not belong on any compilation. However, the rest is very enjoyable with many tunes you don't hear on the radio. It's horrible.
I like this cd as it has a lot of different styles to it. Blue X-mas is for people that think Christmas is way overdone.The only one that doesn't fit is Tim Fuller doing Silent Night. Highly recommended.
Both a ot of fun. There's Santa Done Got Hip is more of a pop tune.
I wore this out on cassette in the mid 90's and lost a Cd copy in a breakup with a girl who loved this album as much as I did, but now I have my new Cd copy and we will never part ways again. Insanely infectious stuff. This song pops up in my head at the most inapropriate times all through the year.
Louis Armstrong is the undisputed star of this collection with not only 3 great tracks but is also the cover boy on the CD artwork. There is zany over the top scat singing and nonsense lyrics like Leo Watson's inimitable (literally) "Jingle Bells" and "Deck Us All With Boston Charlie" by Lambert,Hendricks and Ross. I love Christmas albums and I have them all from Mathis to Motown, Sinatra to Connick and Buble, Phil Spector's epochal classic to Whitney and Luther Vandross etc.,but this is the most fun Xmas music ever.
My favorite has to be Big John Greer's "We Want To See Santa Do The Mambo". This music is how I see and hear Christmas. One thing this relentlessly joyous, ebullient music captures well is the dichotomy of Christmas-the mass consumerism mixed with partying and tree decorating and oh yeah, the birth of Christ.
Eartha Kitt has probably the best known track here with her kittenish "Santa Baby" but is topped by Pearl Baily's "5 Pound Box Of Money" and Mile Davis' uber cynical "Blue Xmas(To Whom It May Concern").
I've had this for 10 years and it is still my favorite holiday cd. This is my first review ever, that should tell you how much I love this. This is a great nostalgic cd for any age.
But I have to question why Tim Fuller's "Silent Night" from 1989 is here, when the rest of the songs are from the 40s, 50s and 60s. I also should mention that the sound quality is not that great on a few tracks, which sound like they were recorded from scratchy old 78s. This is a collection of jazzy Christmas songs. It seems a bit out of place here (it's good, though). Despite that, this is a fun collection which should inspire you to have a "cool" Christmas. But don't be scared, it's vocal jazz, which is more accessible than instrumental jazz (some of the tracks actually lean more towards R&B than jazz). There are a lot of cool songs here.
Play it year round. My favorites are Eartha Kitt's "Santa Baby" and the Tim Fuller Experience's 'lounge lizard' rendition of "Silent Night." You gotta buy this cd. What more can I say, this is one excellent compilation. The Louis Armstrong material is exceptional.
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