zmanbarzell's Full Review: Ultimate Christmas by The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys capped off the heady year of 1964 with "The Beach Boys Christmas Album", their 4th album of the year and their 8th overall.
Rock n' Roll Christmas albums are a pretty motley assortment, with only Phil Spector's majestic "A Christmas Gift For You" standing out of the pack.It may have been Spector's lead that inspired Brian Wilson to put together his own holiday package, but more likely it was the incessant demand for product from Capitol Records that was also driving him to the point of nervous exhaustion. Also, the year before, the Boys had a chart hit with "Little Saint Nick", a slightly contrived but enjoyable hotsled 45. So it was only natural to capitalize on that success and slap together a full seasonal L.P.,which they did in the last two weeks of June 1964.
Brian approached the project in an interesting manner,recording one side in the band's usual style, and the other in the pop-vocal mode of groups like The Four Freshmen. Brian and Mike Love composed 4 new songs for the album ("The Man With All The Toys", "Santa's Beard", "Merry Christmas Baby", "Christmas Day" ) which were hastily recorded with the band playing the instrumental tracks themselves (a rare occurrance by this time). These tracks are very pleasant but undistinguished, the major note of interest being the debut lead vocal performance of Al Jardine on "Christmas Day".
The vocal-group tracks were cut with a 41-piece orchestra and arranged by Dick Reynolds, one of the Four Freshmen's creative team. These tracks ("Frosty The Snowman", "We Three Kings Of Orient Are", "Blue Christmas", "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town", "White Christmas", "I'll Be Home For Christmas", "Auld Lang Syne") remain the most anomalous of the band's career. The arrangements are lovely and the group's voices sound great but the album as a whole remains by default the weakest of the band's first two decades.
The "Ultimate Christmas" C.D. also contains 14 bonus tracks. The 4 that relate closest to the original L.P. are a new stereo mix of the 45 version of "Little Saint Nick" (the single featured glockenspiel,celeste and sleigh-bell overdubs that were stripped off for the album mix), a mix of "Auld Lang Syne" that does not feature Dennis Wilson's lame narration (this was originally released on the "Rarities" L.P.), a hilarious take of "Little Saint Nick" that features the band singing the lyrics to the tune of the "All Summer Long" album track "Drive-In" (this was originally issued on the 1992 C.D. of "Christmas Album" in mono-it was mixed to stereo for this collection) and a short interview with Brian taken from a Capitol Records promo L.P. about the album.(Unfortunately Capitol excluded from this C.D. the b-side of "Little Saint Nick", a gorgeous acapella rendition of "The Lord's Prayer". Why the compilers would include this on the 1992 issue of "Christmas" and not here is a mystery.)
This C.D. also contains 8 tracks related to an unreleased attempt at a second Christmas album from 1977. The first of these was actually recorded and released (in a very limited issue) in 1974. "Child Of Winter (Christmas Song)" was written and recorded in a hurry by Brian on a strange impulse in November of the year. The very late issue ensured it's total lack of commercial success, but it would probably have sank like a stone anyway, as it's a pretty lame and slightly deranged attempt by Brian at a vaguely Spectorian novelty record.
The other tracks were mostly recorded at the Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa during an attempt by the band to record the first album in their recently signed contract with C.B.S. This plan was thwarted by Warner Brothers, who insisted that the band owed them one more L.P. The band tried to throw away this obligation on another Christmas album, turning their mostly limp new compositions into holiday songs via hastily written and recorded new sets of lyrics. Warners wisely ignored this L.P. and demanded a regular set of songs, so the band was forced to throw together the ill-fated "M.I.U. Album" which was a huge commercial bust in the summer of 1978.
These Iowa sessions were guided and mostly produced by Al Jardine, picking up the mantle from the weary Carl Wilson. He took the basic track from the eight-year-old outtake "Loop De Loop" (which was finally issued on the "Endless Harmony" soundtrack in 1998), recorded new overdubs and turned it into "Santa's Got An Airplane". Two half-finished Brian outtakes were finished for this project as well:the atrocious "(I Saw Santa) Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" and the fairly tuneful "Winter Symphony", which was finished by Brian and Al together.3 tracks were recycled for "M.I.U.": "Christmas Time Is Here Again" (which is simply their soggy cover of Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sue" with holiday lyrics),"Melekalikimaka" (which surfaced as the "Hawaii" retread "Kona Coast") and "Bells Of Christmas" (which is far more listenable than the released "Belles Of Paris").
Dennis truly saves the day here though with the stunning and haunting "Morning Christmas", recorded on his own apart from the group. A gorgeous melody, striking instrumentation and an eerie "Smiley Smile"-like droning production add up to the best track on this C.D. by far and conclusive proof that Dennis was the most creatively on-track at this point in the band's career, a point also well served by his excellent solo L.P. "Pacific Ocean Blue".
The C.D. is filled out with two public service announcements recorded in 1977 in Seattle for a local toy drive program.
If you want a listenable rock n'roll Christmas album, pick this up. If you are a Beach Boys fanatic, you'll like it. Otherwise you'd be well advised to just stick with the "Little Saint Nick" 45, which is available on many compilations.
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