The Culture Factory label, which reissues classic albums in limited edition mini-LP replica sleeves, has a trio of Christmas titles due this Friday likely to make spirits bright.
The label has already released Vince Guaraldi's oft-reissued soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas as an exclusive release for retailer FYE. It's joined this week by straight reissues (no bonus material) of The Beach Boys' Christmas Album and James Brown's Soulful Christmas at general retail, as well as an Amazon-exclusive reissue of Meco's Christmas in the Stars: The Star Wars Christmas Album. All titles feature their original LP cover artwork.
The stone-cold classic of the bunch is, of course, The Beach Boys' Christmas Album. The 1964 release, produced by Brian Wilson, blended the old and the new as it featured five original rock-and-roll songs (three by Wilson and Mike Love, and two more by the solo Wilson) alongside lush renditions of holiday staples with arrangements by Dick Reynolds. Wilson and Love's infectious "Little Saint Nick," first released as a single during the 1963 holiday season but remixed for inclusion on the original album, has since become a standard in itself, with their "The Man with All the Toys" not far behind. (Trivia: both "The Man with All the Toys" and "Santa's Beard" feature The Beach Boys playing as well as singing, with Brian on piano, Dennis Wilson on drums, Carl Wilson on rhythm guitar and overdubbed lead guitar, and Al Jardine on electric bass.) Though Mike had the lead on three of the original songs (and shared "The Man with All the Toys" with Brian) and Al sang lead on "Christmas Day," Brian gave some of his most heartfelt leads on Side Two's classics including "Frosty the Snowman," "Blue Christmas," "White Christmas" and "I'll Be Home for Christmas" - the latter clearly influenced by his love of The Four Freshmen.
James Brown's A Soulful Christmas, from 1968, was the Godfather of Soul's second Christmas outing following 1966's simply-titled Christmas Songs. On the former, Brown blended original songs (mostly co-written with musical director/arranger Nat Jones) with renditions of favorite songs including "Merry Christmas Baby," "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)" and "Please Come Home for Christmas." For the release, Jones led a band consisting of King Records' house musicians and a few ringers from Brown's own group. When Brown decided to do another seasonal platter in 1968, there were a few notable differences. A Soulful Christmas featured Brown's own band playing the arrangements by Nat Jones and bandleader Pee Wee Ellis, and the material was all-original. The album led off with a song more scorching and funky than anything on the 1966 set: "Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto." The album, in total, had five vocal tracks and five instrumentals, as well as the LP premiere of Brown's new single, "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud." When Brown released an album by that name some months after the release of A Soulful Christmas, the LP divided the song into two parts. The only place to find it at the time in full was on the Christmas record! Though Hip-o Select beautifully collected all of Brown's 1966-1970 holiday songs as The Complete James Brown Christmas in 2010, Culture Factory restores the original Soulful Christmas album to print.
TSD's Mike Duquette addressed Christmas in the Stars: The Star Wars Christmas Album back in 2010 in his column entitled "Galactic Novelties." With the upcoming release of the already record-breaking Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the time has never been better to revisit this musical oddity. It was largely the work of Meco Monardo, the talented producer and arranger who had taken his disco version of John Williams' original Star Wars themes to the top of the Billboard chart in 1977. Meco had made a cottage industry out of disco-fying favorite film themes, scoring further Hot 100 successes with danceable spins on everything from Close Encounters of the Third Kind to The Wizard of Oz. For 1980's RSO Records release Christmas in the Stars, Meco enlisted Anthony Daniels as narrator C-3PO and Ben Burtt as R2-D2 and Chewbacca. Notable participants included Maury Yeston, future Tony Award-winning composer of such musicals as Nine and Titanic, who supplied most of the original songs including the infamous charting single "What Can You Get a Wookiee for Christmas (When He Already Owns a Comb)," as well as Jon Bon Jovi. The then-Jon Bongiovi, cousin of album co-producer and frequent Meco collaborator Tony Bongiovi, made his first appearance on record as lead vocalist of "R2-D2, We Wish You a Merry Christmas." (Even the legendary lyricist Sammy Cahn got in on the album, co-writing "Bells, Bells, Bells" with composer Larry Grossman.) Christmas in the Stars has been released on CD a couple of times before, including a 1994 PolyGram Special Products release stripping the title of all things Star Wars. Happily, Culture Factory's reissue restores the original artwork - and George Lucas' credit!
All four titles are pressed on red CDs designed in the style of vinyl, with original record company labels. Inner sleeves and OBI strips are also included. A Charlie Brown Christmas is available now at FYE stores; the remaining three CDs are due this week and can be ordered at the links below!
The Vince Guaraldi Trio, A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Original Sound Track Recording of The CBS Television Special (originally released as Fantasy 8431, 1965 - reissued Culture Factory, 2015) (Available in FYE stores)
- Tannenbaum
- What Child is This?
- My Little Drum
- Linus and Lucy
- Christmas Time is Here (Instrumental)
- Christmas Time is Here
- Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
- Skating
- Christmas is Coming
- Für Elise
- The Christmas Song
The Beach Boys, The Beach Boys' Christmas Album (Capitol ST-2164, 1964 - reissued Culture Factory, 2015) (Amazon U.S.)
- Little Saint Nick
- The Man with All the Toys
- Santa's Beard
- Merry Christmas Baby
- Christmas Day
- 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
James Brown, A Soulful Christmas (King Records KS-1040, 1968 - reissued Culture Factory, 2015) (Amazon U.S.)
- Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto
- Santa Claus, Santa Claus
- Believers Shall Enjoy (Non-Believers Shall Suffer)
- Soulful Christmas
- Tit for Tat (Ain't No Taking Back)
- Christmas is Coming
- Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud (Parts I & II)
- In the Middle
- Let's Unite the Whole World at Christmas
- You Know It
- Santa Claus Gave Me a Brand New Start
Meco, Christmas in the Stars: Star Wars Christmas Album (RSO Records RS-1-3093, 1980 - reissued Culture Factory, 2015) (Amazon U.S.)
- Christmas in the Stars
- Bells, Bells, Bells
- The Odds Against Christmas
- What Do You Get a Wookiee for Christmas (When He Already Has a Comb?)
- R2-D2 We Wish You a Merry Christmas
- Sleigh Ride
- Merry, Merry Christmas
- A Christmas Sighting ('Twas the Night Before Christmas)
- The Meaning of Christmas
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Interesting - these look like straight reissues only. I already have the Beach Boys' 1991 CD with some extra songs, so I don't need their reissue. IIRC, the Vince Guaraldi was reissued a few times, and had different extras on each version.
Any idea if the Beach Boys' Christmas Album is in mono or stereo? If my memory serves correctly, it has not been available on CD in its original mono mix.
I'm not sure, but I'll guess Stereo like my 1991 Capitol CD +4 extra songs. You're probably better off searching that one out instead. IIRC, it was reissued yet again by Capitol (1998??) with different extras.
As Victor said below, I was probably thinking of the 'Ultimate Christmas' reissue.
The Ultimate Christmas reissue is WAY superior to all the other reissues of the Beach Boys Christmas Album (at least for the stereo). All the other CD reissues for the album seem to feature a remix of the first track to match the single (with jingle bells) and the rest of the Side 1 tracks folded to mono (aka NOT the real mono mixes) while the Side 2 tracks are severely narrowed. Not only does the Ultimate Christmas reissue feature the stereo album unfolded and unnarrowed (replete with the LP version of "Little Saint Nick" lacking jingle bells), but it also features all the other related BB Christmas tracks including some of the ones planned for their unreleased 1977 Christmas album. IMO the only flaw is the omission of "The Lord's Prayer" (B-side to "Little Saint Nick"). If you ever find that CD for cheap, I recommend to go grab it! It's very good.
If you can do digital downloads, then I also highly recommend the mono version of the album on HDTracks and iTunes. It's the only album not part of the AP SACD or 2012 reissues (besides the Concert albums), so IMO it's a must-have, especially since the mono wasn't available anywhere else (besides the 2014 vinyl reissue) prior to this.
I will go out on a limb and say, if history is any indicator, these will sound - I'll try to be kind - less than stellar.
Damn, these guys are still in business?
The other two might have some merit, but I can say for sure that the Beach Boys Christmas CD will be useless, since the stereo mix of this was already beautifully remastered on the Sandoval-produced Ultimate Christmas CD. And it's not even the mono mix, which BTW has been reissued on HDTracks and iTunes (is the stall mono mix, I checked).
I was thinking the same thing about them being in business. They haven't had anything new in quite some time and they never respond to posts on their Facebook page. I like the label and I think the fidelity of their reissues are great. The last three Kim Carnes CDs sounded awesome. I just wish they would put more stuff out and much more frequently.
What do you mean by "stall" mono mixes? I'm thinking about getting the mono/ stereo download.
I dunno. I typed that 4 days ago. But it was probably a crappy typo from my Android Samsung Galaxy Mega 2, and what I most likely meant to say was "it's the real mono mix" (which it definitely is). Yeah, the download is recommended, you get the mono mix, and from what I can tell, the stereo mix isn't folded/narrowed like on previous releases (except Ultimate Christmas, of course).
The vocals on The Beach Boys' Christmas Album (other than the original songs) were arranged by Dick Reynolds, who had done many vocal arrangements for the Four Freshmen, so the resemblance is no accident.
Indeed, Brian has never been shy about his love of the Freshmen and his respect for Dick Reynolds and his work.