It’s Time for Mistletoe and Holly: Capitol Releases Sinatra’s “Ultimate Christmas”
Summer may still be in its final days, but when it comes to music, Christmas is just around the corner! Today, Capitol/UMe announced a new collection from Frank Sinatra set for release on October 6. Ultimate Christmas collects 20 of the Chairman’s seasonal standards from both his Capitol and Reprise periods, spanning 1954 to 1991, including collaborations with his children Frank, Tina, and Nancy. This collection will be available in CD, digital, and 180-gram 2-LP black vinyl editions, as well as a limited 2-LP white vinyl edition exclusively offered for preorder on the Sinatra Store and Universal’s webstore, UDiscover Music.
Ultimate Christmas appears to be chronologically arranged, beginning with Sinatra’s 1954 Capitol single release of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” b/w Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne’s “The Christmas Waltz,” written for Sinatra and perhaps the holiday favorite most closely associated with him. (Sinatra recorded it three times – twice for Capitol and once for Reprise.) Both sides were arranged and conducted by the great Nelson Riddle. The compilation then proceeds to feature six tracks from 1957’s Capitol perennial A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra. Gordon Jenkins’ lush arrangements of “Mistletoe and Holly” (co-written by Sinatra), “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” “The Christmas Song,” and more are all featured here. “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” was performed by Frank for his ABC-TV program, and a version with additional orchestration arrived on CD in 2009.
Sinatra’s “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” was the title track of a 1963 Reprise promotional various artists LP; it’s joined here by a trio of tracks from his 1964 joint LP with Bing Crosby and Fred Waring, 12 Songs of Christmas including Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen’s “An Old Fashioned Christmas” and Johnny Marks’ “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” Four songs have been plucked from 1969’s Riddle-arranged The Sinatra Family Wish You a Merry Christmas, such as Jimmy Webb’s wistful “Whatever Happened to Christmas” and Cahn and Van Heusen’s tailor-made “I Wouldn’t Trade Christmas.” Sinatra was joined by his children on this festive album; these cuts represent all of his contributions to the LP other than a remake of “The Christmas Waltz.”
Two tracks, both arranged by Don Costa, are taken from a 1975 single: John Denver’s “A Baby Just Like You” and Costa and Alan and Marilyn Bergman’s “Christmas Mem’ries,” before Ultimate Christmas concludes with Sinatra’s final Christmas recording: a touching and spare 1991 version of “Silent Night,” originally recorded with piano accompaniment by Frank Jr. for a children’s charity. It was enhanced with full orchestration in 2004 by Johnny Mandel, which is likely the version that will appear here.
It’s fair to quibble about favorites being excluded (this author would vote for the ebullient “We Wish You the Merriest”), but Ultimate Christmas looks to be a fine representation of Sinatra’s Capitol and Reprise Christmas music. Of his roughly 40 holiday recordings, twelve sides were for Columbia Records, meaning that around two-thirds of his Capitol and Reprise output can be found on this one collection. You can pre-order Ultimate Christmas, due on October 6 on CD/2-LP/DD, at the links below!
Frank Sinatra, Ultimate Christmas (Capitol/UMe, 2017)
CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada TBD
Vinyl LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada TBD
- White Christmas
- The Christmas Waltz
- It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
- Jingle Bells
- The First Noël
- Mistletoe And Holly
- The Christmas Song
- I’ll Be Home For Christmas
- Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
- Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
- An Old Fashioned Christmas
- I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day
- The Little Drummer Boy
- Whatever Happened To Christmas
- The Twelve Days Of Christmas – with Nancy, Frank Jr. and Tina Sinatra
- The Bells Of Christmas (Greensleeves) – with Nancy, Frank Jr. and Tina Sinatra
- I Wouldn’t Trade Christmas – with Nancy, Frank Jr. and Tina Sinatra
- A Baby Just Like You
- Christmas Memories
- Silent Night
Tracks 1-2 from Capitol single F 2954, 1954
Tracks 3-8 from A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra, Capitol LP W 894, 1957
Track 9 likely from The Frank Sinatra Show, ABC-TV, 1957, released on DVD as Happy Holidays with Bing and Frank; released on CD with overdubs on Christmas with Sinatra and Friends, Concord CRE-31672, 2009
Track 10 from Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Reprise LP R 50,001, 1963
Tracks 11-13 from 12 Songs of Christmas, Reprise LP FS-2022, 1964
Tracks 14-17 from The Sinatra Family Wish You a Merry Christmas, Reprise LP FS-1026, 1969
Tracks 18-19 from Reprise single RPS 1342, 1975
Track 20 from The Christmas Collection, Reprise/Rhino R2 76542, 2004
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I agree – its too bad “We Wish You The Merriest” (with Bing Crosby) and “Go Tell It On The Mountain” (with Bing as well) are missing from this release……