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With the spookiest holidays of the fall now in the rear view mirror (that's right: Halloween and Election Day!), there's nothing wrong with looking ahead to the Christmas music season and checking out a pair of now-available titles from Universal Music Group spotlighting some of their classic holiday hits and an album by one of catalogue's biggest success stories this year.
UMe is selling a nifty collection of more than a dozen seasonal 7" singles in a collectible carrying case. This Classic Holiday Singles Box features Christmas perennials spanning from the '40s to the '70s, released on various colored vinyl and housed in a mix of vintage recreated and newly-designed picture sleeves. Original single reissues include Bobby Helms' "Jingle Bell Rock," Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" (a surprise No. 1 during the 2023 holiday season, briefly unseating the usual chart-topper, Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You"), Chuck Berry's "Run Rudolph Run" (featured on a new Chess Records Christmas compilation), Elton John's "Step Into Christmas," John Lennon & Yoko Ono's "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" and Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime." The set also features immortals from Bing Crosby ("White Christmas"), Frank Sinatra ("Jingle Bells"), Burl Ives ("A Holly Jolly Christmas"), Nat "King" Cole ("The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on An Open Fire)") and The Beach Boys ("Little Saint Nick"). It's a tremendous party starter for your vinyl-assisted holiday get-together.
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Elsewhere, UMe also has an expanded reissue of Christmas in My Heart, the holiday album by Connie Francis. With an incredible revival of the singer/actress' catalogue this year thanks to the B-side "Pretty Little Baby" going unexpectedly viral on TikTok months before her passing at the age of 87, this expanded Christmas in My Heart is a fun posthumous tribute to her vocal versatility. Originally released in 1959, just as she was beginning to break through on the charts with Top 10s like "Who's Sorry Now," "My Happiness" and "Lipstick on Your Collar," Christmas in My Heart is a perfect display for her voice, evenly split between modern holiday fare ("White Christmas," "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," "Winter Wonderland") and sacred carols of auld ("Silent Night," "The First Noel," "Ave Maria"). The album's been augmented with four additional tracks on CD, including two winter-themed non-album sides, the rarity "Happy New Year Baby" and, of course, "Baby's First Christmas," a holiday staple released as a B-side in 1961. (A new black vinyl pressing also adds "Baby's First Christmas" and "I'm Gonna Be Warm This Winter" to the original running order.)
Both titles are available to order and shipping now. (The Classic Holiday Singles Box has an Amazon page marked "currently unavailable" but is also available through uDiscover Music. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.)
Connie Francis, Christmas in My Heart (Expanded Edition) (Republic/UMe, 2025)
CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
* CD-only bonus track
- White Christmas
- Winter Wonderland
- The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting)
- I'll Be Home for Christmas
- The Twelve Days of Christmas
- Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
- Adeste Fidelis
- The Lord's Prayer
- Silent Night
- O Little Town of Bethlehem
- The First Noel
- Ave Maria
- Baby's First Christmas
- I'm Gonna Be Warm This Winter
- Blue Winter *
- Happy New Year Baby *
Tracks 1-12 released as MGM Records SE-3792, 1959
Track 13 released on "When the Boy in Your Arms (is the Boy in Your Heart" single - MGM Records K13051, 1961
Track 14 released on MGM Records single K13116, 1962
Track 15 released on MGM Records single K13214, 1964
Track 16 released on Rocksides (1967-64) - Polydor 831 698-2, 1987
Classic Holiday Singles Box (UMe, 2025) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / uDiscover Music)
The Beach Boys, "Little Saint Nick" b/w "Auld Lang Syne" (Ice Blue; Capitol single A-side 5096, 1963 and track from The Beach Boys' Christmas Album - Capitol ST-2164, 1963; reissued as Capitol 602468013129, 2024)
Bing Crosby, "White Christmas" b/w "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas" (Snow White; Decca single A-side 23778, 1947 and Decca single B-side 27831, 1951)
Bobby Helms, "Jingle Bell Rock" b/w "Captain Santa Claus (and His Reindeer Space Patrol)" (Apple Red; released as Decca single 9-30513, 1957)
Brenda Lee, "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" b/w "Papa Nöel" (Translucent Emerald; released as Decca single 9-30776, 1961)
Burl Ives, "A Holly Jolly Christmas" b/w "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (Snow White; Decca single A-side 31695, 1964 and track from Have a Holly Jolly Christmas - Decca DL 74689, 1965; reissued as Decca 602465783858, 2024)
Chuck Berry, "Run Rudolph Run" b/w "Merry Christmas Baby" (Evergreen; released as Chess single 1714, 1958)
Dean Martin, "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow" b/w "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (Snow White; released on A Winter Romance - Capitol T-1285, 1959)
Ella Fitzgerald, "Sleigh Ride" b/w "Jingle Bells" (Deep Red; tracks from Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas - Verve MG V-4042, 1960; released as Verve single V-2061 (Denmark), 1960)
Elton John, "Step Into Christmas" b/w "Ho Ho Ho (Who'd Be a Turkey At Christmas)" (Evergreen; released as DJM single DJS.290, 1973)
Frank Sinatra, "Jingle Bells" b/w "Silent Night" (Evergreen; tracks from A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra - Capitol W-894, 1957; reissued as Capitol/UMe single 602468048688, 2024)
Jackson 5, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" / "Christmas Won't Be the Same This Year" (Apple Red; released as Motown single M-1174, 1970)
John Lennon, Yoko Ono & The Plastic Ono Band, "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" / "Listen, the Snow is Falling" (Evergreen; released as Apple single 1842, 1971)
Nat "King" Cole, "The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)" / "Deck the Halls" (Opaque Baby Blue; track recorded for The Nat King Cole Story - Capitol WCL 1613, 1961 and track from The Magic of Christmas - Capitol SW-1444, 1960)
Paul McCartney, "Wonderful Christmastime" / "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reggae" (Canary Yellow; released as Parlophone single R 6029, 1979)
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Who, in this day and age, would put a CD in a player in order to play *one song*, then take it out to put in a different CD to play one song, ad infinitum? What are they thinking?
For what it's worth, those are vinyl singles. 🙂
Oh. In the words of Emily Litteral, never mind. 🙂
And you get TWO songs!
If they DID do a CD version I'd def get it mostly for the art. We all have most of this stuff but it's a nice presentation.
The picture sleeve for the Elton John Step Into Christmas single is rather disappointing. First of all I really dislike that E with the star logo some bozo came up with that is used on a lot of Elton's merchandise. But couldn't they have come up with something better, more of the era? There was a picture sleeve for colored vinyl reissues of the single. Not a great cover but would have been better than this sleeve.
I'm listening to the Connie Francis disc today. I like it. Minor quibble. The liner notes super cheap and skimpy.
Re: Robert Lett's comments: True. I also was hoping for in-depth liner notes and a booklet with the CD, containing, for example, some more Christmas photos of this extraordinarily talented, but regrettably highly underrated singer. As for the four albums, recently put out for download by Universal, who on earth was responsible for the miserable "mastering" on quite a few songs on "My Heart Cries For You" and "Jealous Heart". I find it unbelievable to put out such poor quality, i.e. volume level changes, hardly a millisecond pause between titles, late start into tracks etc. Connie certainly has deserved better than this. The engineer(s) responsible for this mess should be sacked.