Christmas music

Hey Tireguy, I also love Christmas music during this season. My favorites in order of preference (maybe) are:

Louis Armstrong And Friends, "What A Wonderful Christmas"
Ella Fitzgerald, "Wishes You A Swinging Christmas"
The Manhattan Transfer, "The Christmas Album"
Nat King Cole, "The Christmas Song"
Peggy Lee, "Christmas Carousel"
Frank Sinatra, "The Sinatra Christmas Album"

Biggest disappointment was last year's purchase of Take 6's "He Is Christmas". Gimmicky and way too affected in that "soul diva sings the national anthem" kind of way. Could have been great. By the way it's always amazing to hear how beautifully natural voices can sound on old mono recordings such as on the Armstrong disc. The a cappella chorus on "Silent Night" sounds unbelievable. One can hear very distinctly each individual singer's tone quality as opposed to on even a great (musically) modern recording like Manhattan Transfer's where voices get congealed and indistinct in the electronic ambience.

Happy Holidays!

Eric, the best version I have is the Harmonia Mundi "Messiah Highlights." [HMT 7907120]

You might want to check out this link to CDNow to see if you would like the complete "Messiah" offering from the Hyperion label. (I just ordered it myself.)

http://cdnow.com/cgi-bin/mserver/SID=236229290/pagename=/RP/CDN/CLASS/muzealbum.html/itemid=444401

Charlie

All of the above are truly fine choices specially the "Cantante Domino" chosen by Danvetc this is a TRUE masterpiece. I would like to also add to this line up
"Start of Wonder" on Reference Recordings RR-21 done by Professor Keith Johnson master himself :-)

Also "Messiah" on NEW RCA High Performance
#63317

Anyone for the "A Very Special Christmas" series? The first two (to me) are the best. Reminds me of my youth.

Now for something completely different! Two unusual offerings:"A Christmas Cocktail" from Jaymz Bee and the Royal Jelly Orchestra. Swingin lounge jazz to just plain weird. I guarentee you have never heard Christmas songs done like this before, delightfully over the top. The second is "An American Christmas". A traditional acoustic intrumental collection with Vasser Clements, Norman and Nancy Blake, Roy Huskey Jr.and friends. Fiddle, mandolin, cello, guitar ect. Wonderful warm and beautiful. These two are as different as night and day but both are great fun. Merry Christmas!