Chip - Do you know of any other labels that will be re-releasing older Christmas albums on CD? I see that a Buck Owens set is coming out soon.

Rich

I have no words.  Very sad news indeed.

No Rich, all I know of so far is the Buck Owens.

Very sad and disappointed, but understandable. I was hoping for a release of the Frank Chacksfield Christmas album, among others. Maybe they will make it up to us next year. 

Be safe and well!

I see there's a Peggy Lee compilation CD that came out this past Friday....

Yes, but it's not a complete collection; as for some bizarre reason two songs from Peggy's original 1960 Christmas album, Christmas Carousel, were not included: "The Christmas List" and "The Christmas Riddle." However, amazingly, they found room on the CD for a bunch of bonus tracks.

If we had done this release at Real Gone Music, this would have been a *complete* collection.

So, anyway, this is far from being the "Ultimate" Peggy Lee Christmas album that the CD's title suggests. In short: the brainless wonders at Universal Music blew it big time with this release. And Peggy deserved better.

 Chip,

Thanks for the update.  I will be looking forward to seeing what is in store for the 2021 releases!

Jim

I'm sorry to hear that there will not be any other releases this year.

I was looking forward to purchasing a follow up to The Great Songs of Christmas, and hoping for some surprise release (The Jack Halloran Singers, perhaps?).

Thanks again, Chip, for all you do for us Christmas Music Lovers.

It's another Record Store Day and I was wondering...  Chip, do you think there is a possibility we might have some new releases this year?  I know it's early for an announcement, but things seem to be looking up in 2121.

The pandemic may be better, Randy, but this year also looks to be a bleak one for new releases. Unfortunately, the pandemic has changed the industry as we knew it.

I’m a little surprised at that.  Not about the industry changing, that’s for sure, but Real Gone seems to be pretty active this year.  It’s their anniversary and I seem to be getting a new release update e-mail from them about every two weeks. 

No Randy, it's not surprising at all; there are only two labels that concern us with regard to Christmas music: SME and UMG. And both companies are not cooperating. In addition, with Christmas music, there's the added disadvantage that it's a seasonal genre with limited profit potential for the record companies and, therefore, the lowest priority for them right now.

The only label that's currently granting Christmas music clearances is WMG, which is the worst label when it comes to a Christmas music library. They practically have zilch, nada.

The bulk of the regular (non-Christmas) music output that Gordon's getting out right now is WMG's WEA labels (Warner, Elektra, Atlantic).

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the current situation stinks like last year's eggnog.

Oh, well, maybe next Christmas. 

Hi Chip,

I just purchased the Felix Slatkin Seasons Greetings CD from Real Gone Music.  The CD and Liner notes are great!

I read about the mixup between "I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day" and "O Come, Little Children", on this forum, on Real Gone Music's website, and in Leonard Slatkin's liner notes.  I'm glad that the listing on the album artwork is now correct.

However, when I went to rip the CD into my iTunes account, the Metadata on the CD still lists the song as "I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day".  I went in and changed it on my iTunes list, but I thought you might want to make the label aware of it, for further pressings.

Keep up the great work!

Dan

Thanks for the feedback, Dan.

Of course, given the current situation with the record companies, another pressing is probably remote.

Glad to help! 

Speaking of additional pressings - I was just wondering.  How many CDs of Season's Greetings were printed, for example?  Do they print 1000?  10,000? 100,000?  I know this is a niche market.

Do you have any of that data?

Thanks again for all you do and for keeping this site up and running.

Yes I do, Dan. But I believe Gordon considers that proprietary information, so I have never divulged those numbers publicly.