11-01-14 @ 13:55 PM
Follow-up to above message:

*Message edited by the Yule Log.com Message Board Administrator on 11/02/14 to combine two consecutive reply posts by the same member. Also, double-post was deleted. **Click here to review my post regarding same-day double-posting. Thank you.

Chip,

Going back to the origins of Mr. Goulet's 1963 Christmas album.....I know that Columbia Records used numerous facilities across the country for their recording sessions, especially in NYC  like "The Church" at 30th St; the 49th St studios at the CBS Building; the old 7th Ave Studio A where I believe Dylan recorded his early material for John Hammond. Of course there were other studios outside of NYC like Owen Bradley's legendary Quonset Hut in Nashville that CBS purchased in the early 60s; and Radio Recorders out in California. The one thing these studios all had in common was the ability to create and capture the famed Columbia "sound" I mentioned earlier. The Columbia "sound" was usually so consistent that if you didn't know where the material was actually recorded, much of what Columbia was recording and releasing all sounded like it could have come out of the same studio!  I'm not familiar with most of Mr. Goulet's recordings but the recordings on "THIS CHRISTMAS I SPEND WITH YOU" (c. 1963) definitely have a different "ambience" to them and sound way more intimate than most of what Columbia was releasing at the time. 

My question is this: Ever since it was first released in '63, did Columbia ever release or re-release this album with any added reverberation like a lot of other labels sometimes did with some of their releases? Would you be so kind as to give some technical session details (recording dates, studio, recording engineer, orchestra) concerning the first Robert Goulet Christmas album? I'd appreciate any info you can share. 

Just an FYI in case anyone was unaware of this recent discovery available on the streaming versions of this collection...

https://theseconddisc.com/2023/11/25/the-weekend-stream-christmas-2023/

We already announced this one a few weeks back, but it's so nice, we've included it twice! Way back in 2014, TSD's own Joe Marchese compiled Robert Goulet's Complete Columbia Christmas Recordings release on CD for Real Gone Music, bringing together the late actor-singer's two full-length Christmas albums plus rare singles and a trio of tracks recorded with his then-wife, Carol Lawrence - all beautifully remastered by Sean Brennan at Battery Studios. While the collection included every holiday track then catalogued in Columbia Records' inventory, it turns out that one rarity was never properly documented and slipped between the cracks. "The Secret of Christmas" was composed by the Oscar-winning team of Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen for the 1959 film Say One for Me. Bing Crosby introduced the ballad in the Frank Tashlin-directed comedy and on record (for Columbia, natch). Though it never entered the most-recorded tier of Christmas songs, Johnny Mathis, Ella Fitzgerald, Captain and Tennille and Julie Andrews all cut versions of their own. Goulet recorded his lush, heartfelt rendition (perhaps at the tail end of a session with Lawrence) - truly the sound of Christmas! - and it was promptly shelved for reasons unknown.

In 1978, the track showed up on a 6LP box set from Columbia Special Products with the nondescript title of The Music of Christmas. Incorrectly credited to both Goulet and Lawrence, it disappeared again...until now. Big kudos to Second Disc reader Rich D. for bringing "The Secret of Christmas" to our attention when he discovered it on the now-rare box set (so rare that a copy has never been sold on Discogs, and the album wasn't even listed on the site until recently). Our truly amazing friends at Legacy Recordings (thank you, Jeff and co.!) scoured the archives and found the pristine master which now makes its digital debut as a 30th track on the digital edition of The Complete Columbia Christmas Recordings. Enjoy this moving gift from the late Robert Goulet to you; it may well be the finest recording of the song, and it's happily a secret no more.

Thanks for the heads up, Jack. I just bought a digital copy on Amazon. Fantastic! If Real Gone ever adds it to a reissue of The Complete Columbia Christmas Recordings, I'll rebuy it in a heartbeat.