Thank you Chip and all at Real Gone Music to give us a ray of sunshine and good news out of this depressing year. I cannot wait to order!

Thanks Chip for the update !

This is an excellent album - "discovered" it a few years ago - and it will be great to have this given the proper treatment with a Real Gone CD release.

Nice to see the original artwork !!

Rich

I am so proud to have played a small role in the release of Felix Slatkin's Seasons Greetings album from 1961 for Real Gone Music's first ever Christmas In July promotion. These are very special and difficult times indeed as Chip so articulately expressed in his formal and exclusive announcement for this one of a kind holiday album. It has been an honor and a privilege to work with Mr. Arcuri on several legacy holiday album projects for Real Gone Music in the last three years, including John Klein's A Christmas Sound Spectacular, and Jim Reeves' Twelve Songs Of Christmas, but The Fantastic Strings Of Felix Slatkin come to life in a truly unique way on this one of kind sounding holiday album.

Felix Slatkin was Frank Sinatra's in studio conductor of choice on some of his most heralded albums and singles, including Franks's masterpiece from 1958, Frank Sings For Only The Lonely, featuring the ultimate Frank Sinatra saloon song, One For My Baby. While it is well known that Nelson Riddle was Frank's favorite arranger over many years of recording, a lesser known fact is that Felix Slatkin was actually his favorite in studio conductor. Arranging and conducting apparently require two separate skill sets for those of us who are unaware of such subtle differences and though Mr. Riddle could do both, Mr. Felix Slatkin had a particularly high skill set for the former talent, thus Mr. Sinatra called on Felix often for his studio services as both a world class conductor as well as his first chair violinist. 

For this truly breathtakingly rich sounding album, Mr. Slatkin used his largest symphony orchestra album ever, 90 strings in all, with 45 panned hard left on the stereo spectrum and 45 panned hard right, with each side sweeping into the stereo field and trading places for their moment to shine, often within seconds of each other. It truly makes for a glorious and unique listening experience.

My personal thanks once again go out to Chip, who has spent so many countless years trying to get the greatest Christmas music from the Golden Age back out to the public in beautifully remastered sound and so gorgeously packaged CD's. This man has fought extremely hard to get so many historical albums by Percy Faith, Mantovani, John Klein, Jim Reeves and Fred Waring back out to the public on CD in first class fashion. He has my very deepest respect and appreciation for all the work he has done to make these spectacular CD releases happen.

Happy early holidays to all,

Steve Harmon

What a nice surprise. Cannot wait to order. Many thanks to all!

Thank you to Rodney, Rich, Steve and John for the kind posts; I'm glad you're all looking forward to the CD next month.

And Steve, thanks for posting some of the info that I know you would have included in your liner notes if you had done them. I'm sure most folks out there don't know much, if anything, about Felix Slatkin or his 1961 Christmas album; so this will help them gain some insight. And thanks especially for those very complimentary words for me, especially in you last paragraph.

Chip, you did it again!  Thanks for this.  I thought Slatkin's Christmas album was long forgotten.  Can't wait!  Not sure if these two are on your radar, but I always thought the Geoff Love and Ron Goodwin Christmas albums were long overdue as they never were released on CD.  Thanks again for the good news.

Graig

Yes Graig, both the Ron Goodwin and Geoff Love albums, along with another great foreign Christmas album by Waldo De Los Rios.

My "Chip's Tips" Edition #20 has been updated to reflect that the new Felix Slatkin Christmas CD will be available for purchase exclusively on the RGM website beginning July 16, 2020; and then later from all other retailers beginning November 6, 2020.

I just received the new Felix Slatkin "Seasons Greetings" CD in the mail today !! 

Nothing beats listening to Christmas music on a near 100 degree day in July in New Jersey ! It definitely made it feel better and definitely put a smile on my face !

Great liner notes by Felix's son Leonard - and I found it interesting that there may be an outtake of "I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day" out there as the track was listed on covers of the original LP but "O Come Little Children" was the actual track on the record. The version I have on LP is a budget release with only 10 tracks instead of 12, on Liberty Records' subsidiary Sunset label, which omits "O Come Little Children" and "Away In A Manger".

As far as the CD itself, it sounds amazing !!! Kudos to Mike Milchner on the wonderful remastering job. The CD sounds bright and robust -- impeccably done !

Thanks Chip for recommending this album for CD release to Real Gone Music and seeing it through ! 

Rich

Inspiration for this one comes from board member Steve Harmon, Rich. He's a big fan of the album. And I had promised him from the beginning that if licensing was granted by Universal, I would try to get both of the Slatkin sons involved in the project. Well, as you can see by the CD booklet's liner notes and photos, it turned out really well -- a real family affair!

Hello Chip,

I just cannot express enough my gratitude to you for helping to get Season's Greetings by The Fantastic Strings of Felix Slatkin to the public on CD for the very first time. I have been playing this gem non-stop for the last several days and it now ranks as one of very favorite instrumental Christmas albums of all time. I put Percy Faith's two unmatched holiday albums at the top of the list with Mantovani right behind them. I also would have to include The Old Sweet Songs Of Christmas with Frank DeVol and the Rainbow Strings, which I personally believe this holiday album by Felix Slatkin can be compared with favorably in both its beauty and quality of performance.

The remastering of Season's Greetings by Mike Milchner at SonicVision is just fantastic to my ears. What a gorgeous sweeping sound we get to hear when two distinct string sections recorded on two separate stereo wide channels run across your speaker system. Forty-five strings on one side and forty-five on the other with celeste, percussion, harp and distinct chimes and bells added to the sonic landscape. This highly unique album was actually recorded in Germany as we learn from the splendid and highly personal liner notes from Felix's son, Maestro Leonard Slatkin. How appropriate that this majestic album was recorded in the country that actually started so many of our own Christmas traditions here in America, such as the ritual of decorating our trees for the holidays. This is an album that I will truly treasure for the rest of my life, and I am so very happy that I had a small role to play in making it happen.

Best regards and happy Christmas In July,

Steve

My pleasure, Steve; glad to do anything I can to facilitate the release of Christmas music from its golden age. 

I just received this CD and read all the liner notes while listening to the entire album. It's been quite a while since I've done that. It is so nice to have time to spend in July as I don't usually have that luxury in December. Thanks to Chip, Gordon, Steve, Leonard, Fred and co. for this sweet summer treat!

My LP of this album also lists track 4 on side 2 as "I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day" but it is actually is "Ihr Kinderlein Komett- Come Little Children"

I can't remember if this is the album that I kept going back to a Thrift Store several times because it was only the jacket with a different album in it, but my persistence paid off and I was able to find the vinyl in a different jacket.  It may have been another album.  I can't find the post about this that I did, but I believe part the post had "My persistence paid off"   This could have been back in 2008, as I have this copied to my computer and that is the attribute date.

John:

Glad you're enjoying this special summer release!

Susan:

I think I remember you mentioning that on the board back then; it's hard to believe it's over 10 years ago!

Chip,

Yes, I couldn't believe it was that far back lol.  Time really flies by faster and faster these days.