Rich:

Connie Smith was more in the style of Tammy Wynette, but she really had a style all her own. Connie is often overlooked today when the great ladies of country music are mentioned, and it's probably because she had no crossover pop hits. But she was a very prolific recording artist and had a bunch of great country hits (one of her best is posted below). Connie has been a member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1965 and was deservedly inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2012.

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Hi Chip,

Thanks for letting us know the upcoming Christmas Releases from Real Gone Music!  Will be adding several to my collection!  On another note, I thought I read somewhere that Jim Reeves Christmas Album was going to be remastered and released this year?

Thanks,

Jim

November 3 can't get here soon enough. And Jim Reeves next year? I'm very excited to hear that. Any chance we'll see A Jack Jones Christmas as a companion to the stellar release of The Jack Jones Christmas Album from last year? I'd love an excuse to get rid of the low budget Laserlight CD I have now.

Actually, Frank Sinatra was in "a funk" while recording this album. 

Nancy Sinatra has often said that she believes the reason for the albums somber feel was because her father's divorce with Ava Gardner happened to coincide with the album's May-July 1957 recording sessions. During the making of the album (as well as the recording sessions for the WHERE ARE YOU album before it) both Nancy and Tina Sinatra remembered their father "being in a very dark place, emotionally." They also recalled Capitol offering to reschedule the Christmas sessions and pushing its release to the fall of 1958 if necessary.  

Despite the melodrama that surrounded the making of this album, time has been kind to A JOLLY CHRISTMAS. Sixty years later, all of the tracks from the album are still played and heard on the radio throughout the entire holiday season.                                                                                               

Thanks so much Chip for all your help in getting Percy Faith's MUSIC OF CHRISTMAS released this holiday season. Even my 14 year old son is excited about finally hearing this true musical masterpiece the way it deserves to be heard! I plan on pre-ordering a few copies this weekend.

Yes guys, but as well as this album arguably has held up over the years, notwithstanding, it boggles the mind as to how great it could have been. It's one of the most quintessential examples in my collection of an album that just did not live up to expectations.

Sadly, it's probably just a case of incredibly bad timing. And the difference in that timing was the difference between this album residing in the 1st Tier of my Top 500, as opposed to the 2nd Tier, where it decidedly belongs.

First let me say that it's always great to read your comments, opinions, and observations Chip. I don't remember you ever mentioning A JOLLY CHRISTMAS before, but I'm sure you did at some point over the years. Regardless, I pretty much agree with you - especially about the bad timing. Perhaps Capitol should have rescheduled the Christmas sessions and planned for a later 1958 release. I always knew the album sounded "different" and had a "sad" feel to it, but I never gave it much thought or consideration when I was younger.

It's still one of my favorite Christmas albums - but more for sentimental reasons. Like many Italian-Americans his age, my father loved Frank Sinatra ("The Patron Saint of Hoboken") and he loved this album. Growing up, it was always the first Christmas album my sisters and I would hear every Thanksgiving.  With my father passing away in July, I expect this album will have even more personal meaning for me.

I know it's nowhere near a first tier Christmas album, but for me it will always be the most special.  

Chip,

Thank you for your kind words.

You're right...I should have remembered those discussions about that '57 album and other Sinatra albums more clearly. Now that you've mentioned them, I have a better recollection of our exchanges. Thanks for clearing up the cobwebs that seem to cloud my memory these days. I can assure you it was not necessarily laziness on my part, just a residual effect of getting older....LOL 

You might like to know that my 14 year old son is a huge fan of Christmas music - not the new stuff, mostly the older classic Yule Log and WPAT stuff we grew up with. Not only does he check this message board every morning before he goes to school, but when I ask him if there's any classic Christmas albums he might be interested in, he automatically goes to your lists to see where you have a particular album ranked.

rsteven,

Thanks to you as well for your kind words. I guess we all have our favorite records that come to represent the special times and special people in our lives. As long as music touches our soul, that's really all that matters in my opinion. And, without a doubt, no music can touch the soul better than Christmas music.

I know the John Klein album you're talking about - at least I should since the cover scared the hell out of me as a kid. Is it a red RCA Victor LP with Santa sitting in a rocking chair behind a stream of open curtains? My grandmother worked for RCA and she used to bring home complimentary albums all the time. If it's the same album (not sure if it was ever re-issued with a different cover) she had it. Santa's face terrified me so much that my mother had to lock it away in a storage trunk in our attic. In fact I had to watch and make sure the trunk was secured with a padlock. When this topic was posted on the message board once before, I think Chip provided a photo of the cover and it still gave me chills.