Complete Columbia Christmas Recordings

In These songs I listen to them on cassete, From Up on the rooftop when Santa comes down the “Chimnley” To the santa claus is comin’ to town with the horrible doll that says “MAMA”. But all the songs are GREAT most of them I never even heard.
Rating: 5 / 5

Oh I canot wait to play this over and over for the Christmas Holidays, wonderful CD, great music. Somthing of all ages will and at my home enjoying. Pamela A Drown
Rating: 5 / 5

It is mid January and I am still pplaying the Gene Autry Christmas songs. The songs are just so happy and so magnificent and so enjoyable. You can understand the words and listen to the different instruments playing. What a wonderful album. I so glad I purchased it.
Rating: 5 / 5

I grew up on these songs by listening to old 78 records that had belonged to my folks. I loved these songs as a kid and often wished I could have shared them with my kids when they were little. My girls are all grown up now, but the looks on the faces of my husband’s third grade students was well worth the cost of the album. This is an album that will bring feelings of nostalgia to most baby-boomers and feelings of the wonder of Christmas to the children of today. Highly recommended.
Rating: 5 / 5

Gene recorded further Christmas music after leaving Columbia, notably His Christmas Album, but all of the classic songs for which he is famous are to be found in this collection. The liner notes are informative and interesting but offer no commentary on the actual recordings, though the track listing provides recording dates and locations as well as peak Billboard chart positions (country and pop) where appropriate. The vast majority of these songs are originals, though some of them have endured as Christmas classics. Even if you haven’t heard them sung by Gene Autry, you’ll certainly be familiar with several of the songs here. That said, I was unfamiliar with most of the songs here prior to purchasing this CD. Given the size of my Christmas music collection, that’s saying something.

Johnny Marks wrote five of the songs here (Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer, If it doesn’t snow on Christmas Day, When Santa Claus gets your letter, The night before Christmas song, Everyone’s a child at Christmas). One of the curiosities of popular music is that Johnny Marks was brilliant at writing Christmas songs (his other Christmas songs not featured here include An old-fashioned Christmas, I heard the bells on Christmas Day, Rockin’ around the Christmas tree and A holly jolly Christmas) but he couldn’t reproduce that excellence with other types of songs.

Gene Autry’s contribution to Christmas music via his own songs and his original versions of songs written by others is strong and deep. Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, Here comes Santa Claus, Frosty the snowman and Up on the house top, all of them first recorded by Gene Autry, have all generated plenty of cover versions and will generate plenty more, but I’ve come across some of the others elsewhere too, notably Thirty two feet eight little tails (Elaine Paige) and Merry Texas Christmas you all (Asleep at the Wheel). I guess it’s no surprise to anybody that Asleep at the Wheel recorded a Gene Autry song, but a few people might be surprised that Elaine Paige recorded such an obscure song on her Christmas album.

There are many other great songs here including Hard rock Coco and Joe (written by Stuart Hamblen, himself best known as the writer of This ole house) and The night before Christmas song (a duet with Rosemary Clooney, for whom This ole house was just one among many successes).

The one famous song here that wasn’t originally recorded by Gene Autry is, of course, Santa Claus is coming to town, which song dates back to 1934. He would go on to record several more familiar Christmas classics after switching labels, but the appeal of this collection for me is that it contains mostly original material. Only one thing puzzles me. Why did it take me until 2009 to get round to purchasing this fantastic collection?
Rating: 5 / 5