Ho Ho Ho (A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector - Phil Spector)

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Product:	A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector - Phil Spector
Date:	19.12.01 (269 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's christmassy

Disadvantages: It's christmassy

Christmas is a time for nostalgia a time to look back
with rose tinted glasses to the things of my youth,
glistening trees, snow covered roof tops and a full
head of hair. Ah those were the days. Granted the
only time Manchester ever looked clean in my
recollection was just after it snowed but that would
be letting the rose tinted glasses slip a little.

Another strong memory from my youth was when I was
lucky enough to bag a Saturday job at Virgin records
of all places. I was in heaven, more music than you
could imagine, the chance to play any record I fancied
from library of 1000’s. Another highlight was the
girls, loads and loads of teenage girls, I was truly
blessed. Of course I was too young and stupid to
appreciate or monopolise on my position but that’s
another story. Still I did get to play a lot of
records.....

Come Christmas time we all had to don our corporate
tinsel and be wacky (a word that along with zany and
mad should be reserved for describing Dr Suess only.
Anyone who says that either you or particularly they
are “mad” should be shot, because it simply isn’t
true. It’s a good indicator that you are talking to a
twat and you should either beat a hasty retreat or
take it upon yourself to do the shooting (pet peeve))
and of course the music had to change from our serious
Muso stuff (in the 80’s people were way too serious
about their music) and put on the Christmas stuff.

Now any other store might have descended into the
Christmas hell of Slade, Wizard and Sir Cliff of
Richards but our manager was a rather classy lady
(Hello Linda, it’s me marine boy!!, what are the
chances of her reading this??) so we deftly avoided
that and went for the bitter sweet of the Pogues fairy
tale of New York (a song guaranteed to make even the
stoniest of hearts br
eak) and the absolute bliss of
Phil Spector.

Anyone younger than me almost certainly has never
heard of Phil Spector (born: Harvey Phillip Spector
Dec 26, 1940 in the Bronx New York) I’ll bet quite a
few older than me haven’t either, but he was
responsible for a lot of the sixties girl groups
primarily the the Crystals and the Ronettes. Although
he did release records under his own name albeit very
rarely his main contribution to music was as a
musician and a producer working with the Beatles
(including solo projects), the Stones and later the
Ramones. The work he produced had a distinctive
orchestration which was groundbreaking for its time, a
“Wall of Sound”, which was how his music came to be
known. When he originally released the album he
claimed he wanted to produce a record which captured
the spirit of Christmas but also to produce recordings
which would stand up to anything the artists had done
in the past. Well he surpassed himself and the
artists involved probably produced some of their best
and most remembered work.

Now the album itself is just full of cracking
Christmas tunes (see I narrowly avoided the temptation
to call them Christmas crackers, tower of strength me)
which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and to be absolutely
honest it wouldn’t be mine either, but it is Christmas
and I have kids so its great fun bouncing around to
this. Some people might call it kitsch but I prefer
to think of it as innocent fun.

The chances are you’ve heard almost all of the tunes
at some time or another with maybe the exception of
the bells of St Mary’s. The renditions all have a
great bouncy Motown air which almost makes you think
we might actually have a white Christmas after all.
Artists like The Crystals, The Ronettes, Darlene Love
-and Bob B. Soxx & Th
e Blue Jeans (they just don’t
call groups names like that anymore do they?) all belt
the tunes out for all they’re worth making the album
irrepressibly happy. Simply put if this album fails
to raise a smile the you really are a bit of a
scrooge. If you wont buy it for yourself, buy it for
you kids, if you don’t have kids get some and watch
them jig about like loons to this stuff. Even if you
are only going to play this for one month of a year it
should be on every Christmas list (I’m checking it
twice, I’m gonna find out who’s naughty or nice!!)

Track listing.

1. White Christmas
2. Frosty the Snowman
3. The Bells of St. Mary's
4. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
5. Sleigh Ride
6. Marshmallow World
7. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
8. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
9. Winter Wonderland
10. Parade of the Wooden Soldiers
11. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
12. Here Comes Santa Claus
13. Silent Night

The album was originally recorded in 1963 under the
Phillies label (PHLP-4005) and repressed under a whole
bunch of other labels including Rhino and the Beatles
label Apple. It was re-released as a CD in 1990 by
ABKCO number 4005 and you can probably pick it up from
the likes of Amazon and the likelihood is it’ll cost
you about £8.99. Alternatively this CD is available
part of a four-CD box set, Phil Spector: Back to Mono
[1958-1969]. by ABKCO.

Summary: