A Christmas POLL For You - let's poll the Phil Spector Xmas album

For once, the Crystals shade the Ronnettes.

I'll let you decide which,.

(my copy is on Apple, btw. The first version to get issued in the UK)

Later pressings were titled ..."from Phil Spector" rather than ..."from Philles Records" as not to let Lester Sill share any of the glory

Darlene helped put a new song in the Xmas canon, so that.

Parade of the Wooden Soldiers - The Crystals

Don't hear this one out and about much.

I don't want to live in a world where this isn't "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)"

^this

Verges on being overplayed but still the greatest.

Non-poll version of this thread: OPO: A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector

I just got this on vinyl!

And yeah, I'll go the obvious (but correct) route and vote "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)." The Ronettes's "Frosty the Snowman" as the runner-up.

listened to this last weekend -- the winner here is hal blaine. the drumming is so good.

my copy has this midly unsettling artwork

http://mydadsalbums.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/034.jpg

mildly*

I didn't realize that Baby Please Come Home was an oldie. I had gotten it in my head that it was a faux-60s song created specifically for the Gremlins soundtrack.

And then Bono did his cover..

Darlene has sung it every Christmas for 25+ years on the Letterman show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfurmGiKZ5k

Don't they usually get an upright player to play on that as well, Jay Leonhart, maybe?

There's also Johnny (Baby Please Come Home), the non-Christmassy version cut at the same time (and also great)

when i bought my Mum the reissued CD, i took her tatty vinyl copy. originally she got a 'Greatest Hits' free with it, as the spiel at the top confirms!

http://eil.com/images/main/Phil-Spector-Greatest-HitsChri-414425.jpg

astonishingly it was all the original songs! the 80s were weird man.

i mean..

http://eil.com/images/main/Phil-Spector-20-Greatest-Hits-240654.jpg

My 1974 reissue looks like this:
http://eil.com/images/main/Phil-Spector-Phil-Spectors-Chr-564609.jpg

^^^alternate movie poster for Silent Night, Deadly Night

this album is so great that even songs i normally hate are somehow wonderful here, like "marshmallow world." ronnie even manages to make "i saw mommy kissing santa claus" sound kind of poignant. but of course it's the obvious one, just for the way darlene sings "they're singing deck the halls."

Goodfellas must have helped to make this album more famous for a Gen X crowd? actually when DID this album start getting its due props? popular theory is it flopped (released the same week as JFK etc). i'm sure we have an expert amongst us.

Back to Mono box set

voted Silent Night because it's such a weirdly creepy way to end the album

Think Greil Marcus had it in the "Treasure Island" section of Stranded, if nothing else.

http://www.muzieklijstjes.nl/GreilMarcusTreasureislandalbums.htm

Speaking of "weirdly creepy" Silent Nights. I was most frightened just now to find out that somebody had quoted my WFMU blog appraisal in the youtube comments. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCmUmRhpumU

There goes "Winter Wonderland" on ITV now.

actually when DID this album start getting its due props?

I think it may have come back to prominence in the mid to late nineties. We had it in HMV on import in 1997 for about £17, if memory serves. Fast forward twenty years and it was on the counter top, £3 with any purchase.

"Sleigh Ride" for me, but then again that's always been one of my favorite Christmas songs.

listened to this last weekend -- the winner here is hal blaine. the drumming is so good.

^^^ this

Can we be shown weirdos + Darlene Love?

http://www.wwd.com/images/processed/wwd/2010/12/23/landscape/01-large/darlene.jpg

sorry: Open Goal.

Lol 'pretty good'.

Final Letterman appearance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzj3S2p2W44

first Letterman appearance (1986):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-8ZERV_D_Q

I've got the same vinyl issue as Merdeyeux. Got it around 1980 or '81, I think. I posted this on a Greil Marcus thread:

http://greilmarcus.net/2014/12/19/a-christmas-gift-for-you/

Definitely "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)."

Played it today.

"The bells of St Mary" is one that will get zero, but is pretty great.

so 'back to MONO' was a 'thing' of his from years back, judging by the badge. i thought it was just the title of his 1991 box set.

Just looked, its on the Apple L.p. Front cover.

.. Which was issued in 1972

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Our Alice is repping for "Marshmallow World"

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

"The bells of St Mary" is one that will get zero, but is pretty great.

― Mark G, Saturday, December 20, 2014 1:05 PM (2 days ago)

I only this year noticed the Ronettes version of "Sleigh Ride" excises over half the song, chopping out both the "wonderland of snow" and "perfect ending of a perfect day"/"pumpkin pie" verses.

This is amazing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGzO1ghRKp4

“Sleigh Ride” at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 now, the Ronettes best placing since 1963

Is there a good section on one of the Spector books about the making of this album? I know there was a MOJO mag piece maybe ten years ago. I’d love to read more.