Customer Reviews

20th Century Masters: The Best of Burl Ives - The Christmas Collection

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

We love to hear Burl Ives sing songs such as "Wayfaring Stranger" and "What Shall I Do With the Baby-O". It is only natural that we would want to hear that wonderful, warm voice singing our favorite Christmas carols. We were delighted to find this CD. These carols have instruments and back up vocals that I don't remember Burl Ives using, but it is kept simple. "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is done with only guitar music. "Winter Wonderland" is one of my favorites with guitars, bass, and backup vocals. The instruments that I hear are harp, strings, bass, and guitars. (I hear an occasional flute or bell and a couple of other instruments that I can't identify.) The backup vocals add traditional harmonies. Even with the added instruments and backup vocals, the music is still very much done in the classic Burl Ives style. This is on my short list of "must have" Christmas CD's.

Details: This CD is 37 minutes long. The songs were originally recorded in the 50's and 60's. The quality of the remastering is very acceptable, no muddiness at all. The stereo separation is impressive.

I bought this CD on a whim. The price was right and I'd been thinking about trying to get a copy of "A Holly Jolly Christmas." This was certainly the right choice.

Burl Ives contributes his distinctive vocals to many Christmas favorites. Compiled from several different Christmas recordings, they include such classics as "Silver Bells," "White Christmas," "What Child is this?" (with all the choruses, a bonus), "Winter Wonderland," and "O, Little Town of Bethlehem." Also included are a fun arrangement of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and a slightly different version of "Twelve Days of Christmas."

Of course, the collection wouldn't be complete without the inclusion of songs from the Rudolph special. Included here are "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "Silver and Gold," and the previously mentioned "A Holly Jolly Christmas."

The recordings are simple; usually with one a few instruments and some background singers. This is different from the lush orchestra usually popular for Christmas recordings, but it's refreshing to have a different sound.

I'm not super familiar with Burl Ives' Christmas music, so I don't know what I might be missing by starting with this best of. All I do know is I don't regret the money I spent on this CD and will be enjoying it for many Christmases to come.

Have a holly, jolly Christmas!  It's classic yuletide corn, from the fellow who played Sam The Snowman on the "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" TV special. One of the most recognizable voices in 20th Century pop culture, old-school folkie Burl Ives recorded prolifically in the 1950s and '60s, but it's Christmas music he'll really be remembered for... This disc collects fifteen fine examples of his Decca Records holiday material, taken from a variety of sources... Most tracks feature prominent pop-orchestral arrangements, but Burl's rolling, grandfatherly tones cut right through the cheese every time & cheerfully draw you in. As old-fashioned Christmas material goes, this is pretty hard to beat.

If you're looking for a "Best Of" Christmas album that includes many of the Holiday's staple music, look no further.

This include Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, as sung by Burl on the Holiday staple Christmas special of the same name.

The remastering is well done and removes any pops, hiss or other similar issues associated with such old analog recordings as these.

If you like Burl Ives' voice, you will like these tracks. If you don't like Sam the Snowman's voice or his vocal tracks from the original Rankin/Bass Rudolph special, then avoid this one.

I never recieved it. I wanted it for Christmas and they said it would ship between 12/5 and 12/21! It is now 1/1/2012 and it still has not come!

This CD is a Christmas necessity. Burl Ives has the voice that can make us all remember watching those great Christmas specials on tv, seeing as how he was the snow man after all. If your looking for that cd to play to get you in holly and jolly mood, then Burl is your man. This CD is one that you will find yourself unable to quit playing straight from Black Friday (As we all know you should never play Christmas music before Thanksgiving!)through the 25th of December.

This album is a classic and a must have for the Christmas playlist. Some Christmas music is just cold and corporate. This album is warm and nostalgic and inviting.

While I have long revered Burl Ives' "Holly Jolly Christmas" for quite some time, I always thought he was a Christmas "one-time wonder". This was a rash judgment, for, even though I have been familiar with his terrific voice since childhood when he was known as the quintessential folk voice for children, I have passed him up.

Nevertheless, your memories probably resound fully like mine for the crude but heartwarming claymation classic, "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer," and let's face it, it was Burl Ives as narrator and singer that kept the whole enterprise together. (Yes, the story was well-written, too, especially the side-plot about the misfit toys, but those merits are worthy of another whole review.)

Upon sampling this generous set of golden classics, I found some "Silver and Gold" along the way. Surely, his voice does justice to each of the familiar nuggets, but there isn't a lump of coal in the bunch. (If I were to nitpick, I'd take issue with "The Twelve Days of Christmas" because, while he has great verbal dexterity, he rambles the list too quickly until he slows down to the last five items. Now is this enough to demerit or disqualify a fine, Christmas collection? Gosh, by golly, No!)

For children of today or for today's adults who (thankfully) have not lost some of their inner child, Burl Ives' collection of Christmas classics should be rediscovered and treasured.

I loved the song Silver and Gold. It was featured on the Rudolph TV special that's shown every year. When I saw this CD had it, I grabbed it. Besides Holly Jolly Christmas, that's my favorite Burl Ives holiday song.

Besides those songs, others on this CD are The 12 Days of Christmas, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (natch), What Child is This and Little Drummer Boy. Burl puts his own style on each and makes them his own. Burl left us in 1995 at age 85. But he is one of those people you hear on the radio every year in December, much like Bing, Nat, Elvis, Frank, Dino, Johnny and Andy. This collection of songs proves why.

This CD is as good as it gets for providing happy, rather jolly Christmas tunes. Burl Ives even looked like Santa Claus.