Customer Reviews

Billboard Greatest Country Christmas Hits

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A fab collection of some not-often-heard gems from the country music wayback machine. I docked the collection one star for the inclusion of the much over-comped "Jingle Bell Rock" and "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", for several reasons: 1. Sure, they hit the "country" charts but they were much bigger "pop" hits, 2. Both are available on the Rhino "Billboard Pop Xmas Hits" series, "ISMKSC" on "1935-54" and "JBR" on "55-present" (as well as 20 billion other compilation CDs). It's redundant for folks who might want to buy all 3 of those discs. I'd rather they put on something by Dolly Parton, Alabama, you get the point.

That said, this is well worth acquiring. "Little Sandy Sleighfoot" is kind of hokey but grew on me, and the rest of the tracks are ace, especially "Santa Looked A Lot Like Daddy" by Buck Owens.

This is one a series of "budget" releases covering various aspects of Christmas to be released over the years by Rhino/Wea in conjunction with Billboard, all with 10-tracks each and liner notes in the form of track-by-track comments. Sound quality is generally good to excellent. All have "Billboard" as part of the title.

Some others are: Family Christmas Classics; Top Christmas Hymns; R&B Christmas Hits; Rock & Roll Christmas; Greatest Christmas Hits (1935-1954); and Greatest Christmas Hits (1955-Present). Some of the foregoing are also offered in 4-pack and 5-pack editions. In essence, these are the one you have to have if you want to recapture the delightful seasonal sounds of your childhood (assuming you're old enough to recall the periods covered).

This one gives you the original Blue Christmas by Ernest Tubb, a # 1 Country & # 23 Pop hit in 1949 b/w White Christmas, which also hit # 7 Country. Eddy Arnold's heart-tugging Will Santy Come To Shanty Town (# 5 Country) b/w C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S (# 7 Country) are also here, as is Tex Ritter's Christmas Carols By The Old Corral, a # 2 Country in 1945.

A real hard-to-find from 1957 is Jimmy Dean's Little Sandy Sleighfoot (# 32 Billboard Pop Top 100), while you also get staples like Jingle Bell Rock by Bobby Helms (# 6 Top 100/# 13 Country also in 1957), Jimmy Boyd's I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (# 1 pop/# 7 Country in 1952), and the Johnny Cash 1959 version of The Little Drummer Boy (# 24 Country). Topping it off is the delightful Santa Looked A Lot Like Daddy, a # 2 on the Billboard Christmas charts back in 1965 for Buck Owens (and a # 18 again in 1967).

Loads and loads of fun and memories.

This CD features Christmas songs that made it onto Billboard's Country chart. There are some good songs here that you don't find on CD too often. The original version of "Blue Christmas" by Ernest Tubb is almost worth the price of the CD by itself. There are some other great songs by the likes of Tex Ritter, Eddy Arnold and Buck Owens. Then again, "Jingle Bell Rock", great as it is, has been on about a million CDs already and isn't really a country song. It's also shocking that the King of Country Christmas Music, Gene Autry, is not represented here at all. It's still a good CD at a low price and it's worth purchasing.

WOW,It's official the songs in this collection (as stated on the inner liner notes)were selected by the World's Number One chart researcher Joel Whitburn,of Menomonee Falls,WI. Local boy makes good,or at least documents the achievements of those artists that hit the charts well. Dose that make this disc a must have? NO NO NO not to my ear. I'm thankful todays country has evolved greatly from its' roots back in the 40's & 50's. But what makes this record kind'a intresting is the historical significance of such songs as,Blue Christmas,Jingle Bell Rock,White Christmas,The Little Drummer Boy ,I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,and Santa Looked A Lot Like Daddy---and the artists credited with charting them first. How many times have we all heard a cover of these classics ? Way to many for me.Still the simplicity,senceriy,and sweetness of these seasonal selections is somtimes just serendipitous today.Tracks 4,7,and 10 are worthy of inclusion upon a merry modern mix.***buyit\savesome\sharelittle\sellitusedifyoucan***Post Script:What are The Buckaroos banging upon to make that cool sound before there was techno ?