Christmas Album

The Manhattan Transfer | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 17, 1992)
• Original Release Date: 1992
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000028RY
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (67 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #173,918 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #61 in Music > Jazz > Vocal Jazz > Vocalese

Track Listings

1. Snowfall

2. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

3. Santa Clause Is Coming to Town/Santa Man (Medley) [Medley]

4. The Christmas Song

5. Silent Night, Holy Night

6. Caroling, Caroling

7. Happy Holiday/The Holiday Season (Medley) [Medley]

8. A Christmas Love Song

9. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

10. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

11. Good Night

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Very Nice Holiday Music, But Not Usual Manhattan Transfer, December 17, 2001

By 

JSL (Salt Lake City, UT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Christmas Album (Audio CD)

Here it is in a nutshell: This is a beautifully performed and arranged, but very slow and relaxed Christmas album. It is great background music, and perfect when you want to sit and relax and be swept away after battling the holiday rush. I wouldn't recommend it for getting your Christmas party hopping. Although I like this album, I was a little disappointed with it, because I know what the Manhattan Transfer is capable of, and I feel that on this album they did not push the musical envelope like they usually do. I supect the record company that released the album is mostly at fault for that, trying for a safe, marketable record. The Manhattan Transfer seems relieved on subsequent albums to be back with Atlantic Records. As another reviewer recommended, listen to the samples before buying to make sure this is what you want. As always with Manhattan Transfer records, check the liner notes for some surprise guest appearances.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Smoooooooth and wonderful, December 9, 2002

By 

Catherine S. Vodrey (East Liverpool, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Christmas Album (Audio CD)

Once again, The Manhattan Transfer triumphs. Their "Christmas Album" is a wonderland of smooooooth harmonies, disciplined singing, and lush orchestral backing. The album opens with the almost eerily beautiful "Snowfall," which beautifully evokes the mesmerizing sight of snowflakes falling down from the sky. They tame the usually buoyant "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" into a lush come-hither invitation for a Christmas snuggle, and it's beautiful.

Things start popping and bopping on the third tune, with a combination of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and "Santa Man." It's amazing how The Manhattan Transfer can turn expectations on their heads--a child's tune that's clearly geared now towards adults instead--but still do it successfully and with such musical confidence and rigor. I'm amazed, but ten years after first having bought this album, I still occasionally hear new nuances that I never noticed before. On Mel Torme's perennial "The Christmas Song," the quartet teams with Tony Bennett and the result is sumptuous. Bennett conveys the longing and sweetness of the song, while beautifully bolstered by The Manhattan Transfer singing back-up.

Two classics you don't hear much of anymore--"Caroling, Caroling" and "Happy Holiday" are both given loving attention here. "Caroling, Caroling" is a cornucopia of rich harmonies, and "Happy Holiday" is the sort of blazing, gloriously boppy arms-wide-open tune the Transfer does to perfection.

The album closes with two songs which feature Cheryl Bentyne's butterscotchy smooth voice: "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and the Beatles' lullaby "Good Night"--odd when you first think about it, but such a sweet, hope-filled song that it ends up seeming just right for a Christmas album. I highly recommend the entire album--it'll surely become a holiday favorite in your household as it has in ours.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Lush and Lovely Christmas Album, September 25, 2008

By 

Bobby Underwood "starlighthotel" (Manly NSW, Australia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Christmas Album (Audio CD)

It always surprises me that this very special Christmas album from The Manhattan Transfer doesn't show up on everyone's list of must have holiday music. Like snowflakes drifting by a frosty windowpane, there is something very wistful and melancholy about this labor of love from Alan Paul, Janis Siegal, Tim Hauser, and Cheryl Bentyne. And there is some fun mixed in as well, the trademark 1930's and 1940's elegance of this fabulous group on glorious display.

Tony Bennett joins the group on probably the most heralded track from this project, The Christmas Song. As covers go, it rivals Gloria Estefan's stunningly classy take on this Christmas chestnut. The opening song, Snowfall, is just as good, however, and deserves to kick off this marvelous collection of Christmas favorites. The Manhattan Transfer always manage a surprise or two on every album, and this is no exception.

A Christmas Love Song is one of the prettiest and certainly one of the most romantic of Christmas love songs in the vocal genius of these four talents. Johnny Mandel handled the vocal arrangements and put music to Alan and Marilyn Bergman's beautiful lyrics, placing it right up there with The Carpenters' Merry Christmas, Darling. And the fun medley, Happy Holiday/The Holiday Season, adds a smile to the melancholy.

By the time the Transfer sing Judy Garland's version of Have Yourself a Merry Little Chrismas, then close with Goodnight, you'll be a fan of both this wonderful group and this Christmas album. Having been a fan of The Manhattan Transfer since they began, "Mystery" being one of my favorite songs ever recorded, I don't know how any Christmas collection could be complete without this one.