The Christmas Album

Neil Diamond

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 22, 1992)
• Original Release Date: September 22, 1992
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000028R7
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #61,496 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Neil Diamond has always fancied himself a man of many styles, which probably helps explain why he tries to flaunt each and every one of them on this diverse, sometimes dizzying Christmas disc. He plays it relatively straight on "Silent Night" and "The Christmas Song," but really lets loose on a version of "White Christmas" that recalls the doo-wop of his teen years in the 1950s. Diamond even expands his palette to include a choir-accompanied take on John Lennon's pacifist classic "Happy Christmas (War is Over)." It's the kind of intermingling that makes his fans go wild, but casual admirers should watch out for those stylistic U-turns. --David Sprague

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best Christmas albums I've ever heard, January 13, 2005

By	D. COLLIER "Doug Collier" (Brownwood, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

And, yes, I've heard quite a few. I don't mind the fact that it's a Jewish man singing Christmas music. And really, why shouldn't a Jewish man sing about the birth of another Jew?

What I like best about this album is that on most of the songs, Neil doesn't jazz it up or anything like that. Now, it's true that he does give that treatment to a few of the songs, but most of them are left intact the way they ought to be. The only ones that experience any major change are "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "White Christmas". His opener, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel/We Three Kings of Orient Are" is one of the best opening tracks I've ever heard for a Christmas album. It's a beautiful medley complimented with a boys choir.

I highly recommend this CD to any Christmas music enthusiast.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Neil at his best, December 10, 2005

By	Dolores M. Genna (Long Island, New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am a Christian and I'm proud to have a jewish man sing songs about another Jewish man. I've seen Neil Diamond in concert and I must say he puts on a show like no other. I have loved him and his music for many years. I thank him for giving me so much pleasure.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Neil sorta makes it feel like Christmas, November 30, 2007

By	Dave Blanchard (Cleveland, Ohio) - See all my reviews

Dating probably back to when Irving Berlin wrote "White Christmas," there's been a tradition of popular Jewish artists recording Christmas songs. Having seen his contemporary New Yorkers Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel, Barbra Streisand and Barry Manilow record Christmas songs at various stages in their careers, in 1992 Neil Diamond interrupted his decade-long descent into irrelevant schmaltz by producing this somewhat uneven but overall entertaining collection of holiday music. He wisely begins with "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," with an arrangement a bit reminiscent of "Kol Nidre" from "The Jazz Singer, but that's about the only concession to his Jewish tradition Neil makes on this album. He employs choirs on several of the most spiritual Christmas songs ("We Three Kings," "Silent Night," "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," "O Holy Night"), and for the most part he offers an enthusiastic if not exactly soulful interpretation. He does a really nice number on "Little Drummer Boy," making it sound unlike any other interpretation.

He hits a rough patch with several songs that already have definitive versions and would've been better left alone. Neil comes nowhere remotely close to the raw power of Springsteen's "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town," and it would've been a much better idea to just have done the traditional Sinatraesque rendition instead. Neil's "Christmas Song" isn't likely to make anybody forget Nat King Cole's classic interpretation. For reasons which boggle the imagination, he then launches into "Morning Has Broken," which isn't even a Christmas song and which was definitively done by Cat Stevens years ago, and then even more amazingly, he tackles John Lennon's "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)."

Neil redeems himself handsomely, though, with a "doo-wop" version of "White Christmas," followed by a barbershop quartet take on "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." His "Jingle Bell Rock" is okay, too. He launches into a "Crying In Your Pretzels" country twang on "Silver Bells," which if nothing else offers up that classic Neil Diamond cheese we all love, where he stops in the middle of a song to reminisce about those Brooklyn roads he grew up on. The only song on the album, though, that ever gets any airplay these days is the one he'd previously recorded on the "Primitive" album in 1984, "You Make It Feel Like Christmas."

All in all, a decent enough effort, and popular enough that it led to a second volume in 1994, which is not only a much better showcase for Neil's talent, but in fact is one of the best Christmas CDs of the past 20 years.