Customer Reviews

Christmas Cocktails 2

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Leave it to the geniuses at Ultra-Lounge to put together the Christmas Album you always wanted but could never find. This is Christams through an ironic lens. So cleary not "cool" that its ridiculousness makes it so. Very paradoxial. This is Christmas music devoid of any real sentinment but still shiny with a glossy venner of wholesomeness--underneath one can see (as with all lounge music) the seedy side of the 1950's. This IS Cocktail music after all. (Dean Martin ONLY sang Cocktail music, ask his liver!) Highlights of this edition include Mr. Martin's BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE, The delightful Bonus Track "What is a Santa Claus" and Lena Horne's spellbinding JINGLE ALL THE WAY. To hear her sing the word "Horse" with no less than six vowel sounds is worth the price of the album alone. As always the album and jacket art are first rate and the liner notes by RJ SMITH are amoung the best in album commentary EVER! Smith captures the period, the music, and the modern attraction to it in a stylish and comic essay. Once again the Ultra Lounge gives us everything we want from lounge music and more. So sip some spiked egg nog, light the yule log, and have a swinging holiday season.

Both Vol.1 and Pt.2 of the ULTRA LOUNGE CHRISTMAS series consists of a great musical holiday soundtrack for child raised during the cocktail 1960s.
Upon listening to both CDs, your memories will transport you back in time to tinsel clustered trees drowned in multi-color lights & wasted uncles with a plastic baby jesus' lying under an artificial tree.

This collection of holiday CDs are the perfect tool for entertaining & injecting "kitchy" ambiance into your holiday festivities.
The sound is retro and currently very trendy.

It's fun listening to these long forgotten classics dusted off and delivered in with a "LOUNGE" packaging.

Both volumes should be added into your collection!

I truly enjoyed listening to the second edition of Ultra Lounge Christmas Cocktails. The first part got me jumpin', but I couldn't get enough with the second. I have heard the original selections on various Capitol Records Christmas compilations, but to hear it in crystal clear digital remastered versions blew me away! I somewhat missed the cracks and jumps from the vinyl grooves, but it was refreshing to hear the clear sounds of Wayne Newton wail away with the track, "Jingle Bell Rock." Another track, "Warm December", as sung by Julie London, is perfect for slow dancing or a quiet moment in front of the fireplace.

If you like nostalgia and have an itching for the music your parents used to cha cha to, you'll surely enjoy this record. I just couldn't get enough of old Dino and a host of other artists. Let the organ swing and sway and enjoy this yuletide romp.

Christmas Music is perhaps the most mood-setting element in the holiday season. Perhaps even more than a brightly lit tree or a freshly baked batch of cookies; the music of the season defines its experience. Yet what about Christmas cocktail parties? One could play a popular christmas album by any number of popular singer/songwriters but the sound can get monotonus for a large gathering. Quasi-religous choral music certainly is not appropriate for the occasion either. Christmas Cocktails is just the answer to this sphinxian riddle. The album is first and foremost F-U-N, with selections bu Dean Martin, Lena Horne amoung others: one can expect only the most entertaining and finest quality lounge music. To hear traditional classics arranged in the lounge idiom is equally thrilling since all the other ultra-lounge albums display music that is only "LOUNGE MUSIC," not music that has been well and creatively adapted. My personal favorite track: Jingle Bells. Only Ms. Horne can take a standard like that and make it a highlight. Just buy it already!

This was the first of the Ultra Lounge series I ever bought and I loved it at first play! I picked it up on a lark just before Christmas last year... It's the reason I'm picking up more out of the series, particularly Christmas Cocktails I. It's such a fun and refreshing break from the tired old Christmas sounds we hear every year... Really glad I happened upon it and am recommending it to all. Kick back and enjoy...

This CD features Christmas music from the '50s and '60s that would have been considered to be "adult pop" at the time. That is to say, pop music for adults, instead of teenagers. There are a lot of great songs here, along with a few not so great songs. But it's all a lot of fun, and if you enjoy adult pop of the '50s and '60s, you should enjoy it.

I'm a big fan of the whole Ultra Lounge series (except for Mondo Exotica... that one's a little too weird even for me). LOVED Christmas Cocktails (I), but CC2 will take the pop out of your champagne. It feels like Capitol Records scraped the bottom of their archive barrel to dig up most of these. Still there are a couple of gems on here... and the Ventures' "Frosty The Snowman" ala "Tequila" is priceless. "Snowfall", if I don't miss my guess is a theme from "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and is done nicely too. Unfortunately the collection isn't as tailored as their others and sounds sort of like something thrown together by the marketing department instead of by a producer.

Ultra-Lounge Christmas Cocktails, Pt. 2 is a grand CD that gives us quite a few wonderful holiday time numbers from greats including Lena Horne, Dean Martin, Julie London, Peggy Lee and more! This is one Christmastime CD you're going to love! Christmastime music has always been some of my very favorite music; and the tracks on CD will tell you why.

Listen for Lena Horne's "Jingle All The Way;" her jazzy interpretation of this classic number rocks as Lena swings brightly. Great percussion, too! Julie London croons her lovely "Warm December;" and Julie never sounded better. The brass on "Warm December" helps to bolster the natural beauty of this song. In addition, I especially liked The Nat King Cole Trio singing and swinging their version of "All I Want For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth)." The trio does a splendid job on this Christmas novelty song.

Nancy Wilson sings "The Christmas Waltz" to perfection with a lush musical arrangement; and Dean Martin takes "Baby, It's Cold Outside" and makes it a tour de force all on his own! I love that female backup for Dean's vocals on "Baby, It's Cold Outside;" and the flutes sound great. Wayne Newton belts out a very special "Jingle Bell Rock" with some mighty fine percussion and The Ventures do "Frosty The Snowman" up right with an arrangement that smacks of early rock and roll.

We also get Guy Lombardo's "Auld Lang Syne" as one of the bonus tracks. Great!

The liner notes have a fine essay by R. J. Smith; and the artwork impresses me greatly.

Overall, if you want some swingin' lounge music for your Christmas party--whether there be cocktails served or not--you truly can't afford to go without this fine CD. It's chock full of great performances and I predict you'll be listening to it over and over again.

Enjoy!

I LOVE this CD. June Christy, Julie London, Peggy Lee, Nancy Wilson, Lena Horne --- all doing great songs.

I loved the first one so much, I bought the second and third. These CD's are the best holiday party mix I have ever found. They are a must have in your holiday collection!