A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector

Phil Spector, Darlene Love | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 26, 2009)
• Original Release Date: October 26, 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony Legacy
• ASIN: B002N1AEV4
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (109 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,078 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #4 in Music > Pop > By Decade > 1960s
  • #4 in Music > Pop > Oldies > Girl Groups
  • #10 in Music > Pop > Oldies > Baroque Pop

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This lavish holiday set has been called the greatest rock & roll Christmas album of all time. That's an opinion that's tough to argue with when you find yourself immersed in the massive sounds painstakingly crafted by legendary producer Phil Spector. His "wall-of-sound" technique is perfectly suited to the music of the season, as he proves with layer upon layer of piano, sleigh bells, buoyant percussion, and, of course, those legendary Spectorsound harmonies. The Crystals turn their sassy interplay into sheer magic on "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town," The Ronettes stroll sweetly through numbers like "Sleigh Ride," while Darlene Love delivers a real knockout punch with her yearning version of "Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)." Sure to become the soundtrack for your holidays. --David Sprague

Product Description

The king of rock-era Xmas LPs returns in remastered original mono for the first time in 20 years! Dig that Wall of Sound: Frosty the Snowman Ronettes; Winter Wonderland Darlene Love; Here Comes Santa Claus Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans; Santa Claus Is Coming to Town Crystals, and the rest of this 1963 holiday classic.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 38 Years Old & Still The Greatest Christmas Album, November 28, 2001

By 

James E. Bagley "Jim Bagley" (Sanatoga, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector (Audio CD)

The legendary producer Phil Spector hit his artistic peak with this yuletide classic from 1963. The arrangements found here have been copied over and over again through the years by less creative performers, but no one comes close.

My favorite recordings on the album are those by the Ronettes, in particular "Sleigh Ride" which will have you going "ringalingalinga dingdongding" for days, no, make that YEARS. Ronnie's playful, almost childlike voice, lends itself better to nonsecular Christmas songs than anyone I have ever heard.

If Ronnie captures the playful, innocent side of Christmas, Darlene Love with her powerful alto captures the emotional side. The original recording "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" drives home the heartbreak of being alone at Christmas, while "White Christmas" nails the longing we all have for the Christmases of our youth.

The Crystals and Bob B. Soxx & his Bluejeans aren't quite as distinctive as Ronnie & Darlene (who is?). Nonetheless, their enclosed holiday recordings are all enjoyable, particularly "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" (Crystals) and "Here Comes Santa Claus (Bob B. Soxx).

I've never cared much for the last track, which finds the high pitched Phil wishing everyone a Merry Christmas , while Silent Night plays in the background. But since it is the last track, it doesn't mar the excellence created by the rest of the album/CD. Just hit eject as Phil starts to talk and I guarantee you'll have a musically Merry Christmas!

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Orginial Spector Devotee, December 7, 2004

By 

Philip Spivey "Liberated Theology'" (New York City, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector (Audio CD)

I grew up in the 50s and 60s loving Rock 'n Roll and loving Phil Spector's Rock especially. His Christmas album is a yearly treat for me. I don't play my vinyl anymore (purchased just days before President Kennedy's assassination in November 1963); I don't play my cassette tape anymore; I've graduated to disc. And this will be my 41st Christmas with the Spector gang...they're family.
The greatest Christmas album to be sure. I would also put it in the league of a top-ten album of all time. The renditions and arrangements remain fresh after all these years. We hear Darlene Love and Ronnie Spector in their "glory days" with all the optimism the youth of the 60s shared before the realities of dead presidents and adulthood encroached on us. You hear Spector at his best muscially, before his productions become muddy or overwrought. Although each song on the album is a jewel, three stand out for me: Darlene's "Christmas Baby..." by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich stands out because it was written especially for this album and it is the surprise tour de force of this collection. Not only does it work with the traditional songs, but it has become Darlene Love's signature to this day when she apppears each Christmas season on the Letterman Show. My second pick is "The Bells of St. Mary's". A somewhat unconventional choice for a Chirstmas album --- because it's not a traditional Christmas song ... again, this choice works with Darlene and Bobby Sheen and Fatima James (known on the label as Bobby Sox & the Blue Jeans). It works in a spectacular way because the arrangement is inspired, the vocal lines and performances soar and the drum work (Hal Blaine, I believe) is brilliant. Listen to the final few bars and fade-out on this track ---- have you ever heard drum work like that?
My third, and final, is "Silent Night". This was a discovery I made after years of ignoring this track. If you could remove Phil's silly narrative and listen soley to the music, what you would hear is one of the most beautiful renditions of this song recorded; it's silvery and transparent and yet we know that the chorus is peopled by the entire Phil Spector stable of singers (including Cher, who sang background in those days); the effect is transcendent.
This album is forever fresh, forever young and forever one of my favorites. If, God forbid, I had to leave my home for fire or flood or locusts, THIS album (vinyl, cassette and disc) would be among the possessions under my arm.

31 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The classic album, October 26, 2003

By 

Peter Durward Harris "Pete the music fan" (Leicester England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector (Audio CD)

This album was something of a revolution in its time, at least where Christmas music was concerned, although all that Phil Spector actually did was apply his normal production style to Christmas music.

The Crystals, famous for Then he kissed me and Da doo ron ron, sing brilliant, energetic versions of Santa Claus is coming to town, Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer and Parade of the wooden soldiers. The Ronettes, famous for Be my baby, are equally brilliant on Frosty the snowman, Sleigh ride and I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus. Bob B Soxx and the blue jeans, famous for Zip-a-de-doo-da, also excel on Bells of St Mary's and Here comes Santa Claus.

Darlene Love, whose biggest success was as lead singer of the Crystals on He's a rebel, sings four songs here, a rare chance for her to be credited as a solo performer. Christmas (Baby please come home) is the only original song here. White Christmas includes the rarely heard verse about being in Beverley Hills. The other two, Marshmallow world and Winter wonderland, are also outstanding.

The closing Silent night is just a series of spoken acknowledgements set to a backing track. Don't worry about that - the twelve songs that go before set the standard for Christmas rock albums when it was first recorded and still do, because nobody has bettered it in the forty years since.