Customer Reviews

Christmas Sing-Along With Mitch

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I own this title on vinyl and it has several more songs than the CD! Why? I want all my Mitch Miller, not Miller Lite!

The original vinyl was called "Christmas Sing-along with Mitch".
It showed his family on the album cover. One difference from the CD and the vinyl is the CD contains Adeste Fideles while the vinyl contains O Little Town of Bethlehem. The album also contained muliple sing along sheet music. This is more classic fair. You may not hear the usual Mitch Miller Gang sound that one is accustomed to.

Since I was a kid, I always looked forward to bringing out the old Mitch Miller Christmas album. It truly marks the holidays with a beautiful choir, so melodic on its own that the musical instruments aren't even missed.

For those of you who are looking, this is the first CD of Mitch Miller's Christmas Sing-Along that contains all thirteen songs from the original 1958 album. That is what attracted me to this import CD from Hallmark Recordings (not to be in any way confused with the Hallmark Greeting Card company.) I also have the Columbia release (CK 38298) that as far as I know is the only other release of the original album on CD. The Columbia recording only has ten of the original 13 songs on it. However, be aware that the sound quality on this Hallmark release is hideous. I read somewhere that it sounded like needle drops. I can tell you that there is all kinds of noise in this recording making it a brutal experience to listen to it. If it was recorded using a needle drop, it came from a terrible piece of vinyl. If you absolutely must have the extra three songs, at least treat yourself to the Columbia release as well so that you don't have to suffer through this one. Click on this link for the much better CD Christmas Sing Along With Mitch The extra three songs on this CD are "The Coventry Carol" "Away in a Manger" and "O Little Town of Bethlehem." Since the great Mitch Miller has passed away this year, it would be nice if someone released a remastered version of this album on CD with all thirteen original songs. For those of you who care about the quality of your recordings that you buy, this is NOT the CD for you. If you are going to burn it to an iPod and listen to it on the runway of your local airport while the jets are taking off and landing, it probably won't sound too bad. My advise is to stay away from this one.

I grew up listening to Mitch Miller's Holiday. I still have the cassette, but wanted a cd version. I was disappointed that the cd version was missing some of the songs. I was looking forward to the song "Must be Santa" and it's not on the cd.

I grew up with this album as a staple during the Christmas season and it still holds many pleasures. It's hard to find an album of traditional carols sung by a chorus that also retains a bit of passion. Most are stuffy, technically-minded presentations that are about as spirited as a jigsaw puzzle. This one is full of celebration, reverence, and a bit of fun. Sure, the baritones are practically in your face sometimes (one guy in particular!) but they seem to actually be into the material rather than constantly monitoring their breathing and posture.

The fact that this album is virtually all a cappella is also a bonus to me. Any Millerian orchestrations would have been of the extremely dated Ray Conniff variety that has a cheese rating of 10.5. I'll take this more timeless straightforward approach any day.

One drawback is that Miller's haunting, passionate version of 'The Coventry Carol' and the gentle 'O Little Town of Bethlehem' have been removed from this edition. That's a shame.

One thing: I'm disheartened by the 1-star reviews being left here by people who mistakenly ordered this CD instead of Miller's "Holiday Sing-Along." It's not the album's fault that they didn't read the tracklisting - or the Amazon review, which clearly stated that this is the traditional carol album. The other is the pop standard one.

Miller's records were some of the more lightweight of his era, and this one is no exception. But those who grew up on these may well find them a welcome time capsule to childhood memories. (Keep in mind that this album is devoted entirely to traditional carols. Those looking for Miller's renditions of more secular fare--"Frosty", "Rudolph", "The Twelve Days of Christmas"--are directed to the HOLIDAY SING-ALONG album, also available from Amazon.)

This was my favorite Christmas album growing up. The only one I have ever heard with all the verses beautifully sung to the traditional carols. A gem!

I loved this and was happy to finally find it in a CD, however I was upset that it didn't include the "sheet music" so you could sing-along like the albums did.

A "must have" Christmas CD, if you grew up with this music. I listened to this album when I was a child and bought the CD this year so that my kids could listen to the same songs. Brought back some wonderful and warm Christmas memories for me.