Customer Reviews

Greatest Christmas Songs

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This is the album that Julie recorded in 1966 with Andre Previn as conductor and arranger, formerly entitled "A Christmas Treasure." It was first released as a $1.00 Christmas premium at Firestone tire stores in 1966, then released in record stores the following year on RCA. Julie was at the height of her popularity, and I heard the album played at every function and party in our small community that Christmas in 1966. The original LP and CD releases were both compressed and horribly distorted. This new version, however, is beautifully restored: crisp, spacious distortion-free sound. There's even a short instrumental interlude added back to "The Bells of Christmas" that has never been present on previous versions. The only negative thing that could be said about the album is the self-consciously artsy arrangements that keep the album from being as warm and Christmasy as it should have. However if you're a fan of Julie Andrews you MUST have this album--just avoid buying a copy of the older recording that is still available in some stores.

"Greatest Christmas Songs" is essentially a remastered collection of the Julie Andrews/Andre Previn holiday album "A Christmas Treasure," originally recorded in 1966. The remastered sound on this CD is wonderful and showcases the sophistication and grandeur these arrangments have so well captured and maintained over the years. Julie Andrews brings her gorgeous soprano to Previn's lush, expansive orchestral arrangments, and the two compliment each other perfectly. Whether it be the joyful opening number, "Joy To the World," or the haunting "Wexford Carol," or the tender reading of "Irish Carol," this collection showcases Christmas music in a grand and memorable fashion. Of particular interest is the lilting, refreshing alternative melody Andrews provides for "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear." Even after all of these years, this album still sounds fresh. This album has special meaning to me, as my grandfather (a band director for many years) dubbed it and the Robert Shaw Christmas collection for us years ago. Until just recently, I was only able to listen to this magical collection on our old reel-to-reel recording (which took from the LP version of "A Christmas Treasure."). Hearing the remastered CD version was wonderful, and this collection of music remains far and away not only a sentimental favorite, but also, on a musical level, a timeless collection of holiday music. Please make it a part of your holiday listening tradition...it's well worth your investment!

This is essentially a re-release of the Julie Andrews-Andre Previn collaboration "A Christmas Treasury" (with some surprisinging non-Christmas selections tacked to the end, on which I shall not comment). For years I was forced to listen to an old, scratched LP version; then it was released on CD, only to vanish. Grab it now before it disappears again. Of my rather large collection of Christmas CDs, this is definitely what I would choose if forced to choose only one. Recorded in the early 1960s, Ms. Andrews's voice is at its peak of perfection. But beyond that, the selections and the arrangements perfectly present the kind of pomp and grandeur we associate with the idealized British Christmas celebration, without ever being in any way stuffy or pretentious. Imagine a symphonic version of wine-red silk velvet. The opening "Joy to the World" is glorious, expansive, rich. The closing "Jingle Bells" is lighthearted yet classy in the quintessential Julie Andrews tradtion. Every song in between is a perfect gem. I cannot imagine the Christmas season without this CD.

When I was a child we had an album with a pink cover and a large bow in the center. Our family got it through a Firestone promotion in the late 60's. For a few dollars more when you filled up your tank at Firestone you had the opportunity to purchase the best Christmas album I've come across in my lifetime. This release is that album plus a few extras added in for good measure. I've searched for it for many years because once you've heard these arrangements, no other Christmas music will do. The lush arrangements, the classic Julie Andrews voice, and the nostalgia all come together to make this my number one pick for Christmas.

This is a great album and sounds better than ever. It is a re release of "A Christmas Treasure" that Julie recorded with the orchestra and arrangements of Andre Previn. All the selections have been re mixed for this CD release. The sound quality is fifty times better than it's previous release on CD in 1990. The orchestra sounds wonderful as does Julie's crystal clear vocals. So glad this release finally got the treatment it deserves. Nice package design too. Pretty photos throughout and classy art on the disc itself.

These are truly grand recordings. It gives you the feeling that you are at a very fine Christmas celebration. Who better than Julie to perform these glorious arrangements. "Deck the Halls" and "Joy to the World" are quite an experience, and the "Wexford Carol" is absolutely beautiful. What a treasure from one of our greatest entertainers. This is the first of three amazing Christmas albums Julie recorded. Hopefully her other two, "Christmas with Julie Andrews" (a.k.a. the Secret of Christmas) and "The Sounds of Christmas", will be re released in time as well. They are exquisite.

This originally was released on CD as A CHRISTMAS TREASURE with Julie and Andre Previn on the cover. It replicated the original artwork on the LP. The sound was fine but with its remastering is even better. I especially like "Irish Carol" and "Away in the Manger" and the harpsichord solos done by Previn. For some reason they have given us three songs from one of her pop albums. One hopes they will reissue both of them in their entirety. This is one of the all time best Christmas albums and I am glad it is available for younger buyers of CDs.

I've heard a joke about somebody going into a bank that advertised "Six Month CDs" and saying, "Gee, I don't see how they can really get that much music on one disc!" Well, here's a CD that would need to be almost that long to make all its songs timely, as I'll shortly explain. I came into the world just in time for THE SOUND OF MUSIC to be one of my earliest formative movie experiences, and it got some of those of my generation started off thinking of Julie Andrews as someone who could probably walk on water or something. Naturally when my earliest remembered Christmas came back around then, I really wanted the new Firestone record of Julie Andrews singing Christmas songs. That's why I was most pleased as a grownup just a year ot two ago to find this CD. It has all the songs on that old Firestone vinyl record, and then some bonus tracks. I had grown to love these songs and make them an integral part of my Christmas experience from way back in those childhood days. At first some of them may be not quite what you expect, but they grow on you. It was this collection that first taught me new tunes to "Away In A Manger" and "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear". At first I missed hearing Julie sing the more familiar tunes that I expected here, but since I've come to love these previously unfamiliar tunes as at least as beautiful. But the most unique song in the collection must be "The Bells of Christmas" a song I've never known to be recorded before or since this one recording by Julie Andrews. It is a beautiful song, and I don't know why it has never seemed to become popular. When we get tired of most every christmas collection having such overrated songs as "Jingle Bells" and "I'll Be Home For Christmas", it is so nice to have this song, which deserved as much success, to listen to. When as a grownup I found my old vinyl record wearing old and my old player getting harder and harder to get replacement parts for, I feared this treasured collection might be effectively lost to me. That's why the CD was such a great find, for now I have the songs readily playable and restored to fresh new quality. There are five bonus tracks on the CD, two of which are additional Christmas songs. But the one bafflement of it all is the other three. They come at the end and are not Christmas songs. If you're at all like me, you want your Christmas discs to not end with non-Christmas songs. To increase that bafflement to the point of almost making one wonder if it is a joke, the first of those three songs (hence the one immediately following the Christmas songs) is, of all things, "It Might As Well Be Spring". What a clearer way to seem to say "I sure got out of the Christmas spirit in a hurry" than to follow a collection of Christmas songs by bursting directly into "It Might As Well Be Spring"? So if you're at all like me, I hope you have a fully programmable CD player and can program it to play only the Christmas songs. Then a few months later, get out the disc for a more fitting time to listen to the other three songs.

If you are looking for that wonderful Julie Andrews album put out by Firestone in the early 1960's, this is now it(replacing the Christmas Treasure CD, which is no longer being produced). I remember when my mother bought the original album, making a special trip to the Firestone store (though we never actually bought their tires).

She brought it home, and it was beautiful beyond description: The Lamb of God, the Wexford Carol--both especially inspiring if your Christmas season is losing its Spiritual focus.

All the guys in my fifth grade class were in love Miss Andrews, and I was no exception: She was pretty, funny, and had the voice of an angel. In interviews I see and hear of her now, the kindness in her beautiful speaking voice reminds us of the true person behind the voice of those earlier years.

I also grew up with "A Christmas Treasure", the orginal album on which the Christmas songs on this CD were originally released. I've listened to these songs over and again over the past approx. 40 years and they remain some of my favourites! The Irish and Wexford Carols are haunting. When I hear this music I think of Christmases past and in many ways this album IS Christmas to me. I'm SO glad it is released on CD with some bonus tracks as well. Too bad they didn't find some more Christmas songs though, such as from "Christmas with Julie Andrews" to include instead of putting non-Christmas songs on a Christmas Album (seems funny). However, I do enjoy listening to Christmas music all year, so it suits me fine.

I grew up listening to listening to Andrews singing almost all of these songs on one of the Firestone Christmas LP's.
The Andrews/Previn volume was the only Firestone LP which featured a single vocalist: Julie Andrews.

Over the years, my LP copy of the Andrews/Previn has been played to death. It is SO good to hear the recordings remastered to CD.
Andrews, in her vocal prime, sounds better than ever.

It's a pity that none of the other Firestone Christmas albums have been (and probably never will be)released on CD.
I'm thinking that the contractual details with the solo artists Firestone engaged may preclude that possibility.

That's a real shame.
Although the arrangements on the Firestone Christmas LP's may sound a bit dated, the performances are something very special.

For me, it wouldn't be Christmas without listening to the entire Firestone Christmas LP set...especially the Andrews/Previn volume.