Customer Reviews

Jingle Bell Rock: An Oldies Rock & Roll Christmas

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

 

 

I think the album cover caught me-the cherry red '57 Chevy with the frosted Christmas tree conveys an image of another time and another place. And that is part of the Christmas Spirit. We need to get pulled out of our humdrum complacency, and to remind ourselves of our ideals, and to have fun in the process.

This is a fun CD. It is a mulligan stew of the classic 1950's-1960's rock classics that celebrate Christmas. The beginning and ending bookend tracks come from the classic "Beach Boy's Christmas Album." If you like these two tracks, I recommend the full Beach Boys album. Their version of "We Three Kings" is absolutely perfect, and their rendition of the Lord's Prayer taps into something holy.

The rest of the album is full of similar tracks. The second track is the kingpin of all Christmas rock anthems, "Jingle Bell Rock." Jan and Deans "Frosty the Snowman" serves as a pseudo-reprise of the Beach Boys So-Cal harmonies.

There are two surprise gems. "Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)" took my breath away. I have heard the U2 cover, but I think Dion shines in his version. The second surprise was Ricky Nelson's cover of "Jingle Bells." You don't think that anyone could do something interesting with this old standard, but he brings life and breath into this rockabilly cover.

The Fats Domino track has some transfer problems, but I imagine that it comes from the condition of the original source recoding. It has to be about 45 years old, so it is probably as best as could be expected.

"Blue Christmas" and "Please Come home for Christmas" help round out the collection. However, I must make special note of the Ventures' "Sleigh Ride." It is done in their idiom, and begins and ends with riffs that remind me of "Walk, Don't Run." But it works! It is energetic and in a weird sense, a funny juxtaposition of rock and fun.

And that is what the holiday is all about.

To me it's a bit of an insult that labels still manufacture and sell cds this short. 10 songs from the '50s and '60s? Come on, that's less than 30 minutes! This isn't a reissue of a classic album, is it? If it was, that would make some sense. But it's not, it's a compilation of some great holiday oldies that should be at least 30 minutes longer. I say even though this is a fairly inexpensive item, save your money for a more thoughtful and beefier compilation. That's what I always tell myself, and then I try to find one and they don't seem to exist. There ARE (at least) 3 decent DIFFERENT cds with the same title, from different labels, all with 10-12 songs of oldies/rock and roll Christmas songs. Someone should combine all 3 on to one 80 minute cd and we could have ourselves a time.

Brings Back Lots of good Memories of the holidays. It lifted our family's spirits. It was really nice and fun. We rocked our way through Christmas and the New Year!

Great CD, I am a Christmas Music lover and this was a welcome addition to my collection. Terrific music from a time when music was music.