Music of Christmas

Percy Faith and His Orchestra (Composer), Adolphe Adam (Composer), Franz Xaver Gruber (Composer), George Frideric Handel (Composer), Felix Mendelssohn (Composer), Christmas Traditional (Composer), John Francis Wade (Artist), Richard Storrs Willis (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Composer: Percy Faith and His Orchestra, Adolphe Adam, Franz Xaver Gruber, George Frideric Handel, Felix Mendelssohn, et al.
• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000025SN
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #123,206 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Faith was a rising star in the new realm of "mood music" when this 1954 LP came out. Bask in his orchestral arrangements of Joy to the World; Good King Wenceslas; O Holy Night; The First Noel; Silent Night, Holy Night; O Come, All Ye Faithful , and more! --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Pinnacle of Classic Instrumental Christmas Albums!, August 18, 2004

By 

Tom Anderson (Piney Flats, Tennessee United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Music of Christmas (Audio CD)

This is it, folks! If you like an old-fashioned, very Christmasy-sounding album, this is the one to buy.

Tracks from this album were played everywhere when I was a kid: at parties, in stores, in commercials. It was THE sound of Christmas for me, but I had no idea what the album was. When I first heard the song samples on Amazon, I was thrilled. THIS is what I had been looking for all these years and didn't know it! When I listen to this CD I am immediately transported to the Christmases of my childhood (and isn't that often what we're really looking for in older Christmas albums?).

Why only 4 stars for the rating? Sound quality. This CD is rather thin-sounding, trebly, hissy, compressed, and lacking in clarity, presence, and dynamics. Sony/Legacy restored Percy's "Music of Christmas, Volume 2" (which was recorded the same year, 1958) and it sounds wonderful. Just imagine how wonderful this album would be if Sony would spruce up this classic. I have contacted Sony's reissue label, Legacy, several times asking them to remaster this album. Let me encourage everyone reading these reviews to do the same--they need to hear from as many of us as possible: legacyrecordings.com. Click on contact and go from there.

Also highly recommended from this period: Johnny Mathis' "Merry Christmas." Percy Faith did the arrangements on this album also, and it is my favorite vocal Christmas album of all time because it has that late 1950s early 1960s nostalgic, Christmasy sound that you just can't find in later albums.

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Joyous memories, January 2, 2000

By 

Mary Schultz (Grand Rapids, Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Music of Christmas (Audio CD)

My father and I would spend hours and hours, down the basement, in the den, listening to Percy Faith and his orchestra, The "Music of Christmas" album. Every selection is fantastic. The arragements are the best I have ever heard. It was always the first album we would pull out, at Christmas time, and the last album we would put away, after we rang in the new year. As years went by, the rest of my family ventured, one by one, down to the den to see what was keeping my father and I so occupied, at this joyous time of the year. They had the same reaction. They sat and listened as the stings and horns, of this beautiful orchestra, wrapped their hearts in the true feeling of Christmas. I can't listen to that album in the den anymore, but thanks to the miracle of re-production on CD, that wonderful feeling of Christmas is still alive, and this Perch Faith "Music of Christmas" is the first CD I pull out at Christmas time, and the last CD I put away after I ring in the new year.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Well Known Christmas Favorite, October 7, 2004

By 

Timothy Kearney (Haverhill, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Music of Christmas (Audio CD)

Percy Faith's MUSIC OF CHRISTMAS contains familiar holiday music in traditional arrangements. Since the recording has been around for many years and has had wide radio play and is sometimes heard in department stores and elevators, people are probably familiar with some of the tracks without even realizing it. There are a few notable arrangements. "The Holy and the Ivy/Wassail Song arrangement uses a less familiar version of "The Holly and the Ivy" and the arrangement of "Deck the Halls" could almost be called "Fantasia of Deck the Halls." Each of the tracks has that certain Percy Faith sound, made famous by his rendition of the theme from "A Summer Place."

This is the perfect instant Christmas spirit recording. Usually I listen to it in early December when things begin to get busy and I need to get in the spirit. These older familiar renditions of the holiday music we all love.