Customer Reviews

Phil Spector's Christmas Album

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Phil Spector Christmas Album (11/63) Great album you will love to play, especially at Christmas time. All of Spector's top singers and groups contribute. A nice gift item if you have a friend that is into vinyl records.

I have been searching for a good, clean stereo copy of this record for a LOOONNGGG time [decades] and have failed so far, as I have only a distorted used copy. Still, I would take my damaged STEREO version any day over the mushy, constricted mono version which is the only one in print these days. Instead of an amorphous monophonic cloud [wall] of sound, you can actually pick-out instruments and vocalists in this version- in the mono version you can't even hear the string section most places, it is drowned-out by the rhythm section and band! [Wall of Sound my foot - More like Wall of Sound through wet blankets!] Clarity- what a concept! The stereo sound is, how shall I put it- vivid, like watching a Christmas movie in Color versus black-and-white. It is spacious, almost binaural, most noticeably through headphones. This Impression [label] version is somewhat louder and clearer than the Passport/Gem and Apple stereo pressings- during the intro to "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" you clearly hear one of the Crystals [vocalist] clear her throat "Ahem" before singing, which on the other versions it can barely be heard. One additional difference [between stereo and mono versions] I found is that on the track "The Bells of St. Mary" there is a 4-beat chime lead-in on the mono version, absent from the stereo version, which also suffers from abrupt fade-outs. Anyways, this album DESERVES to be heard in STEREO!

The main problem is that this is a phonographic disc [and not a CD or cassette] so there are the typical phonographic distortions [mostly from being a used LP that was played on [and received mistracking damage from] crummy misadjusted equipment with blunted needles/lousy gimbal bearings- typical of used records, as only a tiny minority of folk ever had properly-functioning record-playing systems]. My copy has distorted vocals. My hopelessly unrealistic goal is to find a good pristine [unplayed and/or undamaged] stereo Impression copy, or even the extremely rare Holland import CD [Duchesse CD352032- "Xmas Party With..."] which contains the entirety of the stereo [from the 3-track master tape] Phil Spector Christmas album plus 5 Elvis Presley Christmas songs. Such a specimen is viewable only [the website appears to be dead] at [...]. I would truly appreciate anybody who could write me with more information on obtaining this. Thanx to all for reading.