Spirit of Christmas Past

Peter Dawson | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 10, 2000)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Asv Living Era
• ASIN: B000001HIZ
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #263,732 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. White Christmas - Bing Crosby

2. Medley: Savoy Christmas Medley - Ray Noble

3. Medley: Christmas Carols-Vocal Gems: Intro: Once In Royal David's City/Good King Wenceslas/It Came Upon the Midnight Clear - London Church Carol Choir

4. The Santa Claus Express - Bbc Dance Orchestra

5. Medley: Say It With Carols: Intro: The Mistletoe Bough/Good King Wenceslas/Little Brown Jug/God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen/Come, Landlord/Fill the Flowing Bowl - Billy Mayerl

6. Christmas Bells At Eventide - Gracie Fields

7. The Fairy On the Christmas Tree - The Three Sisters

8. Winter Wonderland - LEW STONE & HIS BAND

9. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town - Tom Stacks

10. I'll Walk Alone (Thru Every Christmas) - Dinah Shore

11. 'Twas the Night Before Christmas - The Glee Club

12. Swingin' Them Jingle Bells - Fats Waller & His Rhythm

13. Coventry Carol - Elisabeth Schumann

14. Noel - Georges Thill

15. Sleep, My Savior, Sleep - The Celebrity Quartette

16. Christmas Message To the Empire 1932 - H.M. King George V

17. The Christmas Dinner - Max Miller

18. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Judy Garland

19. Christmas Night In Harlem - Johnny Mercer

20. Mary Had a Baby, Yes, Lord - Paul Robeson

See all 23 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bought it for "Night Before Christmas", November 19, 2000

By 

N. Jenkins "Seek 1st to understand!" (Wake Forest, NC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Spirit of Christmas Past (Audio CD)

When I was growing up, my dad had recorded christmas music off of the radio stations on his old wallensack reel-to-reel recorder. That taped collection became known in our family as "THE christmas tape" and we were always begging to here "The Night Before Christmas". It was our favorite christmas song. Unfortunately, that tape didn't hold up too well so when I found this CD, I was thrilled. I have to say that I really like the whole CD. It has a mixture of the "popular classics" like White Christmas" to spirituals of "Mary Had A Baby, Yes Lord" and recitations from A Christmas Carol". If you long for the kind of music that takes you back to when you were a kid (assuming you grew up prior to the 70s) then this is a great CD. Word of warning: These songs were obviously recorded prior to the advent of stereo so many of the recordings are mono and not the quality that we have come to expect today. But to me, that's ok because that is how they were meant to be heard... Enjoy!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Priceless all time great performances, December 9, 2002

By 

Neal C. Reynolds (Indianapolis, Indiana) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Spirit of Christmas Past (Audio CD)

Well, maybe not all 23 cuts are great, but enough of them are to make this a good record to have. This is an earlier collection similar to Living Era's "A Nostalgic Merry Christmas To You," and covers a slightly narrower time span..the 30's and the 40's. I can't recommend one of these over the other, because each has many notable cuts.

This one starts with Bing's "White Christmas", arguably the top commercial Christmas recording of all time. Also on this CD is Bing's "Silent Night" which was on the other side. Bing also came out with "Silent Night" on another single with "Adeste Fidelis" on the other side & donated his royalties for that single to charity.

Also notable is the Lew Stone recording of "Winter Wonderland", one of the early recordings of the 1934 song, and also the first recording ever of "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" from the Harry Reser Orchestra.

Dinah Shore's "I'll Walk Alone (Thru Every Christmas)" and Fred Waring's "'Twas The Night Before Christmas" reflect the World War II years in that both cuts come from American Ward Dept. Armed Forces Radio Service recordings.

Then there's Fats Waller's fabulous reworking of a Christmas standard, "Swingin' Them Jingle Bells". Another jazzy number is Johnny Mercer & Jack Teagarden's "Christmas Night in Harlem. The legendary Paul Robeson is heard with the Christmas Spiritual, "Mary Had a Baby, Yes, Lord".

There's much more here that reflects the era through the presentation of performances that were popular here in the U. S. and also in some cases in England.

Yeah, there's historical interest here, but it's all darn entertaining too. Only real minus here is that of course, the sound fidelity is poorer than we're used to because of course, these were all monaural recordings. But that's as it should be, that we're hearing them as the original listeners heard them.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Save your money, March 15, 2005

By 

Wekng (Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spirit of Christmas Past (Audio CD)

and buy " A Vintage Christmas Cracker" instead. It has all of the same songs, but you get two discs instead of one for almost the same price. Christmas crackers has songs from "Spirit of Christmas past" on it and also the songs from a "Nostalgic Christmas too you". The songs are very good, it just doesn't make sense to buy these when you can get that cd with 2 discs for the same price.