Ultimate White Christmas [Import]

Bing Crosby | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 5, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Pulse
• ASIN: B000A14ORE
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #151,620 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Close but no cigar, it's a compilation, not a soundtrack, January 3, 2007

By 

fritzthatsit (Saint Petersburg, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ultimate White Christmas (Audio CD)

White Christmas was one of the best musicals to come out of Hollywood, and certainly one of the biggest holiday films of all time. It's amazing to think that record companies couldn't come to terms to produce an actual soundtrack album. Bing Crosby was contracted to Decca, and Rosemary Clooney was contracted to Columbia. Thus, there was never an "Original Soundtrack Album" made of the movie White Christmas. Instead, what was released was an album featuring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Trudy Stevens (the dubbed-in singing voice for Vera Ellen) along with Peggy Lee substituting for the absent Rosemary Clooney. The album was called "Selections from Irving Berlin's White Christmas". It contained all the songs from the movie re-recorded with Peggy Lee. Meanwhile, Roosemary Clooney released her own 8 song 10" EP containing her versions of most of the White Christmas songs. How confused and dissapointed the fans and record buying public must have been in 1954! This CD, "Ultimate White Christmas" is a compilation of those two discs, along with three additional unrelated Clooney holiday songs thrown in as bonus tracks. Overall, this is the closest thing you'll ever find to the elusive White Christmas soundtrack. Unfortunately, when you yearn to hear the songs as you remember them from the movie, some of these versions just don't measure up. Arrangements differ from the movie versions, and, while Peggy Lee is a fine singer in her own right, she has a totally different sound and style from Clooney. This is evident in her version of "Love You Didn't Do Right By Me". She seemed determined to make the song her own, and oversings to the point where she sounds like she's yawning into the microphone. On the Clooney tracks, the arrangements of the White Christmas songs are vastly different from the movie and, once again, leaves the listener disconnected. A few of the songs have harpsichord in them, which was never used in the movie. The three additional Clooney tracks were pulled from another '50's holiday recording and do nothing to enhance this CD. The songs "Suzy Snowflake" and "C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S" sounds as if they were recorded for a children's album. While I give the producer credit for the effort made to compile all the songs into one "utlimate" package, I give this CD overall low marks because of the poor digital remastering of the recordings. It sounds muddy and muffled. The packaging is also second-rate and looks as if it were done using a greeting card program on someone's home pc. This project could use major label budget and expertise. Until then, watch the movie on DVD and savor the songs as you know and love them.

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best We Can Get, September 29, 2006

By 

Clarke Kissel (New Orleans) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ultimate White Christmas (Audio CD)

There is definitely a bit of deception in the marketing and packaging of this CD. It is NOT an original soundtrack of the movie, as Rosemary Clooney did not participate in the recordings. Included in this CD are songs Ms. Clooney recorded separately, hence the confusing packaging. But it's still very enjoyable, and as of now, the best we can get.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ultimate White Christmas??, January 10, 2007

By 

David Lebeau (Vancouver, B.C.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ultimate White Christmas (Audio CD)

Well I was a bit disappointed with this CD, it does not have many of the original recordings from the movie and the recordings that they do have sometimes lacks one of the artists that sang it originally, for example Rosemary Clooney is absent from the "Snow" number, which I found disappointing. Despite this if you like White Christmas the movie this is still a must have, just don't expect it to meet all your expectations.