Customer Reviews

Ultimate White Christmas

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

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Each december 1st, I wish and hope and prey that the original 1954 soundtrack to this holiday classic would make it's cd debut, but it never does.THEN I bought THIS cd and discovered that this is the nearest thing we have to a movie soundtrack of this Irving Berlin jewel. Most of the songs are here from the movie. We can only hope that a ligit recording comes out someday, but untill then, this is a fun disc. Mike

It is understandable as to why it is a compilation of the White Christmas songs instead of a true "soundtrack"---it explains why in the booklet in the jewel case. Rosemary Clooney was under a different record label than Danny Kaye and Bing Crosby. SO they couldn't agree on money/who would produce the album/when/where and this was the result. I really like this soundtrack; IT ISN'T THE SAME AS THE MOVIE, but it still works and it is the only soundtrack I could find of the movie. It has all the major songs on it so it works for me. I am pleased and I would recommend this to anybody.

This CD is growing on me by the minute! The classic voices of Rosemary Clooney and Bing Crosby are not to be missed. Mix that with the fun tunes from the movie "White Christmas" and the wonderful voices of Danny Kaye, Peggy Lee, the Mellowmen, and others... and you've got a treasure.

Warning: This is NOT the original movie soundtrack. I don't really think the origninal movie sountrack exists because I have searched pretty extensively. However, all the songs that were in the movie are included (some twice by two different artists, e.g. "Sisters"), most are just not the MOVIE VERSION of the song. Also, there are songs included that are not even in the movie (e.g. "Susie Snowflake", "Winter Wonderland.") All in all this is an excellent CD and well worth the price for the 22 songs.

Recently got this cd - I knew buying it , it was not actually taken from the film's soundtrack but its enjoyable-- The songs were recorded in a studio but its close enough to the versions we all know- I cant understand why for instance here on Amazon.com USED copies are going for $129.99 - they dont have any new copies as of today- I bought my copy not to long ago on this site and paid $21.99 for a new sealed copy. All the songs from the movie are here in one form or another- I liked it very much and Im glad to have what complete score their is - just dont understand why this cd is going now for over $100 when I paid so little about less than 2 months - recommend if ya can find a copy !

This is my favorite Christmas movie and love all the songs. The product was excellent and shipping was fast. I love this item.

I LOVE this movie and all this music. This CD is wonderful and contains even more songs than were in the film...but the songs from the movie seemed to be different versions. The inflections I've memorized from seeing the movie a million times weren't there. Still good, but I'll definitely buy the real soundtrack as well if it's available.

Love this CD! I have been a fan of White Christmas for years and am so pleased to now have a collection of the songs, plus a few others not from the movie!! The sweet sound of Bing, Rosemary and all the others sounds terrific. Some of the songs are different from the original movie, due to recording issues (explained on the back of the CD - very interesting), but overall, I thought it was a great collection!