Blue Yule: Christmas Blues and R&B Classics

Blue Yule

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 10, 1991)
• Original Release Date: 1991
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Rhino / Wea
• ASIN: B0000032HI
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #8,629 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #2 in	Music > Blues > Regional Blues > West Coast Blues
  #5 in	Music > Blues > Jump Blues
  #12 in	Music > Blues > Delta Blues

Track Listings

1. Santa's Messin' with the Kid - Eddie Campbell

2. Merry Christmas

3. Christmas Blues - Canned Heat

4. Christmas Time Blues - Roy Milton

5. Christmas Day - Detroit Junior

6. Merry Christmas, Baby - Charles Brown

7. Please Come Home for Christmas - The Insight, Edgar Winter

8. Jingle Bell Boogie - Big Jack Johnson

9. Christmas Time-Pt. 1 - Jimmy McCracklin

10. Santa Claus, Santa Claus - Louis Jordan

11. Santa Claus - Sonny Boy Williamson

12. Merry Christmas Darling - Poppa Hop and His Orchestra

13. Blues for Christmas - John Lee Hooker

14. Happy New Year

15. Christmas Holidays [#] - Texas Pete Mayes

16. Santa Claus Baby - The Voices

17. I Want My Baby for Christmas - Jimmy Liggins

18. I'll Be Home for Christmas - Pilgrim Travelers

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Blue Yule is without question one of the hippest collections of rhythm & blues Christmas music ever assembled. The disc boasts the likes of Louis Jordan, John Lee Hooker, the gospel-powered Pilgrim Travelers, and Johnny and Edgar Winter, as well as the likes of Detroit Junior ("Christmas Day") and Canned Heat ("Christmas Blues"). Lengthy even by contemporary CD standards, this 18-tracker also includes Charles Brown, Big Jack Johnson, Roy Milton, and the inscrutable Lightnin' Hopkins wishing you both "Merry Christmas" and "Happy New Year." But perhaps the set's greatest gift is also it's strangest--Sonny Boy Williamson's "Santa Claus," a rousing midtempo blues-rocker with a biting harp break and weird, funky lyrics about Sonny Boy going through his wife's drawers. --Martin Keller

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Of The Better Christmas Blues Compilations!, May 29, 2002

By	deepbluereview "deepbluereview" (SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

I tracked this down during this Christmas season after hearing Canned Heat's "Christmas Baby" on a Heineken commercial of all places. Immediately hooked, I sent off an e-mail asking Heineken for the name of the song and to my surprise, they responded. Searching on Amazon, I found it on this CD and purchased it. What was bought for one song soon became my favorite Christmas compilation complete with Big Jack Johnson, Louis Jordan, John Lee Hooker and Sonny Boy Williamson. Even the lesser known Poppa Hop and The Pilgrim Travelers make notable contributions on this disc.
A good pick for this upcoming Christmas holiday.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More Blue Than Yule!!!, December 8, 2004

By	chris meesey Food Czar (The Colony, TX United States) - See all my reviews

Well, let's see. As I write this review, the date is December 8th, 2004, and it's another two weeks and three days till Christmas finally arrives on the 25th. Since virtually every place in Creation started playing Christmas music on November 1st, you've had 38 days to become thoroughly SICK of the same dozen songs played over and over again from every radio station and retail establishment. Want some relief? How about an album chock-full of great Christmas BLUES music, that truly sounds more like blues that like standard, overplayed holiday ditties? Well, folks, get this CD!! It's nice and long (18 tracks) and only one or two numbers are overly familiar (and one of those, Charles Brown's immortal "Merry Christmas Baby," is usually considered the top Christmas blues recording of all time!) Standouts include Canned Heat (Their song is straightforward blues, not the novelty track they spun with ALvin and the Chipmunks), Detroit Junior with his hard-driving boogie "Christmas Day", the Pilgrim Travelers and their delightful, close-harmony doo-wop gospel classic, "I'll Be Home for Christmas," and the always-irrepresible Louis Jordan with "Santa Claus, Santa Claus." There's not a bad number in the bunch, but the pick of this holiday litter must go to Edddie Campbell and his delicious take on the Junior Wells masterpiece, here titled "Santa's Messin' With the Kid". So don't delay! Order today, there's still time to get it rushed to you by Christmas. Do it, and the best yuletide blues and r and b will be home to you, if not by Christmas, then by New Years night.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Look what Santa did!, December 6, 2005

By	Johnny Heering "trivia buff" (Bethel, CT United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Blues musicians don't record Christmas songs that often, but Rhino Records managed to find 18 Christmas blues songs for this CD. Charles Brown's definitive recording of "Merry Christmas Baby" is well known, but the rest of the tracks are pretty obscure. There are a lot of good songs here, with my personal favorites being the ones by Eddie C. Campbell and Canned Heat. If you have any interest in the blues, this is the Christmas CD to get.