A Christmas Gift For You

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Review

A Christmas Gift for You from Philles Records, as the album is originally titled, was released in 1963 on November 22nd. This day would go down in history as one of the most defining days in the (recent) history of the United States. Not because of the release of this album, but because of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The release couldn’t have been planned any worse than that. It didn’t turn out to be as successful as was hoped. A 13th place in the special annual Christmas album sales list was the highest position the album was to reach in 1963. Original 1963 pressings are (very) scarse and (as a result) valuable.

A Christmas Gift For You (Apple)

The album was recorded from September to October 1963 and is characterized by the typical Spector Wall Of Sound production. The album seemed to disappear into oblivion, until Beatles-label Apple re-released the album in 1972, with another cover which featured Phil Spector as Santa Claus and another title: Phil Spector’s Christmas Album. This version fared (much) better that the original 9 years before. After the re-release the album grew more popular. Nowadays it is regarded as a holiday standard. This Christmas album has become the template for all Christmas-albums.

I don’t particularly like Christmas-albums and its music, but this one is definitely on my playlis, thus making it the best Christmas-album I know.

Fun fact:
Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson wanted to play piano on Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, but was rejected, due to lack of quality… However, Wilson still considers this album to be one of the best albums ever.

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In closing

What do you think? Is this the best Christmas-album ever? Or does that honour belong to, for instance, Elvis’ Christmas Album?
Let me know!