"A Capitol Christmas" Double LP From the Vaults Worth Owning

Producer/annotator Jay Landers has pulled from Capitol's rich vaults some of the label's best Christmas music that the label has issued as a double LP set complete with excellent liner notes (they are back.

Of course it opens with Nat King Cole's "The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)" written by Mel Tormé and R. Wells but it then goes on to pull many less well-known tunes including Julie London's "I'd Like You For Christmas" (feeling's mutual), June Christy's "The Merriest", Bing Crosby's "Do You Hear What I Hear?" and Dean Martin's "Winter Wonderland".

There are tracks from Ella, Jo Stafford, Nancy Wilson, Peggy Lee, Kay Starr and Johnny Mercer, plus of course Frank Sinatra—twenty four in all, ending with the Nat/Natalie "The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)", all in a nicely packaged gatefold jacket, with well-written historical notes aimed at record collectors instead of the usual simpering Christmas drivel.

Ron McMaster cut lacquers and co-mastered with Robert Vosgien. The sound is okay, not exceptional, but you're not buying this for the sonic thrill. If you own an original of The Magic of Christmas (SW-1444) or "Nat King Cole's Christmas Album"(SW 1967) (the same record re-packaged), you'd hear the difference, but neither was this a hastily put together package so the sound is more than acceptable: it's difficult to ruin a great Capitol Studios recording.

What better way to celebrate the season than with a great Christmas compilation like this or last year's from Analogue Productions?

The holiday cheer was marred for me only by a large vinyl tumor on both sides of the first album.

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