Ho Ho Ho! ‘Tis Christmas Eve and time to cover one of the best Christmas albums ever made! Since this is a special holiday post, that means it doesn’t have a rating or a top track. Just a special little Christmas nugget for the few who actually read my blog. For those who don’t read my blog, well then it’s just a lump of coal for you. Yup, this post is going to be short and sweet, just like the songs on this album. This contains five original songs and seven ‘Christmas standards’ and reached number 6 on the Billboard 200 in 1964. It also eventually went gold! Despite being a Christmas album, the sessions for the album spanned the month of June, 1964. The song ‘Christmas Day’ was the first Beach Boys’ song to feature rhythm guitarist Al Jardine on lead vocal. Al can be seen on the bottom left corner of the cover photo of the album. The A-side of the album consists of mostly original Christmas-themed rock songs written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love. The B-side contains more pious and traditional standards with some orchestral accompaniment. Listening to this album on my turntable gives me those warm holiday feelings with the warm sound and the slight crackling of the vinyl. Sure, it’s nice listening to the album on CD or by streaming it, but there’s nothing like listening to a classic Christmas album on its original audio medium.

This record holds fond memories for me as I grew up listening to it around the holidays. ‘Little Saint Nick’ will forever remain one of my personal favorite Christmas songs along with ‘The Man With All The Toys’. The legendary harmonies of The Beach Boys just fill me with that ol’ Christmas spirit and get me ready for Santa. Brian Wilson’s solo vocals on ‘Blue Christmas’ was something different for the group and showed Wilson coming into his own creative identity that would be featured on the band’s album “Pet Sounds” two years later. Brian Wilson is the only one wearing a yellow sweater on the cover by the way. While the A-side of this album is fun to dance and sing long to, the B-side is a nice counter with slower, melodic tunes that are great to chill out to. I also appreciate the fact that the band decided to end the album with ‘Auld Lang Syne’, which is traditionally more of a New Years’ song. The group’s voices are so soothing and the message from Dennis Wilson is a great wrap up to the album and a sweet ending to a great Christmas album. So, to wrap up this special holiday post, I would like to end with Dennis’ (Denny) special message.

‘Hi, this is Denny, and speaking for the rest of the guys
I’d like to say that it has been a great pleasure
For all of us to bring you this Christmas album
We hope you will treasure it the way we do
And if you happen to be listening to this album right now
Mike, Brian, Carl, Al and I would like to wish every one of you a very merry Christmas
And we hope the New Year brings you as much happiness as this year has brought us
Thank you very much’

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from your friendly blogger, Ro🎄