5. The Ventures, 'The Ventures' Christmas Album'
Perhaps one of the most unsung albums on our list, the classic surf group ‘The Ventures’ created a short, but sweet slice of instrumental holiday happiness. Clocking in at around 27 minutes in length the album does not hang around or overstay its welcome, unlike friends or family over the Christmas period, and they certainly don’t drink all your booze or eat all your food.
Each track on the album is like a present to the listener, each starts with a famous rock guitar lick and then slides effortlessly into the assigned Christmas classic which is full of surfy guitar and screams of the technical prowess of the band throughout.
“Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer” intertwines with the Beatles’ “I Feel Fine” with that guitar lick popping up here and there which allows the song to move deliciously from start to finish.
“Frosty The Snowman” chugs through its 2.02 runtime with a little help at its start from “Tequila.”
“Wooly Bully” starts “Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town”, but the undeniable creativity of the band is fully abundant on this Christmas classic.
If your Christmas listening has become a little staid and boring then it's time to reach into your record collection and pull out this slice of Christmas creativity and allow yourself to do a little rockin’ around your Christmas tree.
4. Various Artists, 'Christmas in Soulsville'
There have been great soul solo Christmas albums, and there have been great soul Christmas compilations, from ‘The Ultimate Motown Christmas Collection’, Atlantic’s ‘Soul Christmas’, or ‘James Brown’s Funky Christmas’, but the breadth and depth of talent on ‘Christmas in Soulsville’ is not to be sniffed at, and here at Runout we adore the interweaving of naughty and nice styles found on the album.
The naughtiest tracks include ‘Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin' by Albert King and ‘Mistletoe and Me' by Isaac Haye, and the nicest ones such as ‘Winter Wonderland’ from Booker T & The MG’s, and ‘Merry Christmas Baby’ by Otis Redding.
If you are looking for a soundtrack to cosy up in front of the fire to indulge in some cuddles or something a little naughtier then slip ‘Christmas in Soulsville' on your record platter and relax.
3. John Williams - ‘Home Alone’
The best Christmas movie debate will roll on every Christmas and always make for heated debate, be it at a Christmas party, in the office, or around the dinner table, but here at Runout we love all Christmas movies and we also love their soundtracks. There is one that stands out for us though, and that is by the master of soundtracks himself John Williams, the soundtrack we love just happens to fit nicely into our Christmas vinyl list.
The ‘Home Alone’ soundtrack creates an entertaining, thoughtfully orchestrated, and endearingly melodic treat of gorgeously bathed warm festive tones. Williams weaves a concoction of sparkling, gothic, and anthemic styles through the soundtrack, and it is clear that the rich depth he created for the film goes far beyond the somewhat irreverent subject matter of this family film.
In addition to Williams stellar scoring the soundtrack is interspersed with some real holiday classics including The Drifters cover of Irving Berlin’s ‘White Christmas’, Mel Torme’s ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’, and the often overlooked but sumptuous traditional carol ‘O Holy Night’ performed by Adolphe Adam.
The ‘Home Alone’ soundtrack creates a truly memorable feeling in anybody who has heard it, or even heard snippets of it in the film itself, there is a sense of pure warmth that runs through it which compliments the film and invokes a real sense of Christmases of the past for adults, and wonderment and frivolity for children who hear it for the first time.
2. Phil Spector, 'A Christmas Gift for You'
This album should be in everybody's home, like free sachets of coffee, or washing powder, it should just be there for you to enjoy. Phil Spector created perhaps the most Christmassy of albums thanks to his patented Wall of Sound production style, and a little help from his stable of amazing singers including The Ronettes, Crystals, Darlene Love, and Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans.
‘A Christmas Gift For You’ has been heralded as not only an astonishing slice of Christmas ephemera that captured the true essence of the Christmas spirit, but is also a pop masterpiece orchestrated by Spector through his singers.
While the album is a tremendous Christmas album it is the stories from it that show a slightly darker side, and also help to feed into the myth of Phil Spector and his meteoric rise to production greatness Spectors artists were used as pawns by the producer to create his masterpiece, some of the artists have been known to say that the sessions were torrid, and as some of Spectors singers were only teenagers then it could be said that the sessions could be tantamount to child abuse.
The album did have some great stories made in the three months of sessions it took to make, these include that Brian Wilson of the ‘Beach Boys’ can be found playing the piano on numerous tracks, Phil Spector was known to complete impromptu stand-up comedy during the recordings, Sonny Bono of ‘Sonny & Cher fame was a studio assistant during the recordings, and its original release coincided with the death of President John F Kennedy which perhaps could be a reason for its poor original sales.
The album is a collection of covers predominantly, with a single original recording performed by Darlene Love ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’ which was originally intended for Ronnie Becket of The Ronettes but was taken away from her after Spector deemed her voice to lack the emotional depth necessary for the track.
Runout love ‘A Christmas Gift For You’ and you will find it spinning on our record player from the start of December throughout the Christmas period, and even perhaps a few cheeky listens during the year away from the Christmas festivities.
1. Various Artists - Blue Yule: Christmas Blues and R&B Classics
At number one sits a real gem of a Christmas album that incorporates 18 tracks that are not known to be duplicated on other releases or artists albums with an abundance of treasures from the likes of Charles Brown, John Lee Hooker, Lightnin' Hopkins, and Canned Heat to name a few.
A collection of songs based on the trials and tribulations of persons, and peoples which are golden fodder to the great blues and R&B singers of the 20th Century, and are given an even deeper sense of longing and frustration due to the festive backdrop, which for many is a time for fun and frivolity, but for others is a sad, lonely, and even suicidal period.
“Blue Yule is without question one of the hippest collections of rhythm & blues Christmas music ever assembled” and here at Runout we could not agree with this sentiment anymore.
We are proud to call this album our number 1 Christmas Album to own on vinyl and we suggest if you do not own it already you ask for it from Santa Claus and hope he will be kind enough to give you a little taste of the “rough crowd… (of) hapless revelers in these songs… (who) are just as likely to spend Christmas drunk, incarcerated, or dead (or all three) as they are to be safe in the warm hearth of… (their) home.” Stu - Runout Record Club
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