A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector

All the songs on this album just come at you like a wave of echoey voices, surfing on another wave of additional choirs, bells, string quartets, horn sections on top of another wave of perfectly aligned maracas and other percussion shaking and rattling underneath.

Because where in these days Phil Spectors multi-layered, orchestrated, muddy wall of sounds just tires me out, it really did work well on these old mono recordings with the 1960's girl groups where the songs were the focus, not the musicians.

This makes this album quite a joy to listen to and is justifiably regarded as the best Christmas album of all time. And the only album I would put on if I absolutely had to listen to any of its music during it.

5 glasses of eggnog out of 5

This album is likely the most played radio Christmas album. I suspect if these songs were 5 or less years old I would think this is a five star album. Instead it's 35 and has been played to death. Still deserves four stars

1 🌟

Some great songs on here, I'll definitely make sure this album works its way into the Christmas rotation.

Era apropiado para estas fechas pero no me ha parecido una gran cosa. Paradójico que empiece con "White" Christmas viendo los artistas que lo interpretan. El último tema con Phil hablando de fondo me parece penoso.

Abso-bloody-lutely brilliant

Tja...een kerstalbum...An sich een hele aparte muzieksoort om toe te voegen. Maar laten we zeggen: niet mijn favoriete genre. Dit album lijkt me vooral een geintje. Moet ik het echt raten? Het is een verzameling covers door verschillende artiesten. Niet perse de beste versies die ik ken...Het is het 'feel good' idee, dus ik knal er een bonus ster tegen aan.

Yeah . . . naw.

An energetic and playful contrast to the prim and tidy arrangements of the 50s and before. Nearly 60 years on, this album is packed with back-to-back holiday standards.

Kill me. Why the hell is this album on the "1001 Albums to Hear Before You Die" list when everyone's already heard it piecemeal 1001 times in every damn movie, mall, and TV commercial known to man? Fuck you, whoever compiled this list.

merry chrysler

Probably the best sounding and arranged version of all of these songs. Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers is a weak song in general, even with the Phil Spector treatment. During the holiday season this is a 5, post holidays its a 3

Joululevy. Ei kai näitä kukaan oo hyviä tehny? Ihan ok tuotettu siis näitä klassikkobiisejä -- jos siis sattuis tykkää niistä.

It's a Christmas Album. And it's good christmas music, and good example of Spector's production. But I can't give a huge rating to an album I'll only listen to once a year at best.

Classic Phil Spector sound. Certainly iconic, but I have a hard time separating the music from the man. In general I am not much of a pop christmas music fan. 3/5.

The definitive Christmas album for me. I don't even like Christmas music but if I was going to listen to one this would be it. Just a huge wall of sound throughout.

This came up for Christmas Eve 2021, a random selection? Hmmm. 🤔
Merry Christmas! 🎅

My overall reaction is that I'm not sure I needed to hear this before I die, but it's a good album. I decided to dig deeper and learn more about Phil Spector, both his career and his personal life. Here's yet another example where we have to ask the question, can you separate the art from the artist? The guy was a complete piece of shit and died in jail, convicted of killing a woman the same night he met her (he claimed it was an accident, but he had a history of brandishing guns at people). Does that change the music? The production quality and the innovative "Wall of Sound"? No, but it gives you pause.

One other note - Clever move by the site organizer to make sure everyone gets this pick on Christmas. Send the guy some beer money for the holidays.

Spector really killed it with the production here (har har). I'm not really a Christmas music person but as far as that goes these are good renditions in my opinion.