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A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra | 
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| Artist: Frank Sinatra
Label: Capitol
Category: Music
List Price: $18.98
Buy New: $9.87
You Save: $9.11 (48%)
New (29) Used (9) from $7.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 12541
Format: Original Recording Remastered
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 4.8 x 0.5
EAN: 5099950001620
ASIN: B000TSMOUM
Release Date: September 18, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: New ! ---- New York's largest selection of CD's & DVD's at the lowest prices since 1976
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| Tracks:
| • | Jingle Bells | | • | The Christmas Song | | • | Mistletoe and Holly | | • | I'll Be Home for Christmas | | • | The Christmas Waltz | | • | Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas | | • | The First Noel | | • | Hark! The Herald Angels Sing | | • | O Little Town of Bethlehem | | • | Adeste Fideles | | • | It Came Upon a Midnight Clear | | • | Silent Night | | • | White Christmas | | • | The Christmas Waltz |
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| Customer Reviews:
 old time frank January 2, 2008
pretty good classic stuff. the easter seals appeal at the end is a little dated and corny, but overall a good listen
Sinatra + Ralph Brewster Singers + Gordon Jenkins = fantastic Christmas CD. November 20, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Digitally remastered in 1999, and released again in 2007, this Christmas album, arranged and directed by Gordon Jenkins, is one of the very best musical celebrations of the holiday season. Throughout, Sinatra's sounds are accompanied and enhanced by the Ralph Brewster Singers, whose unusually sweet voices and wonderful soprano high notes add warmth and holiday cheer as they echo Sinatra, provide choral variations between stanzas, and sometimes even harmonize with him.
Six modern Christmas songs begins the CD, including a swingy "Jingle Bells" ("I love those J-I-N-G-L-E Bells"), Mel Torme's "Christmas Song," and a song Sinatra has made his own, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." He follows these with six traditional carols. In "The First Noel," the Ralph Brewster Singers' large chorus sings behind him, featuring fine harmonies, expression, and counterpoint. Sinatra, with his trademark phrasing and sure sense of tempo, slightly changes some of the traditional lyrics on this song so that he escapes the standard phrasing and the lyrics flow more gracefully, something he also does on "Little Town of Bethlehem," resulting in new appreciation of the words and meanings.
Two bonus tracks, both directed by Nelson Riddle, include Irving Berlin's "White Christmas" and Sinatra's original 1954 recording of "Christmas Waltz," which gets a different tempo from the Jenkins arrangement, which is also presented on the CD. With style and panache, leavened with holiday emotion, Sinatra, the Ralph Brewster Singers, and Gordon Jenkins present Christmas favorites, many of which (like "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas") have become forever identified with Frank Sinatra. If I could have only one Christmas CD, this one would be high on the list of choices. Mary Whipple
Frank Sinatra Christmas Collection
The Christmas Album
Happy Holidays With Bing & Frank
Sinatra Family Wish You a Merry Christmas
Christmas Songs By Sinatra
a nostalgic Christmas album by the immortal Frank Sinatra November 18, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
It practically goes without saying that the immortal Frank Sinatra could take any song and turn it into a tour de force--and we get fourteen excellent tracks (plus a bonus track) on this fine CD of some of Frank's best Christmas songs. I highly recommend this CD for any fan of traditional Christmastime vocals; Frank never disappoints!
The album starts with Frank singing a somewhat jazzy interpretation of "Jingle Bells." He never sounded better; and the backup vocalists enhance the natural beauty of this number. "The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You) shines like gold as Frank delivers this with a lovely choir in the background; and the melancholy "I'll Be Home For Christmas (If Only In My Dreams)" is both heartrending and sublime! Frank's excellent diction bolsters his ability to sing these fine songs all the more.
Listen also for "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas;" the lyrics are every bit as beautiful as the other reviewer states that they are! I love that backup choir, too. The strings are beautiful on "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas."
"Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" sparkles like pure gold when Frank sings this to perfection; and I particularly enjoyed "White Christmas." The percussion on "White Christmas" is wonderful and when Frank switches a word or two it only serves to make this classic song even better.
The album ends with a brief clip of Frank making a plug for Christmas Seals. Excellent!
Christmastime songs are some of the most beautiful musical numbers that I've ever heard; and when Frank sings them I hear them more beautifully than ever before. Long after most "celebrities" are dead and forgotten, we will always remember the great Frank Sinatra. Frank sounds wonderful on this CD with some lush and sublime arrangements by Gordon Jenkins; and I highly recommend this CD for fans of classic Christmas holiday vocals.
You'll never get `em any better than Frank sang `em!
Hang a shining star upon the highest bow! November 14, 2007
22 out of 24 found this review helpful
A question for Christmas trivia buffs: What did Frank Sinatra have in common with Andrae Crouch? ("father of modern Gospel music"). Both men instigated changes to the beloved seasonal classic, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." And both singers enjoyed the approval of the song's composer, Hugh Martin -- still with us, we hope, for Christmas 2007 in his 94th year!
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It was 50 years ago this month (November, 1957) that Frank Sinatra's "A Jolly Christmas" album was released by Capitol Records - barely one month after the release of "Elvis' Christmas Album" -- which became the "Number 1" best-selling LP of the 1950s -- despite composer Irving Berlin waging a conspicuously unsuccessful campaign to keep Elvis' version of "White Christmas" off the radio: Elvis' Christmas Album sold 7 million copies!
In the 50 years since then, "A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra" -- a collaboration with "the orchestra and chorus of Gordon Jenkins" -- eventually sold one million copies (and is listed as the "Number 13" best-selling LP of the 1950s). But at the time of its release, the sales outlook for this LP wasn't nearly so bright . . .
[In 1957 Sinatra's career had reached a new peak, with albums that same year, including the masterpiece, "CLOSE TO YOU" (with the "Hollywood String Quartet") and an up-tempo classic, "A SWINGIN' AFFAIR." It was the same year his PAL JOEY ("Lady is a Tramp") movie soundtrack held the "Number 2" position in album sales (for one week -- and sold 500,000 copies.]
But at this time in 1957, music critics weren't in the spirit for a `traditional-style' Christmas LP. Some suggested that Gordon Jenkins' string arrangements and vocal choruses were "passe" and in "poor taste." (!)
Those critics are almost certainly all dead and gone, -- while this sublime Christmas collection touches the hearts of new sub-generations of Sinatra fans. Many of us consider this album quite simply the greatest ever -- especially among those which give us the best of the popular 'secular' Christmas songs, combined with traditional 'sacred' carols.
Friends with `high end' stereo systems insist that "NOTHING compares" with hearing an early, black vinyl version of this LP -- "the ones with the gray label," when played on "a decent" (read "costly") turntable.
Audiophiles at the "sinatrafamily" website seem to agree, that the original CD release of "A Jolly Christmas" - the one from 1987, "mastered by Larry Walsh" -- is still the best-sounding CD version of this album. Whereas, this "50th anniversary" edition is simply a re-packaging of the 1999 CD version -- which featuring "24-bit, digital re-mastering by Bob Norberg at Capitol Mastering."
Sinatra's voice sounds a little more `up-front' in this version (and the orchestra not quite so well-balanced and a little more `distant'). Purists believe the earlier re-mastering by Larry Walsh is better -- more "faithful" to the original recording engineering. But in a blindfold test, on a portable CD player with good headphones, BOTH versions sound mighty fine!
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"What's your favorite track," a friend asked. Well, if I can have only ONE . . . it would have to be, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas " - a song for which Frank Sinatra suggested composer Hugh Martin "change a line" - to make it more up-beat, and in keeping with the title of this album!
A few years ago, in a radio interview, Hugh Martin revealed that he had written BOTH words and music for this one - but changed the original lyric --at Sinatra's request. Frank, in preparing this "Jolly Christmas" album, and was concerned about the words,
"Until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow . . ."
"I got a phone call from Frank, saying, `Hey, I like your Christmas song, Hugh . . . but I'm doing an album called A JOLLY CHRISTMAS. Do you think you can jolly it up? (replace that somber, penultimate line).
"And I said, `Well, of course!' You don't say `No' to Frank Sinatra!
"So I went for a walk, and when I came back, I had the line about `Hang a shining star upon the highest bough' -- which Frank LOVED, and recorded."
40 years on, Hugh Martin (a late-in-life convert to Christianity) approved one final change to his beloved lyric, when the `father of modern Gospel music,' Andrae Crouch (on a recent, majestic, Christmas album produced by Quincy Jones) substituted the words, "If the LORD allows," for the original, "If the Fates allow".
Those who celebrate the true sanctity of Christmas are bound to cherish these changes, especially when those "faithful friends, who are dear to us, gather near to us, once more."
"Through the years we all will be together, if the Lord allows.
Hang a shining star upon the highest bough!
And have yourself a merry little Christmas . . .
Now."
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