Best Christmas Music Playlist 2024 - Holiday Songs & Festive Tunes for Parties, Gifts & Family Gatherings

Every year I tell myself, "I have more than enough Christmas albums; I don't need another." And every year something happens to change my mind. This year, two things: Herb Alpert's wonderful "Christmas Wish" and now, this sonically glorious remastering of a seminal Christmas album. Under the title "Christmas: Music of Percy Faith," this item was originally released in monaural in 1954; then, in stereo, as "Music of Christmas" (1959). I'm not sure that it's ever gone out of print (or press). As Christmas music maven Chip Arcuri states in this new release's liner notes, this 2017 edition from Real Gone Music is the first properly digitally remastered version of Faith's Christmas album in 63 years. In addition to the album's original twelve tracks, seven rare bonus tracks have been added. Because these seven were culled from six different Faith albums, none Christmas-themed, most do not fit the mood established by the original dozen, though Victor Herbert's "March of the Toys" and Faith's own "Brazilian Sleigh Bells" are delightful.I struggled over this purchase. I owned an old version in vinyl (complete with pops and cracks), a cassette, and a Columbia CD reissue of some years back. Why did I need a fourth of the same? Because—as I learn by listening to the album as I type this—it's NOT the same. A truly professional job of remastering makes all the difference in what one hears. The difference between this iteration and my older versions is that between a VHS tape and a Blu-ray 1080 HD DVD. It's as though a veil has been lifted, and I am listening to a full orchestra, with chorus, in some Viennese concert hall. I have no regrets whatever in having made this purchase.Faith, of course, was one of the founders of 1950s easy listening recordings, which for some is just Muzak piped into K-Mart. Well, it's not—at least, not Percy Faith's approach. Faith was a master arranger and orchestrator, and this record belongs in the library of those who love traditional music presented traditionally, with polish and sensitivity. Faith is always the music's servant, not its master, and his orchestral choices are as impeccable as they are versatile. Your ears will tell you where to go, but I've never heard, nor can I imagine, superior arrangements of "Deck the Halls" and "Lo, How a Rose E're Blooming."Arcuri observes that Faith's "Christmas music had an ethereal, celestial, and angelic quality … [which] sounds like it was literally piped down from heaven." I agree. This is a seminal, virtually definitive album of Christmas music.