12 Songs of Christmas (Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Fred Waring album)

12 Songs of Christmas
Studio album by Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Fred Waring
Released August 1964
Recorded June 16–19, 1964, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Genre Vocal jazz, traditional pop, Christmas
Label Reprise
FS 2022
Producer Sonny Burke
Frank Sinatra chronology
It Might as Well Be Swing (1964) 12 Songs of Christmas
(1964)		 Softly, as I Leave You (1964)
Bing Crosby chronology
Robin and the 7 Hoods
(1964)		 12 Songs of Christmas
(1964)		 That Travelin' Two-Beat
(1964)

12 Songs of Christmas is a 1964 studio album by Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians.[1][2][3][4]

All of the songs were included on CD as part of the 2-CD set Nothing but the Best (Limited Christmas Edition) issued in 2009.[5]

Reception

In the USA, Variety received the album favorably. "This is an attractive compilation of seasonal standards delivered in standout style by Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra, singly and in tandem, with the polished support of Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians. Among the top sides in this set are "Go Tell It on the Mountain," "The Little Drummer Boy," "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" and "The 12 Days of Christmas."[6]

Gramophone in the UK was not so keen, commenting: "“12 Songs of Christmas,” with Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians (Reprise R2022). Plenty of expensive talent crammed uncomfortably into a small, well-worn stocking. Obvious, pallid stuff, with the two head groaners actually together on only two tracks, and neither of them anywhere in particularly good voice. Collectors of sheer corn may take a perverse delight in an item called “We Wish You the Merriest.”"[7]

Track listing

SIDE ONE

1. "White Christmas" (Irving Berlin) - 3.46

2. "It's Christmas Time Again" (Sonny Burke, John Elliot, James K. Harwood) - 2.50

3. "Go Tell It on the Mountain" (Traditional, John Wesley Work III) - 3.25

4. "An Old-Fashioned Christmas" (Sammy Cahn, Jimmy Van Heusen) - 3.46

5. "Where Angels Sang of Peace" (Traditional) - 2.59

6. "The Little Drummer Boy" (Katherine K. Davis) - 3.05

SIDE TWO

7. "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Johnny Marks) - 2.38

8. "Do You Hear What I Hear?" (Noël Regney, Gloria Shayne Baker) - 3.11

9. "The Secret of Christmas" (Cahn, Van Heusen) - 3.48

10. "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (Traditional) - 3.51

11. "Christmas Candles" (Dean Kay, Vincent O'Dea, Jay Clinton) - 2.40

12. "We Wish You the Merriest" (Les Brown) - 2.19

Personnel

References

  1. ↑ "12 Songs of Christmas". Amazon.Com. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  2. ↑ "Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Fred Waring And The Pennsylvanians* – 12 Songs Of Christmas". Discogs.Com. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  3. ↑ "12 Songs of Christmas Frank Sinatra Bing Crosby and Fred Waring album". The Times of India. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  4. ↑ "12 Songs Of Christmas Frank Sinatra Bing Crosby And Fred Waring Album". The Marsvolta.Com. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  5. ↑ "Amazon". Amazon. Retrieved July 31, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Variety". Variety. October 7, 1964.
  7. ↑ "The Gramophone". December 1965.
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