Track Listing

1. My Favorite Things
2. Christmas Song
3. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
4. Medley: We Wish You a Merry Christmas/Silent Nigh, Holy Night/O ... [Me
5. Christmasland
6. I Love the Winter Weather/I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm
7. White Christmas
8. Winter Wonderland
9. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
10. Snowfall
11. I'll Be Home for Christmas [From "The Jon Stewart Show"][Live][#]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #145726 in Music
• Released on: 2004-08-24
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered

Customer Reviews

My Christmas In July
During the most recent heat wave, I actually thought it might help to drag out a few of my favorite Christmas recordings and, at least, chill out mentally. It was worth a try, I suppose--not that it actually worked. In fact, all it really did for me was load Christmas anxiety on top of my already burdensome heat exhaustion.

But then I figured, hey, before you know it, the clime will have shifted and we'll be hankering for chestnusts roasted on an open fire--instead of feeling like WE'RE being roasted on an open fire. And since, I never think to post reviews of actual Christmas product until, I dunno, maybe Christmas Eve, at least this year, I get a jump on the gun and maybe even garner a couple of "helpful" votes by Thanksgiving weekend.

Tony Bennett's SNOWFALL is arguably as much a "winter" record as a purely holiday one. It's always seemed something of a shame to me that all the joyful Christmas music gets put away well before winter has really set in. (At least the Russians are smart enough to celebrate it in January, which can help forestall the winter doldrums for a short while at least.) The fact that the title song on this seasonal album is "Snowfall" and not "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" at least gives you some kind of excuse to play it well into January, heck, maybe even February. Or as in my little experiment, in July.

And, of course, "Winter Wonderland" and "I've Got Our Love to Keep Me Warm" are good for the whole calendar season too. "My Favorite Things," is a canny choice for an opener too. It's seasonal the way its source film THE SOUND OF MUSIC is seasonal: it evokes familial warmth and good times, even if the packages are in brown paper and "tied up with string" rather than ribbons.

And then there's the almost bizarre medley of actual Christmas songs that concludes with a conventional romantic ballad ("Where Is Love?"). Musically, it fits just fine, but thematically, it's a bit strange--almost as if Tony's saying, "Hey, I'm down with the holiday stuff, but THIS is what I really do..."

As an interpretive singer, Bennett has the unique ability to be warm and a little breezy at the same time. When I read somewhere recently that "I'll Be Home For Christmas" was actually a WWII song, and meant to be sung with at least a hint of melancholy, I thought of the live version included here(from a JON STEWART SHOW broadcast), which is certainly more breezy than reverential. But, of course, by this point in that song's history, it has lost much of its sombreness, and, hey, it really does lend itself nicely to a little jazz pizzazz.

That track, by the way, is the album's closer, and it is really the only new entry on this collection, most of which is culled from material released in Bennett's 60s heyday. It's certainly interesting to hear how his voiced has changed and how he's learned to compensate in warmth and wit for what he may have lost in vocal technique.

Bennett was and is a singer for all seasons.

Tony Bennett Snowfall Remastered
This album has the same songs the original Snowfall had by Bennett but with different packaging and better sound.The music sounds crisper and cleaner now compared to the original one.This cd has been repackaged in a clear jewel spine case instead of the black one the other one come with.Also sony has added little snowflakes around the coverart which makes it look a lot better.I do wish they would have included Christmas in Harold Square on this cd.It is a bonus track on the playground cd by Bennett.I recommend this holiday cd by Bennett.I also recommend The Art Of Romance which is a brand new Bennett cd.

Lazy Mastering
C'mon Sony! Put at least a little effort into your Christmas reissues! I own this and both Andy Williams Sony titles, and they did the same thing to all three - They sapped the life out of the recordings by filtering out the highest frequencies to reduce the tape hiss. They could have reduced the hiss by utilizing other methods, but that would have required effort. I guess Sony doesn't take their Christmas offerings very seriously.