Track Listing

1. Beautiful City
2. Tell It on the Mountain
3. One Star
4. Christmas Wishes
5. Shepherd Boy
6. Sing Hosanna, Hallelujah
7. Sing Along With Santa
8. It'll Be a Merry Christmas
9. Tell Me
10. Christmas World
11. Parson Brown (Our Christmas Dinner)
12. Christmas Trees
13. Snow in the Streets/Joseph Dearest, Joseph Mine/Wassail, Wassail [*]
14. Do You Hear What I Hear?
15. White Christmas
16. We Need a Little Christmas
17. Silver Bells
18. Christmas Card
19. Sleigh Ride
20. Christmas Song [*]
21. Here We Come A-Caroling
22. O Holy Night
23. O Bambino (One Cold and Blessed Winter)
24. Il Est Né [*]
25. Little Drummer Boy
26. Lullay My Liking [*]
27. Silent Night
28. Erev Shel Shoshanim [*]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1389 in Music
• Released on: 2001-11-06
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Album Description
From Collectors' Choice, 2 highly sought-after holiday themed albums released by The New Christy Minstrels in the 60's put together on 1 CD with 3 bonus tracks.

Customer Reviews

Fascinating, entertaining, different Christmas music
The New Christy Minstrels were a great sixties band who had a lot of fun making folk-pop music, but underwent a lot of line-up changes even during their best years. They recorded two Christmas albums, three years apart, with completely different line-ups. All the 1963 members had left by the time the 1966 album was recorded. The staff turnover was so high in 1966 that most of those who recorded the album (in May) had left by the time the album was released in the fall. Among those who joined in 1966 (after the album was recorded) were Kenny Rogers and Kim Carnes, but even they could not halt the steady decline of the group.

An earlier reviewer suggested that those who like one of the albums making up this twofer might not like the other. Certainly, they are different from each other in some respects, but I love them both.

The 1963 album (titled Merry Christmas) was recorded when the band was at it's peak, with Green Green (their biggest hit) having it's chart run that year. The line-up was Nick Woods, Art Podell, Barry McGuire (who sang lead on Green Green and became famous for Eve of Destruction after he left the band), Barry Kane, Larry Ramos (who later founded The Association, famous for Cherish and Never my love), Clarence Trent, Doug Brookins and two female singers, Gayle Caldwell (soprano) and Jackie Miller Davidson (alto).

Most of the songs on the 1963 album were written by various members of the band, so even those (like me) who have large collections of Christmas music will find plenty of interest here. The songs are of a remarkably high quality and it is perhaps surprising that none of them have become standards.

The 1966 album (titled Christmas with the Christies) was recorded when the group was already in decline generally, but this is still a fine album - it was probably the last great album recorded by the band, although I haven't heard any of their later music, very little of which is available now and probably for a good reason. The line-up was Bob Buchanan, Bill Teague, Bill Skiles, Pete Henderson, Michael McGinnis, Peter-John Morse and two female singers, Ann White (soprano) and Ede Mae Kellogg (alto). Another fine alto, Karen Gunderson, had joined the group, stayed for two years and left between the two albums so was one of the few Minstrels from the era to miss out on both albums.

The 1966 album is slicker than it's predecessor - more pop, less folk, and consists almost entirely of standards which appear on many other Christmas albums. However, these versions are distinctive, with all the different voices and a variety of lead singers, so I still rate it highly.

The New Christy Minstrels were different from all their contemporaries and there has never been anything like them (regardless of line-up) before or since.

Time Travel brought to you by the New Christy Minstrels....
Born in 1963, I literally grew up listening to "Merry Christmas." It was my absolute favorite, and the favorite of my family. I think I single-handedly wore out the vinyl playing 'Parson Brown.' I've been looking for years for the CD - when I found this last week, I was overjoyed. I got the CD just yesterday, and spent last evening listening to the first 13 tracks over and over and over again, regaling my children with tales of many Christmases past. During 'Beautiful City' or 'One Star,' I can close my eyes and see the fire roaring in the fireplace, the tree neatly trimmed in the corner, and my mom standing in the kitchen. I can almost smell the cookies....

Christmas Nostagia with a Proviso
Growing up, The New Christy Minstrel's "Merry Christmas" album was the most played LP during the holidays. I was delighted to find that it had been released on CD. Even though I hadn't heard these tunes in 25 years, I could still remember the songs and lyrics. Great, folk-style group singing. Some of the arangements remind me of songs in the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" style. Roots folk, I guess you'd call it. The original 1963 album is terrific and comprises the first 14 tracks.

The follow-up 1966 LP "Christmas with the Christies," which is the 2nd half of this CD is a different story. We didn't own this LP. The group's style moved from folk to "contemporary" group vocals. It is very stuck in the mid-60's.

So, five stars for the "Merry Christmas" portion. I won't allow the "Christmas with the Christies" portion to lower the score and will stick with the first 14 tracks.