Track Listing

1. Santa Claus Is Back in Town - Elvis Presley
2. White Christmas - Elvis Presley
3. Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane) - Elvis Presley
4. I'll Be Home for Christmas - Elvis Presley
5. Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley
6. Santa Bring My Baby Back (To Me) - Elvis Presley
7. O Little Town of Bethlehem - Elvis Presley
8. Silent Night - Elvis Presley
9. Peace in the Valley - The Jordanaires, Elvis Presley
10. I Believe - The Jordanaires, Elvis Presley
11. Take My Hand, Precious Lord - The Jordanaires, Elvis Presley
12. It Is No Secret (What God Can Do) - The Jordanaires, Elvis Presley

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12782 in Music
• Released on: 1990-10-25
• Number of discs: 1

Album Details
Repackaged & Remastered. 12 Tracks Including: White Christmas, Here Comes Santa Claus, Silent Night & I Believe.

Amazon.com essential recording
It may seem weird to call a seasonal album "essential," but along with Phil Spector's Christmas Gift for You, this is arguably the finest rock & roll Christmas album of all time. Recorded in 1957 at the height of his artistry--when he truly could be called the King of Rock & Roll--this album demonstrates Presley having a lot of vocal fun with a variety of styles, whether it's a carol ("Silent Night") or pop standard (Gene Autry's "Here Comes Santa Claus"). He does one of the greatest versions of "White Christmas" ever recorded, basically using the Drifters' version as a blueprint--and then singing all the parts himself. His "I'll Be Home for Christmas" is definitive--but the best moments are the "new" tracks written specifically for this release, including the classic "Blue Christmas," Lieber & Stoller's "Santa Claus Is Back in Town" (one of the most sexually suggestive holiday tunes ever), and the wonderful, pop-based "Santa, Bring My Baby Back to Me." All these tracks are available on the King of Rock 'n' Roll box set--but if you don't own that, this belongs under any Christmas tree--though Elvis fans have been known to listen to tracks from this in the middle of July! --Bill Holdship

Customer Reviews

The best for Christmas
This album is one I initially purchased in 1957. An ardent Elvis fan, I played the album constantly. I converted my father to fanhood, though he was a classical music fan who loved opera. He thought Elvis had a beautiful, rich voice that took him way beyond the lable "rock 'n roll". The songs on this album, from the low-down blues sounds of "Santa Claus is Back in Town" to the reverent "Peace In the Valley" are beautifully excuted by Elvis and wonderfully produced. The whole album brings back a great era for me personally and everyone I know who hears it. It's a Christmas classic for me, but one that I tend to play all year round.

An essential Christmas record; an essential record...period
In spite of the continual wave of Elvis imitators, there can be only one Elvis, and on the CD, you get to hear each side of his nature. "Santa Claus Is Back In Town" and "Santa Bring My Baby Back To Me" represent the rockin' Elvis; "Here Comes Santa Claus" and the classic "Blue Christmas" are gentler rock offerings; "White Christmas" and "I'll Be Home For Christmas" are sentimental secular songs; "Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem" and "Silent Night" are reverently delivered traditional carols; "Peace In The Valley" and "I Believe" are beautiful spiritually oriented numbers; and "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" and Stuart Hamblen's "It Is No Secret" brings the album to a very sincerely devotional close.

The entire album is a classic.

A true classic
One of the few "rock and roll" Christmas albums I can stomach, "Elvis' Christmas Album" was recorded in the heat of summer 1957 and was regarded as an act of blashphemy upon its release later in the year.

How dare this ducktailed rock and roller with his pink Cadillacs and sexually suggestive performing style...this pelvis thrusting pied piper of indecency...this...this...multi-millionaire juvenile delinquent, record "White Christmas"? Even the song's composer, Irving Berlin, was upset and asked radio stations not to play Presley's version.

There are moments on this disc when the King seems to playfully mock the sentiments of some of these songs as if to taunt his critics, but for the most part he sounds sincere and never fails to be anything but superb. He breathes startling new life into "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem" and makes "I'll Be Home for Christmas" his own. "Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane") is delightful, and "Santa Claus is Back in Town" is as raunchy in its way as his recording of "One Night."

The album is padded out with four sublime gospel recordings originally released on the "Peace in the Valley" EP that break the lighthearted mood a bit, but also place the focus on the season's true meaning.

This is a true classic, but Elvis fans who can't get enough of the King in yuletide mode might be advised to pick up one of the Christmas compilations (there are several) that include all of Presley's seasonal recordings.