Search - Various Artists :: The Ultimate Christmas Album, Vol. 3 - WOGL 98.1 Philadelphia

Third is a six part essential series of Holiday Favorites

James E. Bagley | Sanatoga, PA USA | 10/12/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the third of six volumes. All offer some great holiday recordings but none are perfect. Depending on your musical tastes, you can select quite a few tracks from each volume to put together a first-rate mix tape or CD.



The first volume offers the most "classics" but this volume includes such essentials as Nat King Cole's "The Christmas Song," Bing Crosby's "White Christmas," "Happy Holiday" by Andy Williams, "Winter Wonderland" by Johnny Mathis, and "Home For The Holidays" by Perry Como.



Each volume also gives you a few holiday favorites from the cream of '60s Motown (in this volume it's "Twinkle Twinkle Little Me" by the Supremes) and '70s pop/soul (here it is "Feliz Navidad" by Jose Feliciano). You also get recent soundtrack efforts by Darlene Love ("All Alone On Christmas" from Home Alone 2") and Mavis Staples (theme from "Christmas Vacation") that give this set a slightly more modern slant than the first two volumes.



Perhaps the most unique feature of this series is the inclusion of new holiday recordings by your favorite Doo Wop artists that you won't find anywhere else. On this volume, Earl Chance of the Earls contributes "I'll Be Home For Christmas" and "All I Want For Christmas Is You" while Lou Christie delivers a heavenly version of "O Holy Night" that features backing by the Pittsburgh Boys Choir.



While I don't really care for the inclusion of silly songs like "Chrissy The Christmas Mouse" by Debbie Reynolds & Donald O'Connor or "Jingle Bells" by the Singing Dogs, I am sure they have their supporters. Novelty tunes undoubtably hold a significant spot in the world of Christmas music.



If you don't have any of these collections and are on a limited budget, I suggest buying them in numerical order (One first, Six last) until you get them all. Nearly every holiday recording of note - plus many unknown gems - are found on these discs.



"