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Best Of Cool YuleRhino Records' The Best Of Cool Yule (1988) is subtitled "A Collection Of Rockin' Stocking Stuffers," and while that's true, it doesn't quite do the album justice. Almost bereft of hits, The Best Of Cool Yule mostly compiles strange, wonderful, and rare Christmas music from the halcyon days of rock 'n' roll - the sort of obscure slices of discomfort and joy that make Christmas music so fascinating. And, despite some overlap, The Best Of Cool Yule also serves as an excellent complement to Rhino's Christmas Classics, released the same year (read more), which documents a more conventional holiday hit parade. I wouldn't want to be caught dead without all the favorites on Christmas Classics, but it's the kooky gems on Cool Yule that make record collecting so much fun.

But, I am getting ahead of myself. As inferred in its title, The Best Of Cool Yule is a compact disc comprised largely (though not entirely) of highlights from two Rhino vinyl LP's, Cool Yule (1986) and Cool Yule Vol. 2 (1988). This was not long after the compact disc had been introduced. Rhino was a fairly early adopter of the new technology - releasing CD's as early as 1984 - but they didn't initially embrace it with enthusiasm. In several cases, they issued abbreviated compact disc versions of previously released deluxe LP sets and series. Cool Yule and Cool Yule Vol. 2 each had 14 tracks, but The Best Of Cool Yule has just 18, including three songs new to the series. Hence, quintessential though it may be, The Best Of Cool Yule is less than the sum of its parts.

All the same, it's a gas. Thrill to the Marquees' jungle hijinks in "Christmas In The Congo"! Witness Tina Turner rip her guts out singing "Merry Christmas Baby," Charles Brown's formerly mellow classic! Travel down to New Orleans where Huey "Piano" Smith & The Clowns noisily celebrate "Silent Night" like it was Fat Tuesday! We also get Solomon Burke's soulful, magnanimous "Presents For Christmas," the Sonics' snarling, selfish "Santa Claus," and the Drifters' all-time great doo wop transformation of Bing Crosby's "White Christmas." Plus, there's Dodie Stevens' "Merry, Merry Christmas Baby" (1960), which was adapted from the Tune Weavers' "Happy, Happy Birthday Baby" (1957), which was arguably lifted by songwriters Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield for Joann Campbell's "Happy New Year Baby" (1958). Wow!

Christmas ClassicsAnd We're Just Getting Started...

The fun continues with several songs about how rock music and popular culture were changing the face of the holidays. Johnny Preston, best remembered for his #1 hit "Running Bear," tells the story of a kid who isn't satisfied with old-fashioned toys anymore. Instead, he protests, "I Want A Rock And Roll Guitar." In the Martels' "Rockin' Santa Claus," it's Kris Kringle who's gotten with the times. Indeed, Jack Scott warns us that "There's Trouble Brewin'" because his girlfriend has been out dancing with Santa. Finally, actor Edward Byrnes - famous for his portrayal of the hipster "Kookie" on the TV drama 77 Sunset Strip - recorded "Yulesville" in character, translating "'Twas The Night Before Christmas" into beatnik jive. "He laid the jazz on me and fled from the gig," reports Kookie, and Santa replies, "Have a cool Yule, man, later, like, dig?"

On the Harmony Grits' 1961 single "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town," it's not the song that has changed, but the sound. The group was essentially the Drifters, who had been recently fired in 1959 by their manager and subsequently replaced with a whole 'nother group. Briefly, the original Drifters recorded as Harmony Grits, and they turned the children's holiday favorite into a soaring doo wop workout set to a propulsive backing track charged with much the same energy that Phil Spector was about to unleash on an unsuspecting public.

And then, we get tracks from Brenda Lee ("Papa Noel"), the Ventures ("Sleigh Ride"), and James Brown ("Santa Claus, Santa Claus") who are all topics unto themselves. But, speaking of the Godfather of Soul, Gary Walker - a little-known blue-eyed soul singer from Louisiana - transforms Brown's 1965 declaration "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag" into a credibly funky holiday song, "Santa's Got A Brand New Bag." Another white guy from the Bayou State, Joe Stampley, shows up with his group, the Uniques, on a serviceable cover of Charles Brown's "Please Come Home For Christmas." It's no match for Brown's classic 1960 original, but Stampley would go on to a long career as a country singer noted for his soulful vocal style.

Cool YuleDidn't You Mention some Vinyl?

Indeed, most of The Best Of Cool Yule appeared on a couple of LP's, Cool Yule and Cool Yule Vol. 2. All together, The Best Of Cool Yule leaves out 13 songs from those two albums. So, what about those?

The bad news is that almost all of them are pretty great, and a few are all-time classics. The good news is that three of them show up on other highly recommended Rhino compilations: Christmas Classics, Doo Wop Christmas, and Hipsters' Holiday. Three more are included on MCA's fine Rockin' Little Christmas, and two are found on Atco's legendary Soul Christmas which - if you are reading this - you either already own or are about to. But, the five remaining tracks are pretty rare, and two of them, Paul & Paula's "Holiday Hootenanny" (from their 1963 album Holiday For Teens) and Bud Logan's 1968 single "Sock It To Me Santa," have never been legitimately reissued anywhere else. The Paul & Paula track is, pardon the pun, a real hoot, at least taken within the whitebread context of its times (read more). The Bud Logan song, however, is not that great, though it'll appeal to Christmas nerds like us... I hasten to add, Logan's "Sock It To Me Santa" is not the same (totally amazing) song that Bob Seger wrote and recorded in 1966. That one wouldn't get reissued for another decade, and it's best found on Cameo Parkway Holiday Hits.

At any rate, serious collectors will probably want all three of Rhino's Cool Yule compilations in their collections. I know I did.

There's Always a But...

The Best Of Cool Yule and Christmas Classics were among the first in an historic series of compact discs that Rhino would release over the next few years effectively writing the history of recorded holiday music in the 20th century (read more). But, Rhino also developed a track record of including a latter-day stinker or two on those compilations, apparently trying to prove the genre's ongoing relevance (while often proving the opposite). And, they did just that on Cool Yule. Here, Rhino includes a plodding 1976 version of "Christmas Is My Time Of Year" by former Monkees Davy Jones, Mickey Dolenz, and Peter Tork rather than the effusive 1968 original by the Christmas Spirit.

Cool Yule Vol. 2The Christmas Spirit, you see, was a one-off group that included Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman (later Flo & Eddie) of the Turtles, erstwhile Byrds Gram and Gene Parsons (who weren't related), a young-and-as-yet-unheralded Linda Ronstadt, and - from the sound of it - anyone else who happened to be hanging around the studio. Kaylan wrote the boisterous "Christmas Is My Time Of Year" with producer Chip Douglas and released it as a single on the Turtles' label, White Whale, backed with "Will You Still Believe In Me," a lovely holiday song written by Ronstadt's former bandmate in the Stone Poneys, Robert Kimmell. The record flopped miserably, and though it was preserved for posterity on Rhino's 1984 LP, Rockin' Christmas: The 60's, it wouldn't be released in the digital age till 2004 when both sides appeared on the compact disc Out Of Nowhere: The White Whale Story Vol. 2, which was later reissued for download and streaming.


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"Christmas Is My Time Of Year" is a great song - one of my Top 100, in fact. Why Rhino used the Monkees' lackluster version on Cool Yule is a mystery - especially considering they had a well-established relationship with White Whale, having reissued all the Turtles albums earlier in the decade. That said, Rhino also had a strong bond with the Monkees, having reissued all of their stuff, as well, so perhaps that explains it.... All that said, Monkees fanatics (and you know who you are) will want the song, and it was later added as a bonus track to the special edition of their 2018 album Christmas Party originally sold exclusively at Target stores.

The Bottom Line

Anyway, don't let Rhino's lapse in judgment deter you from searching down The Best Of Cool Yule or its vinyl antecedents. It's an all-time Christmas classic of (nearly) non-stop fun, and it's one of my Top 20 Albums. Almost none of the songs were hits - those are on Christmas Classics - and most were rescued from long-lost 45-rpm singles. Like all of the Rhino CD compilations, The Best Of Cool Yule never made the leap into the world of downloads and streaming but, while out-of-print, copies are relatively common on Amazon and around the web. [top of page]

Albums Albums

SongsEssential Songs

  • Back Door Santa (Clarence Carter, 1968) Top 100 Song
  • Call Me For Christmas (Gary U.S. Bonds, 1967)
  • Christmas In The Congo (Marquees, 1959) Top 100 Song
  • Christmas Is My Time Of Year (Davy Jones, Mickey Dolenz & Peter Tork, 1976)
  • Holiday Hootenanny (Paul & Paula, 1963)
  • (I Want A) Rock & Roll Guitar (Johnny Preston, 1960)
  • Jing Jing A Ling (Honey & The Bees, 1969)
  • Jingle Bell Slide (Jack Scott, 1963)
  • Jingle Bells (Booker T. & The MG's, 1966)
  • Merry Christmas Baby (Chuck Berry, 1958)
  • Merry Christmas Baby (Ike & Tina Turner, 1964)
  • Merry, Merry Christmas Baby (Dodie Stevens, 1960)
  • Merry Twist-Mas (Marcels, 1961)
  • Papa Noel (Brenda Lee, 1958)
  • Please Come Home For Christmas (Uniques, 1966)
  • Presents For Christmas (Solomon Burke, 1966) Top 100 Song
  • Rockin' Santa Claus (Martels, 1959)
  • Run Rudolph Run (Chuck Berry, 1958) Top 100 Song
  • Santa Claus (Sonics, 1965)
  • Santa Claus Go Straight To The Ghetto (James Brown, 1968) Top 100 Song
  • Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (Harmony Grits, 1959)
  • Santa Claus, Santa Claus (James Brown, 1968)
  • Santa Done Got Hip (Marquees, 1959)
  • Santa's Got A Brand New Bag (Gary Walker, 1965)
  • Silent Night (Huey "Piano" Smith & The Clowns, 1962)
  • Sleigh Ride (Ventures, 1965)
  • Sock It To Me Santa (Bud Logan, 1968)
  • Surfer's Christmas List (Surfaris, 1963)
  • There's Trouble Brewin' (Jack Scott, 1963)
  • White Christmas (Drifters, 1954) Top 100 Song
  • Yulesville (aka Cool Yule) (Edd "Kookie" Byrnes, 1959)

Further ListeningFurther Listening

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