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Santamental JourneyRhino Records' Santamental Journey: Pop Vocal Christmas Classics (1995) collects 16 songs from the golden age of American pop - from the end of World War II to the British Invasion. Even after Elvis Presley and the birth of rock 'n' roll, there was a place for music like this. In fact, a number of early rockers - Bobby Darin, Clyde McPhatter, Pat Boone, and Paul Anka spring to mind - quickly became pop crooners, if only for the larger audience (and bigger paychecks) that came with the territory. After the Beatles, however, everything changed, and we'd come to think of this sort of music as "easy listening." But, in its heyday, it was simply popular music - the music that dominated Top 40 radio.

As someone who prefers music that rocks, rolls, swings, and twangs, I had to put on a new set of ears to appreciate Santamental Journey, a holiday addendum to Rhino's Sentimental Journey series released two years prior. This is literally my parents' music, and for me, the line between good stuff and boring pap is fine, indeed. For the most part, Rhino stays on the right side of that divide, sticking with artists of distinction and taste, while selecting memorable performances brimming with personality and charm. As the 60's wore on, music that catered to older, whiter audiences grew ever more reactionary - stubbornly resisting the changes wrought by the rock revolution, creating "beautiful music" in stark contrast to the chaos of the times. Thankfully, Rhino cuts off their survey before the schmaltz really kicked in, and Santamental Journey swings much harder than you'd expect - though not as hard as Swingin' Christmas, another fine Rhino compilation from the same period (read more).

A Very Standard Christmas

A few songs on Santamental Journey can be considered definitive performances - at least in this context - and nearly all of them are popular standards. In particular, I'd point to Judy Garland's 1944 debut of "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" (from the movie Meet Me In St. Louis), Jimmy Durante's 1950 debut of "Frosty The Snowman," and Perry Como's 1954 debut of "(There's No Place Like) Home For The Holidays." I'd also count Johnny Desmond's delightful "Sleigh Ride," which appears to be the debut recording of the lyrics written by Mitchell Parish in 1950 for the song written in 1948 by Leroy Anderson (and first recorded in 1949 by the Boston Pops). And, while several artists recorded Frank Loesser's "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" in 1947, and innumerable artists have covered it ever since, Dick Haymes' convivial interpretation - with Les Paul on guitar - is still among the best.

Santamental JourneyBing Crosby's "White Christmas" and the Harry Simeone Chorale's "Little Drummer Boy" also fall into the definitive category, though both are included in later, if perfectly acceptable, versions. Crosby first recorded "White Christmas" in 1942, and it became one of the most popular songs in history - so popular that, reportedly, the master from that session became worn from overuse. So, Crosby recorded a new version of the song in 1947 - a better version, I'd argue. Regardless, that's the version you hear most frequently, and that's the one included on Santamental Journey (even though the liner notes give the date as 1942). Harry Simeone, meanwhile, first recorded "The Little Drummer Boy" in 1958 for 20th Century Fox, then he recorded a new version for Kapp Records in 1965. The Fox version was a much bigger hit, but despite that fact the Kapp version shows up far more often on collections like Santamental Journey.

Other Santamental Journey tracks are fine covers of songs made famous by other people. Billy Eckstine - one of just two Black acts on the album - turns in an impossibly smooth reading of "Blue Christmas," a song made famous by Ernest Tubb in 1949 (and later appropriated by Elvis Presley). Peggy Lee's luminous performance of Sammy Cahn and Jules Styne's "Christmas Waltz" is almost as good as Frank Sinatra's 1954 debut recording of the song - and arguably more famous. Doris Day's sprightly "Here Comes Santa Claus" was her first Christmas recording as a solo artist, and it came just two years after Gene Autry's 1947 debut of the song he wrote with tunesmith Oakley Haldeman. And Jo Stafford's swingin' "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" is simply a fine version of a song recorded countless times since Vaughn Monroe first waxed it in 1945.

One of the few songs on Santamental Journey that didn't go on to become a standard - or wasn't one already - is Joni James's "Christmas And You," first released in 1953 as an MGM single and later included on her 1956 album, Merry Christmas From Joni. In general, James was a purely white-bread singer utterly incapable of swinging and profoundly devoid of soul. But, she had lovely pipes, and "Christmas And You" is a distinctive, romantic song - so we'll give it a pass. It's only been recorded a few other times (most notably by Frankie Avalon on his 1962 Christmas Album), but the song is ripe with opportunity. If a modern singer the caliber of, say, k.d. lang or Neko Case were to cover it, I predict great things would happen. Just saying....

Rosemary ClooneyI Have Issues

So, in the end, I think nearly every song on Santamental Journey qualifies as essential listening (see list below) with the qualification that these songs fall largely outside the normal purview of this website. I do, however, take issue with a few of the selections. In particular, the Drifters' 1964 single release of Nat King Cole's "The Christmas Song" is a fine recording in and of itself - sweetly sung by tenor Johnny Moore - and no holiday album purporting to document American popular music would be complete without this all-time classic.

But, I have to ask, first, why are the Drifters on this record? As they used to say on Sesame Street, one of these things is not like the others. The Drifters earned their bones singing salty doo wop in the mid-50's and, later, laid the foundations of soul music with classics like "There Goes My Baby" (1959) and "Up On The Roof" (1959). Even at their most conservative - and their version of The Christmas Song" is pretty straight - the Drifters bring an anomalous soulfulness to the proceedings. So then, logically, why not include one of the thousands of versions of "The Christmas Song" more appropriate to Santamental Journey? Nat King Cole springs to mind, as does Andy Williams, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Dean Martin, or Johnny Mathis - none of whom are represented on the album.

I also take issue with Rosemary Clooney's 1951 single, "Suzy Snowflake." It's a children's novelty song on an album designed mostly for adults - though, to be fair, "Frosty The Snowman" and "Here Comes Santa Claus" are children's songs, too. My personal tolerance for such things is low, and I much prefer them to have elements of mischief ("Nuttin' For Christmas") or weirdness ("I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas"). "Suzy Snowflake" is merely cute, though it reached #4 on Billboard's Children's chart. But, my main point is that Rosemary Clooney recorded a lot of Christmas music, including a whole album of the stuff following her appearance in the 1954 movie, White Christmas. Interestingly, Clooney's recording contract with Columbia prevented her from appearing on the Decca soundtrack album, which featured Peggy Lee (who's no slouch) singing Clooney's parts. Instead, Clooney released a 10-inch LP of all-new recordings of eight songs from the movie. Several of those - including "Snow," "Count Your Blessings," and the title track - would have been much better choices for Santamental Journey than "Suzy Snowflake."

Jack JonesJack Jones was arguably the last major crooner - at least until singers like Harry Connick and Michael Bublé restored the style to respectability late in the century. Most of the early crooners - including Crosby, Sinatra, Stafford, Day, and Como - got their start in the 30's and 40's as singers in the big bands. But, lots of crooners including Robert Goulet and Jerry Vale sprang up in the 1950's and extended their careers into the 1960's and beyond.

Jack Jones debuted in 1959 and built a decent career throughout the 1960's - mostly recording for Kapp Records - when his sort of music was growing less fashionable with each passing year. Jones recorded two Christmas albums during his prime, The Jack Jones Christmas Album for Kapp in 1964 and A Jack Jones Christmas for RCA in 1969. My issue is that "Jingle Bells," his contribution to Santamental Journey, is taken from the latter when the former is a superior record. The Jack Jones Christmas Album includes brassy, swingin' versions of "Mistletoe And Holly" and "My Favorite Things" - both arguably definitive, both of which would have livened up Santamental Journey more than "Jingle Bells."

All that said, Jack Jones' "Jingle Bells" isn't bad. In fact, it's unique among the thousands of versions of the song. He manages to turn the biggest Christmas cliché of them all into a jazz-tinged, romantic ballad - no small feat!

Finally, the only track on Santamental Journey I don't recommend at all is by another late-period crooner, Al Martino. Al Martino debuted with a splash in 1952, but he shortly took something of a forced holiday after the Mafia bought his recording contract (true story). So, he didn't cut a Christmas album until 1964 and, bluntly stated, it's a total snoozefest - 12 holiday standards orchestrated and sung as background music. The song included on Santamental Journey, "You're All I Want For Christmas," is a minor standard first recorded by Frankie Laine in 1948. I wish I could recommend a better version, but nearly all the ones I've heard are performed in a somnambulant fashion similar to Martino's. Maybe Bing Crosby's 1949 version for Decca?

Mambo Santa Mambo
Jingle Bell Jam
Hipsters' Holiday
Christmas Classics
Doo Wop Christmas

Postscript

Santamental Journey was part of a loose series of compact discs compiled by Rhino Records at the height of the CD era documenting holiday music in a dizzying variety of genres including jazz, blues, country, doo wop, reggae, punk, new wave, and Latin (read more). Collectively, they documented the history of recorded Christmas music in the 20th century. Rhino licensed tracks from many disparate labels for use on those specific albums - long before there was such a thing as iTunes or Spotify. So, sadly, virtually none of Rhino's Christmas collections made the leap to the world of downloads or streaming. I wish I could say that there are equivalents in the virtual world but, mostly, there are not. That said, you can find most of the Santamental Journey tracks online, but they may not be properly licensed or, worse, they might be taken from inferior sources. Caveat emptor. [top of page]

Albums Albums

SongsEssential Songs

  • Blue Christmas (Billy Eckstine, 1950)
  • Christmas And You (Joni James, 1953)
  • The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire) (The Drifters, 1964)
  • The Christmas Waltz (Peggy Lee, 1960)
  • Frosty The Snowman (Jimmy Durante, 1950)
  • Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (Judy Garland, 1944)
  • Here Comes Santa Claus (Doris Day, 1949)
  • Jingle Bells (Jack Jones, 1969)
  • Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! (Jo Stafford & The Starlighters, 1955)
  • Little Drummer Boy (Harry Simeone Chorale & Orchestra, 1965)
  • Sleigh Ride (Johnny Desmond with the Ray Conniff Singers, 1950)
  • Suzy Snowflake (Rosemary Clooney, 1951)
  • (There's No Place Like) Home For The Holidays (Perry Como, 1954)
  • What Are You Doing New Year's Eve? (Dick Haymes, 1947)
  • White Christmas (Bing Crosby, 1947)

Further ListeningFurther Listening

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