The Beatles

Among the thousands of records I own, there resides but one, solitary bootleg - The Ultimate Christmas Collection by The Beatles (read more). Released on the storied Vigotone label in 1998, it's a package that would put Rhino Records to shame, containing each the band's legendary annual fan club discs, as well as top-quality copies of several Beatle solo Christmas singles and about two dozen rare tracks - radio greetings, live snippets, rough mixes, etc. The packaging, too, is a marvel, presenting both front and back covers of the fan club releases in vivid color along with fastidiously researched notes and photos of Christmas-related Beatle paraphernalia (e.g. John Lennon's 1958 hand-drawn Christmas card to his ex-wife-to-be, Cynthia).

The Ultimate Christmas Collection is one of my Top 20 Albums, but I bring it up mainly as an excuse to discuss the Beatles' sprawling Christmas legacy. You see, locating one of these gems will be a herculean task, so all that's left is the music.

The Beatles' annual Christmas releases were pressed on cheap flexi-discs and sent out gratis to members of their English fan club. The American fan club received a few of them, as well, though often in edited form. For many, many years, however, the fan club recordings were never officially released to the general public (with one minor exception). That's a shame, because they open a unique window into the rarified world of the world's greatest rock group. When the story begins, though, there was very little actual music to discuss. The first flexi-disc (recorded in October, 1963, not long before the band invaded America) begins with the Fab Four mangling "Good King Wenceslas" but quickly devolves into four Beatles passing a single microphone around the table (you can actually hear the microphone being scooted), taking turns thanking their fan club for their support. It had been a banner year for the boys on the English charts, and the mood was ebullient.

The Usual Rubbish

The plot grew thicker very quickly, as more of the Beatles' trademark humor and musical sophistication revealed itself with each passing year. On the 1964 disc (which follows a similar format as the previous year), a certain worldliness creeps in. Paul McCartney states acerbically, "We hope you've enjoyed listening to the records as much as we've enjoyed melting them." John Lennon says of his forthcoming book, "It'll be the usual rubbish, but it won't cost much."

The next year, Bob Dylan introduced the celebrated Liverpudlians to marijuana during his well-documented tour of England. Maybe that's why "The Beatles' Third Christmas Record" (1965) is all but chaotic, careening wildly from a recurring parody of Paul's "Yesterday" to a politically charged Dylan send-up to perfunctory thanks for "all the presents this year... especially the chewed up pieces of chewing gum and the playing cards made out of knickers."

"Pantomime" (1966), by contrast, is a genuine production - almost coherent, even - and features several snippets of original music, including the exuberant, vaudevillian "Everywhere It's Christmas." The humor is very English, likely inspired by The Goon Show, a long-running, highly influential BBC radio program that featured a young Peter Sellers. "Pantomime" would have probably mystified young American Beatlemaniacs had they received the aural missive (which they did not). Hell, it mystified me 30 years hence when I first heard it on The Ultimate Christmas Collection.

"Christmas Time (Is Here Again)" (1967) is weirder still, but it includes the closest thing (in the titular melody) the Beatles' ever came to committing a proper Christmas song to tape. As witnessed in its rough mix on Ultimate Christmas Collection, the song "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)" began life as a shambling, repetitive six-minute jam. Bits and pieces were then dropped throughout the 1967 fan-club flexi-disc, making it more of a theme than a song, per se. All the same, "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)" would eventually become the first widely released Beatles Christmas record.

Infamously, of course, John Lennon was senselessly murdered in 1980. In 1995, the Beatles released their first new recording in 35 years, Free As A Bird, built on an old demo tape recorded by Lennon during the last few years of his life. For the b-side, they commissioned a new stereo mix of "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)" by Geoff Emerick, an engineer who'd worked with the band since Revolver (1966). Emerick edited the song down to a coherent, three-minute single, incorporating traditional greetings from the 1966 flex-disc and a droll, if poignant, excerpt of Lennon reciting a nonsensical holiday poem. In the years since, "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)" has become a minor standard, covered by R.E.M. (2000), the Smithereens (2007), the Weeklings (2017), and Spoon (2021), among others. And, Ringo Starr recorded his own version - but more on that in a minute.

Merry Krimble

By the end of the Beatles' career, the flexi-discs became dense, elaborate, psychedelic, nearly indecipherable collages of sound, though 1968's "Happy Christmas" includes an actual recording of famous freak Tiny Tim warbling "Nowhere Man." Both the 1968 and 1969 flexi-discs were edited down by Kenny Everett, an English DJ and fellow traveler, from lengthy, rambling tapes contributed by the individual Beatles. So, the final products probably reflect Everett's personality as much as the band's.

Shortly after the band's 1970 breakup, members of the longsuffering fan club were offered a chance to purchase all the Christmas flexi-discs together on one vinyl record, alternately titled From Then To You in the U.K. and The Beatles Christmas Album in the U.S. It is those records that have been frequently bootlegged throughout the years. The world of bootlegs, however, is seldom burdened by consistency and quality control - which is to say, caveat emptor.

Vigotone's Ultimate Christmas CD appends much material to the original singles, but it's mainly icing on the cake - rough mixes, outtakes, rehearsals, radio promos, etc. Much more valuable is the handful of officially released solo Christmas singles - none more important than John Lennon's classic "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," recorded in 1971 with his new wife, Yoko Ono, the Plastic Ono Band, and the Harlem Community Choir. A soaring, optimistic, yet bittersweet song, "Happy Xmas" is far and away one of the greatest Christmas songs recorded during the latter part of the 20th century - and one of my Top 100 Songs, by the way. For years, though, it was rarely collected on Christmas compilations, probably for contractual reasons. It was, however, usually included on hit collections like Lennon Legend (1998), and it's become commonplace in the digital era.

By the way, the original b-side of "Happy Xmas," Yoko Ono's bucolic "Listen, The Snow Is Falling," is lovely, too, but it has been largely forgotten by history. Notably, Vigotone did not include it in Ultimate Christmas, perhaps due to lingering resentment over Yoko's perceived role in the demise of the beloved Beatles. Yet, it's a lovely meditation on winter that perfectly compliments Lennon's more celebrated a-side. "Listen, The Snow Is Falling" has never been included on a Christmas album, but it has been issued as a bonus track a couple of times - first on Rykodisc's 1997 CD reissue of John & Yoko's otherwise unlistenable Wedding Album (1969), then on Capitol's 2005 CD reissue of the duo's slightly-less-difficult Sometime In New York City (1972) along with "Happy Xmas."

Ding Dong, Ding Dong

Also included on Ultimate Christmas is George Harrison's typically whimsical "Ding Dong, Ding Dong," originally from his album Dark Horse (1974), but never before compiled on a Christmas album. Additionally, we get both sides of Paul McCartney's 1979 Columbia Christmas single. Macca's a-side, "Wonderful Christmastime," was recorded during the McCartney II sessions in the same willfully simple, homespun fashion. Predictably, perhaps, England liked the song better than America. Upon release, "Wonderful Christmastime" reached #6 on the UK singles chart but missed the Billboard charts altogether. Eventually, America and the rest of the world caught up, and today the song is an inescapable fact of the holidays.

The b-side of "Wonderful Christmastime," "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reggae," was recorded four years earlier and sounds - amazingly enough - like "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" played in a reggae style. Both songs were appended to the 1993 English CD reissue of McCartney's Back To The Egg (1979) and later compiled on The 7" Singles (2022).

Now, having said all that, in 2017 - long after I wrote the bulk of this review - Capitol Records finally deigned to release the Beatles' fan club flexi-discs as The Christmas Records, an elaborately packaged boxed set of colored 7-inch vinyl records with a $75 price tag. It was a momentous occasion: the first-ever wide commercial release of these charming, historically significant recordings. And, the box was, simply put, stunningly fab. But, it was more than a little irritating for many consumers - including fans who no longer collected vinyl, and fans without piles of surplus cash. I originally assumed that the surviving Beatles (or their corporate partners) would follow up the Christmas Records vinyl box with some sort of simpler, cheaper option - LP, CD, MP3, streaming, whatever. Years down the road that has yet to happen, and that certainly means that those of us who own bootlegs like Ultimate Beatles Christmas won't be throwing it out anytime soon. Merry Krimble, indeed.

Thank you, Ringo, We'll Phone You...

Shortly after the release of Ultimate Christmas, unassuming drummer Ringo Starr became the only Beatle to record an actual Christmas album, the charming and (not surprisingly) unassuming I Wanna Be Santa Claus (1999). Mark Hudson (of, believe it or not, 70's bubblegum act the Hudson Brothers) helped write, play, arrange, and/or produce practically the whole record, but the music retains Ringo's trademark jocularity and casual, confident musicality. Mr. Starkey certainly gets high marks for effort - six original compositions and a rollicking new rendition of the Beatles' "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)," in addition to some holiday standards.

Nearly half of Ringo's new songs rise above average. I'm especially fond of the slammin' glam rock opener, "Come On Christmas, Christmas Come On," and his wistful title track is worthy of the sentiment it expresses. Surprisingly, a couple of the covers are nearly as innovative. Starr and Hudson drive "Winter Wonderland" through New Orleans and fly "White Christmas" down to Jamaica - with both trips yielding delightful, unexpected rewards. The rest of the album is what we've come to expect from Ringo: honest, good-time rock 'n' roll with none of the innovation of the Beatles themselves. (In 2003, I Wanna Be Santa Claus was reissued almost verbatim as 20th Century Masters: The Christmas Collection, and the original album was later reissued for download and streaming.)

How Do You Sleep?

Paul McCartney would later release Holidays (2020), but it was hardly a proper Christmas album. First of all, it was released for streaming only, and runs just six tracks - none of them new. Among those are several non-Christmas or quasi-Christmas songs, while the EP skips one of his few actual Christmas songs, "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reggae." It does, however, capture McCartney's understated version of Nat King Cole's chestnut, "The Christmas Song." Recorded during sessions for his 2012 album Kisses On The Bottom, the song first appeared on the Hear Music compilation Holidays Rule and was also released as a single titled Christmas Kisses. A version with overdubbed strings - superior, I think - appears on Complete Kisses, the deluxe version of Kisses On The Bottom.

Later, McCartney teamed up with TV host Jimmy Fallon and his house band, the Roots, for an a cappella rendering of "Wonderful Christmastime" for Holidays Rule Vol. 2 (2017). And, there's a pretty cool live version of the song recorded in Glasgow, Scotland, at the same 1979 concert that yielded the definitive version of McCartney's 1980 hit, "Coming Up." But, the latter has never been officially released, and both were omitted from Holidays.

In closing, I should note that the mastering of Ultimate Christmas Collection (in addition to the packaging) is unassailable, especially considering what they had (or didn't have) to work with. Regardless, it behooves any Beatle fan or Christmas music buff to track this material down - in whatever format you can. [top of page]