The Time-Life Treasury of Christmas: Holiday Memories

Product description

CD

Amazon.com

Even though it includes one of the crucial same songs, this is not the Time-Life Christmas collection advertised yearly on TV. It is in truth a budget version of that anthology, and not a bad deal at all. Some may argue It is missing the two Elvis Presley tracks found at the three-CD TV version. Others will contend that any self-respecting Christmas music aficionado probably already owns (or will have to own) Elvis’s wonderful ’57 Christmas Album. What’s attractive about this one is it gathers a large number of classic singular performances in one place–a tad too much Bing Crosby, possibly, but also the original hit versions of “Jingle Bell Rock,” Eartha Kitt’s “Santa Baby,” Burl Ives’s “Holly Jolly Christmas,” and the Drifters’ “White Christmas” (the blueprint for Elvis’s version). It is a terrific cross section of seasonal sounds. –Bill Holdship

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