This is second volume of 'THE MILLENNIA COLLECTION: Glorious Christmas
Music, Songs and Carols." Highly illustrated History in 4-color with works of famous American artists, Song Lyrics of 47 classic American carols and holidays songs, and a treasury of three (3)Music CDs. All components packaged in an attractive box.
An original and significant collection of Christmas music, history, and art honoring the American heritage!
HIGHLY EDUCATIONAL and ENTERTAINING. Read the richly illustrated history
about American Christmas music and hear how carols and seasonal favorites
sounded from the Revolutionary War era to the 20th century.
UUNIQUELY NOSTALGIC. Relive America's "Golden Age of Christmas Music" from 1934-1958 when the finest holiday songs, still popular today, were first released, and enjoy the wonderful images of America's Christmas past, including Christmas cards from the Victorian Age, illustrated covers from The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, Scribner's, McCall's, and LIFE magazine, as well as one of the finest collections of American Christmas art from American favorites as Norman Rockwell, N.C. Wyeth, Grandma Moses, Henry Ossawa Tanner, and other great artists.
TRADITIONAL CLASSICS. Reflect upon the spiritual heritage of the American
Christmas with world renowned carols, including O Little Town of Bethlehem, Away In a Manger, We Three Kings of Orient Are, and It Came Upon the Midnight Clear.
HISTORIC RECORDINGS. Enjoy classic recordings with original recording
artists, such as White Christmas (Bing Crosby), The Christmas Song (Nat "King" Cole), Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Gene Autry), and The Little Drummer Boy (The Harry Simeone Chorale), as well as popular carols and songs by traditional American icons like Kate Smith, Mahalia Jackson, Johnny Mathis, Tammy Wynette, and Perry Como.
Excerpt
"White Christmas" and World War II
Besides the tremendous impact of radio, other events helped to spur the writing of secular holiday songs. One was the phenomenal success of Irving Berlin's "White Christmas". Written in 1940, though not available to the public until the release of the movie Holiday Inn two years later, "White Christmas" went on to become
one of the best-selling single records of all time. Another pivotal influence was World War II and its aftermath. As the war in the Pacific and across the European continent raged on, the sentimental strains of "White Christmas" and other wonderful holiday
songs, including "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," became popular with American soldiers and sailors. These songs reminded America's men and women of their families and being nestled at home for the Christmas holidays.
In their own unique way they gave expression to a profound sentimentality that was uplifting and morale boosting, and they reflected the values of a united, hard-working people who served the interests of family and country by strongly supporting the American war effort in what they believed was the cause of righteousness.
Professional Reviews
SOUNDS OF THE SEASON
FROM 12/2/2001
THE BUFFALO NEWS
by Lauri Githens
SOUNDS OF THE SEASON
THE MILLENNIA COLLECTION
American Christmas Classics and Best-Loved Christmas Carols
by Ronald M. Clancy
A collection of Christmas favorites
My basic belief about holiday music can be summed up thusly: Like
basic black pants, you can never have enough.
However, much like an otherwise perfect pair of slacks with a slightly
off-center zipper, sometimes holiday CDs just make no sense. This is not
to say that the 71 songs on these two collections - "Best-Loved Christmas
Carols" and "American Christmas Classics," both from Sony's ambitious
The Millennia Collection - are not beautifully recorded, or rich in depth and variety. They are.
But it's easy to get suspicious that at best, an uneven listening experience awaits you when, in gazing at the song list, you realize that merely five tracks after the sumptuous "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, you will be subjected to country star Tanya Tucker - you know, the one who fooled around with Glen Campbell when she was, like,
14 warbling "Away in the Manger."
And further, merely three tracks after you've been stopped dead in your
tracks by Mahalia Jackson's righteous "I Wonder as I Wander," boom, there's
good ole' Tennessee Ernie Ford cracking out "The Star Carol." I mean, should even the word "Ernie" appear in the same sentence as "Mahalia Jackson," much less on the same CD? In the name of Robert Goulet, who's arranging these things?! I repeat: Sometimes holiday CDs make no sense.
But, let's make this as clear as that first holy midnight: Minor quibbles aside, if these two collections don't reduce you to capering giddily around your home and festooning the dog with tinsel as Burl Ives chortles his way through "Jingle Bells"; if they don't find you with tears in your eyes as Perry Como's wistful "Toyland" wafts through the room, well, you have coal in your
heart. Go put on the Sex Pistols' "Never Mind the Bollocks. . ." and leave the rest of us to wallow in these like a dog who's knocked the Christmas
pudding to the floor.
"American Christmas Classics" (Sony):
3 CDs featuring 47 tracks
Accompanying Coffee-table color on the history of each carol and song with nostalgic Christmas art and illustrations from the 1940s and 1950s.
This package comes quite close to being the ne-plus-ultra of Christmas
song collections, if for no other reason than it contains the holiday standard by which all others should be judged: Goulet's cocktail-smooth "A Christmas Waltz" (notably missing duet vocals with ex-wife Carol Lawrence, which may upset purists; on the other hand, this version ends with Goulet fairly nuzzling the microphone with a murmured "Merry Christmas!," enabling you to serve it with biscuits and fruit after coffee, as pure cheese).
This number all but ends the entire 47-song package, and by then, you're in a place of emotional wipeout, having heard almost every song you could possibly want, and probably a few you didn't - but those are blessedly few.
CD No. 1 begins gorgeously with the lilting "Shepherd's Carol" by the Cathedral Choir of St. John the Divine - a fitting beginning for a CD that is mostly traditional, religious fare, done with spare reverence by well-known choirs and vocalists. "Mary had a Baby" by the Riverside Choir, "We Three Kings" by Robert Shaw and "Go Tell it on the Mountain" by the Westminster Choir all ring out crisply, the
basses smooth and the sopranos clear and thrilling. The final two numbers,
"The Shepherd's Story," majestically performed by the Mormon Tabernacle
Choir, and "Caroling, Caroling/Carol, Brothers, Carol," by the indomitable
Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians, are enough to make you too weak with emotion to even address a Christmas card. If it weren't for the two rather
oddly-placed numbers toward the end - Ray Price's twangy "O Little Town of
Bethlehem" followed by Tucker, who gratingly refers to Jesus' bed as a "MAYN-ger" - this would rate as the perfect CD to play softly in the background when the candles are lit, the family comes to the table and the turkey is brought forth.
*CD No. 2 departs from liturgical numbers, but slowly. The first
four songs are a seamless pleasure, from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's
mighty "Carol of the Bells" to the Mariners' prayerful "Jesus, Jesus, Rest
Your Head," which segues into the richly exultant Mahalia Jackson number
we already mentioned, during which we recommend that you just sit and
listen. (And if you can follow it up with her version of "Holy, Holy, Holy," only found - to my knowledge - on one of those old Goodyear Tires Christmas
albums you used to get at the gas station for free with a fill-up, then count yourself blessed.)
From here on, CD No. 2 gets sort of sprightly, punching out one classic
tune after another: "The Little Drummer Boy," "Do You Hear What I Hear?,"
"Twas the Night Before Christmas" and "Winter Wonderland," rendered by
equally classic vocalists - Burl Ives, Perry Como, Johnny Mathis and, of
course, der Bingle's "White Christmas." By the time it wraps up with Andy Williams' "I'll Be Home for Christmas," you may be baking with one hand and calling up long-estranged family members with the other.
Isn't that what Christmas music is for?
o CD No. 3 is sort of a grab-bag of leftovers, but you know every one
(exception: "Christmas in Killarney," Bing Crosby's attempt to be gaily Gaelic, isn't exactly standard fare on WJYE on Christmas Eve, but it's here
nonetheless) - and more than that, you love them all over again when you
hear these versions, some new, some tried-and-true.
Nat "King" Cole steps in with "The Christmas Song," Gene Autry's "Rudolph
The Red-Nosed Reindeer" - a perfectly acceptable alternative to Burl Ives'
more memorable version - and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is back again with "Silver Bells."
It ends with "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" by Johnny Mathis, a
fitting and sweet reminder that more joy - and, of course, more meade -
lie ahead with 2002.
At the end of that year, more Christmas collections will doubtlessly come out. But they'll have a hard time beating this one.
o o o
Vol. 2 Best-Loved Christmas Carols (Sony)
One disc featuring 25 selections with accompanying color book.
If you're like me, with each passing Christmas, you get more and more emotional. There are more memories to recall, more humbling lessons to reflect upon and more little faces to love. So believe me when I tell you
that every year, I listen to Christmas music with a heart that is all the way
open - willing to hear and willing to be moved.
And if you're at all like this, you will want this CD.
It's virtually all traditional and liturgical music - "Away in a Manger,"
"The Holly and the Ivy," "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear," "What Child
Is This?" and 21 more.
It's performed by various massive choirs - the Mormon Tabernacle, the Cathedral Singers, the Robert Shaw Chamber Singers, the Vienna Boys Choir, the Harvard Glee Club.
And there isn't a bum number in the bunch.
I could wax on and on, and use words like "grand" and "glorious" and
"majestic." But the song titles and artists speak for themselves. If you've been looking for one of those beautiful, soaring Christmas collections to put on while the snow falls, look no further.
Book Marked
FROM 12/10/01
THE FLINT JOURNAL
By Gene Mierzejewski
JOURNAL BOOK EDITOR
Book Marked
Christmas, indeed, can come in a box. In our secular society, the holiday season has become less a festival honoring the birth of Christ than an ever expanding frenzy of shopping, eating and partying, Throughout it all, though, Christmas carols have offered a balm for the hearts and souls of devout believers and simple fun-lovers alike.
Sure, the tunes lose much of their luster when they spew from speakers
at malls, providing Muzak to buy by, but they retain their power in Christmas tree-lit living rooms and churches aglow with candlelight. Take away those special melodies, and you strip the yuletide of the magic that makes even cynics think peace on Earth and goodwill toward men might, just might, be more than an impossible dream.
That's why Ronald M. Clancy's "American Christmas Classics" ($59.95,
Christmas Classics Ltd.) is so special. Clancy has put Christmas in a box
that includes 46 carols on a set of three top-notch CDs and a beautifully
illustrated and informative book that tells the history of Christmas in
America and the stories behind the songs.
The artists range from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Bing Crosby and
Andy Williams to Mahalia Jackson, Tanya Tucker, Chet Atkins and Brenda Lee, and all musical bases are covered. The songs include all the old favorites -- such as "O Little Town of Bethlehem," "Go Tell It on the Mountain" and "White Christmas" -- and such newer classics as "Do You Hear What I Hear?" and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree."
Clancy's text doesn't play second fiddle to the music. Among the
fascinating historic tidbits he presents are that the Puritans' antipathy toward celebrating Christmas lingered into the 19th century in New
England, John Henry Hopkins' "We Three Kings of Orient Are" (1857) was the first American carol to become popular in England, and Bobby Helms' "Jingle-Bell Rock" was written exactly 100 years after James S. Pierpont's "Jingle Bells" (1857).
Making "American Christmas Classics" a truly multimedia event are
its wonderful illustrations compiled from original artwork, magazines, sheet music and Christmas cards.
This is the second entry in Clancy's projected 10-part "The Millennia Collection: Glorious Christmas Music, Songs and Carols." Well worth checking out is the debut volume, "Best-Loved Christmas Carols"
($39.95, Christmas Classics Ltd.), which includes a handsome book,
CD with 25 carols and a songbook.
Gifts that tell volumes
FROM 12/02/01
THE PLAIN DEALER
Cleveland, OH
By Karen Sandstrom
Plain Dealer Book Editor
Books News
Gifts that tell volumes
Sweaters and neckties show up with the holiday regularity of "It's a
Wonderful Life," yet somehow, unlike the movie, they rarely inspire anyone
to cry with joy.
On the other hand, when was the last time you watched someone tear
the paper from that familiar rectangle under the tree and harrumph, "Another
book?" Even people who ought to get rid of some old books are tickled
when they get a new one.
No matter how good a book looks on the outside, it ultimately delights
the receiver by promising to deliver more, not less, as time passes. And
unless the giver is fundamentally thoughtless, most books contain a
compliment for the receiver.
"Ahh, look," says the Salman Rushdie novel you've just opened, "Uncle Alvin thinks you're wickedly intelligent!"
You could do worse than buy a gift card from the bookstore so your
favorite bibliophile might select something he or she has long wanted to
read. On the chance that you'd rather make more of a statement, however,
I hereby offer thoughts on volumes that are likely to bring pleasure to their
new owners.
Christmas
American Christmas Classics (Christmas Classics Limited, $59.95) by
Ronald M. Clancy. This book and CD set presents the lyrics and history
behind favorite Christmas tunes. It's terrifically illustrated, and a surefire hit for that guy or gal who just can't take down the tree until mid-January.
A short story of mine was included in an anthology of short fiction by fourteen of Port Town Publishing Company's authors. It is out of print and no longer available except as a download. Contact me at charlenetess@yahoo.com if you want it.
