Ultimate Christmas

by The Beach Boys

Overview

With this collection, Capitol has come up with something that has long been missing, a collection of essentially every Christmas recording done by a band that was born to sing this type of music. The CD starts out with the complete 1964 sessions for the Beach Boys Christmas album, along with several outtakes and alternate mixes, one of the most interesting being the original 45 mix of the seasonal hit "Little St. Nick," which, with its added celeste, sleigh bells and glockenspiel, is alone worth the price of the CD. In addition to that, this set contains seven tracks from the previously unreleased 1977 Christmas album, that, while not as balanced as the 1964 record, indeed have their charm. One track, Brian Wilson's "Winter Symphony," was initially not intended for the Christmas album (it was originally recorded in 1975-6), but was completed by the group. It is particularly interesting because of the strange dichotomy between the sadness of the music and the pleasant lyric, and it provides another insight to Brian Wilson's creative muse during the 1970s. Several public service announcements and interviews close the disc out. It's a holiday slam-dunk. ~ Matthew Greenwald

Product Details

Release Date:	11/11/2022
Label:	Universal
UPC:	4988031538029
Rank:	57035

Album Credits

Performance Credits

The Beach Boys   Primary Artist
Dennis Wilson   Primary Artist,Vocals
Brian Wilson   Primary Artist,Vocals
Mike Love   Vocals
Al Jardine   Vocals
Adam Jardine   Vocals

Technical Credits

Sidney Arodin   Composer
Andrew Sandoval   Producer
Bill Hayes   Composer
Traditional   Composer
Steve Kalinich   Composer
Michael Etchart   Executive Producer
J. Fred Coots   Composer
Irving Berlin   Composer
Carl Wilson   Composer
Cheryl Pawelski   Producer
Jack Rollins   Composer
Jack Wagner   Producer
Kim Gannon   Composer
Lou Baxter   Composer
Dick Reynolds   Arranger
Jay Johnson   Composer
Johnny Moore   Composer
Dennis Wilson   Composer,Producer
Mike Love   Composer
Buck Ram   Composer
Al Jardine   Composer,Producer,Remixing
Brian Wilson   Composer,Producer,Performer
Ron Altbach   Composer
Haven Gillespie   Composer
Walter Kent   Composer
Robert Burns   Composer
John Henry Hopkins, Jr.   Composer
Darren Wong   Art Direction
Brad Elliott   Producer,Liner Notes
Steve Nelson   Composer
Stephen W. Desper   Engineer
Daniel Hersch   Mastering