Music of Christmas (Expanded Edition)

CD Details

Holiday reissue. Percy Faith’s Music of Christmas album had already reached legendary status when the maestro re-recorded it in stereo in 1959. In fact, the back cover of the 1959 album even included a thumbnail picture of the classic “Father playing Santa Claus while holding sleeping daughter” cover of the original 1954 mono LP with the legend: “In it’s original edition with this well-known cover, this collection sold over 250,000 copies.” Little wonder, then, that Faith and his label Columbia chose to revisit Music of Christmas using the latest in recording hardware. But this was no mere cash-in; the stereo separation on the new album made Faith’s always ethereal, string-soaked arrangements sound positively celestial, and allowed his expert use of counterpoint to shine. The result: Music of Christmas in it’s new stereo format instantly (again) became a Christmas classic, and even hit the charts a full five years later at the height of Beatlemania! In fact, the Christmas music site The Yule Log has dubbed this record the #1 Christmas album of all time, and to emphasize the point, the site’s founder, Chip Arcuri, has written liner notes for our release and chosen seven rare seasonal songs from non-Christmas LPs to grace our Expanded Edition. Shockingly, this marks the first real remastering of Music of Christmas, and no less than the august Vic Anesini at Battery Studios in New York has taken the engineering reins. Simply put, no Christmas music collection is complete without this album-and now it sounds better than it ever has!