This edition in
Universal
's discount-priced compilation series
20th Century Masters/The Christmas Collection
is actually a re-titled reissue of the 1999 collection
The Very Best of Burl Ives Christmas
. That album, in turn, was drawn from several previous
Ives
albums, the 1952 set
Christmas Day in the Morning
,
Christmas Eve
(1956),
Have a Holly Jolly Christmas
(1965), and the TV soundtrack
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
(1966).
came to be closely associated with Christmas when he served as narrator for the animated TV special
in 1964 and scored a hit with the then-newly written
"A Holly Jolly Christmas."
But his earlier seasonal recordings had been of a more
folk
-ish and traditional cast, particularly on the
LP. Appropriately, his
LP contained cheerier, more
pop
-oriented fare, and by combining four tracks from the former and seven from the latter with a few other selections, compiler
Laura Graven
achieves a good blend of different kinds of material.
' appealing tenor is what holds it together, however, as he performs the songs with warmth and enthusiasm. ~ William Ruhlmann