jackai's Full Review: Ultra-Lounge: Ultimate Christmas Cocktails [Box]
It’s a shopworn adage, but everything old really is new again. Take a drink like the Martini, a cocktail whose popularity is sustained by trendsetting lounge-goers, fashionistas and social circuit whores - its musty connotations of WASP privilege evaporated with one smarmy wink of detached irony.
And now, it’s hawking your Granddaddy’s Christmas songs.
Capitol Records, through its Ultra Lounge series label, decided to dust off its old catalogue of Christmas tunes, dress it up with some retro 50’s graphic design motifs and marry it with a cocktail theme to come up with Ultimate Christmas Cocktails, a box set of 3 CDs that comes off like a booze-soaked Whitman’s Sampler of Christmas hits of yore. It features the vocal stylings of such hip cats as Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peggy Lee, June Christy and more.
In a transparent example of marketing audacity, the CD jackets are peppered with zippy images of cocktail glasses, olives, and various cartoon illustrations. There’s also some literature on cocktail party etiquette, recipes for a Hot Toddy and some concoction called “Ye Olde Yule Wassail”. Add a list of glassware measures (did you know a pony = 1 oz. and a jigger = 1.5 oz.?) and these holiday nuggets might get lost in all the packaging - as if the current generation couldn’t appreciate this music unless it was shellacked with a thick coating of nostalgic, postmodern cool.
Well, save your money on the smoking jacket and believe only half of the window dressing. Fifty three Christmas ditties populate this Box set and whether you need background noise for a holiday party or you’re home alone wrapping presents for your cat, each song will infuse holiday cheer to your surroundings.
Disc 1
1. Rudolph, The Red Nosed Reindeer - Billy May
2. Winter Wonderland – Peggy Lee
3. Christmas Trumpets/We Wish You a Very Merry Christmas – Ray Anthony
4. Christmas Is – Lou Rawls
5. Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town/White Christmas – Jimmy McGriff
6. I’d Like You For Christmas – Julie London
7. Holiday on Skis – Al Caiola & Riz Ortolani
8. (Everybody’s Waitin’ for) the Man with the Bag – Kay Starr
9. Jingle Bells/ Jingle Bell Rock – Hollyridge Strings
10. I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm – Dean Martin
11. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus/Jingle Bells Bossa Nova – Eddie Dunstedter
12. Christmas Kisses – Ray Anthony
13. I’ll Be Home For Christmas/Baby, It’s Cold Outside – Jackie Gleason/ Jack Marshall
14. What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve – Nancy Wilson
15. Cha-Cha All the Way – Capitol Studio Orchestra
16. The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You) – Nat King Cole
17. The Nutcracker Suite – Les Brown and his Band of Renown
18. Ring Those Christmas Bells – Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians
Kicking things off with the Big Band swagger of Billy May’s “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, it’s very clear that this collection celebrates the more secular side of the Holiday season. Once you hear Kay Starr’s “(Everybody’s Waitin’ for) The Man with the Bag”, you’ll immediately recognize the tune as Target’s theme for last year’s Christmas ad campaign. Elsewhere, cool samba flourishes mark Al Caiola/Riz Ortolani’s “Holiday on Skis”, and even a traditional melody like “The Nutcracker Suite” is completely (and quite refreshingly) reinterpreted by Les Brown and his orchestra.
On Disc 2, there are more peppy cuts from Jimmy McGriff, Al Caiola and Billy May, but the highlights also come from Peggy Lee, Julie London and Lena Horne. Eddie Dunstedter’s frisky “Let it Snow! / Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” lets it rip with a corny pipe organ. “Snowfall Cha-Cha” and Ferrante and Teicher’s “Sleigh Ride/Santa Claus Party” feature lush strings and nimble piano twinkling.
There’s a limited repertoire of holiday songs and repetition in Disc 3 could wear a little thin were it not for vocalists lending their individual stamp; as with Al Martino’s “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” or Peggy Lee’s mournfully tinged “White Christmas”, and Julie London’s languorous rendition of “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm”.
Martini and kitsch themed packaging is well beside the point here. Ultimate Christmas Cocktails stands on its own as a fine collection of Yuletide classics reinterpreted through luminaries of the Jazz, Big Band, and Swing movement of the 50s and 60s. So come for the Gibson, but stay for the light, festive, holiday spirit these tunes will surely radiate in abundance.
Happy Holidays everyone.
Other Important Info
Three CDs were released separately as “Ultra Lounge Christmas Cocktails” Parts One, Two and Three. While each is still available separately, in 2004, they were combined and repackaged as this box set. For more information including a full track listing of each CD, go to the View Details section of this product.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
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