different albums all at once. Tighten your festive X-Mas pants, America. . .
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| Volume 5 |
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| Granny's calling card |
This series of albums from '
The Great Artists of Our Time' come from the great folks at
Columbia Records, and could very well comprise a box set of their own. I own the first five volumes of this series, and, honestly, I've amassed them from a variety of places over the years. I determine this based solely on the fact that
Volume 1 in this series is clearly marked in glorious calligraphy, which - if you've been following this
Great Christmas Record Odyssey of mine over the course of the last week or so - is a clear calling card of
Granny Hough.
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| Here's a couple of creepy-ass cherubs for you. Enjoy. |
Other volumes in the series, however, lack this distinctive marking, and since I definitely didn't go out of my way to buy any of these records, I can only assume they were part of bulk scores from garage sales, thrift stores, or from my days working as a marketing manager at a consignment shop (scored tons of vinyl that way.) Anyway, regardless of where these particular albums come from, they all share one thing in common: they are all easily forgettable.
As with some of the other late '50s/early '60s compilations I've reviewed so far this season, this series from Columbia Records is
beyond dated. This is
background music that begins to all sound the same after awhile, and it's pretty boring to listen to. Case in point: while Kris was cooking in the kitchen this afternoon, she came back into the living room to ask me to change the record.
"Can we listen to something else?" she asked, "I feel like we've been listening to this one on repeat."
No, spouse, we haven't - we've listened to
FOUR albums in a row. But yes: they
all sound exactly the same.
You'll notice that some of these rosters carry over from one volume to another. Check it out:
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| Volume 1 |
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| Volume 2 |
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| Volume 3 |
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| Volume 4 |
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| Volume 5 |
These albums definitely have a tone to them, too. Most of the men on these songs sing in an almost operatic bellowing (think Pavarotti, folks), which is great sparingly, but a full album of it gets old.
Quick. Meanwhile, the women do this sorta purr/cooing thing that was real big back then. The arrangements are more 'churchy' than you'd come to expect from a mainstream popular music compilation, but, then again, this was a different era, and while the rebellious youth were out cruising around listening to 'Rebel Rouser' and 'Louie Louie,' their parents were listening to these Greatest Artists.
That being said, I wish the
Kingsmen would have recorded a Christmas album. I bet it'd sound as awesome as those two stand-alone Holiday tracks from the Sonics.
Oh well.
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