What I've been missing all these years is a truly wonderful CD. Bing has a rich, strong voice that is pleasing to listen to. The arrangements feel dated, but that's part of the charm. It feels like an old friend from the very first listen.

My only real complaint (and a minor one at that) is the pacing of the album. The first six tracks are all slower numbers. They do include a great version of "Silent Night," and Bing's classic recording of "White Christmas," so I do enjoy listening to them. Still, by "I'll be Home for Christmas," I'm ready for an upbeat track.

Fortunately, the second half doesn't disappoint in that regard. "Jingle Bells" and "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town," both sung with the Andrews Sisters, kick things up a notch or two. Both are fairly familiar arrangements with just enough newness to set them apart from the other versions you already have.

The CD ends with the songs I was unfamiliar with. "Christmas in Killarney" is a fanciful description of the holiday in Ireland, while "Mele Kalikimaka" wishes us a Merry Christmas from Hawaii. Both songs sound a little like the land they represent and are a fun way to end the CD.

The recordings here are old, as shown by the occasional scratchy background noise, especially noticeable on "Adeste Fideles." But it doesn't affect my enjoyment one bit. My only regret is not getting this great CD sooner.


I'll Cherish This Album All My Life   December 6, 2004
Andrew Kruczek (Dearborn, MI)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful

This is the only Christmas album that would make my "Top 10 Albums of All-Time" list. I am currently 24 years old and I found this record in my parents stack of vinyl years ago. There is something amazing about this album that is hard to put into words. I've recently bought it on cd. Strangely, the cd is called "White Christmas" while the original album is titled "Merry Christmas." Exact same cover and content. I play the vinyl a few times a week during the Christmas holiday. I prefer how it sounds to the cd. The cd is one of those $5 bargain bin releases. It doesn't sound very good. Hopefully one day it will be given the remastered treatment it deserves.

I often tear up when I listen to this album. Yet I keep going back to it. It sounds very old and the mood it puts you in is quite unexplainable. It transports you back in time. When there was snow at Christmas. When actors sang. When the world was much different, more wholesome about Christmas, family, and the holidays. I've recently lost two grandparents in the last two years. This album makes me fantasize about how my dad's Christmas's might have been. With all our family together, in the house that is now abandoned, in the old decaying polish neighborhood in the suburbs of Buffalo, NY I used to go to for holidays when I was younger. It just reminds me of my grandparents and all those wonderful Christmas celebrations that don't seem to be as big a part of the world anymore.

The first half of this album are the slower, more introspective, Christmas songs. I was going to list my favorites but I love them all. The background vocals on some of these are so errie and haunting. Sung by people long passed. "Faith of Our Fathers," "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," "Adeste Fideles." The music by the John Scott Trotter Orchestra makes you feel things you just can't find in other Christmas music. The second half of the album have more upbeat numbers: "Jingle Bells," "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," and "It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas" to name a few. Songs ilke "Christmas in Killarney" paints a wonderful picture of Christmas's of the time. Friends, family, Fr. John blessing the house, department store shopping, love.

This album is just fantastic. You are transported back to a time when it seemed Christmas still had more of it's religious background and was not as commercial as it is now. It is prefectly of it's time. It's dated and thats when it works best. You are put back into those old pictures of your early Christmas's or Christmas's celebrated by your family before you were around. Back to those times when my grandparents were still alive. When the world was much more innocent. All of this swirls through my mind everytime I play this album and I love revisiting it, and staying there, time and time again.


Same Old, Same Old   January 18, 2007
Boston Brahmin (Boston, MA USA)
11 out of 18 found this review helpful

This is just a reissue of the old MERRY CHRISTMAS album that was available since the mid-50s. The title's been changed, but the playing order is the same and the incorrect versions of two of Bing's Christmas hits are the same. "Silent Night" was a hit in 1935, yet its a much later recording that appears here. "White Christmas" first charted in 1942, yet the version here is the 1947 re-recording. "Faith of Our Fathers" isn't even a Christmas song! There's a better, 44-track collection of Bing's Christmas recordings for Decca that includes the correct versions of the hits as well as the remakes and excludes "Faith of Our Fathers." It's called THE VOICE OF CHRISTMAS and is available here: [...]