A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector

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Editorial reviews

Album Description
Out-of-print in the US! This album has grown in stature over the years and has been reissued countless times. If you have to own a record to play half a dozen times during the festive season, then this is the one and only. Featuring the amazing Spector production together with Darlene Love, The Crystals, The Ronettes, BobB. Soxx And The Blue Jeans, even Leon Russell on piano and Sonny Bono on percussion, this is another timeless record that is unlikely ever to be surpassed as the greatest Christmas compilation of all time.

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Amazon.com
This lavish holiday set has been called the greatest rock & roll Christmas album of all time. That's an opinion that's tough to argue with when you find yourself immersed in the massive sounds painstakingly crafted by legendary producer Phil Spector. His "wall-of-sound" technique is perfectly suited to the music of the season, as he proves with layer upon layer of piano, sleigh bells, buoyant percussion, and, of course, those legendary Spectorsound harmonies. The Crystals turn their sassy interplay into sheer magic on "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town," The Ronettes stroll sweetly through numbers like "Sleigh Ride," while Darlene Love delivers a real knockout punch with her yearning version of "Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)." Sure to become the soundtrack for your holidays. --David Sprague

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2009-01-08 rating:
Amazing Christmas album
What's not to love about a Christmas album with the Ronettes, the Crystals and Darlene Love? These are the songs you hear in the movies, in the stores, and out and about at Christmastime, but you never know where to get them. But now you do! Every song on here is a classic. This was my favorite Christmas album of 2008, even edging out the traditional Bing Crosby. It'll probably be my favorite of 2009 as well. You cannot go wrong purchasing this album in any format. If you like Christmas, you will love this.

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review by: date: 2008-12-17 rating:
A "Wall Of Sound" Christmas Gift For You
This is by far the most fun Christmas album ever made. It's a blast to hear Phil Spector's famous "wall of sound" production applied to non-secular standards. The arrangements are high-spirited and ebullient, and the stable of stars with whom he recorded so many classic 60's pop hits are all in peak form.

You know them, you love them. Ronnie Spector and the Ronettes sing three songs, Darlene Love performs four, and the Crystals and Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans handle three and two, respectively. There's not a bad track among them. You're sure to recognize these versions from the heavy play they get every holiday season (even 45 years after the album was released) - but it's more fun to hear them all in a row.

There's a couple other ways to buy this. It comprises the entire fourth disc of the Phil Spector 4-disc box set "Back To Mono" (the other 3 discs are an exhaustive overview of Spector productions from 1958 to 1969). His 22 biggest radio hits are on a single-disc compilation called "Phil Spector Wall Of Sound Retrospective", and those same 22 tracks are packaged with the Christmas album on the 2-disc "The Phil Spector Collection". However you get it - it's worth the investment. This is a perennial you'll treasure forever, guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

Merry Christmas everyone - and Happy New Year!

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review by: date: 2008-12-15 rating:
Great Old Time Rock N Roll Christmas Album
This album is 34 minutes and 12 seconds long. When it first came out in 1963, it reach #16 on the Top Albums Chart. In 1972 when it was reissued and retitle as Spector's Christmas Album, it charted at #6. Only four artists are feature on this album. They are: Darlene Love, The Crystals, The Ronettes, BobB. Soxx And The Blue Jeans. The music on it is really great. This album would make a great gift to anyone.

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review by: date: 2008-12-10 rating:
Amazon lies about encoding BIT RATE it's not 256 kbps - more like 128 kbps
Buyer beware Amazon lies about the bit rate of this album it's only around 128 kbps variable bit rate. Not 256 kbps. The quality is not great for the phil spector type of sound. So i'd say watch out.


review by: date: 2008-01-19 rating:
Spector at His Best
A Christmas Gift for You might be Phil Spector's greatest work, and is probably the best and most influential ensemble Christmas album ever made. I myself first heard of A Christmas Gift for You as part of the publicity campaign for the Very Special Christmas series that began in 1987, the first of which included U2's cover of Darlene Love's Christmas (Baby Please Come Home). U2's version of Christmas, along with Bruce Springsteen's Santa Clause Is Coming to Town and Dean Martin's Marshmallow World, are for my money the only versions of these songs to rival Spector's. Released for the holidays in 1963, the album also delivers a final burst of American Rock and Roll before the British Invasion and might also explain why the Beatles' own Christmas albums were works of comedy: not even they could have topped Spector and his group of very young artists. My personal favorites are Love's White Christmas and Marshmallow World, and the Ronettes' Frosty the Snowman, Sleigh Ride, and I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus. On a few occasions the production overwhelms the vocals, but so what? The Wall of Sound has never sounded better.

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