Great Albums: Phil Spector’s Christmas Album

While there are innumerable albums of Christmas classics, there are very few classic Christmas albums. The most obvious is Phil Spector’s Christmas Album, which – since its release in 1963 – has become the default answer to the question of what is the greatest ever Christmas album in the same way Citizen Kane has become the default answer to the question of what is the greatest ever film. Indeed, Brian ‘Beach Boys’ Wilson supposedly thinks it is the finest of all albums, and its influence on his work, particularly Pet Sounds, is unmistakable. What’s more, its influence on practically all Christmas singles recorded since its release is equally obvious.

A Christmas Gift for You from Philles Records, to give the album its cumbersome original title, sees Spector’s astonishing stable of artists – Darlene Love, The Ronettes, The Crystals, etc. – throwing thirteen seasonal songs against the fabled ‘Wall of Sound’. What bounces back is a record of such sweetness and joyous verve that it soon becomes irresistible even to those who ordinarily prefer carols from Queen’s to ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’. It’s an essentially secular collection, with only an upbeat ‘Bells of St. Mary’ and a ‘Silent Night’ that is just background music for Spector’s spoken word Christmas message hinting at anything remotely religious.

The great irony of the record is that, while it provides the perfect soundtrack for raucous Christmas parties, its music is so sophisticated and (thanks to Spector’s infamous perfectionism) so deftly controlled it can only truly be appreciated by a listener laying alone in the dark. As Brian Wilson would point out, Phil Spector’s Christmas Album doesn’t deserve to be compared to the likes of Now That’s What I Call Xmas: it deserves to be compared to the likes of Rubber Soul and Revolver.

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