Maybe it's a Noo Yawk thing, but while most discussions of Christmas music revolve around what's the best Christmas song, the finest expression of Christmas music lies in a Christmas album, and that of course would be A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector, the crowning achievement of Wall of Sound creator turned convicted murderer, Phil Spector. While cuts like The Ronettes' "Be My Baby" or Ike and Tina Turner's "River Deep-Mountain High" are justifiably famous, it may be the Christmas record that will eventually become Spector's most influential and likable legacy.
It's natural to wonder what he thinks today, sitting in jail during the holiday season, while his masterpiece released on November 22, 1963, the day JFK was assassinated, steadily grows in influence and popularity. In many ways it's become the musical equivalent of the beloved Rankin and Bass stop-motion Animagic feature film (with the Bumble and Yukon Cornelius), Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
While The Crystals and Bob B. Soxx and The Blue Jeans have their moments, and Darlene Love has fashioned an entire career out of the fame she gained here with her version of "Christmas (Baby please come home)," this record's musical success is really due to The Ronettes. The New York City accent of Veronica Bennett (aka Ronnie Spector) never ceases to bring a smile to my face when she sings "Frawsty the Snowman," or when she rides a fast-tempo'd "Sleigh Ride," complete with the famous "Ring-a-ling-a-ling Ding-dong-ding" background repeats and sings in her NYC accent, "It's lovely weather for a sleigh ride togetha with you."
The other star here is the production. A fierce devotee of mono rather than stereo recording, Spector's highly orchestrated layering, instruments doubling and even tripling parts and that distinct cathedral-like sound that Beach Boy Brian Wilson adored remains highly influential today. A Christmas Gift for You is the finest expression of Spector's philosophy if only because he had total control. With Let It Be, the Beatles album he mixed and remixed, the recordings themselves were done prior to his becoming part of the project. Oddly enough, A Christmas Gift refutes Spector's long-held contempt for albums over singles. While "The Bells of St. Mary" may not be to every taste, this is a coherent, wonderfully arranged and sequenced collection of songs from start to finish.
