George Melachrino and His Orchestra - Christmas Joy

1. Winter Wonderland
2. Adeste Fideles
3. I Saw Mummy Kissing Santa Claus
4. The Fairy On The Christmas Tree
5. Sleigh Ride
6. Silent Night
7. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
8. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
9. Jingle Bells
10. The First Noel
11. White Christmas
12. Good King Wencelas
13. Riders In The Sky
14. Rudolph The Red-nosed Reindeer
15. God Rest Ye Merry, Gentleman
16. Christmas Alphabet
17. Joy To The World

Christmas Joy

One of the most special joys of Christmas is the splendid and varied music associated with it. Here, Melachirno, the master exponent of mood music, plays the cream of the Christmas songs and carols, old and new, sacred and secular, from the majestic "Adeste Fideles" to the fun-flecked "Jingle Bells".

Wide in both origin and vintage, this glittering Melachrino concert stretches from "The First Noel", thought to have originated in France about 1500, and "Good King Wenceslas", adapted from a Swedish Lutheran Hymnal (Piae Cantiones) circa 1582, to latter-day Tin Pan Alley exports such as "Rudolph The Red-nosed Reindeer" and Irving Berlin's beloved "White Christmas".

Another classic included here originally served to curb a crisis at a Tiny church in Oberndorf, Bavaria, on Christmas Eve, 1818. The church organ was out of commission and new music was needed for the Christmas services. Overnight, church organist Franz Gruber put music to Joseph Mohr's hastily written words, arranging the collaboration for three voices and guitar accompaniment. On Christmas day, the congregation had its new music. And the world had "Silent Night".

Handsomely arranged in the lush and lovely style which has made Melachrino an international favorite, and set off strikingly in flawless Stereophonic high fidelity, these sixteen Yuletide songs emerge fresher, more enjoyable and, especially, more reflective of the joyous essence of Christmas than ever before.

(Jack Fuller, from the original liner notes)