Christmas Present (album)
Encyclopedia
Christmas Present is a Christmas
album
by American pop singer Andy Williams
that was released in late 1974 by Columbia Records
. A brief blurb in Billboard
magazine's Inside Track column in that year's November 23 issue revealed the album's television tie-in
: "'Christmas Present' is title [sic] of Andy Williams' 11th Yule show, airing on NBC
-TV Dec. 11". An article entitled "MOR Artists Are Ailing" in that same issue describes the hopes that the record company had for the album: "Columbia
is releasing Andy Williams' newest LP, 'Christmas Present,' with considerable advance orders and expects it to become a holiday classic to continue the string of album winners for the artist."
Williams's two previous solo Christmas LPs (The Andy Williams Christmas Album
and Merry Christmas) reached number one on Billboard
magazine's Christmas Albums chart, but in 1974 the magazine reverted to incorporating holiday releases into its Top LP's & Tapes
rankings as well as its Bubbling Under the Top LP's chart, which, according to Joel Whitburn, "listed albums that were on the rise in sales that did not quite achieve the sales necessary to make Billboards main 200-position pop albums chart." Christmas Present "bubbled under" the Top LP's & Tapes chart for two weeks that began in the issue dated December 21, 1974, and took the album to a peak position at number 203. It was released on CD in 1990.
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
by American pop singer Andy Williams
Andy Williams
Howard Andrew "Andy" Williams is an American singer who has recorded 18 Gold- and three Platinum-certified albums. He hosted The Andy Williams Show, a TV variety show, from 1962 to 1971, as well as numerous television specials, and owns his own theater, the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri,...
that was released in late 1974 by Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
. A brief blurb in Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
magazine's Inside Track column in that year's November 23 issue revealed the album's television tie-in
Tie-in
A tie-in is an authorized product based on a media property a company is releasing, such as a movie or video/DVD, computer game, video game, television program/television series, board game, web site, role-playing game or literary property...
: "'Christmas Present' is title [sic] of Andy Williams' 11th Yule show, airing on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
-TV Dec. 11". An article entitled "MOR Artists Are Ailing" in that same issue describes the hopes that the record company had for the album: "Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
is releasing Andy Williams' newest LP, 'Christmas Present,' with considerable advance orders and expects it to become a holiday classic to continue the string of album winners for the artist."
Williams's two previous solo Christmas LPs (The Andy Williams Christmas Album
The Andy Williams Christmas Album
The Andy Williams Christmas Album is the first Christmas holiday album released by singer Andy Williams. It was issued by Columbia Records in 1963, and it would prove to be the first of eight Christmas albums released by Williams...
and Merry Christmas) reached number one on Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
magazine's Christmas Albums chart, but in 1974 the magazine reverted to incorporating holiday releases into its Top LP's & Tapes
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
rankings as well as its Bubbling Under the Top LP's chart, which, according to Joel Whitburn, "listed albums that were on the rise in sales that did not quite achieve the sales necessary to make Billboards main 200-position pop albums chart." Christmas Present "bubbled under" the Top LP's & Tapes chart for two weeks that began in the issue dated December 21, 1974, and took the album to a peak position at number 203. It was released on CD in 1990.
Track listing
- "Christmas Present" (Larry H. Brown, Keats Tyler) – 2:30
- "Joy To The WorldJoy to the World"Joy to the World" is a Christian Christmas carol.The words are by English hymn writer Isaac Watts, based on Psalm 98 in the Bible. The song was first published in 1719 in Watts' collection; The Psalms of David: Imitated in the language of the New Testament, and applied to the Christian state and...
" (Lowell MasonLowell MasonLowell Mason was a leading figure in American church music, the composer of over 1600 hymn tunes, many of which are often sung today. His most well-known tunes include Mary Had A Little Lamb and the arrangement of Joy to the World...
, Isaac WattsIsaac WattsIsaac Watts was an English hymnwriter, theologian and logician. A prolific and popular hymnwriter, he was recognised as the "Father of English Hymnody", credited with some 750 hymns...
) – 2:52 - "O Little Town of BethlehemO Little Town of Bethlehem"O Little Town of Bethlehem" is a popular Christmas carol. The text was written by Phillips Brooks , an Episcopal priest, Rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia. He was inspired by visiting the Palestinian city of Bethlehem in 1865. Three years later, he wrote the poem for his...
" (Phillip Brooks, Lewis H. Redner) – 2:32 - "Christmas BellsCarol of the Bells"Carol of the Bells" is the common English language title of a Christmas carol of Ukrainian origin, which has in recent years grown in popularity, particularly in English-speaking countries. The work was originally a choral miniature composition by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych based on...
" (Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych, Peter Wilhousky) – 1:52 - "It Came Upon A Midnight ClearIt Came upon a Midnight Clear"It Came Upon the Midnight Clear" is a poem and Christmas carol written by Edmund Sears, pastor of the Unitarian Church in Lancaster, Massachusetts...
" (Edmund Hamilton Sears, Richard Storrs Willis) – 3:12 - "Ave MariaEllens dritter GesangEllens dritter Gesang , in English: "Ellen's Third Song", was composed by Franz Schubert in 1825 as part of his Opus 52, a setting of seven songs from Walter Scott's popular epic poem The Lady of the Lake, loosely translated into German.It has become one of Schubert's most popular works under the...
" (Franz SchubertFranz SchubertFranz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
) – 4:34 - "O Come All Ye Faithful" (Frederick OakeleyFrederick OakeleyFrederick Oakeley was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England the sixth son of Sir Charles Oakeley, second baronet, and educated at Christ Church, Oxford. He was ordained in 1828 and in 1845 converted from Church of England to Catholicism, whereupon he became Canon of Westminster in 1852....
, John Francis WadeJohn Francis WadeJohn Francis Wade was an English hymnist who is credited with writing and composing the hymn "Adeste Fideles" ....
) – 2:35 - "Angels We Have Heard On HighAngels We Have Heard on High"Angels We Have Heard on High" is a Christmas carol. The song commemorates the story of the birth of Jesus Christ found in the Gospel of Luke, in which shepherds outside Bethlehem encounter a multitude of angels singing and praising the newborn child....
" (traditional) – 2:32 - "Hark! The Herald Angels SingHark! The Herald Angels Sing“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” is a Christmas carol that first appeared in 1739 in the collection Hymns and Sacred Poems, having been written by Charles Wesley. This is not the version widely known today. A sombre man, Wesley had requested and received slow and solemn music for his lyrics, not the...
" (Felix MendelssohnFelix MendelssohnJakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
, Charles WesleyCharles WesleyCharles Wesley was an English leader of the Methodist movement, son of Anglican clergyman and poet Samuel Wesley, the younger brother of Anglican clergyman John Wesley and Anglican clergyman Samuel Wesley , and father of musician Samuel Wesley, and grandfather of musician Samuel Sebastian Wesley...
) – 2:39 - "Ave MariaAve Maria (Bach/Gounod)The Bach/Gounod Ave Maria is a popular and much-recorded setting of the Latin text Ave Maria.Written by French Romantic composer Charles Gounod in 1859, his Ave Maria consists of a melody superimposed over the Prelude No. 1 in C major, BWV 846, from Book I of The Well-Tempered Clavier, written by...
" (Johann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
, Charles GounodCharles GounodCharles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
) – 3:05 - "What Child Is This" (William Chatterton Dix) – 2:31
- "I Heard the Bells on Christmas DayI Heard the Bells on Christmas Day"I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" is a Christmas carol based on the 1864 poem "Christmas Bells" by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.- Origin :...
" (John Baptiste CalkinJohn Baptiste CalkinJohn Baptiste Calkin was an English composer, organist and music teacher.Calkin got his musical education from his father James Calkin , a pianist, cellist and composer. From 1846 to 1853, he worked as an organist, preceptor and choirmaster at the St. Columba's College in Dublin...
, Henry Wadsworth LongfellowHenry Wadsworth LongfellowHenry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline...
) – 2:47 - "The Lord's Prayer" (Albert Hay MalotteAlbert Hay MalotteAlbert Hay Malotte was an American pianist, organist, composer and educator.-Biography and career:...
) – 2:40
Personnel
- Andy WilliamsAndy WilliamsHoward Andrew "Andy" Williams is an American singer who has recorded 18 Gold- and three Platinum-certified albums. He hosted The Andy Williams Show, a TV variety show, from 1962 to 1971, as well as numerous television specials, and owns his own theater, the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri,...
- vocalist - Keats Tyler - front cover photo
- Sandy Speiser - front cover photo
- Don Eddy, FPG - back cover photo
Title track
Recorded at Columbia Records Studios, New York.- Larry Brown - producer
- Jack Feierman - conductor
- Frank Laice - engineer
All other tracks
Recorded at The Music Centre, London, England.- Dick GlasserDick GlasserRichard Eugene "Dick" Glasser was a singer, songwriter, and record producer....
- producer - Ernie FreemanErnie FreemanErnie Freeman was an American pianist, organist and arranger.In 1935 he began playing in local Cleveland area nightclubs, and also formed a classical music trio for local social functions with his father and his sister Evelyn...
- arranger - Ken ThorneKen ThorneKenneth Thorne is a British-American television and film score composer.- Early life :Thorne was born in East Dereham, a town in the English county of Norfolk. Thorne began his musical career as a pianist with the big bands of England during the 1940s, playing at night clubs and the dance halls...
- conductor - The Mike Sammes Singers - background vocals