The Beach Boys Album: “Ultimate Christmas”

It certainly is "The Ultimate Christmas," as this extended-length CD scrapes together every recording the Beach Boys ever made having anything to do with Christmas, including two old radio spots and an interview with Brian circa 1964.

The bulk of the CD comes from The Beach Boys Christmas Album, which included several Brian-written pop classics ("Little Saint Nick," "The Man With All the Toys") on side one, and lushly arranged traditional Christmas songs ("Blue Christmas," "Santa Claus is Coming to Town") on side two. Think a Hollywood soundtrack or Sinatra album circa 1962 and you've got the idea, although arranger Dick Reynolds isn't quite up to Nelson Riddle's status. Still, it does sound rather nice, and is no worse than other Christmas albums of the era (save Dennis' stumbling voiceover on "Auld Lang Syne"). The CD includes *three* versions of "Little Saint Nick" (the single version and the album version, plus one with a totally different melody swiped from their song "Drive-In").

Unfortunately, the rest of the CD is filled with outtakes from a planned (and, fortunately, not released) second Christmas LP from 1977. Warner Brothers refused to let the Beach Boys' swan song on their label be a quickie Christmas cash-in (so they wound up with the subpar M.I.U Album instead). To save money (or time), however, most of the songs from M.I.U. were reworked versions of the songs from the Christmas album ("Belles of Christmas" = "Belles of Paris"). Brian's participation in these sessions was sporadic, and Dennis' one contribution, "Morning Christmas," is a solo (it's the best song of the bunch, although Alan Jardine's "(I Saw) Santa Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" adds historical value for the assortment of Beach Boys kids on the disk, including Wendy and Carnie Wilson, later of Wilson Phillips).

It's a decent disk on the whole, but be prepared to program your CD player.

The Beach Boys once recorded a song called "You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone." It's fitting, then, that author Brad Elliot, who wrote the group's exhaustive musical reference "Surf's Up," helped compile and write the liner notes for this intriguing, uneven Christmas collection.

Most Beach Boy fans know the first half of the LP; the group's official 1964 Capitol Christmas album (one of four LPs they released that year!) featuring Four Freshmen arranger Dick Reynolds, a 41-piece orchestra, and what the "Rolling Stone Record Guide" once called "some of the most nasal carols ever put on wax."

But many, like "Blue Christmas," "White Christmas," "We Three Kings of Orient Are," and a superb "Auld Lang Syne" (with and without Dennis Wilson's closing narrative) are sung sensitively and arranged with the complexity of the group's pop recordings. This is notably true of "Little Saint Nick," one of rock's best Christmas tracks featured at its best (the 45 single, debuting in stereo on a proper Beach Boys set) in its LP version, and in an odd, unreleased version sung to the melody of their "Drive-In." The set also includes a timid Brian Wilson interviewed by syndicated show host Jack Wagner in 1964.

Then you get the best tracks from a 1977 contractual obligation Christmas album Warner/Reprise rejected for 1978's "M.I.U. Album." Those remembering that flimsy set will find interesting the holiday takes on "Peggy Sue" (here with nonsensical Al Jardine lyrics as "Christmas Time Is Here Again") "Belles of Paris" (done as "Bells of Christmas") and "Kona Coast" (done as "Melekalikimaka."). The latter two sound better as Christmas songs and benefit from Jardine's 1998 remastering. (But nothing would have saved the awkward "(I Saw Santa) Rockin' Round The Christmas Tree." ) Several Christmas charity PSAs are also included.

Longtime Beach Boy fans will find "Ultimate Christmas" reinforces all they know about the group: timeless music matched to tragic history. The 1964 songs reveal Brian's songwriting/arranging influence and vision, while the 1977 tracks show a fractured group dynamic and roots-raw sounds that colored that year's "Beach Boys Love You." It shows a group quivering on the edge of breakup, seeming to forget (in the studio, anyway) the melodic sense that endeared, then frustrated its fans. "Ultimate Christmas," warts and all, is essential for Beach Boy fans and those of Christmas rock and roll generally, a ghost of California Christmas past.

Sorry. Those of you who think this is substandard, something compiled just to get a Christmas album out, take a look at the extra tracks. This is, in essence, two Christmas CDs in one. One we are well familiar with, the other, a pleasant surprise (that is, those who aren't familiar with the bootlegged tracks). One of the most enjoyable Christmas CDs to come along in many years (enough of the Mariah Carey stuff).

The holidays would not be the same for us without this collection. Great liner notes and many Christmas pictures. Beach Boys Christmas tunes ...what more could you want?? Also newly available at Amazon.com, check out The Beach Boys:An American Band on DVD. Great interviews and rare live performances!! Don't miss the great Brian Wilson piano solo on Surf's Up - "I heard the word, won-der-ful thing, a children's song...."

I was raised on the original stereo edition of THE BEACH BOYS' CHRISTMAS ALBUM, and was annoyed at how long Capitol took to bring that mix to CD. Here it ia, along with a handful of outtakes, radio interviews, a couple of scarce singles, and the blk of an aborted Christmas album tbe BBs recorded for Reprise in the mid-70s. For lovers of the California sound and Brian Wilson's production style, this disc is a fully-loaded Santa's sack! Casual Beach Boys listeners will probably give it one complete listening before picking a few favorite tracks. At any rate, Capitol did right by the '64 LP - as a fam, the rest is gravy!