Nobody swings Christmas like Ella Fitzgerald.

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Los Straitjackets do wonderful rocking Christmas instrumentals but the Ventures were the original masters of the form.  Big fun, which almost got me to go for my third cup of egg nog this evening — but I’m not that far gone . . . not yet.

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. . . for this delightful masterpiece.  Just listening to it for the first time this year compelled me, quite against my better judgement, to break my ironclad rule and have two — two — cups of egg nog in one night.

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Rock albums don’t get much better than Blue by Joni Mitchell — from a time when artists regularly put out LPs on which every track was a classic.  (When did that stop seeming like a good idea?)

The modern pressing I’m listening to now, on 180-gram vinyl from Rhino, is clear and bright but the sound is slightly brittle –without the depth and roundness of the original.  Someday Mobile Fidelity will put out an edition and that will be the one to have (unless you’ve got a nice clean copy of the first pressing.)  Until then, this will do very well.

. . . for the other (and better though shorter) Christmas album by Los Straitjackets.  This one goes especially well with a cup of egg nog.

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This three-LP set gathers together all the Beatles singles that didn’t appear on their British albums.  It’s an astonishing collection of songs and sounds astonishing in mono on vinyl — six sides of exhilarating magic.

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. . . for this merry album of rocking Christmas instrumentals.  Pressed on heavyweight virgin peppermint candy.

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The Beatles, commonly known as “The White Album”.

It was John Lennon’s favorite Beatles album but it’s my least favorite, because it’s so uneven . . . a lot of it feels like filler to me.  George Martin urged the lads to cut it down to a single LP and I think he was right.

Still, plenty of good music and fun, because Beatles.

This is the mono version — I don’t have any strong preferences between it and the stereo release.

. . . for A Charlie Brown Christmas.  Respectable jazz and easy to listen to as well.  Do they make music like this anymore?

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