Various Artists – Glad Tidings From Sun Records (ORG Music)

Fresh collection of lost holiday treasures

Part of the bummer of the holidays is getting bombarded by the same Mariah Carey and Wham! songs all season.  ORG Music adds a couple of titles that can help brighten up your mood.

Glad Tidings is an eclectic mix of holiday fare that opens with the excellent “Merry Christmas, Baby” from the Poets – a great lost soul treasure from 1965 complete with great harmonies, horns and sleigh bells.  Things heat up with the Rockin’ Stockin’s “Yuleville, USA,” which is a clever medley of Christmas songs, including “Jingle Bells,” “Rudolph,” “Here Comes Santa Claus,” “Up on the Housetop,” and then finally, back to “Jingle Bells.”  The organ and sax are reminiscent of the instrumentals that Bill Black did after leaving Elvis’s band.  

A couple of songs approach the holidays from the not-so-joyful side: “Holidays” from Patti Page is a real tear-jerker, chronicling a couples’ relationship through the various holidays, only to find herself alone for Christmas.  Carl Mann finds himself in a similar, somber mood for “Christmas Memories,” getting the view from the man’s side this time.

I really dig Billy Jo Styles take on “The Christmas Song” – it borrows the arrangement of the Tymes’ hit “So In Love.”  The Ad Lib’s “Santa’s on His Way” is just a capella, but it’s fantastic.  This was unbelievably, unreleased for many years.  A diverse Christmas album would not be complete without a cute song from a little kid, in this case, Little Joseph, who tells “The Story of Christmas.”  

Larry Shell does a decent take on Van Morrison’s “Glad Tidings,” while Orion sounds a whole lot like the King on “Please Come Home For Christmas.”

The record is pressed on “Rudolph Red Color Vinyl” – so it’s sure to look great spinning on your turntable this Christmas.  —Tony Peters