— Tim De Lisle
I have long maintained that Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas is superior to A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector. Honestly, it's not particularly close. While Ella Fitzgerald handled fun festive favourites and po-faced works of faith equally well, just over half-an-hour of the Wall of Sound is about twenty minutes too long for my tastes. The material is not dissimilar — the two albums have six Yuletide hits in common — the running times are near-identical and Spector charges The Ronettes and The Crystals are almost as good at bringing childish joy to a vocal as Ella Fitzgerald herself. But she was a pro like very few others of any generation so it's no knock on Ronnie Spector that she can't quite measure up. Yet, there's no question of its importance and it certainly has its moments.
There aren't many other Christmas albums that are as critically acclaimed as either Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas or A Christmas Gift for You. Indie fans are fond of Low's Christmas which opens with the wonderful Spector-ish "Just Like Christmas" and is followed by the moving "Long Way Around the Sea" and a distortion-filled version of "Little Drummer Boy". Unfortunately, the remaining five tracks don't really do much. I seldom bother playing the whole thing. For lovers of too-cool-for-school indie, they'd do better seeking out the 1981 collection A Christmas Record.
It is not a single-artist release nor the work of a psychopath producer and all those poor souls who worked for him but it is much more than your typical seasonal compilation. The mandate from the deeply hip label ZE was for everyone to compose their own Christmas song and then have them bundled together. By far the best known track on it is "Christmas Wrapping" by The Waitresses. Though nearly a hit at the time in Britain, it has since become much-loved by a wider spectrum of the public. Those chiming, chunky guitars and a catchy indie rock beat make it hard to dislike and that's before you even get to the unique tale being told in the lyrics. "Christmas Wrapping" mixes the American love for fantasy with the dry British practice of introducing a touch of reality to their Christmas songs. No one has ever been able to pull off a decent cover but who needs a facsimile when you've got the glorious real thing?
"Christmas Wrapping" is probably my favourite Christmas song of all time but there's another selection on A Christmas Record that is nearly as good. "Christmas on Riverside Drive" was initially credited to August Darnell the leader of Kid Creole & The Coconuts who was looking to get on with a solo career. He was also currently busy getting his album Wise Guy ready for release and this was the first sign that he could be on his own from this point forward.
Then, ZE began to fret over their bottom line. Darnell was just about the only artist they had signed with much commercial potential (Was (Not Was) would've also had potential but they were still five years away from having hits) so they got on him about altering his latest recordings to spark sales and even bringing back the Kid Creole & The Coconuts name. This all could have and should have blown up in their faces but then the re-titled Tropical Gangsters became a massive hit in Europe. Singles "I'm a Wonderful Thing, Baby", "Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy" and "Stool Pigeon" all made the UK Top 10.
A fourth single from Tropical Gangsters wouldn't have been out of the question but the end of 1982 presented the group and their record label with the opportunity to kill three birds with one stone. First, they could milk the success they'd built up that year. Second, they could pique the interest of their suddenly large fanbase by recycling a deep cut from previous album Fresh Fruit in Foreign Places. Third, further recycling could be done by giving single release Darnell's magnificent contribution to A Christmas Record. Thus, "No Fish Today", "Dear Addy" and "Christmas on Riverside Drive" ended up bundled together as the E.P. Christmas in B'Dilly Bay.
As I have already said, the concept — hey, if there can be concept albums then surely concept E.P.'s can't be out of the question — doesn't really work. "Dear Addy" and "No Fish Today" both have island rhythms guiding them but I fail to see the connection to Christmas; "Riverside Drive" obviously fits the holiday but Manhattan sophistication is quite a leap from wherever B'Dilly Bay is meant to be. I guess that's what happens when three songs are randomly shoved together much to the disinterest of the public. (Getting into the Top 30 would have been quite the feat for the Coconuts just a year earlier but now it must have seemed like a flop)
But let's not quibble since all three tracks are outstanding, just like everything Darnell did at around this time. In a way, not really fitting together kind of works to its advantage since they show just what an effortlessly brilliant talent he was whether he was playing around with reggae and Asian melodies or if he was the next Cab Calloway. The record itself may be all over the place but, Jesus, isn't that Kid Creole guy just the greatest?
"Christmas on Riverside Drive" really ought to be as beloved a NYC holiday classic as The Pogues' "Fairytale of New York" but there isn't really the interest in wealthy couples having a night out, drinking cocktails at a swanky hotel bar and then dining at that wood-paneled steakhouse that Johnny Weissmuller used to frequent. I've never been to New York so I can only go by the music I've listened to, Seinfeld and the three Woody Allen movies I've seen (three's enough, right?). I'm sure much of it isn't magical just as there's probably a lot of the city that isn't even all that great. It probably isn't even all that dangerous. All I know is that when I finally do go there, I'll be singing this damn song to myself (and, possibly, out loud) even if I happen to be there in the middle of the summer. Especially in summer.
~~~~~
Also Reviewed This Fortnight
Yoko Ono: "My Man"
She used to wear black. Then, she wore nothing with that chap who allegedly was responsible for her breakup with the Fluxus movement. In the early seventies she began favouring berets and hot pants; by the time she reached her seventies, she finally began embracing chic fashions that surprisingly suited her. But for my money the Yoko Ono look that I'll always remember her for is her mullet in a ponytail with those iconic wraparound shades. While her Man often thrived in the avant-garde terrain that he didn't always feel comfortable in, his Woman generally recorded stronger material the closer she inched herself towards the mainstream. They aren't all that similar but "My Man" reminds me a little of "Sisters, O Sisters" form the slightly underrated Some Time in New York City; perhaps it's because they're both funnier and more playful than most would credit Ono with. Her widowhood was still fresh so people may have expected something of a tearjerker but there's plenty of knowing absurdity which implies that the influence may have been much more of a two way street than what we've been led to believe.
Also Reviewed This Fortnight
Yoko Ono: "My Man"
She used to wear black. Then, she wore nothing with that chap who allegedly was responsible for her breakup with the Fluxus movement. In the early seventies she began favouring berets and hot pants; by the time she reached her seventies, she finally began embracing chic fashions that surprisingly suited her. But for my money the Yoko Ono look that I'll always remember her for is her mullet in a ponytail with those iconic wraparound shades. While her Man often thrived in the avant-garde terrain that he didn't always feel comfortable in, his Woman generally recorded stronger material the closer she inched herself towards the mainstream. They aren't all that similar but "My Man" reminds me a little of "Sisters, O Sisters" form the slightly underrated Some Time in New York City; perhaps it's because they're both funnier and more playful than most would credit Ono with. Her widowhood was still fresh so people may have expected something of a tearjerker but there's plenty of knowing absurdity which implies that the influence may have been much more of a two way street than what we've been led to believe.
(Click here to see my original review)
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