{"id":28856,"date":"2025-02-08T05:30:16","date_gmt":"2025-02-08T10:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=28856"},"modified":"2024-12-23T11:21:15","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T16:21:15","slug":"five-rock-classics-from-the-beach-boys-christmas-album","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/08\/five-rock-classics-from-the-beach-boys-christmas-album\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Rock Classics from &#8216;The Beach Boys\u2019 Christmas Album&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Christmas is less than 11 months away! So&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>In November 1964, the Beach Boys released their seventh studio album. Their status as a recording act was then barely past its two-year mark, but the Hawthorne, California group had already established itself as one of America\u2019s premier groups, offering Americans a home-grown alternative to the then-raging British Invasion.<\/p>\n<p>Album number seven for the group was also a departure: a holiday-themed release. <em>The Beach Boys\u2019 Christmas Album<\/em> was both a critical success and a hit, eventually selling more than 500,000 copies. For the album, visionary musical genius Brian Wilson led the group through seven holiday classics with orchestral backing, but he also composed five original songs for the album\u2019s first side. Most of those tunes were recorded with the group during sessions in Hollywood on June \u201864, but even in the midst of a Southern California summer, the Beach Boys nonetheless managed to conjure the Christmas spirit. (The album received a remix in 1991.)<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cLittle Saint Nick\u201d<\/strong><br \/>\nThe best-known track from the album, \u201cLittle saint Nick\u201d features lead vocals by Mike Love (who sued Brian Wilson three decades after the album\u2019s release to gain co-writing credits) and breezy harmonies from the Wilson brothers (Brian, Carl, Dennis) and Al Jardine. Elements of the arrangement subtly echo earlier Beach boys songs.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AbgxDgVmMF0?si=SNxHZyJLDhC8DsxT\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cThe Man with All the Toys\u201d<\/strong><br \/>\nWith a great a cappella intro, \u201cThe Man With All the Toys\u201d has a chugging melody and a catchy melody. The insistent \u201coh\u201d vocalizations are a bit distracting, but it\u2019s a worthy tune nonetheless. The tune was expertly covered decades later by Husky Team, an inventive studio project headed by Dennis Diken (The Smithereens) and Dave Amels (Reigning Sound); it\u2019s a highlight of their essential holiday album <em>Christmas in Memphis<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2wScUsZkBLA?si=YCRHgm6meQrY29Yp\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cSanta\u2019s Beard\u201d<\/strong><br \/>\nAnother tune that applies the Beach Boys\u2019 trademark sound to Christmas themes, \u201cSanta\u2019s Beard\u201d is a jaunty tune, the tale of a boy who isn\u2019t convinced that the department store he\u2019s encountered is the real deal. The Brian Wilson-penned song shouldn\u2019t be confused by another holiday tune with an identical title by whimsical art rockers They Might Be Giants.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Qhe8F7J1RMA?si=dCehVjODTpOyTM0s\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cMerry Christmas, Baby\u201d<\/strong><br \/>\nAmong the most intricately-arranged of the tracks on Side One of <em>The Beach Boys\u2019 Christmas Album<\/em>, \u201cMerry Christmas Baby\u201d is notable as the only rock track on the LP that breaks the two-minute mark. Like most all early Beach Boys recordings, it features instrumentation by studio players; drummer Jack Sperling\u2019s work on this track is a highlight.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vawjF1_QnV0?si=X3tOMPgq1cXHjhlP\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cChristmas Day\u201d<\/strong><br \/>\nThe sole rock track on the LP to feature a lead vocal not voiced by Mike Love, \u201cChristmas Day\u201d finds Al Jardine in fine form as he sings this lovely tune. A peppy (uncredited) Hammond organ solo brightens the subtle arrangement.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ymwdVPKA04I?si=ADWUzjwHJYBBgizj\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Christmas is less than 11 months away! So&#8230; In November 1964, the Beach Boys released their seventh studio album. Their status as a recording act was then barely past its [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28857,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,37],"tags":[276],"class_list":["post-28856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","category-holiday","tag-beach-boys","cat-27-id","cat-37-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28856"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28858,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28856\/revisions\/28858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}