Christmas music review!!
Cameo Parkway Holiday Hits
Real Gone Music
I am one of the few people that loves Christmas music. Especially good Christmas music. I’ve always put the Time/Life Treasury of Christmas on repeat throughout the holidays because the nostalgic feel of Burl Ives’ “Holly Jolly Christmas” and anything by Nat “King” Cole is addictive. So when I received Cameo Parkway’s Holiday Hits, I was stoked. While it doesn’t live up to the lofty expectations I put on it, this collection is still a solid disc of Christmas magic.
Bobby Rydell and Chubby Checker apparently love Jingle Bells because they open the album with “Jingle Bell Rock” and then try their best to sing like Elvis, Bobby Darin and even The Chipmunks on the bizarre “Jingle Bells Imitations.” The International Pop Orchestra contributes four instrumentals that set the egg nog guzzling mood: “Joy to the World,” “The First Noel,” “Hark! The Hearld Angels Sing” and “Deck the Halls.”
The disc includes some strange and, frankly, awful tracks, however. The Mexicani Marimba Band isn’t bad, but when “The Twelve Days of Christmas” is entirely instrumental and the lead instrument is a xylophone, you know you’re in trouble. There is only so much you can do with that. Bobby the Poet contributes one of the worst Christmas songs I’ve heard in a long time with “White Christmas (3 O’Clock Weather Report).” He seems to intentionally speak/sing/slaughter the song “White Christmas” while a weather report (presumably the one at 3 o’clock) runs in the background. I’m not sure if this was supposed to be funny (and maybe it was back when it first came out in 1967), but it is downright annoying now.
From beginning to end, this is spotty at best. The best thing you could do is take the decent tracks (mostly by the International Pop Orchestra) and intersperse them with your Treasury of Christmas collection.
