Gold (2020, Reissue)
Merry, merry for those that celebrate Christmas time. As mentioned Friday, more than anything, I love the music. This Ella Fitzgerald Christmas album is a long time favorite of mine, but it took a while for a vinyl version to be released that had everything on it that I needed. Primarily, one of my absolute favorite Christmas songs, “Christmas Island.” That song isn’t on most versions of this album, at least not on vinyl.
This album originally came out in 1960 and was full of incredible versions of classic Christmas songs like “Jingle Bells,” “Rudolph,” “Sleigh Ride” and the like. But the song “Christmas Island” isn’t on it. I’m not sure where that song originally came from, and you might be surprised to hear I did a bit of research to try to find out. It was hypothesized to be a B side at some point, but I was never able to find a single that had it. It’s possible that it was on some old 60s compilation, but it sure takes a while to dig through those.
It seems like it really came on the radar in the year 2000 when a remastered version of this on CD came out with bonus tracks. From there on out, any CD or digital version of this album had “Christmas Island” as a part of it. But the vinyl reissues tended to replicate the original vinyl track list. After many years or searching, I finally found this version that came out in 2020 in Ireland. It’s got it, so it’s the one I bought. Sure it’s something I’d only ever listen to in December, but as a whole Christmas album to listen to from top to bottom, it’s one of the very best.
Ella Fitzgerald – Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lGhD5Dp_7nBszDSDnmUjiMrcmel3EW3kw
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