My Favorite Christmas Recordings #10 Ultra-Lounge Christmas Cocktails Part One & Part Two

Bitter, cynical, and borderline misanthropic for most of the year, I reform for the holiday season and from mid-November to the last minute of Epiphany I’m all about the season.  Readers of Old Road Apples will find themselves under a constant barrage of holiday fare this season–from themed essays to book reviews to a countdown of my very favorite Christmas recordings.

Writing this, I’m not sure that I shouldn’t just chuck the list, put these as the the top two, and end this now.  As it stands, these would almost certainly be my “desert island” choices if I could pick just two albums that would have to do it for me for the rest of my days.  All kinds of good stuff is here, jazz and swing, from Dean Martin to Jackie Gleason.  That’s right: Jackie Gleason.  I bought this on a whim, not knowing a lot of the stuff that was on here, and I’m glad that I did–it turns out that there are a lot of songs out there I wanted, but didn’t know that I wanted.  I could write a tremendously long list of all the high points, but the “just the facts, ma’am” on this one is that there are over 40 cuts from big time artists, many of which you’ll never, ever hear on the radio, which makes them worthwhile in and of themselves.