The Christmas Album | 
 enlarge | Artist: The Manhattan Transfer
Label: Sony
Category: Music
List Price: $9.98
Buy Used: $0.37
You Save: $9.61 (96%)
New (7) Used (44) Collectible (1) from $0.37
Rating:  43 reviews
Sales Rank: 116227
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
UPC: 074645296821
EAN: 0074645296821
ASIN: B0000028RY
Release Date: November 17, 1992
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Complete and in good condition. Disc marks don't affect play. From my personal collection.
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| Tracks:
| • | Snowfall - The Manhattan Transfer, Thornhill, Ruth | | • | Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! - The Manhattan Transfer, Cahn, Sammy | | • | Santa Clause Is Coming to Town/Santa Man (Medley) - The Manhattan Transfer, Gillespie, Haven | | • | The Christmas Song - The Manhattan Transfer, Torme, Mel | | • | Silent Night, Holy Night - The Manhattan Transfer, Gruber, Franz | | • | Caroling, Caroling - The Manhattan Transfer, Hutson, Wihla | | • | Happy Holiday/The Holiday Season (Medley) - The Manhattan Transfer, Berlin, Irving | | • | A Christmas Love Song - The Manhattan Transfer, Bergman, Alan | | • | It Came Upon a Midnight Clear - The Manhattan Transfer, Sears, Edmund Hamil | | • | Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - The Manhattan Transfer, Martin, Hugh | | • | Good Night - The Manhattan Transfer, Lennon, John |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
With pleasing vocal holiday trimmings from the popular singing quartet, Manhattan Transfer's The Christmas Album seems designed for fans only. Its decidedly safe arrangements and harmony singing yield few surprises, only "Snowfall," the record's first track, and, oddly enough, John Lennon and Paul McCartney's "Goodnight," the album closer (and the very song that finished the Beatles' "White Album"). "Snowfall" acts as a romantic table setter for the cuddly fare that follows across The Christmas Album. "Goodbye," which always threatened to fall apart under the weight of its own brand of lovable Beatles schmaltziness, adds a bit more Christmas color to the instrumentation while letting the vocals lull and caress until a cute kid explains why they should go to sleep and wake up to get presents. Lovable schmaltz alert. --Martin Keller
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Lush and Lovely Christmas Album August 4, 2008
Bobby Underwood (Bakersfield, California United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It always surprises me that this very special Christmas album from The Manhattan Transfer doesn't show up on everyone's list of must have holiday music. Like snowflakes drifting by a frosty windowpane, there is something very wistful and melancholy about this labor of love from Alan Paul, Janis Siegal, Tim Hauser, and Cheryl Bentyne. And there is some fun mixed in as well, the trademark 1930's and 1940's elegance of this fabulous group on glorious display.
Tony Bennett joins the group on probably the most heralded track from this project, The Christmas Song. As covers go, it rivals Gloria Estefan's stunningly classy take on this Christmas chestnut. The opening song, Snowfall, is just as good, however, and deserves to kick off this marvelous collection of Christmas favorites. The Manhattan Transfer always manage a surprise or two on every album, and this is no exception.
A Christmas Love Song is one of the prettiest and certainly one of the most romantic of Christmas love songs in the vocal genius of these four talents. Johnny Mandel handled the vocal arrangements and put music to Alan and Marilyn Bergman's beautiful lyrics, placing it right up there with The Carpenters' Merry Christmas, Darling. And the fun medley, Happy Holiday/The Holiday Season, adds a smile to the melancholy.
By the time the Transfer sing Judy Garland's version of Have Yourself a Merry Little Chrismas, then close with Goodnight, you'll be a fan of both this wonderful group and this Christmas album. Having been a fan of The Manhattan Transfer since they began, Mystery being one of my favorite songs ever recorded, I don't know how any Christmas collection could be complete without this one.
 Slooow January 20, 2008
R. Gab (USA)
It's all right. The songs are all very slow. Even otherwise upbeat, carols like "Let It Snow!" have been taken at a much slower pace. Not my favorite, but others may like it.
Transfer's Second Best Christmas CD October 28, 2007
Van Hamlin (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Don't take the title as a slam. This is a great CD! It has Tony Bennett crooning "Snow" in front of the Transfer! I took this CD and combined it with Christmas Acapella (their best X-mas CD) and made myself a great Christmas mix.
A great Xmas album by the dearest Manhattan Transfer March 19, 2006
Carlos from Rio (Rio de Janeiro, RJ Brazil)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Christmas Music is part of the American Way of Life. Year after year, American people get full of joy and the pleasure of listening to Christmas Music becomes a must.Also artists from many different styles and their labels are very conscious about it. It is rare to find an artist from the traditional pop scene who has not recorded at least one Christmas Album.
Unfortunately, this Christmas tradition in American music scene is fading away among young artists though sales keep hot in the season. This proves traditional pop artists have got a market niche which maintains year after year even selling the very same album that has been recorded many decades ago.
Repertoire is basically the same and this is another peculiar facet of Christmas Music. This is an indicator of the traditional `American way of buying music'.
It is commonplace in the USA that many different traditional pop artists record the same hit song in a season. I remember one well-known song that has been recorded by Tony Bennett, Johnny Mathis, Andy Williams, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Peggy Lee, and even Astrud Gilberto, besides its sensational original take. This shows Americans like to listen to that same song or repertoire as recorded specifically by their favorite artists.
It is different than the music industry and customers in Brazil, for instance. If an artist records the same songs as other one does, he is minorly categorized as a `cover artist'. This is a bad category which labels the artist a minor artist, lacking creativeness as for Brazilian market parameters.
It is very interesting, anyway, to listen to the same repertoire as recorded by so many different artists from so many different times under so many different arrangement concepts. Comparison arises inevitably. Somehow, a delicious comparison. What's the best `Jingle Bells' from Johnny Mathis to Diana Krall? Who's recorded the most creative `Silent Night' - Wynton Marsalis or Nat King Cole? There is a killer `Jingle Bells' recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra under arrangement by Michel Legrand and with Jean Pierre Rampal on flute. Ooooh God!
Year after year, those albums are made available by continuous reissuing or not. Some even keep in the label's catalog on and on even out the Christmas season.
This is the case for this `The Christmas Album' recorded by one of the dearest Jazz vocal ensembles in the place and arranged by the master Johnny Mandel.
Some uncommon and some very common songs make up the program. Here what matters is the 'Manhattan style', like it or not. I like it. I like their sometimes pop, sometimes jazzy approach.
Common Christmas songs here include `Let It Snow', `Silent Night', 'Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas', and `It Came Upon the Midnight Clear'.
The idea to include unconventional the Beatles' `Goodnight' worked very well and it's a differentiation point. The world Christmas anthem by Mel Torme `The Christmas Song' is great too though one may say it is preferably to be listened to in its original take as sung by Nat King Cole!
Also program opens with a beautiful rendition of 'Snowfall'.
This is a great Christmas album. The Manhattan Transfer imparts a different view to the Chritsmas repertoire.
Manhattan Transfer... January 7, 2006
D. S. HARDEN (L.A.,CA USA)
I agree with the majority of the comments made about this album. But, I 'accidently' caught "Snowfall" on AM radio on the way to work the week before Christmas 2005 and was blown away by the harmony, the melody and even, yes, the lyrics. The song makes me shiver. Needless to say, when I verified that it was the Manhattan Transfer, I snapped up a copy. Christmas is over, but when everybody has left my work area - I just put in the CD and let "Snowfall" play - over and over and over again - It really is a great mellowing agent.
If you suffer from insomnia - play "Snowfall." It's better than any drug on the market! I'm not saying that the song is "dull," but it WILL mellow you out!! Four stars!!
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