Our Review
This record has been kicking around for awhile, but I just got my hands on it. Performed in an informal choral style popularized (immortalized, even) by Ray Conniff in the fifties and sixties, this lighthearted, lightly orchestrated recording represents that rarest of rare birds: the family Christmas record. In fact, if you are having trouble recapturing the Christmas spirit of your childhood, and if those old records you listened to way back then are unattainable, then you could do worse than try to quell some of your nostalgia with It's Christmas All Over Town.
That's because the Hearthside Caroleers mostly hold their own with The Conniff. The singing is hearty and professional. The arrangements, even if not groundbreaking, are comfortable like a favorite blanket. Of special interest is the title cut, Walter Peek's It's Christmas All Over Town, a song the Conniff Singers would surely have enjoyed. Offering up a stream of idealized images of the Christmas season, sentimental without taking itself too seriously, well-crafted as well as being an appealing artifact of Americana, this is a record I am proud to have the opportunity to share.
--Richard Banks
(Reviewed in 2002)
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From the liner notes:
The composer, Walter Peek, wrote It's Christmas All Over Town after a trip to New York City at the height of the Christmas season. Inspired by the chruch bells ringing, music in the air, Santas on every corner and especially the friendliness and courtesy that people show each other at this time of year, Walter came home and wrote this delightful song.
As with all of his songs, Walter wrote this one for the enjoyment of his friends and family. However, one of his friends was Jimmy Krondes, a thirty-year music business veteran. Jimmy urged Walter to do something about this song. He hired one of America's best arrangers, George Andrews, to arrange not only It's Christmas All Over Town, but George was given the joyful challenge of creating new interpretations of the world's favorite Christmas carols. George put some of New York's best studio singers together and formed "The Hearthside Caroleers." This CD is the result.
Hearthside Caroleers
It's Christmas All over Town
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Label: Winged Foot Records
Length: 31 minutes
Genre: Choral
Release: 1995
Track List
| Song Title |
|---|
| It's Christmas All Over Town |
| O Little Town of Bethelehem |
| Silent Night |
| It Came Upon A Midnight Clear |
| Hark! The Herald Angels Sing |
| Away In A Manger |
| Jingle Bells |
| Joy To The World |
| Oh Come, All Ye Faithful |
| O Holy Night |
| We Three Kings |
| The First Nöel |
| God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen|Deck the Halls |
| O Christmas Tree |
| Hark! The Herald Angels Sing|Deck The Halls|Jingle Bells |