Ann-Margret's Christmas Carol Collection

Let me go on record and state this: Ann-Margret is the ONLY woman on the planet that I would leave my wife and kids for. She has more sex appeal in one eyelash than any of the current sex symbols in Hollywood, yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

In January 2005, I discovered she released a Christmas album for the 2004 season that I completely missed. Upon learning this, I immediately went into a coma that lasted several weeks.

FINALLY - to spend Christmas with Ann-Margret!

It took a long time to gather my strength back after the initial shock. Actually order the CD was a bit of an ordeal. I would visit Amazon.com and start placing the order until I caught site of the cover you see above. The room would always get blurry, I would sink to my knees like a sugar diabetic that desperately needs a chocolate bar, and eventually pass out.

This went on for several months. I tried to gather my strength; I watched "Viva Las Vegas" and "Kitten With A Whip" almost daily - listened to my copy of "Let Me Entertain You" and the Japanese import copy of the "Tommy" film soundtrack that I've owned since the early 1990s. It took me almost a year after this album was released but I finally was ready.

This album arrived early this week... and I almost spontaeously combusted. I thought the front cover was delicious - the back cover was orgasmic! Three vintage Christmas pictures of Ann! What greets you when you open the CD booklet? FIVE more vintage pictures! I was going to post scans of these pix... however if you want to see them, do yourself a favor and purchase this album yourself.

As for the music... the voice is still fresh, breathy (be still my heart), and delicious as ever. Her arrangements can be a little hokey but Ann rises above it all and delivers. On several tracks, she hooks up with the Jordannaires - the same Jordannaires who backed up a pre-Army Elvis! Their presence is an extra blast of air on an album that is already bursting at the seams.

How good is this album? This good:

Shortly after our wedding in 1997, my wife and I were expecting our first child. We were excited heading into the holidays that year until a fateful night in December. We rushed to the hospital where we lost our first child. That year, I dedicated Martin Denny's version of "What Child Is This?" on my Christmas tape to our child. Since then, I haven't been able to listen to that song without thinking about that horrible experience in my life.

By the time I reached "What Child Is This?" on this album, I didn't mind at all. For the first time in nearly a decade, I listened to that song and smiled. For that and the rest of your album, thank you Ann-Margret.

On to the next new Christmas CD in my collection...


Capt

Comments

James A. Naismith said…
I visit your blog occasionally but never saw this post before. Thanks for your candor and your humor. Sorry for your loss. But keep away from Annie, she's my girl!
1/10/2012 05:27:00 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Christmas Yuleblog Sampler - 2011

Image
Merry Christmas! We've had quite a year here - digitizing all of our Christmas music, a radio show , and remastering yuleblog samplers past.  But I can't complain.   Taking the nine months to get every album and MP3 onto my hard drive (and an external hard drive for backup) was the best decision I may have made in my Christmas life.  To have every song at my fingertips saves me time and led to discoveries of songs I never knew I had.  I thought that what the CD was supposed to do but that only shows you how far in the past I was living. The radio show was very satisfying.  The folks at the radio station were very supportive and thrilled with the end results.  Will it happen again next year?  I'm hopeful but only time will tell.  Lots of things are in store at the station...  Okay... enough about you Capt...  where's the samplers? During a break in digitizing in June, I went back and remastered the Yuleblog Samplers from 2008 and 2009.  Every 45
Read more

2001 Playlist

The 2001 playlist: 1.) 2001 intro My usual intro with the Flat Duo Jets on "Jingle Bells" mixed together with " Also Sprach Zarathustra ". 2.) Monty Python - Christmas In Heaven I waited years to use this one... it fits perfectly leading off the CD. 3.) Wayne Newton - Jingle Bell Hustle At the time, I thought this was the worst Christmas disco song ever (see 2008 below). 4.) Casey Kasem - American Top 40 Christmas bumper (No. 3) Found on Napster (the pre-legal days) from one of Casey's old radio programs. 5.) Dale Monty & The 2x2's - The Lil' Endless Summer Boy Take a surf guitar version of "Little Drummer Boy" and "Wipeout". You get this track. 6.) The Surfaris - A Surfer's Christmas List The same group who originally did "Wipeout"! Great Christmas surf track. 7.) Sleepless in Seattle - Meg Ryan listening to Christmas radio "Coming up, 'Jingle Bells' backwards!"
Read more

Bruce Woodman Presents Christmas Carols With A Latin Lilt

Image
Once again, here is another rescued piece of vinyl from the collection of Ernie (not Bert) . This was part of three albums Ernie shared with a Latin feel (heck, just look at that title above!) and this was downloaded on November 30 th , 2006 at 8:50 AM. To quoteth Ernest: "I guess I should try to squeeze one more Latin-tinged Christmas album here before I move on to something else. This little goody was recorded by a missionary in South America, and he fills it with local songs for the holidays, as well as some familiar Christmas tunes. There is some narration on there as well, my favorite bit being the introduction at the beginning of the LP. That part may make my Christmas CD this year." Beyond that, good people, there's nothing on the Internet about Bruce Woodman. However, the narrator Ernie alluded too has a massive presence online. His name is Luis Palau and has been an evangelist for more than 40 years. The author of nearly 50 books, Palau's radi
Read more