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Music of Christmas - remastered and expanded edition!

Doug Mitchell's picture
Submitted by Doug Mitchell on Fri, 2017-11-03 17:54

In early August, I learned from Bill's site that Music of Christmas was FINALLY being remastered and reissued, thanks to Chip at www.theyulelog.com and the folks at Real Gone Music. Well, Amazon fulfilled it's promise to deliver it on the day of the release and the CD sounds WONDERFUL!

Music of Christmas was a 1959 stereo re-recording of Faith's popular 1954 album by the same name. In the mid-1980s, Columbia made a digital transfer and used portions of it on compilations and finally an intact reissue as part of their "Collector's Choice" offerings in 1987. Based on the catalog number of that reissue, I suspect they used a lower-generation master from their special products label.

While I can forgive the mistakes made in the 1980s, the sad fact is that those sloppy transfers then became the "definitive" reissues for the next 30 years! The album has never gone out of print so why not "fix" the mistakes? From what I've heard, Real Gone did attempt to reissue it about five years ago but Sony denied their request because it was still active in the Columbia/Legacy catalog. That old transfer is what still appears on official Sony YouTube videos and Amazon's digital downloads but let's hope that the bungled CD has finally been forever removed from their catalog.

The extra tracks that were selected are all in stereo (albeit not newly mastered) and fit perfectly as bonus selections: ToylandMarch of the Toys , My Favorite Things, Be A Santa, Brazilian Sleigh Bells, Judy (instrumental version of "Christmas Is") and Soleado ("When A Child Is Born").

Percy Faith - Music of Christmas (remastered)