Rating:
Genre: Vocal Music
Release Date: 10/09/2001

Universal Music Group's 20th Century Masters/The Millennium Collection, usually devoted to mid-priced single-disc best-ofs of individual artists, here expands to a three-disc compilation of seasonal music drawn from the label's extensive catalog. Season's Greetings is a sort of rough history of holiday music, starting with Bing Crosby's "White Christmas," the granddaddy of all Christmas songs, and proceeding in more or less chronological order through 36 tracks. (The less than two-hour running time would have fit easily on two discs, but a limited number of tracks is one of the hidden prices of discount releases.) This is not a thorough survey of the best and most popular Christmas recordings available to the compiler; rather, it's a bit idiosyncratic, substituting lesser-known tracks and including the occasional oddity, such as the Marvin Gaye instrumental "Christmas in the City." But it does trace the development of holiday music from a mainstream pop concern in the '40s and '50s to primarily a product of subgenres like country and black pop from the '60s on. (Artists of the rock era just haven't shown as much interest in recording Christmas songs, though there are a couple here.) By the third disc, any pretense at a broad stylistic range has been abandoned; all 12 tracks are by black pop acts. Robyn Flans' poorly written, error-filled liner notes (contrary to what she writes, the film White Christmas was not a remake of the film Holiday Inn, and the Andrews Sisters did not make "Winter Wonderland" popular, they only revived it) don't help an appreciation of the set, but it doesn't bear close scrutiny anyway. Accept the bargain price and use it as a miscellaneous addition to your holiday music collection.

~William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

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Kathy Mattea - Performer
Leroy Anderson - Performer
Burl Ives - Performer
Amy Grant - Performer
Bing Crosby - Performer
Judy Garland - Performer
Eartha Kitt - Performer
Bryan Adams - Performer
Brook Benton - Performer
Chuck Berry - Performer
Boyz II Men - Performer
Marvin Gaye - Performer
The Isley Brothers - Performer
The Jackson 5 - Performer
Gladys Knight - Performer
Stephanie Mills - Performer
Aaron Neville - Performer
New Edition - Performer
The Platters - Performer
The Supremes - Performer
The Temptations - Performer
The Waitresses - Performer
Ella Fitzgerald - Performer
Mel Tormé - Performer
Dinah Washington - Performer
The Pips - Performer
Bobby Helms - Performer
Jimmy Durante - Performer
Brian McKnight - Arranger
Do-Re-Mi Children's Chorus - Performer
Louis Armstrong - Performer
Vince Gill - Performer
Ronald Isley - Performer
Brenda Lee - Performer
Andy McKaie - Producer
Andy McKaie - Compilation
Angela Winbush - Performer
Vartan - Art Direction
John Scott Trotter - ?
Harry Simeone Chorale - Performer
Dru Hill - Performer
Dana Smart - Associate Producer
Gavin Lurssen - Mastering
Jim Hendin - Photography
Jim Hendin - Photo Courtesy
Wilson Design Group - Design
Michael Ochs Archives - Photo Courtesy
Pat Lawrence - Executive Producer
Robyn Flans - Liner Notes
Ken Darby Singers - ?
Robin Schwartz - Licensing

The Ultimate Christmas Album, Vol. 3: KFRC
    Various Artists / CD / 1998
Back to Black: 1900-1999
    Various Artists / CD / 2001

Release Date: 10/09/2001
Genre: vocal