November 22, 1963: A Christmas Gift for You from Philles Records – better known as The Phil Spector Christmas Album -- is released. "Philles" was writer-producer Spector and executive Lester Sill. Spector handled the music, Sill handled the business side of things.
Like many people who achieved greatly, Spector also did some awful things -- in his case, horrific things, and his great art -- he called it "The Wall of Sound" -- cannot overcome that.
With this album, he had terrible timing: Mere hours after its release, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. As a result, sales of all records went down, so this album did not sell well. It was "rediscovered" in the 1970s.
The Beatles' 2nd album, With the Beatles, was released the same day. It did well in Britain, but then, the Kennedy assassination affected Britain considerably less. The album was repackaged in the U.S. as their 1st album here, titled Meet the Beatles.
The album begins with Darlene Love singing Irving Berlin's "White Christmas," contrasting the dream of the narrator with the reality of the weather in Los Angeles, Love's hometown and Spector's adopted hometown. (He was from The Bronx.)
Love had been the lead singer of The Blossoms, who, on at least 2 hit singles, stood in for another "girl group" that Spector produced, The Crystals. She had a few hits under her own name, but this album is considered her greatest performance. In the 1980s, David Letterman began inviting her onto his late-night talk show to sing songs from it.
Next up: "Frosty the Snowman," by The Ronettes: Veronica Bennett, her sister Estelle Bennett, and their cousin Nedra Talley. Veronica, or "Ronnie," was then Spector's girlfriend; later his wife, known as Ronnie Spector; and later still his ex-wife, and the story of how she left him, and recovered from his abuse, is every bit as compelling as the story of Ike and Tina Turner.
Next: "The Bells of St. Mary's," by Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans. Bob B. Soxx was Bobby Sheen, and The Blue Jeans were Fanita James and Jean King -- meaning that The Blue Jeans were The Blossoms without Darlene Love.
"The Bells of St. Mary's" was written in 1917 by A. Emmett Adams and Douglas Furber, following Furber's visit to St. Mary's Church in Southampton, England. This song is also not about Christmas: The lyrics mention "red leaves," suggesting that it takes place in Autumn).
The song says the bells, "they are calling the young loves, the true loves who come from the sea." This makes no sense if you only know the song from the Spector album. But knowing it was written in Southampton, Britain's biggest seaport, during World War I, provides the explanation: The bells are welcoming sailors coming home.
It was linked to Christmas by being selected as the title song from a 1945 Christmas-themed movie starring Bing Crosby as Father Chuck O’Malley (he'd won an Oscar in the role in the previous year's Going My Way), and Ingrid Bergman as Sister Mary Benedict, the most beautiful nun you'll ever see. (Eat your heart out, Julie Andrews. And the real Maria von Trapp was no looker.)
Next: "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," by The Crystals. The actual Crystals: Lead singer Dolores "Dee Dee" Kenniebrew, Dolores "La La" Brooks, Patricia Wright and Barbara Alston. Next: "Sleigh Ride," by The Ronettes. Next: "Marshmallow World," by Love.
Side Two begins with The Ronettes singing "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus." Then, The Crystals singing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." Then, Love singing "Winter Wonderland." Then, The Crystals singing "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers," written by German composer Leon Jessel in 1897, not intended as a Christmas song, but connected with the holiday by its use in the "Christmas Spectacular" show at Radio City Music Hall.
In addition, "Winter Wonderland," "Marshmallow World," "Sleigh Ride" and "Frosty the Snowman" are among the songs that get associated with Christmas that don't even mention Christmas in the lyrics. They're Winter songs, but not specifically Christmas songs.
Spector demanded an original song for the album, and Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich wrote it, as they wrote (and would continue to write) so many songs he produced. Sonny Bono played percussion on the album, and if you listen closely, you can hear his eventual wife (and eventual ex-wife), Cher, singing backup on Love's magnum opus, "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)."
This is followed by Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans singing Gene Autry's "Here Comes Santa Claus." The album closes with Spector himself thanking everyone for helping him put the album together, and saying what Christmas means to him (even though he was Jewish), while, in the background, "Silent Night" is sung.
All told, it's 34 minutes and 12 seconds of the greatest Christmas album ever recorded. Sorry, Bing, Nat, Frank, Dino, et al., all the way up to Mariah: This is the one.
Jean King of The Blossoms and The Blue Jeans died in 1983. Bobby "Bob B. Soxx" Sheen died in 2000. Estelle Bennett of The Ronettes died in 2009. Barbara Alston of The Crystals died in 2018. Phil Spector died in 2021, in prison for murder, finally having fully paid for his many sins. Ronnie Spector died on January 12, 2022.
As of November 22, 2022, the following are still alive: Darlene Love, Fanita James of The Blossoms and The Blue Jeans, Nedra Talley of The Ronettes; and Crystals Dee Dee Kenniebrew, La La Brooks and Patsy Wright. (UPDATE: Fanita James died in 2023.)
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November 22, 1963 was a Friday. All games scheduled for that night were postpone, so there were no scores on this historic day.
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