General Article name: Boogie Woogie Christmas
Genre: Weihnachtsprodukte Product type: LP (Vinyl) Label: Rykodisc Number of tracks: 14 Tracklist LP - 1 1. The Brian Setzer Orchestra - Jingle Bells 2. The Brian Setzer Orchestra - Boogie Woogie Santa Claus 3. The Brian Setzer Orchestra - Winter Wonderland 4. The Brian Setzer Orchestra - Blue Christmas 5. The Brian Setzer Orchestra - Santa Claus Is Back In Town 6. The Brian Setzer Orchestra - Baby It's Cold Outside (Duet With Ann-Margaret) 7. The Brian Setzer Orchestra - Nutcracker Suite 8. The Brian Setzer Orchestra - (Everybody's Waitin' For) The Man With the Bag 9. The Brian Setzer Orchestra - Sleigh Ride 10. The Brian Setzer Orchestra - Run Rudolph Run 11. The Brian Setzer Orchestra - Cactus Christmas 12. The Brian Setzer Orchestra - So They Say It's Christmas 13. The Brian Setzer Orchestra - O Holy Night 14. The Brian Setzer Orchestra - Amens   Description Description

Brian Setzer takes his horn-fueled big band on a sleigh ride into Christmas/holiday music with generally impressive results. Meshing his rockabilly guitar solos with brassy charts and a lounge/Vegas sensibility that is part tribute and part retro characterization, Setzer dusts off and polishes up obscure nuggets like Kay Starr's "(Everybody's Waitin' For) The Man With the Bag" and Lionel Hampton's swinging "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus." He rocks up played-out chestnuts "Winter Wonderland" and "Jingle Bells," slightly altering the latter's lyrics to, "Oh what fun it is to ride in a '57 Chevrolet." Elvis' "Blue Christmas" succeeds despite, or maybe because of, its obvious inclusion, narrowly missing a parody of the original due to Setzer's reverb-heavy guitar solo. A rough, blues-heavy "Santa Claus Is Back in Town" successfully kicks the tune into classic urban R&B territory, with the bandleader's guitar getting down and dirty and the horns blasting away like Doc Severinsen's orchestra. Ann Margaret sounds a little tentative playing the sultry sex kitten next to Setzer's slick Bobby Darin on a nevertheless frisky duet romp through "Baby It's Cold Outside." But the album's obvious highlight is an intricately rearranged, instrumental big band blowout of "The Nutcracker Suite," originally written for Les Brown's orchestra in the '50s. It displays the group's stop-on-a-dime chops and swings like mad. A 30-piece choir backs Setzer doing his best Presley mannerisms on a smarmy "O Holy Night" and closes the album on a serious note with a prayerful "The Amens." [A Boogie Woogie Christmas was released on LP in 2015, adding two bonus tracks.] ~ Hal Horowitz

Hal Horowitz

Contributors Artist: Brian Orchestra Setzer Artist: BRIAN ORCHESTA SETZER Artist: The Brian Setzer Orchestra Record Label: Surfdog Records Record Label: ADA Guest Artist: Ann-Margret