CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION - B.B. KING * CHRISTMAS - SMOKEY WILSON * XMAS BABY - RIFF RUFFIN * CHRISTMAS BELLS - BOBBY NUNN * GONNA HAVE A MERRY XMAS - THE NIC NACS with MICKEY CHAMPION * CRAZY SANTA CLAUS - THE DEBONAIRES * MERRY CHRISTMAS BABY - MARI JONES & JOHNNY MOORE ORCH * I WANNA SPEND CHRISTMAS WITH YOU (PT 1) - LOWELL FULSOM * MERRY XMAS - LITTLE WILLIE LITTLEFIELD * WHITE/HOT CHRISTMAS - THE ELVES * SANTA CLAUS BABY - THE VOICES * DIG THAT CRAZY SANTA CLAUS - OSCAR McLOLLIE & THE HONEY JUMPERS * WHITE CHRISTMAS - HADDA BROOKS * I WANT YOU WITH ME CHRISTMAS - JESSE BELVIN 

Having noticed that Christmas tends to be an annual event and that vinyl is suffering a resurgence, we have put the two together and extracted 14 blues, R&B and doo wop sides from our popular “Rhythm & Blues Christmas” CD and turned them into a 12-inch seasonal platter.

While everyone else is stuffing their faces with mince pies, watching Morecambe & Wise re-runs, singing carols and awaiting the ubiquitous, white-bearded, fat bag-man in a red suit to crash their pad, you could be getting down to the zesty seasonal R&B musical selections contained within this appropriately jovial, yet tasteful sleeve. “Rhythm & Blues Christmas” is a lavish aural feast of unfettered jollity, with a side order of indigo melancholy, that just can’t be beat.

 

Opening with the great blues legend B.B. King’s rollicking ‘Christmas Celebration’, Smokey Wilson’s juke-joint rockin’ ‘Christmas’ and hollerin’ Riff Ruffin’s grinding ‘Xmas Baby’, “Rhythm & Blues Christmas” then slows for some weighty Yule despondency courtesy of Bobby Nunn’s ‘Christmas Blues’ and sweet vocal harmony from the Nic Nacs with ‘Gonna Have A Merry Xmas’. The pace gathers sled-like momentum again with the doo wopping Debonaires’ swinging ‘Crazy Santa Claus’, before a sultry rendition of Charles Brown’s ‘Merry Christmas Baby’ by Mari Jones & the Johnny Moore Orchestra closes Side One.

 

Side Two begins in high style with blues guitarist Lowell Fulsom’s stealthy groove ‘I Wanna Spend Christmas With You’. Boogie-woogie pianist Little Willie Littlefield takes it down to a measured tempo with ‘Merry Xmas’ before the doo wop splendour of the Elves’ ‘White/Hot Christmas’, the embryonic rock’n’roll of the Voices’ ‘Santa Claus Baby’ and the real gone Oscar McLollie & the Jumpers leap for joy as they ‘Dig That Crazy Santa Claus’. Hadda “Queen of the Boogie” Brooks delivers an exceptionally poignant rendition of ‘White Christmas’ before Jesse Belvin brings proceedings to a conclusion under the mistletoe with ‘I Want You With Me Christmas’.

 

If you are searching for the perfect Yuletide gift for a loved one who digs prime late 1940s through to 1960s rhythm & blues, then your quest is over. This is certainly one compilation with a Christmas theme that even sounds magnificent during a long summer heatwave – probably down to the fact that all these sides were cut in Los Angeles in the warm California sun. Stir the eggnog and lift the hot toddy, a very Merry Rhythm & Blues Christmas from Ace, everybody!

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