Christmastime (Swingle Singers album)
Encyclopedia
Christmastime is an album
of Christmas songs released by the Swingle Singers in 1968 on the Philips Records
label. It was reissued with the title Christmas Album (1980). All tracks from this album are also included on the 11 disk Philips boxed set, Swingle Singers
.
Rhythm section:
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
of Christmas songs released by the Swingle Singers in 1968 on the Philips Records
Philips Records
Philips Records is a record label that was founded by Dutch electronics company Philips. It was started by "Philips Phonographische Industrie" in 1950. Recordings were made with popular artists of various nationalities and also with classical artists from Germany, France and Holland. Philips also...
label. It was reissued with the title Christmas Album (1980). All tracks from this album are also included on the 11 disk Philips boxed set, Swingle Singers
Swingle Singers (Philips boxed set)
The 2005 Philips boxed set, Swingle Singers is a compilation of all eleven of the Paris-based Swingle Singers' recordings made for Philips between 1963 and 1972...
.
Track listing
- Medley: "Jingle BellsJingle Bells"Jingle Bells" is one of the best-known and commonly sung winter songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont and published under the title "One Horse Open Sleigh" in the autumn of 1857...
" (PierpontJames Pierpont (musician)James Lord Pierpont was an American songwriter, arranger, organist, and composer, best known for writing and composing Jingle Bells in 1857, originally entitled "The One Horse Open Sleigh". He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and died in Winter Haven, Florida...
) / "Il Est Ne Le Divin Enfant" / "Es Ist Ein Ros' EntsprungenEs ist ein Ros entsprungen"Es ist ein Ros entsprungen" , most commonly translated to English as "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming" or "A Spotless Rose", is a Christmas carol and Marian Hymn of German origin.-History:...
" – 3:47 - Medley: "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" / "The First Nowell" / "Go Tell It On the MountainGo Tell It on the Mountain (song)"Go Tell It on the Mountain" is an African-American spiritual song, compiled by John Wesley Work, Jr., dating back to at least 1865, that has been sung and recorded by many gospel and secular performers...
" – 3:13 - "Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht" ("Silent NightSilent Night"Silent Night" is a popular Christmas carol. The original lyrics of the song "Stille Nacht" were written in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria, by the priest Father Joseph Mohr and the melody was composed by the Austrian headmaster Franz Xaver Gruber...
") (Gruber, Mohr) – 2:35 - Medley: "Deck The Halls With Boughs Of Holly" / "What Child Is This?What Child Is This?"What Child Is This?" is a popular Christmas carol written in 1865. At the age of twenty-nine, English writer William Chatterton Dix was struck with a sudden near-fatal illness and confined to bedrest for several months, during which he went into a deep depression...
" – 3:12 - Medley: "O Jul Med Din Glede" / "Komt, Verwondert U Hier Mensen" / "Away in a MangerAway in a Manger"Away in a Manger" is a Christmas carol first published in 1885 in Philadelphia and used widely throughout the English-speaking world. In Britain it is one of the most popular carols, a 1996 Gallup Poll ranking it joint second.-History of the lyrics:...
" – 3:53 - Medley: "Les Anges dans nos CampagnesAngels We Have Heard on High"Angels We Have Heard on High" is a Christmas carol. The song commemorates the story of the birth of Jesus Christ found in the Gospel of Luke, in which shepherds outside Bethlehem encounter a multitude of angels singing and praising the newborn child....
" / "Oh TannenbaumO Tannenbaum"O Tannenbaum", or, in its English version, "O Christmas Tree", is a Christmas carol of German origin.A Tannenbaum is a fir tree or Christmas tree...
" / "Bel Astre Que J'Adore" – 3:15 - Medley: "El Noi de la Mare" / "Hanej, Nynej, Jezisku" ("Rocking Carol") / "Canzone Dei Zampognari" – 2:46
- Medley: "We Three Kings Of Orient Are" (HopkinsJohn Henry Hopkins, Jr.John Henry Hopkins, Jr. was an American clergyman and hymnist, most famous for composing the song "We Three Kings of Orient Are" in 1857.-Life:...
) / "The Holly And The IvyThe Holly and the Ivy"The Holly and the Ivy" is an English traditional Christmas carol. The carol contains intermingled Christian and Pagan imagery, with holly and ivy representing Pagan fertility symbols. Holly and ivy have been the mainstay of Christmas decoration for church use since at least the fifteenth and...
" – 3:11 - "White ChristmasWhite Christmas (song)"White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the version sung by Bing Crosby is the best-selling single of all time, with estimated sales in excess of 50 million copies worldwide.Accounts vary as...
", (Irving BerlinIrving BerlinIrving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...
) – 2:12 - Medley: "Stchedrivka" ("Carol of the BellsCarol of the Bells"Carol of the Bells" is the common English language title of a Christmas carol of Ukrainian origin, which has in recent years grown in popularity, particularly in English-speaking countries. The work was originally a choral miniature composition by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych based on...
") / "Dag Visen" / "O SanctissimaO SanctissimaO Sanctissima is a Roman Catholic hymn in Latin to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is claimed that the tune of the hymn is Sicilian.The tune is sometimes called Sicilian Mariners Hymn or Mariners Hymn.The words of the first verse of the hymn in Latin are:...
" – 3:09
Personnel
Vocals:- Jeanette Baucomont – soprano
- Christiane LegrandChristiane LegrandChristiane Legrand was a French singer.Legrand was born in Paris, the daughter of film composer Raymond Legrand, who wrote "Irma la Douce."She studied piano and classical music from the time she was four...
– soprano - Hélène Devos – alto
- Claudine Meunier – alto
- Ward SwingleWard SwingleWard Swingle is an American vocalist and jazz musician.Swingle was born in Mobile, Alabama. He studied music, particularly jazz, from a very young age. He was playing in Mobile-area Big Bands before finishing high school. After high school, Swingle graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Cincinnati...
– tenor, arranger - Joseph Noves – tenor
- Jean Cussac – bass
- José Germain – bass
Rhythm section:
- Guy Pedersen – double bassDouble bassThe double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
- Daniel Humair or Bernard Lubat – drums