A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector - Various Artists - Hip Christmas Music (www.hipchristmas.com)

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Über-producer Phil Spector never topped his 1963 LP, A Christmas Gift For You - perhaps the grandest achievement in the history of rock 'n' roll Christmas music. Spector made plenty of singles as good or better - songs like the Crystals' "He's A Rebel" (1962), the Ronettes' "Be My Baby" (1963), the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" (1964), and Ike & Tina Turner's "River Deep - Mountain High" (1965) - the building blocks of his famous "Wall Of Sound."

But, Phil Spector never produced a full-length album with the power, majesty, and humor of this widely acknowledged classic. Thrill to the sound of the Ronettes, the Crystals, Darlene Love, and Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans running amok through such Christmas favorites as "Frosty The Snowman" and "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town." Then, witness the crowning achievement, Darlene Love's Spector-penned "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" - gloria in excess!

The only original song on A Christmas Gift For You, "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" was written by Spector with famed Brill Building team Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich. For her part, Darlene Love turns in an amazing performance that actually outstrips Spector's amazing studio craft. "They're singing 'Deck The Halls', but it's not like Christmas at all," she laments during the bridge, saving herself for the searing, explosive crescendo that never fails to raise goose bumps. Very nearly hollering the hormonally-charged lyrics, Love pleads, "Please, please, please! Baby, please come home!" We feel every single ounce of her desire, and it's a riveting, indelible experience.

In total, 12 out of 13 tracks on A Christmas Gift For You are essential listening (see below), and three qualified for my Top 100 Songs. Only Spector's weird message at the end - accompanied by "Silent Night" - fails to impress, and even that must be heard to be believed. But, "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" is a towering achievement that stands above them all - right up there with other Spector masterpieces like the Crystals' "He's A Rebel" or the Ronettes' "Baby, I Love You," or Darlene Love's own "(Today I Met) The Boy I'm Gonna Marry."

Rockers as renowned as Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, and U2 have attempted - and failed - to reproduce the Spectorian "Wall Of Sound" when creating their own Christmas records. Spector would heap dozens of instruments and voices onto his records, then mix them down into mono - perfectly designed to leap out of the transistor radios and car dashboards of the day. "Little symphonies for the kids," he called them. It worked, because A Christmas Gift For You has come to define what a rock 'n' roll Christmas sounds like. All record collectors should be obligated to experience first-hand this album which has influenced so many. Regardless, A Christmas Gift For You is indispensable for aficionados of Christmas rock.

All that said, it's worth noting that neither A Christmas Gift For You nor "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" were terribly well received at the time. Darlene's song was released as a single backed with "Harry And Milt Meet Hal B." - one of Spector's trademark throwaway tracks designed to force deejays to play the a-side. They did not, and the single never charted in the US or UK until the 21st century, when streaming fundamentally changed the rules of the game. A Christmas Gift For You fared a little better, reaching #13 - but only on Billboard's Christmas Albums chart. Suffice to say that critical opinion finally swayed broadcasters and the listening public, and these days the whole album is in heavy rotation every holiday season.

Back To Mono

Properly speaking, Spector's masterpiece was originally issued as A Christmas Gift For You From Philles Records, after the record label he founded with business partner Les Sill. Over the years, A Christmas Gift For You has been reissued numerous times under several different titles with several different covers - most famously in 1972 on the Beatles' Apple label as Phil Spector's Christmas Album featuring a Santa-suited Spector sporting several "Back To Mono" buttons.

That version of the album was reissued in 1974 on the newly-minted (and short-lived) Spector label, distributed by Warner Brothers. However, it was mixed into stereo for the first time ever - and, notably, Spector's "Back To Mono" buttons had been airbrushed off the cover. Before the advent of the compact disc, the stereo mix was reissued a few times over on LP by a variety of labels in several different covers. But, all subsequent reissues in the digital age would be restored to Spector's original mono mix.

The album was first reissued on CD as A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector with slightly amended original cover art - first on the "Phil Spector International" label through Rhino Records in 1987, then by Abkco Records in 1989, then by Sony/Legacy in 2009, and again by Sony in 2012 as a special edition with a bonus disc packed with Spector's early 60's "Wall of Sound" hits. And then, in more recent years, it's been reissued several times on trendy vinyl. Enthusiasts debate the quality of the various remasterings, but it's all the same music. That said, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that the Abkco version is included as the fourth disc in the unspeakably great Phil Spector boxed set, Back To Mono (1991), and the Sony version is part of their 7-CD boxed set, The Philles Album Collection (2009), which is a different sort of animal.

As documented in books like Ronnie Spector's memoir, Be My Baby (1990), Phil Spector was a deeply flawed man capable of great cruelty. His story ended in tragedy and disgrace - and one of the biggest tabloid spectacles of the early 21st century. He spent the last 12 years of his life in prison, dying in 2021. But, if the only thing you know about Phil Spector is that he murdered somebody - which he did - you owe it to yourself to check out this phenomenal record. [top of page]