AMG Review of Voice of Christmas: The Complete Decca Recordings

Cub Koda
All Music Guide

Subtitled The Complete Decca Christmas Songbook, Voice of Christmas features every holiday recording Bing Crosby made for Decca between 1935 and 1956. "White Christmas" is here, of course, in no less than four different versions, including a first-take attempt (with a Crosby fluff at the end) from 1942 that, amazingly, has stayed unreleased until now. All the Christmas tunes from the movies #Holiday Inn and #White Christmas are aboard as well (re-recorded versions with Peggy Lee in place of Rosemary Clooney on the White Christmas numbers), along with all the original tracks from Crosby's Merry Christmas, an album that has stayed in print in one format or another since 1945! Somber takes of "Silent Night" (three of 'em, from three different sessions), "Adeste Fideles" (two versions from different sessions), "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "Ave Maria" sit snugly alongside holiday fluff like "Rudolph, The Red Nosed Reindeer," "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town," "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas," "Here Comes Santa Claus," and seasonal favorites like "Sleigh Ride," "Jingle Bells," "Twelve Days of Christmas" and "The Christmas Song." The perfect Christmas music set, perhaps?