Frank Sinatra’s greatest Christmas songs are set to be collected on one 2LP vinyl collection, entitled Ultimate Christmas.
Order Frank Sinatra’s Ultimate Christmas.
The collection, set to bring the holiday season early this year, will be released on August 20 and features hits like “White Christmas,” “Jingle Bells,” and more.
Christmas simply wouldn’t be Christmas without Frank Sinatra. The words “Sinatra” and “Christmas” are inextricably intertwined in western culture. In fact, Christmas doesn’t really seem like Christmas until you’ve heard Sinatra’s warm baritone singing “Silent Night” or “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” either on the radio, in a restaurant, a shopping mall, or at home on the stereo. Both of those songs, by the way, will be featured on Ultimate Christmas.
There are plenty of Frank Sinatra Christmas recordings, and hearing his voice helps to conjure the spirit of the approaching holiday season. When you hear Ol’ Blue Eyes wrap his voice around “The First Noel” you know that the holidays are well and truly on their way.
So where does Sinatra’s association with Christmas come from? Well, it goes right back to 1948, the year the LP format was introduced by Sinatra’s then record label, Columbia. That was when the 32-year-old man who would come to be known as The Chairman Of The Board released Christmas Songs By Sinatra, the first Frank Sinatra Christmas album, arranged by the redoubtable Axel Stordahl.
It contained eight traditional holiday songs, beginning with “White Christmas” (a song he first recorded in 1944 as a single), alongside carols such as “O Little Town Of Bethlehem” – apparently one of Sinatra’s favorites – and culminating with “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.”
The world would have to wait nine years for another Frank Sinatra Christmas album, by which time Sinatra had established himself as a master of The Great American Songbook and moved to a new label, Capitol, for whom he would serve up some of the best work of his career.
Order Frank Sinatra’s Ultimate Christmas.