Christmas Joy

Digitally remastered edition of this holiday classic. English-born conductor/arranger George Melachrino was the RCA label's answer to the Decca label's Mantovani. Along with his famed Music for Moods series, which provided sumptuous soundtracks for every occasion, from dining to daydreaming to studying to sleeping, his most beloved recordings were his two Christmas albums. The first, 1954's mono release Christmas in High Fidelity, became a perennial best seller and has been reissued in the compact disc era. However, the second, 1959's Christmas Joy, which took full advantage of the stereo recording techniques pioneered by RCA's Living Stereo series, makes it's worldwide CD debut here. It's hard to conceive of a musical genre more suited for the freedom stereo afforded in the studio than the orchestral easy listening that was Melachrino's mtier, and here the maestro offers widescreen interpretations of 12 songs from the original Christmas in High Fidelity album and adds four more tunes from the lighthearted side of the holiday songbook, including Christmas Alphabet, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, Jingle Bells and Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town. This symphonic seasonal classic receives a pristine remastering from Maria Triana at Battery Studios in New York, with liner notes by Joe Marchese and added photos.