Main menu
Fretplay home Submit tabs

The Supremes
The Supremes tabs The Supremes discography

Channels
Guitar channel Bass channel Guitar videos Reviews

Message Forum
Guitar forum Bass forum Bands and artists Promote your band Recent discussions All categories

Fretplay.com

The Supremes guitar tabs

CD reviews

Merry Christmas

The Supremes - Merry Christmas Audio CD

A fair review of the The Supremes "Merry Christmas" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all The Supremes reviews here, or go back to the The Supremes tabs.

Band: The Supremes
Title: Merry Christmas
Rating:

Release Date: 1999-10-12
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: White Christmas 2: Silver Bells 3: Born of Mary 4: Children's Christmas Song 5: Little Drummer Boy 6: My Christmas Tree 7: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer 8: Santa Claus Is Coming to Town 9: My Favorite Things 10: Twinkle Twinkle Little Me 11: Little Bright Star 12: Joy to the World 13: Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You) [*] 14: Just a Lonely Christmas [*] 15: Noel [*] 16: Silent Night [*]

Great album for the holidays
The last four songs are The Christmas Song, which Diana sings solo. This enhanced CD contains the 12 songs from the original 1965 album plus four songs from Motown's vault. Noel, Just a Lonely Christmas and Silent Night, the latter featuring Florence Ballard on lead. Just a Lonely Christmas was originally done by Harvey Fuqua and the Moonglows. Harvey was the producer of this album, so there's some trivia for you. A great CD to have if you want the Motown sound for the holidays.

"When I'm Feeling Sad, I Simply Remember My Favorite Things . . . And Then I Don't Feel So Bad"
What made it so especially delightful to me is the inclusion of my all-time favorite Rodgers and Hammerstein's song "My Favorite Things" from "The Sound of Music. This Christmas CD "Merry Christmas" from Diana Ross, Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson, famously and collectively known as The Supremes, is one of the best among my Christmas music collection. " They first performed this song live to millions on The Ed Sullivan Show for CBS in 1965 and Andrew Skurow on Liner Notes described it as "a production worthy of Broadway - color broadcast, a full orchestra, colossal presents and glamorous pink chiffon gowns. " It's always been an enjoyable experience listening to this CD with its mix of traditional and contemporary Christmas songs performed in Yuletide fashion. It is simply one of "My Favorite Things," and I will most definitely recommend it for your listening pleasure this Holiday Season.

My top favorite is "White Christmas," which is absolutely one of the best interpretations ever recorded and it would have made composer Irving Berlin beam with pride. I love its nostalgic arrangement and the trio's rendition that is so reminiscent of 1940s style of singing.

The rest of my highlights include "The Christmas Song," "Silver Bells," "Noel," "Silent Night," "Joy To The World," "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. "

"So you better watch out . . .
He knows if you'd been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake"

Christmas is the one time of the year that I am always child-like. Are you? Let's all bring out the inner child in us and . . . wait for Santa's magic this Christmas! He knows we've all been nice throughout the year! :)

Happy Holidays to one and all. May the love and joy that Christmas bring reign in your beautiful hearts not only this Yuletide Season but also for all the years to come.

"Christmas Is The Best Time Of The Year"
The full paragraph in question reads "The Supremes were in the midst of a record-breaking string of No. The above title is a quote from Mary, detailed in the three pages of liner notes written by Andrew Skurow. 1 hits when Motown's Harvey Fuqua, who had produced their We Remember Sam Cooke LP, brought the project to the ladies. "We were all ecstatic" remembers Mary. Her eyes dance when talking about the album. "Christmas is the best time of the year!"

Not only is there nothing in these notes to suggest that these are not the original renditions (albeit remastered), but a reproduction of the original LP cover shows "STEREO" in bold letters at the top. So, I'm not certain as to what that 2-star reviewer is alluding to in the criticism of the CD. Perhaps, as they sometimes did back then, they released two versions of the vinyl LP, one in mono and the other in stereo.

In any event, this contains the original 12 tracks, with 13 to 16 added in for the CD release. Tracks 13 and 16 were first released in 1987 on the compilation The Supremes Never-Before Released Masters, but both with a different mix, including an acapella performance of Silent Night. Track 14 first appeared on the Motown collection Christmas In The City in 1993, while track 15 was previously unreleased.

Two of the original cuts, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Me and The Children's Christmas Song, were also released as a single with the A-side reaching # 5 and the flip # 7 on the Billboard Christmas charts in 1965 on Motown 1085. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Me then re-charted at # 26 in 1966, and # 10 in 1967.

Several beautiful pictures of the girls are included in the fold-out insert, and on the one showing them on a toboggan Mary says" My favorite photo is of the three of us on the sled that we used on the back cover (of the LP). It wasn't part of the original session. We were shooting an episode for Dick Clark's TV series, Where The Action Is, at Big Bear Mountain in California. In between we took loads of photos on the slopes. "

Just a great Christmas album to have in your collection.

Its not Xmas in my house without this CD
If you were a older teen in the 60's and had this LP like me this CD brings back great Christmas memories and with the Motown sound reflective in the tracks plus the CD sound quality you just can't go wrong on this delightful Supremes album.

merry supremes christmas
how can you go wrong with christmas and the supremes!a perfect match. with sooo many holiday lps to pick from,i can tell you 3 of the best,one ELVIS CHRISTMAS,second,JOHNNY MATHIS CHRISTMAS and the third,you got it right here,THE SUPREMES!this cd gets the deluxe treatment with all the bonus tracks and theres not a christmas that go by without us playing it. great songs. one of my favorites . this lp also sold more than 3 million copies for the ladies. beautiful lp and Performances,make sure you get the new remastered delxe version with the added tracks such as SILENT NIGHT,NOEL,JUST A LONELY CHRISTMAS.

You can see a complete list of all The Supremes discography, or go back to the The Supremes tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.