Sphinx's Music Blog - A Christmas Gift for You from Philles Records!

Happy Holidays everybody! This time of year is busy when you have two young children, so I haven’t been able to post as much recently. But since it is the holidays, I felt obligated to do a classic Christmas record. Let me admit something - I love Christmas music. It’s a guilty pleasure that I don’t admit to people (don’t tell my wife, she loves it too but I like to play it off), but since I was kid I would listen to my mom and dad’s records of Mitch Miller, Ray Coniff, Johnny Mathis, and others that were given to them from their parents. I would be glued to the sound system in our living room, listening to these things over and over. It brings so much nostalgia listening to Christmas music, it makes me feel like a kid once again.

So today I am discussing “A Christmas Gift for You from Philles Records”, or rather more famously, re-labelled as “A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector”, which was released on November 22, 1963, which coincidentally enough is the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated (not trying to be a downer on a Christmas related blog). 

This cover says “Phil Spector”

Phil Spector is one of the most famous producers in the history of rock n’ roll, and was also one of the first once the genre became mainstream. Phil worked with acts in the early 1960’s that definitely bring the rhythm and blues side of rock n’ roll more than anything, a rival to Motown Records at the time that was also just beginning. His acts (which appear on the album) include Darlene Love, The Ronettes, The Crystals, and Bob B Soxx and the Blue Jeans. But in addition to this Spector worked with the Righteous Brothers (You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling), Connie Francis, Ike & Tina Turner, and The Beatles (Let it Be album and some of their solo careers).

Phil with his soon to be wife Ronnie from The Ronettes. This is where Phil’s story goes very dark very fast. While married, she stated in a memoir that was imprisoned and escaped, then filing for divorce. Phil would later do even worse things…

Only 21 years old when he started producing, and only 24 when he produced this record, he is famous for what is notoriously called the “Wall of Sound”, that has changed recorded music forever. Essentially, you use the recording studio to create a very dense sound that is made up of several sounds all throughout the track. That includes orchestra, heavy percussion, saxophone, bells, and heavy bass. His idea was that “if the material was not the greatest, the sound would carry the record”. In order to do this, Spector would often double or triple dub a sound to get a deeper, fuller sound. You’ve all heard it used; it’s standard procedure for most popular music today. This mixing and layering of different sounds on top of each other is practically an art form, and turned audio producing, arranging, and engineering in a studio an essential aspect of recorded music. Spector’s “Wrecking Crew” included Jack Nitzsche, Larry Levine, and his session musicians that were used for the majority of his recordings, and it’s called the Wall of Sound because of how it hits you right in the face with its intensity. 

So, in 1963 Spector takes a pop music twist on Christmas, at a time that it was typically very traditional or performed by the singers of the era like Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, and Nat King Cole (there are a few exceptions like the Elvis Presley Christmas album in 1957, Jingle Bell Rock by Bobby Helms in 1957 and Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee in 1960). 

These versions of the classic Christmas songs are now considered classics. From The Ronettes “Sleigh Ride” with the famous “ring-a-ling-a-ling-a-ding-dong-ding!”’s, to Darlene Love’s amazing take on “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”, to The Crystals interpretation with “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” (which was emulated by Bruce Springsteen’s version of the song, he was obsessed and based his own band on Spector’s Wall of Sound), these songs have lived in anyone’s childhood and adult life that have listened to Christmas music this time of the year. Besides the songs I listed above, the other tracks that are my favorite are Frosty the Snowman by the Ronettes, Marshmallow World by Darlene Love, and I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus by The Ronettes. This album has been re-released many times in its history, often rising high on the charts. In 2012, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the greatest Christmas albums of all time, and this album came out as #1. I’m not sure I totally agree (I have a special place in my heart for Nat King Cole’s Christmas Song album), but I would totally put it in the top 3. 

Now, please be aware that I am not glamouring over Phil Spector. Unfortunately, he is a monster. Besides his marital issues with Veronica Bennett (Ronnie from The Ronettes), he was convicted of second degree murder, as actress Lana Clarkston was found dead in his home from a gunshot wound. He is still serving a 19 year prison sentence….

Besides that, give this album a listen in its entirety, preferably while sipping on some eggnog in front of your Christmas tree with a roaring fire in your fireplace (that’s where I am at this moment). 

I wish all of you a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year. I’m very lucky to be part of Gamezilla Media, that has created an avenue for me to broadcast my love of music, in addition to my podcast work on Last Action Podcast and Noobs and Dragons season 2. Check us out, think about supporting us on Patreon, give me a shout on social media or our discord, and I’ll see ya again for some more Sphinx reviews in 2020.

Sphinx