DJ Alex Gutierrez / Rewind 1039 / SFDJA
It’s the holidays, everyone’s over the house when suddenly somebody yells ” Put on some Christmas music !!” Instead of the usual Elvis ” Blue Christmas ” or the Bing Crosby standards we usually hear around this time why don’t you take them back ,way back to the 70s ,when even Christmas wasn’t immune to the Disco fever !! ( after all you are wearing a polyester sweater) So here are some of your choices when you want to put a little Disco in your Holidays !!
Probably THE most popular choice to ” Discofy” any party is ” Salsoul’s Christmas Jollies” released in 1976( Probably the First ” XMAS DISCO RECORD “) Produced by Vince Montana Jr and even includes vocals by Denise Montana who sang ” You’re My Number 1 DJ” on Goody Goody’s LP. If you are lucky to find the vinyl version snatch it up as the CD Re-Issue appears to be Edited and even includes “remixes” of certain tracks. “Some of the arrangements on the tracks were also changed, and not for the better. In fact, some of them sound terrible. The new Silent Night is just one example with an acoustic piano drowning out everything else. That piano piece is an overdub. It was not in the original recording. Overall, the quality of the sound on this CD is ‘tinny’, as though they had held up a transistor radio to a tape recorder to re-record the music. Somebody attempted to re-engineer the original and messed up the sound quality pretty badly. This CD lacks the heavy, throbbing rhythm and bass that the vinyl LP had.
Overall though both volumes provide the most ” Disco Christmas ” Bang for the buck. The Rest are pretty standard Christmas fare with a disco beat backing up the tracks. Nice background music for the beginning of a holiday party but that’s it! Not rockin’ disco like I thought it should be.
Of course Wham’s Last Christmas released on Epic Records in 1984 , is a modern day Christmas Classic worthy of a mention ( although not Disco) but my favorite in capturing the mood and on the laid back side as opposed to the more energetic ” Christmas Jollies’ Is the Whisper’s Christmas Album . All the standard Holiday hits but with that soulful feel that only The Whispers could have delivered. I personally, strongly recommend this one in addition to the Salsoul one, those two should give you that old school holiday feel you desire. Happy Holidays !!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0vZDAqzB8k
Honorable Mentions are as follows ….. but keep in mind the production values decrease dramatically.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGOR5DRBshE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hPdUvN1uxE