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Blue Yule: Christmas Blues And R&B ClassicsI'll be the first to admit that my Top 20 Christmas Albums includes too many collections by Rhino Records. But, I had a good excuse. Rhino was among the first labels to document the rich history of Christmas music from a thoughtful, scholarly perspective - with enthusiasm, I should add. Moreover, they were willing and able to license tracks from multiple labels, do the hard work of tracking down the best masters possible, and remastering them for the digital age. For about a decade at the zenith of the CD era, we got marvelous compilations documenting holiday music in a dizzying variety of genres: country, jazz, doo wop, reggae, punk, new wave, swing, Latin, and more. To find all the rare records Rhino collected would have been an impossible task - remember, we didn't have the internet yet. And even if you could find them all, you probably couldn't afford them! So, while Rhino preserved our precious musical history, they also provided an invaluable service to record collectors.

Rhino was a fairly early adopter of the compact disc, though it took them awhile to really embrace the medium and all of its advantages. Once they did, Blue Yule: Christmas Blues And R&B Classics (1991) was one of their first and best forays into holiday music. At the time, no other single CD had made such a wide sweep across this rich American genre. On the whole, Blue Yule leans towards down 'n' dirty, obscure blues records - though it includes selections from acknowledged stars like Charles Brown, Lightnin' Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, and Sonny Boy Williamson, and it dabbles in other rhythm 'n' blues subgenres. And be warned, it's not for the faint of heart. This is a rough crowd, and the hapless revelers in these songs are just as likely to spend Christmas drunk, sexually frustrated, incarcerated, or dead (or all the above) as they are to be safe in the warm hearth of home. That makes it perfect for many of us (remember, suicides are more common during the holiday season) and a helluva lotta fun for the rest.

More even than most Rhino collections, Blue Yule is laden with rarities. Most of the 18 songs were originally released as 78's or 45's, and not a single one origininated on a traditional Christmas album. Only one was a major hit: The original version of Charles Brown's "Merry Christmas Baby" charted #3 on Billboard's R&B chart in 1947, and this 1956 remake for Aladdin (the definitive version, I believe) reached #4 on the Christmas chart when reissued by Imperial in 1964. (Canned Heat's "Christmas Blues" also registered, struggling to #18 on the Christmas chart in 1968.) To this day, several of these songs show up nowhere else in my dysfunctionally vast collection. Of those that do, many are only available on collections from Europe where public domain laws allow unlicensed reproduction of old recordings - often from scratchy vinyl or worse.

If I have any criticism, it's that Rhino - as they were wont to do - casts their net a little too wide. I realize "R&B" is right there in the subtitle, but Blue Yule is clearly a blues album, and it would have been even better with a more singular focus. To the exclusion of more authentic blues records, Rhino picks up rock-related sides by the Insight (featuring young Johnny and Edgar Winter) and the aforementioned Canned Heat; a traditional holiday song by gospel group the Pilgrim Travelers; a smooth, latter-day effort from Louis Jordan; an uptempo doo wop workout by the Voices; and a giddy, nearly out-of-control soul celebration of "Christmas Day" by one Detroit Junior. Mind you, those are all great records. In fact, I picked that last one for my Top 100 Christmas Songs. It's the sort of weird, wonderful moment that will make Blue Yule so pleasing and invaluable to collectors. Regardless, blues purists still will find plenty to love.

Speaking of which, I only found two tracks on Blue Yule less than essential, and both are latter-day efforts from minor artists. This is another common flaw on Rhino's CD collections. During this period, the label seemed compelled to prove that whatever genre they were documenting (blues in this case) was still relevant on the modern music scene. But, they often ended up making the opposite point by including recent recordings that suffer mightily in comparison to the historical tracks that surround them. On Blue Yule, those songs are "Christmas Holidays" by Texas Pete Mayes and "Jingle Bell Boogie" by Big Jack Johnson, both released in 1990. Neither is bad, exactly, but neither measures up.

By the way, that's B.B. King on the cover of Blue Yule, but, weirdly, his 1962 classic "Christmas Celebration" is not included. You can find it on Rhythm & Blues Christmas (United Artists, 1976) and Even Santa Gets The Blues (Virgin, 1995), among others.

Postscript

As I implied, Blue Yule and all those other Rhino collections were very much a product of the CD era. Rhino licensed tracks from many disparate labels for use on those specific compact discs - long before there was such a thing as iTunes or Spotify. So, sadly, virtually none of Rhino's Christmas collections made the leap to the world of downloads or streaming. I wish I could say that there are equivalents in the virtual world but, mostly, there are not. That said, you can find most of the Blue Yule tracks online, but they may not be properly licensed or, worse, they might be taken from inferior sources. So, caveat emptor.

Rhino Records was founded in 1973 as a record store - not a record label. The label was founded in 1978, and they released several key Christmas albums, including the Cool Yule and Rockin' Christmas series, during their first decade. In 1985, Rhino signed a distribution deal with Capitol Records, and that's when they released most of their quintessential Christmas collections. In 1992, Rhino signed a new deal with Atlantic Records, and by 1998 Rhino was wholly owned by Atlantic's corporate parent, Time Warner. These days, Rhino is essentially the reissue division of Warner Music, which spun off from Time Warner in 2004. They still do great stuff, but they don't do things like Blue Yule anymore. [top of page]

Albums Albums

SongsEssential Songs

  • Blues For Christmas (John Lee Hooker, 1954)
  • Christmas Blues (Canned Heat, 1968)
  • Christmas Day (Detroit Junior, 1960) Top 100 Song
  • Christmas Time (Jimmy McCracklin, 1961)
  • Christmas Time Blues (Roy Milton, 1950)
  • Happy New Year (Lightnin' Hopkins, 1953)
  • I Want My Baby For Christmas (Jimmy Liggins, 1950)
  • I'll Be Home For Christmas (Pilgrim Travelers 1952)
  • Merry Christmas (Lightnin' Hopkins, 1953)
  • Merry Christmas Baby (Charles Brown, 1956) Top 100 Song
  • Merry Christmas Darling (Poppa Hop, 1961)
  • Please Come Home For Christmas (The Insight, 1965)
  • Santa Claus (Sonny Boy Williamson, aka Rice Miller, 1960)
  • Santa Claus, Santa Claus (Louis Jordan, 1968)
  • Santa Claus Baby (The Voices, 1955)
  • Santa's Messin' With The Kid (Eddie C. Campbell, 1977)

Further ListeningFurther Listening

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