The Jordanaires: Chrismas to Elvis

The Jordanaires: Christmas to Elvis

1978

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Blue Christmas  2. Here Comes Santa Claus  3. Santa Bring My Baby Back  4.
White Christmas  5. Silent Night  6. I'll Be Home For Christmas  7.Santa Claus Is Back In Town  8.
Mama Liked The Roses  9. O Little Town Of Bethlehem  10. O Come All Ye Faithful  11. Studio Conversation W/Pickers & Singers


Chrussmuss is right around ye old corner, so recently I bought a small stack of dusty old dollar bin Christmas Records...So let's spike some eggnog and put one on...

 As for, "Chrismas to Elvis," I bought this one totally on accident...I thought I was buying this old Elvis Presley Christmas record that was a childhood holiday favorite...

  
(I was always fascinated by the snowman w/ the Elvis head in the lower left hand corner...We had it on 8-track, so it was especially small and intriguing....)

But when I went to throw the album on the turntable, I noticed someone put the wrong album in the wrong sleeve...This wasn't "Elvis Sings the Wonderful World of Christmas"...It was his backing band, the Jordanaires playing with an Elvis impersonator...But not just any Elvis impersonator, but ORION!!!!

Score! Apparently, this is the Jordanaires tribute to their recently deceased boss, although I'm kinda leaning towards this being less a tribute and more a cash-in to fool Elvis fans....The album cover and title are unclear whether or not this album actually has Elvis on it and if you weren't paying attention, Orion might could theoretically fool you...Still, it's hard to be too mad at it, cos it's good Elvis-y holiday fun...And bonus points for throwing "Mama Liked The Roses"...My personal favorite Christmas songs are the ones that are actually designed to turn you into a Holiday suicide statistic...

Honestly, the most entertaining moment on the album is the conversation at the end where the band laugh and reminisce about making the original Elvis Christmas albums and Elvis fighting to get band members and back-up singers credited on his albums...Nice stuff...It's easy to forget that Elvis was a real person and not a banana-and-peanut-butter-sandwich eating, Television-shooting robot...

I dunno, I paid maybe a dollar for this...I'd say that's about right...There's definitely a dollars worth of entertainment here...It's gaudy and crass and cheesy, but those same words can be applied to Christmas, so it feels right, in a slimy way...Orion fans should absolutely check this out...

None of this was on youtube, so here's a video of wacky-ass Orion singing on TV...