The Christmas Spirit

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The Christmas Spirit
Studio album by Johnny Cash

Publication
(s)

1963

admission

August 14, 1959 - September 17, 1963

Label (s) Columbia Records

Genre (s)

Country music

Title (number)

12

occupation
  • Johnny Cash, vocals, guitar
  • Grady Martin, guitar
  • Bob Johnson, flute
  • Hargus Robbins, organ
  • Anita Kerr, organ

production

Don Law, Frank Jones

chronology
Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash The Christmas Spirit I Walk the Line (Album)

The Christmas Spirit is the 17th studio album by the American country singer Johnny Cash . It was released on Columbia Records in November 1963 and was produced by Don Law and Frank Jones.

After he had already recorded two religious albums with Hymns by Johnny Cash and Hymns from the Heart , The Christmas Spirit was his first Christmas album. Surprisingly, it reached number seven on the Billboard pop chart, making it a huge hit, even though it didn't get good reviews.

content

The album is a mixture of own compositions and well-known standards. Cash himself wrote The Gifts They Gave and We Are the Shepherds in addition to the title track . Together with June Carter he wrote Who Kept the Sheep . Ringing the Bells for Jim was a collaboration with Jan Howard who co-wrote Christmas as I Knew It with June Carter . Cash composed another piece with the title Here Was a Man together with Tex Ritter .

Standards like Silent Night , Blue Christmas or Little Drummer Boy follow . Cash also sets the two classic poems Ballad of the Harp Weaver by Vincent Millay and I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow , which had been adapted for Cash by John B. Calkin.

Track list

  1. "The Christmas Spirit" (Cash)
  2. "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" ( Henry Wadsworth Longfellow , John B. Calkin)
  3. "Blue Christmas" (Bill Hayes, Jay Johnston)
  4. "The Gifts They Gave" (Cash)
  5. "Here Was a Man" (Johnny Bond, Tex Ritter )
  6. "Christmas as I Knew It" ( June Carter , Jan Howard)
  7. "Silent Night" ( Franz Gruber , Joseph Mohr )
  8. "The Little Drummer Boy" (Katherine Davis, Henri Onerati, Harry Simeone)
  9. "Ringing the Bells for Jim" (Carter, Howard)
  10. "We Are the Shepherds" (Cash)
  11. "Who Kept the Sheep" (Cash, Carter)
  12. "Ballad of the Harp Weaver" (Vincent Millay)

Chart successes

The album was # 7 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart. The single Little Drummer Boy was first released in 1959 and had reached number 24 in the single country charts at that time.

Reviews

At allmusic.com the album only received two out of five stars. Peter Hogan wrote in his Johnny Cash manual Story and Songs compact that there was nothing essential to be found on the disc, and not even for listeners who collect Christmas albums. Above all, he criticizes the background singers and terrible arrangements in pieces like Blue Christmas .

Web links