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If you like Christmas music, buy this CD. This is my favorite Christmas music album. Belefonte's voice was at its best, and the arrangements are simple and beautiful.
I first heard this music at Christmas 1962, when it was brand new, and I was 18. After not being able to hear it for a dozen or so years, I was thrilled to find the CD version in the mid-90s. To me this is simply the best, most moving Christmas album ever produced. I listened to the vinyl LP for twenty years until I changed to a CD player. I'm 64 now, and I never plan to celebrate Christmas without this remarkable collection. Belafonte's "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" makes me weep every time I hear it. No lover of Christmas music should be without this master work fusing Belafonte's mellifluous voice and an evocative--almost haunting--tone in thirteen unexpected songs.
But the one that gets me each and every time is I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day.wow. If I recall correctly, the vinyl version actually started on the track A Star In The East, so that is where I start my CD each time. It is something that I share with everyone in my life. What can I say.Christmas begins, for me, not in mid-October when the stores start putting out their Christmas displays, but when I first put this CD in my player. This album has been played in our family my whole life (30+ years we'll just say)., and while for me it is probably just as much a nostalgic effect as it is the content itself, this album is the very essence of Christmas - just completely infused with Christmas joy.
I've continued to listen to it well into the New Year and absolutely love it. When this originally came out (60's), it was one of the favorites at Christmastime in the home of my husband's family as the seven children were growing up. Mary's Boy Child has a beautiful spiritual quality that brings great joy to my heart as I listen. It is worth getting the CD just to hear the first song, Mary's Boy Child, which is an ideal vehicle for the wonderful characteristics of Belafonte's voice and sets the tone for the entire selection that includes some traditional songs but all presented in a unique way. With the passing of time, we're not sure where the vinyl album ended up, but it occurred to me this Christmas to replace it by ordering the CD. I got one for us and one as a gift, but will purchase more in the future for other family members.
It is beautiful. My Christmas collection could not be complete without a Belafonte recording. Recommended to all who love Harry Belafonte, folk music, and Christmas music. I love Harry Belafonte. I was introduced to his music when I was a child and have loved it ever since.
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