Everyone has that one topic about which they can give a thorough TED Talk-like presentation. Maybe it’s the Max Headroom signal intrusion incident or the mysterious fate of Korean Air Lines Flight 007; research wormholes often lead to fixations on forgotten or otherwise lesser-known bits of pop culture ephemera. For me, that topic is A Christmas Gift for You from Philles Records, the November 1963 release more commonly known as the Phil Spector Christmas Album.
Though it eventually became the blueprint for contemporary holiday music arrangement, A Christmas Gift for You had a long climb to its status as a classic. Released the day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated, the album (and its participating artists) quickly fell into obscurity, only to be rediscovered nearly a decade later thanks to the Beatles. Even with decades of homages and imitations, A Christmas Gift for You‘s joyful performances by Darlene Love, The Ronettes, The Crystals, and Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans (not to mention the peerless studio musicians in the backing band) remain in the shadow of the organizing producer’s infamously violent personality.
Robert Drake and I first dissected A Christmas Gift for You in 2019 as part of that year’s Merry Fringemas special. In 2023, on the occasion of the album’s 60th anniversary, the entire piece was rewritten and rerecorded into a nearly hourlong listening companion.