Season's Greetings & Joyeux Noel To Canada From Barbra Streisand ... and Friends

Man, the '60s were cool. I mean it seemed like you could package an album for just about anyone or anything. Case in point, take this 1969 release, Season's Greetings & Joyeux Noel To Canada From Barbra Streisand. At first blush this looks like a Christmas album by Barbra Streisand ... until you turn it over and see the ... and Friends. Those friends were Doris Day, Jim Nabors and Andre Kostelanetz. I doubt they met up to discuss the album. What made this so interesting was that it was a Columbia Records special products release produced exclusively for Canada Dry. Yeah, Canada Dry. I wonder how you got the album? Did you have to send in bottle caps?

Before Celine Dion, it was Barbra Streisand who had the pipes. While I was never really a fan, I will admit that as a little kid I did like some of her songs from the movies. It's interesting that of all the holiday standards I never even knew Babs recorded Christmas songs. Well of course she did. The songs included on this special collection come from her 1967 album simply called, A Christmas Album. I just never heard any of the songs, or if I did, I don't have any memories of them, like the corners of my mind. Misty water-coloured memories of the way they were.

Forgive me. How could I not?

The first side of the album is all Barbra and the songs are okay and forgettable. I was hoping to discover a diamond in the rough, but all I got was a bag of coal. The second side was the one that was cobbled together with an assortment of Christmas songs. Jim Nabors had an amazing voice for a guy who spent his career playing a buffoon and saying, "Golly." The Doris Day songs likewise were fun, but this wasn't the good stuff, these were songs the label could cobble together and package at will. Probably the most fun is contained in the two medley mashups conducted by Andre Kostelanetz.

I suspect my rather subdued reaction to this album is due as much to the mounting pressure to get my Christmas chores done, and presents wrapped. I could have been wrapping while listening, but I decided to chill on the couch instead. Which was the wrong call as I just couldn't get into the Christmas spirit.

While this isn't an album that will make a lot of trips to my turntable, it was interesting to hear Barbra's songs. It's too bad the arrangements weren't as complementary to her voice.

I should have gotten a ginger ale out of the fridge before I sat down, that would have made the difference.

Maybe I'll take a mulligan and give this another play through.

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