The Elvis Presley Christmas Tradition

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Elvis Presley Christmas music is as much a tradition as well Bing Crosby Christmas music. It's just part of the sounds you like to hear around the Christmas time of year. Fans have been posting Christmas Elvis clips up on the web, and well in the spirit of the season we're posting them here for you Elvis Christmas fans to enjoy.

Elvis Video Clips
The first one up is that awesome song, "Blue Christmas". This version is from the 1968 Elvis Comeback Special.

Elvis Presley's '68 Comeback Special is a 1968 United States television special starring Elvis Presley. It was directed by Steve Binder and produced by Binder plus Bones Howe. Sponsored by the Singer Sewing Machine Company, it aired on December 3, 1968 with the title Elvis on the NBC television network.

Since the special was scheduled to be broadcast during the Christmas season, Elvis' manager, Colonel Tom Parker, wanted the show to be little more than Elvis singing Christmas carols. Binder argued that the special needed to reestablish Elvis as a going musical concern after years of formula movies and moderately successful recordings. Just a little Christmas Elvis history for you.

Here's one you got to love the original Blue Christmas song with images from Elvis Christmas memories.

A little Blue Christmas trivia for you. "Blue Christmas" is a christmas song written by Billy Hayes and Jay W. Johnson. The heart-broken tale of unrequited love during the holidays had long been considered a Christmas staple of country music, having been recorded by Ernest Tubb in 1948. In 1960, Elvis Presley effectively made "Blue Christmas" a steadfast rock-and-roll holiday classic by placing his indellible mark on the song. It has since been recorded by a host of rock and country artists alike, as well as those of other genres.

The song was covered by the American pop band The Beach Boys. The song was released as the B-side of the "The Man With All The Toys" single on November 16, 1964; it charted at #3 in the U.S. christmas charts but did not chart in the U.K. The song was also released on the bands 1964 album The Beach Boys' Christmas Album on the same day. The song featured Brian Wilson on lead vocals.

The Elvis Christmas Album

Released in November 1957, Elvis' Christmas Album was Elvis Presley's fourth long-playing (LP) album, peaking in the top spot on the Billboard Album Chart for four weeks in late 1957. The album was reissued in 1958 (with a different sleeve), and reached the album charts each year until 1962, eventually selling over three million units worldwide.

The original 1957 LP featured twelve tracks - six songs per side - divided into a program of secular Christmas songs on Side A, ( featuring four songs made popular by other artists, plus two new numbers), and traditional Christmas carols and gospel numbers on Side B, including Frankie Laine's pop-spiritual hit, I Believe. Elvis had previously released the album's last four numbers of Side B on his Peace in the Valley EP, issued in April 1957 to public acclaim (highest position #39 on the Billboard Top 100 singles chart; #3 on the Extended Play (EP) chart).[2]

While some of the songs selected were traditional Christmas fare, such as O Little Town of Bethlehem and Silent Night, Elvis selected a new blues-based rock and roll number with which to open the album. The song, Santa Claus Is Back In Town, was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, two writers responsible for some of rock and roll's most finely-honed satire (Willie Mae Thornton's "Hound Dog", The Robins' "Smokey Joe´s Cafe"), as well as having already supplied Elvis with two of his biggest hits ("Hound Dog" and Jailhouse Rock).

Elvis had asked the pair to come up with another Christmas song during sessions for the album and, within a few minutes, they had the song written and ready for recording. Originally titled "Christmas Blues", this slyly risqué number is given a full-throated treatment by Elvis who, aided by the gritty ensemble playing from his band, was determined to ensure that this Christmas album would not be easily ignored.

Much of the remaining program was performed in a more traditional manner appropriate to the solemnity of Christmas ("I'll Be Home For Christmas", "Silent Night", "O Little Town of Bethlehem"), although Elvis' innate sense of occasion shone through on his left-of-centre reading of Ernest Tubb's 1949 hit, Blue Christmas.

The Bing Crosby hit White Christmas, which appeared every year on the Billboard charts from 1942 to 1962,[4] became the centre of controversy upon the album's release, with calls by the song's composer Irving Berlin to have the song, and the entire album, banned from radio airplay. After hearing Presley's version of his song, which Berlin saw as a "profane parody of his cherished yuletide standard" [6] he ordered his staff in New York to telephone radio stations across the US, demanding the song be discontinued from radio play. While most US radio stations ignored Berlin's request, at least one disc jockey was fired for playing a song from the album, and most Canadian stations refused to play the album.

The controversy was, ironically, fuelled by Elvis's performance of the song in a style mirroring the version by Clyde McPhatter & the Drifters, which had been a Top 10 rhythm and blues hit in 1954-1955. Unlike Elvis's recording, however, their version attracted virtually no adverse reaction, and certainly no reported opposition from Irving Berlin.

Here's a cool video a Elvis fan put together featuring Santa Claus for the song, "Here Comes Santa Claus".

Christmas at Graceland

O Come All Ye Faithful sung by Elvis Presley

Let's not forget Jesus is the reason for the season, read, "The True Story of Christmas".

For some fun Christmas Classic Video Clips and if you are wanting to do some comparison Christmas shopping for merchandise other than posters check out Shoppingland.US which actually has posters too, but everything else you can possibly imagine as well.

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