No music collection is without some favorite obscurities that most haven’t heard of. Today’s album pick is no exception: this is a various artist compilation on A&M from the late 60s entitled ¡Something Festive!, originally a promotional tie-in with the B.F. Goodrich tire company. This LP features ten tracks from an assortment of artists on the A&M label, most of which have never appeared on other albums (either unique songs, or unique versions of songs).
The Tijuana Brass bookends the album with “Winter Wonderland” (with the vocal introduction edited off), and “Jingle Bell Rock” (which features bells in place of the marimba figure at the beginning of the song). Brasil ’66 gives us “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts…),” a non-album track for them. Liza Minnelli’s “Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy”, the Baja Marimba Band’s “Partridge In A Pear Tree” and We Five’s “My Favorite Things” all hail from previou A&M album releases. Side two opens with the rare Burt Bacharach track “The Bell That Couldn’t Jingle,” followed by the non-album Pete Jolly track, “It’s The Most Wonderful Time”, Claudine Longet’s “Snow” and the non-album “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” cover by the Baja Marimba Band.
It’s a shame A&M never reissued this on CD, as there are several more classic A&M tracks that could be added to fill it out. Wes Montgomery recorded “Greensleeves” on one of his CTi albums, as did Kai Winding and J.J. Johnson with “The Little Drummer Boy” on their album Betwixt & Between. Both of the early 70s Carpenters single tracks “Merry Christmas Darling” and “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” fit on here also, as does the Shawn Phillips “A Christmas Song.” Claudine Longet recorded another Christmas song as well: “I Don’t Intend To Spend Christmas Without You,” and they could have grabbed the Baja Marimba Band version of “Las Mananitas” from their For Animals Only album (as the same track appears on the Tijuana Brass Christmas album).
This wasn’t the most popular album, yet it appears to be easy enough to find online for sale. If you fancy that A&M family sound, this album will fit the bill. It usually gets an annual spin here at Casa Rudy, either in LP form or in my own expanded CD version.