Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, readers. May this find you well and at least somewhat in the holiday spirit. Things are looking up for me, as I was once prepared for a quiet holiday with just the two of us but now it seems the youngster will be arriving with boyfriend in tow!
I try to write a post on Christmas Eve every year and this is my gift for you this time -- a Match the Song Title post about an album titled "A Christmas Gift for You".
This well-known Christmas album was originally issued in November 1963 and created by the since-disgraced (and deceased) Phil Spector. The CD pictured is from the 1989 re-release, which I bought probably in 1989 as one of the first Christmas CDs I ever owned.
My girlfriend (now wife) loved this CD and many of the songs. 1960s music and pop culture was retro king in the late 1980s and as difficult it is to believe now there wasn't a ton of pop Christmas music piped into every store until the '80s. The re-re-re-re-release of this CD and the compilation CD "A Very Special Christmas" in 1987 helped change that.
When I listen to "A Christmas Gift for You," I remember how fresh everything sounded, even though the album was released 25 years prior. Today those songs are everywhere and, honestly, I'm over a lot of Christmas music just like I haven't watched a Christmas special in over two years now. I end up listening to regular music most of the days leading up to the holiday.
Maybe this is what I need to get in the spirit. You know the drill now. I try to match a card with each song on the album. Jingle along with me if you're feeling festive.
Match the Song Title: "A Christmas Gift for You," Various Artists
It's a WHITE Sox player on a CHRISTMAS card. This exercise is all about grasping for connections sometimes. But any excuse to show my favorite Topps Holiday design, and the only one of the Holiday sets that I've completed. I've yet to land any Holiday cards from this year's set, though I'm hoping Christmas morning will take care of that.
The Ronettes
Did you know there's a 2024 set called Kakawow Phantom that is celebrating the 100th anniversary of Warner Brothers with a set of cards of various Warner Bros. characters? Everything from the Jetsons and Willy Wonka to J.R. Ewing and a number of movie characters I don't know. Love the subject matter. Not so sure about the card look.
Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans
The one song I didn't know when I picked up this CD and I had never heard of Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans. I associate St. Mary's College in California with college basketball but it has produced a number of major leaguers, such as current free agent Corbin Burnes, as well as Tom Candiotti.
The Crystals
The one thing you could be assured of if you turned on the Classic Rock station (just called "a rock station" back then) in the late 1970s/early 1980s is at Christmas time it would play the Eagles' "Please Come Home For Christmas" and Bruce Springsteen doing his Boss thing with "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" ...
"It's all cold down on the beach
the wind's whipping down the boardwalk
Hey band! You know what time of year it is?
Hey band! You know what time of year it is?
What time? What? WHAT?
Band: Christmas Time!
What?
Oh, Christmas Time!
I still like that song. I still have the cassette single around somewhere.
I still like that song. I still have the cassette single around somewhere.
Track 5: Sleigh Ride
The Ronettes
The Ronettes
God bless the Ronettes and Allen & Ginter's weird inserts. The 2019 Incredible Equipment insert set was very boring to me. I like that each instrument was attached to a famous character but then it didn't show the character. "Hercules' Club" just showed a club. At least Santa's Sleigh comes with a lot of bling.
Darlene Love
Any excuse to pull out this Wacky Packages sticker. This is the song that you could catch my wife singing at Christmas. She still does it. This song was originally a hit for Bing Crosby in 1950 but Darlene Love made it her own. It took me years to realize the Love song was a remake.
The Ronettes
Weird song. The most difficult match in this exercise. No cards of Santa kissing anyone that I could find. Why not just show a card of Santa and his main squeeze? I used this card in last year's Christmas post, too, when I ranked the 2007 Santa Claus cards.
I used this card for a Christmas post previously, too, back in 2015. If I was going to watch a Christmas special between now and Christmas, maybe it would be Rudolph just to marvel at how spectacularly rude everyone was to Rudolph.
Track 9: Winter Wonderland
Darlene Love
Darlene Love
Apparently Topps put out a Bowman Holiday set in 2017 that contained "Blue Winter Wonderland" parallels and, yes, this is something I just discovered with this post. I'd like to go back to when I didn't know this was a thing.
Track 10: Parade of the Wooden Soldiers
The Crystals
The Crystals
Let's go with a Holiday relic card that features a wood bit. Hopefully it's not a piece of wooden soldier!
Track 11: Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
Darlene Love
Darlene Love
It's a shame I couldn't find a card of Darlene Love. I don't know if one even exists, which is too bad as she was all over this album and also all over Christmas television in the late 1980s. Instead I guess I'll marry the "Christmas Gift for You" album with the "Very Special Christmas" LP, which contains U2's version of Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).
I still love this 1985 Rock Star Concert cards set. I've still got to get the one Huey Lewis and Pat Benatar card I need to finish it though.
Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans
The Santa cards in Pro Set in 1989 and through the early '90s is one of the many strange things about the hobby at the time. Why Santa card inserts in an NFL set? This 1991 Pro Set Santa card went one step farther by putting Pro Set's founder, Ludwell Denny, starring as a creepy elf, in the window in the house on this card. He's also on the back, and much larger!
Phil Spector and Artists
The 1995 Sports Time Baywatch set contains a few different cards of the Baywatch episode called "Silent Night, Baywatch Night". There's also a glamor shot of Pamela in the Platinum Cards insert set. I didn't know Baywatch was still big enough to make a card set of it in 1995.
And that's where the needle comes off the record.
In the Christmas spirit yet?
No?
How about now? It's future convicted murderer, Phil Spector, as Santa! The album "cover" (never know what to call that for a CD) folds out into this mini-poster, which I discovered for the first time yesterday despite owning this for more than 30 years. This was the album cover for "A Christmas Gift for You" when it was released in 1972. ... Oof. Maybe I should have rethought this post.
Anyway, happy, happy again. I hope you get everything you want.
Please save me some cookies. We'll have company now. They're gonna go fast.
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Reggie is freeeeee on Christmas Eve!!!!
Comments
B. I bought that Baywatch set earlier in the year. I wasn't a fan of the show, so I never saw that episode (but I wanted a card of Nicole Eggert and the complete set was like $3 more than just her card).
C. Congratulations on freeing Reggie safely. I'm always blown away by how nice everyone's low grade cards are. I feel like your Reggie is in better condition than my PSA 4.
D. Merry Christmas to you and your family! Hope your daughter's boyfriend was smart enough to buy you some baseball cards for Christmas. :D
To Greg and.all of his readers, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and yours!