Spike Jones Presents a Xmas Spectacular
Spike Jones presents Xmas Spectacular is by far my favorite Christmas album. If you’re not familiar with Spike Jones, he was a band leader in the 1940s-50s who made incredibly goofy, yet sophisticated, comedy music. Often his tunes consisted of covers of famous songs which feature serious performances interrupted by sections played on a hilarious array of percussion instruments. From what I’ve read, much like Weird Al, Spike Jones was a perfectionist.
Anyway, Spike Jones presents Xmas Spectacular features some of the most beautiful and well executed choral arrangements of the holiday classics, as well as some of the silliest songs. A favorite of my daughter and I is “All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth” featuring a grown man singing in a perfect child’s voice and making every sibilant phoneme whistle.
For me, it perfectly captures the lush warmth and family goofiness of spending the holidays with my family.