Details
Track Listing
1. Celebration
2. Christmas Lullaby
3. Deck the Halls
4. Veni Veni
5. Away in a Manger
6. Hallelujah
7. O Tannenbaum - (with Johnny Mathis)
8. Wassail, Wassail
9. Carol of the Birds
10. God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen
11. God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen
12. Greensleeves
13. Traditions of Christmas
14. Good King Wenceslas
15. Carol of the Bells
16. Auld Lang Syne
17. Fum, Fum, Fum
18. Silent Night
| Details | | Producer: | Chip Davis, Jackson Berkey | | Distributor: | Fontana Distribution | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes
Mannheim Steamroller: Chip Davis (vocals, hammer dulcimer, cornemuse, recorder, dulcian, crumhorn, drums, percussion, bells, wind); Jackson Berkey (vocals, toy piano, Fender Rhodes piano, harpsichord, clavichord, keyboards, bells); Liz Westphalen (vocals); Ron Cooley (12-string guitar, classical guitar, lute, bass guitar); Mary Walter (harp); Arnie Roth (vielle, violin); Eric Hansen (lute, bass guitar); Steve Shipps (violin); John Sharpe, David Low, Gregory Clinton (cello); Willis Ann Ross (flute); Roxanne Layton (recorder, crumhorn); Bobby Jenkins (oboe); David Kappy (French horn).
Additional personnel include: Johnny Mathis, Lynndee Mueller (vocals); Chicago, Renaissance Le Doo Dah Band, The University Of Michigan Men's Glee Club, Bielefelder Kinderchor, Cambridge Singers.
In 1984, Chip Davis released his first Christmas record on his own label, American Gramaphone, under the pseudonym Mannheim Steamroller. It contained classics and his own compositions done in a synthesizer-heavy, orchestral style he dubbed "18th-century rock & roll." That album would go on to sell millions of copies and 20 years later, the name Mannheim Steamroller was synonymous with Christmas music in many circles. To celebrate his 20th anniversary of rousing, rapturous synth anthems, Davis released CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION, a collection of MS's best holiday moments with one new track, "Celebration."
"Celebration" is a fitting addition to the Mannheim Steamroller canon, opening with a light fanfare before elevating to thunderous instrumental flashes of energy and spirited emotion, throwing in elements of the classics "Deck the Halls" and "Joy to the World" for good measure. Davis's interpretation of the former is probably his best-known work, and the festive Steamroller version is also prominently included here. An appealing collaboration with Johnny Mathis on "O Tannenbaum," where a choral rendering gives way to a timeless Mathis vocal, provides another highlight of this compilation.
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