Mannheim Steamroller - Christmas - Album 4 of 10

Album Title: Christmas
Artist: Mannheim Steamroller

Album 4 of 10 in the 10 Album Challenge

Thoughts

If you read the entry I wrote for Album 3, you know I chose outside of the pop/rock genre already.  Musical theater is a big part of my musical taste.

Christmas music is even bigger.

I know it's frowned upon by most people, but I listen to Christmas music whenever I feel like it!  It could be before Thanksgiving!  Like, in August-before-Thanksgiving!  Or in February!

So, of course, one of my 10 albums had to be a Christmas album.  But which one?


My earliest well-loved Christmas album is this one: A Christmas Treasure performed by Julie Andrews with Andre Previn conducting the orchestra.  I heard it throughout my childhood. [In my memory, the version of the album we had was distributed by a ... tire company? Goodyear maybe? I'm not sure that's accurate, but the album pictured here (which I have on CD and now digital) has all the pieces I remember.]

But when I was younger, I did not listen to Christmas music as frequently, and part of the reason for that is that the industry did not focus on making accessible, well-produced Christmas music which focused on the music.  An artist would do Christmas music (and they still do) and that music focused on the artist. (In my honest but not so humble opinion.)

Until two artists did things differently.

In 1983, Amy Grant released her first Christmas album, so it almost became my choice.

And in 1984, Chip Davis's Mannheim Steamroller Christmas came out of his Fresh Aire work, and made Christmas music something new, and at the same time, very familiar.

I could listen to Mannheim Steamroller's initial Christmas album on a loop for days and not get tired of it, when it first came out.  And then, Chip Davis made more!

Other artists caught on, and so eventually we got Trans-Siberian Orchestra (which is not for everyone, but is wonderful for some people), and Lorie Line.

And now that Christmas music is heard for more than the three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, there are enough pop/country/rock artists doing their own takes on Christmas songs that we could have very nice playlists with lots of variety.  I still think most of the artists who produce Christmas tracks today focus way too much on themselves, but in any case, we get options!

By the way, I've been to a Mannheim Steamroller Christmas concert.  It's well worth the experience.  The performers are excellent, of course. And the "invented for the music instruments" are cool.  But they know how to focus on the music and how it makes you feel.  Just like the album.