Show 21 Part 1 - 29 minutes 30 seconds - Beach Boys Christmas Album Part 1

Shrunken Head Lounge Surf Radio Show Running Time: 29 minutes 30 seconds The Beach Boys' Christmas Album released on November 16, 1964   Containing five original songs and seven standards, the album proved to be a long-running success during subsequent Christmas seasons, initially reaching #6 in the US Christmas album chart and eventually going gold. Of the original songs, "Little Saint Nick" was already famous, having been a hit single the year before. "The Man with All the Toys" was another hit during Christmastime 1964 and "Christmas Day" is noteworthy for being the first Beach Boys song to feature a lead vocal from Al Jardine. While leader Brian Wilson produced and arranged the "rock" songs, he left it to Dick Reynolds (an arranger of The Four Freshmen, a group Wilson idolized) to arrange the orchestral backings on the traditional songs to which The Beach Boys would apply their vocals. The album was released in both mono and stereo; the stereo mix, prepared by engineer Chuck Britz, would be the last true stereo mix for a Beach Boys album until 1968's Friends.