This Time of Year
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| This Time of Year | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1961 | |||
| Recorded | January 1961 | |||
| Studio | Capitol (Hollywood) | |||
| Genre | Vocal jazz, Christmas music | |||
| Label | Capitol[1] | |||
| Producer | Bill Miller | |||
| June Christy chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [2] |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [3] |
This Time of Year is a 1961 Christmas album by American jazz vocalist June Christy, arranged and conducted by Pete Rugolo and released by Capitol Records.[4][5]
Christy's only Christmas album, it consists entirely of original songs, unusual for its time. The recordings bear a similarity of having a melancholy tone to the album, all composed by the husband-and-wife songwriting team of Connie Pearce and Arnold Miller.
AllMusic called the album "unjustly neglected," writing that it "is that rarest of things -- a winter concept album of all new material that can be listened to even when the holidays are over."[2]
Record collector Tim Neely, author of several Goldmine record collector guides, said in 2023 it was a "largely ignored Christmas album until the 1990s, when [The Merriest] became something of a staple on both easy-listening and jazz-oriented CD compilations. Even with that exposure, it didn’t really catch on."
CDs includingThe Merriest include:
- ”Ultra Lounge: Christmas Cocktails Part 2” Capitol 1997
- "A Swingin' Christmas" EMI Capitol Music 1999
- "yule b' swingin' too" Hip-O 2000
- "A Capital Christmas" Capitol Records 2018
