The Story of Christmas

With the Swingle Singers' combination of remarkable vocal agility and virtuosity, peerless blend, and extraordinary arrangements, this recording was bound to be a winner. The "Carol Medley" is truly brilliant, combining six carols - sometimes more than one carol at once - with mind-boggling skill. "White Christmas" is another gem, set to sophisticated harmonies but never overly complicated in a way that could overwhelm this touchingly simple song. "Jingle Bells" is also astonishing, as are several other tracks on this CD. If you're a fan of great ensemble singing and outstanding arrangements, this recording is a must.

Very nice backdrop music for the entire holiday season! Very glad I purchased this one...my whole family enjoyed the peaceful harmony....even my tweens and teens!

An excellent album by this talented group of singers who, in one guise or another, have been in existence for fifty years. Many thanks Ward Swingle

Wonderful sound. Uniquely theirs

I absolutely love this album .It is a wonderful mix of classic traditional and hip jazz arranging . Buy it and please everyone!

The singing is clear and precise -- and it has to be, because these arrangements are full of innovative and challenging harmonies, especially "The Boar's Head Carol" and "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." It's all pretty, but it's not wallpaper music; your attention is rewarded, and you will keep noticing new aspects of familiar old tunes. There are also a couple of songs that were new to me: "And Is It True" and "I Believe in Father Christmas." Both have modern, sensitive texts that are worth thinking about (not just more sentimental drivel). The performances are sharp -- one thing I always appreciate about the Swingles is their balance. The melody is always there, and the rest of the (a cappella) accompaniment is perfectly distinguished. The renditions are sometimes bouncy ("We Three Kings") but always elegant.If you are familiar with this group only from their old "doo be doo" days, know that this album is different. They sing the words. However, I dearly wish someone would have the sense to re-issue (on CD) their doo-be-doo Christmas album of carols from around the world, recorded in the 1970s. It was a stunningly arranged gem, with tons of lovely, less-familiar tunes.

How do you 'jazz up' a Christmas hymn while maintaining reverence and respect, thus adding to tradition rather than detracting?Listen and learn. Great stuff.

I know I am preaching to the choir of any SS fans who are reading this, but the arrangement of Silent Night on this CD is simply the best I've heard. Each voice of the Octet is not only pitch perfect, but also at the right volume level. It's a joy to listen to, especially on the whole notes realizing that no one voice is dominating.

I would write pages and pages about this magnificent and astonishing piece of work if I could.I can't; I hardly know where to start. Anything I write will be foolish and inconsequential. The piece that I keep thinking about is "Oh come, oh come Emmanual". I wish I could...Because the words simply won't fit, I'll tell you instead of something similar. My family and I were in York. In that city, close to the Cathedral, is a great music shop. I think there is an entire floor devoted to vocal music... Instead of choosing anything from that section, my daughter went and found something for piano. Of course, I bought it for her because she was young, and smiled with her beautiful brown eyes, but honestly didn't realise what it was until it fell out of a shopping bag at home. It was a rearrangement of some well known hymns, and actualy written for organ. It stayed ignored until I was looking for something else and played the hymn on the first page out of curiosity. I'm not a good piano player, but this thing jumped at me. It started conventionally, yet seconds later I could not believe what the harmony had become, but played on. So subtle, so very clever, a twist here and there, and suddenly Old Hundred sounds like it is from another world."Oh come oh come Emmanuel" sounds like what - to hear it is to be astonished, to be played with, to be, for a short time, to meet a visitor or messenger from Somewhere Else. This arrangement preserves the tune perfectly, it is still something familiar, immensely moving, yet transformed almost out of recognition, and totally unexpected... yet perfectly logical and reasonable.Its almost like what Douglas Adams said about being drunk - you ask a glass of water!The whole CD is filled with these kind of topological and semantic transformations. It is tremendously disarming to have the hymns explained in this way, to see the old and the familiar, not distorted, or pulled around but in strange ways illuminated greatly.Quite a few carols are simply sung without dramatic changes. I mean this - I heard one of the ladies from the Swingle Singers talking about the group on the radio, and the means by which the shows were arranged and the various technical problems. To illustrate the difficulties in microphone placement, she sang something just there, from a piece they were working on by Handel. Oh my oh my. I thought I would faint. A bit like being hit over the head with a large gold brick.I wonder, was I always like this? Could music have hit me so hard when I was young? Did I know what beauty actually WAS?There you go, I still haven't said anything that makes sense. I'm ordering this again, maybe three or four times for friends. Maybe if I say that, it will convince you!