As is common with albums, not every song is going to make the cut. The Beach Boys made two Christmas albums. The first, The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album, was released in 1964. The second, Merry Christmas from the Beach Boys, was never released. Some of its tracks, the first album, and some other Christmas works were released in 1998 on the Ultimate Christmas compilation album. With one exception, all of these tracks were cut during the Merry Christmas sessions and most were likely intended for the album. They didn’t make the cut and turns out the album didn’t either. It made Ultimate Christmas, so they can now be enjoyed.
“Santa’s Got an Airplane”
This is another silly song. Merry Christmas featured some, but I guess there was a limit. We once more cover an absurd premise of Santa Claus needing to get a better ride. The whole group sings on the track and very well… except for Mike Love, but it’s easy to ignore him. It’s a shame, because everyone else has energy and spirit in their voices, but Mike drops the ball. It’s almost like they really want you to know that Santa’s got an airplane. They sing lines like “Fly Away!” in a spirited and warm way. It helps paint the picture of the story. Their voices are raised, as is Santa, because he’s in the sky. The instruments serve a very small role in the song, but they’re not really needed. This song works well carried by its vocals. Perhaps the easy to miss instruments are easy to miss as they were recorded in 1969. Why not rerecord them so they match the ‘77 vocals better?
“(I Saw Santa) Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”
The instruments and lead vocals work well. Al Jardine does a good job of expressing the song with his singing. This is imaginably due to him co-writing the piece. The lyrics aren’t great by any means, but they are written in a way where they can be sung well. The song’s interrupted by spoken word from Al’s kids, Matt and Adam Jardine. They do kill the pacing, but the use of them provides a little more Christmas spirit.
“Melekalikimaka” (aka “Kona Christmas”)
I was banging my head on my hand for part of this one. It’s the sum of the faults of the band at this point. How am I going to spend Christmas? By surfing of course! and in Hawaii. It’s stupid, but not in a fun way. This song’s almost depressing. Since the 60’s, the group has tried to hold onto relevance in the culture. One way this is done is by doing throwbacks to old songs that were successful, like their surfing songs. You can tell there’s no passion or care here. This is a bunch of pandering garbage, once again sung by uninterested Mike and it’s not worth anyone’s time.
“Bells of Christmas”
This song is once again standard, alright vocals and instruments, but there’s an interesting aspect to the piece. Biblical references are frequently brought up. There’s many references to God throughout the Beach Boys’ discography. This song is one of the expressions of that. I was surprised that Brian Wilson didn’t write this one as he seems the most interested in this element of life. These first four songs have all featured Al in a writing and lead vocal role, though he usually shared with others. I wonder if he was interested in the subject of Christmas or perhaps there’s another reason. Some of these songs aren’t as bad as some that made it on the main track listing. On Merry Christmas, only two songs feature an Al writing credit. Why was he writing so many of these songs and then they weren’t featured? The group could’ve used some of this stuff. Al seems to care the most about this album of the lot, based on his songwriting and singing. Overall, no one seemed very interested in the Christmas project, so why even bother?
“Toy Drive Public Service Announcement”
Here’s some more actual creativity. In this short ditty, the band is telling people that some kids don’t have toys due to a lack of money, so bring your’s to “Crystal Ship”. However, they aren’t saying it… they’re singing it. Someone might listen to this on the radio, think it’s a normal song, and perhaps get inspired to help. The Beach Boys do well when taking a little concept and playing with it. One problem that may be the fault of the recording I heard is that some of the lyrics were difficult to make out. A big criticism for many of their Christmas songs is that there’s little about them to differentiate them from any other Christmas song. Here, their charm is making this their own… and it’s just a little PSA.
“Dennis Wilson Christmas Message”
This piece is similar to “Auld Lang Syne” from Christmas Album. The whole gang’s singing, only for that to shift into background noise so Dennis Wilson can do spoken word. He’s telling us to donate toys so kids can get them. A.) We already did this last song and B.) Dennis’ voice is so creepy. Due to all the drug and alcohol abuse, his voice is raspy and dry. In “Auld Lang Syne”, his voice was much nicer to listen to. Maybe the group wanted to uphold that tradition. For the sake of the album, why not get Al or Brian to give this message as their voices are a lot softer and friendlier. Brian sounds like your nice grandpa. The background music wasn’t too bad, though it’s very hard to hear (by design) for most of the piece. I wouldn’t mind hearing it without the Dennis part.
“Brian Wilson Christmas Interview”
I was looking forward to the one non-70s track for this whole Christmas excursion. Hopefully, Brian would give some interesting insight. When I finally reached it, I was disappointed as it’s just Brian having a quite boring conversation about their 1964 Christmas album. This seems like standard promotional material that comes with albums and movies. However, near the end, Brian talked about The Four Freshman briefly. Despite how briefly he was on the topic, it was so nice hearing Brian give love and praise to a band he loves so much. He called them, “one of the greater vocal influences in the world”. This is a good way of contextualizing Brian and maybe this whole band. They wear their influences on their sleeves.
OVERVIEW
Christmas albums are hard to pull off in general, but The Beach Boys certainly didn’t do the concept justice in the 60s or the 70s. There are some good ideas, but they are unrealized and rushed typically. It makes for a difficult listening experience.