Soul Christmas

Otis, Booker T., The Temptin' Temptations, Stevie & more

Happy holidays y’all. Where would we be without the Greatest Christmas albums of all time? From Elvis, Sufjan and Bing to Snoop, the Chairman of the Board, and Darlene Love, the tried and true classics of the holiday season remain, with an occasional new version of “Blue Christmas” or “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town,” making an exception to pulling out the original.

There’s a few soul and R&B collections that remain timeless, including Soul Christmas, originally released in 1968 on the Atco label. It’s been long out of print, however I came to this record as a young ten year old celebrating Hanukkah thanks to an uncle who was a big fan of Booker T. & The M.G.’s, Otis, and Clarence Carter, whose “Back Door Santa” still doesn’t get the cred it deserves. Oh yeah, the two King Curtis tunes on this include Duane Allman.

The Temptations’ Christmas Card - Released in 1970, this was the Temptin’ Temptations first holiday lp, finding original Tempts Eddie Kendricks, Dennie Edwards, Paul Williams, Melvin Franklin and Otis Williams. If you’re looking for David Ruffin, he had already left the band for a solo career in ‘68.

A Motown Christmas collection was released in September of ‘73. The double lp has been repackaged several times over the years, but when it was first released, it too was somewhat of a repackaging, taking 10 songs originally released on the Merry Christmas From Motown lp.

Bonus Christmas jams:

Not the very first James Brown Christmas album: that one - James Brown Sings Christmas Songs - came out in 1966. A Soulful Christmas, released in 1968, was followed by 1970’s Hey America, It’s Christmas. All three of ‘em can be found on James Brown’s Funky Christmas. Here’s number two for ya.

Finally, I figured I’d toss in this playlist I made a couple years ago for a friend that’s got some hip-hop and rap Christmas classics. Enjoy. Hope you get everything on your list. Happy Holidays, new year, etc.