1963- "All I Want For Christmas Is You"

.....This single actually has two originals, so we'll lead with the A-side.

• 02:00 "ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU" ([A.C.] Williams)
• 02:40 b/w "GEE WHIZ, IT'S CHRISTMAS" ([Carla] Thomas, [Steve] Cropper, [Vinnie] Trauth)
• performed by Carla Thomas
• original source: 7" Atlantic 45-2212 (US) 12/63
• and my source: VACD THE ORIGINAL SOUL CHRISTMAS Rhino/Atlantic and Atco Remasters Series R2 71788 (US) 1994

.....Carla Thomas is the daughter of soul and R&B legend Rufus Thomas, but while Rufus was a master of dance crazes and innuendo Carla became an artist in her own right with more straightforward mainstream hits while still in her late teens. These tracks were recorded on September 26th, 1963 in New York City for producer Jim Stewart, who had worked with Cropper when producing Booker T. and the MG's. 1963 was a great year for Christmas pop music with the Beach Boys' "LITTLE SAINT NICK" and albums from the Miracles and the Spector artists. This fine entry probably would have been lost in the crowd had the B-side not been a call back to a familiar hit from two years earlier. The A-side is the more solid tune, even if a little spare in this first recording. The actual running time on the 1994 CD I cited above 1:41; the time of 2:00 that I gave above is from the original vinyl's label (visible at Discogs and 45cat). The label also provides only last names of the composers, hence my use of the brackets in the notation. A.C. Williams was a long time Memphis, Tennessee disc jockey with strong connections to the music community there. It was on a label closer to home, Stax, that Carla Thomas issued a rerecording of the song:

• 02:50 "ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU" (A.C. Williams) [version 2]
• 02:53 b/w "WINTER SNOW" ([Isaac?] Hayes)
• performed by Carla Thomas
• original source: 7" Stax S-206 (US) Nov. 18, 1966

.....All I really know about "WINTER SNOW" is that Booker T. released a single by that name in 1968, two years after a Christmas album that didn't include it. I guess that's something to look for next year. The new A-side opens with a string section not on the original and has a slower tempo. Thomas is also displaying much greater control over her voice, taking some lines down almost to a whisper (counter to intuition for us non-singers, that's actually more difficult to sing at than the volume of a normal speaking voice). The lyrics are exactly the same, following a A-B-B verse order. Unfortunately, neither version made it onto VALP SOUL CHRISTMAS Atco Records SD33-269 (US) Nov. 8th, 1968. Instead, "GEE WHIZ, IT'S CHRISTMAS" closes its first side. Years later when the tracks from the first single were licensed to King Records for a seasonal reissue (7" King GG4816 (US) 1979), "GEE WHIZ, IT'S CHRISTMAS" became the A-side. It also became her default contribution to holiday various artists' albums with at least two notable exceptions.

.....In 1991 producer Yves Beauvais, then director of the Atlantic and Atco Remasters division at Warners, took advantage of the greater capacity of compact discs to compile the more ambitious 65 minute VACD SOUL CHRISTMAS Atlantic 7 82316-2 (US) 1991. This brought together the 1963 B-side "GEE WHIZ, IT'S CHRISTMAS" with the 1966 A-side "ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU"[version 2]. This must have prompted some kind of reaction from purists because only three years later the same division released a CD [refer to my notation at the top of this post] restoring the original program and artwork of the 1968 VALP SOUL CHRISTMAS, adding new liner notes and three bonus tracks, but calling it THE ORIGINAL SOUL CHRISTMAS. One of the bonus tracks was the original 1963 "ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU", reuniting it with its B-side for the first time on an album.