The Joy of Christmas/The Sound of Christmas

Ready for another seasonal stereophonic spectacular? We at Real Gone Music are finally making available another highly coveted pair of holiday releases from the “Living” family of artists! These ensembles were the brainchild of RCA’s groundbreaking producer Ethel Gabriel, who promoted the label’s highly successful Living Stereo series with a series of sumptuous, pristinely recorded albums—each credited to a group with “Living” in its name—aimed at a middle class eager to give their newly acquired stereo systems a workout. Having released two albums by The Living Voices, now we’re turning to the other two big names in the series, The Living Guitars and The Living Strings, for a pair of Christmas classics that will put even 21st century stereos through their paces! The 1969 album by The Living Guitars features some sizzling fretwork over drums and bass on a series of Yuletide medleys; it fits right into that late-‘60s easy listening-meets-jazz niche of Henry Mancini, Herb Alpert, etc. And the 1970 album from The Living Strings is just a flat-out orchestral Christmas masterpiece, with some electric bass and an occasional chorus subtly modernizing the lush sound of the strings. CD debuts on both albums, with liner notes by Joe Marchese and remastering by Maria Triana at Sony’s Battery Studios