The remainder of Ultimate Christmas is a blast, but the songs are cut from a completely different cloth - specifically, the eclectic California rock that typified the Beach Boys during the 1970's. Brian's "Child Of Winter (Christmas Song)" is perhaps the best song of the bunch, and it was actually released as a single - very briefly - in 1974. The rest of the songs were intended for a second Christmas album in 1977, but the band's label at the time (Warner Brothers) rejected the idea, leaving the tracks to languish unreleased for years. Like many Beach Boys records from this period, most of these tracks were pieced together from disparate sources. "Christmas Time Is Here Again," for instance, uses the backing track from the group's cover of Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sue" (ultimately released on M.I.U. Album, 1978). "Santa's Got An Airplane" uses the instrumental portion of "Loop De Loop" (1969) - another song that gathered dust for decades (find it on Endless Harmony, 1998).

Of these fascinating, sometimes goofy tracks, Dennis Wilson's "Morning Christmas" (recorded in much the same style as Pacific Ocean Blue, his 1977 solo album) is the most surprising - unusual, inventive, gorgeous. Brian's "Winter Symphony," on the other hand, is easily the weirdest (albeit affecting) song of the bunch, an unsettling, minor key meditation on watching the world pass by. Ultimate Christmas concludes with some ephemera like the group's 1977 Christmas toy drive PSA for an Oregon radio station. But, it adds up to a consummate view of the holiday recordings of one of rock's greatest groups - absolutely invaluable.

Consumer notes. Ultimate Christmas was repackaged and reissued in 2004 as Christmas With The Beach Boys minus an essential track, "Christmas Time Is Here Again." Still great, but I'd recommend chasing down the original. Also, beware the many, many budget-priced Beach Boys Christmas CD's floating around the market. They may be cheaper, but they are uniformly inferior to Ultimate Christmas, which is well worth any price. [top of page]