Unlike its boffo-but-befuddled stepsister, Rhino Records' Christmas Classics (read more), The Best Of Cool Yule (1989) suffers no identity crisis. Subtitled "A Collection Of Rockin' Stocking Stuffers," The Best Of Cool Yule compiles strange, wonderful, and rare Christmas rock. In fact, despite some overlap, The Best Of Cool Yule forms the perfect compliment to Christmas Classics' more conventional hit parade. While I wouldn't want to be caught dead without all the favorites from the latter disc, it's the obscure slices of insanity on the former that make Christmas music so fascinating and record collecting so fun.

Actually, The Best Of Cool Yule is a collection of highlights from two LP's that Rhino released during the mid-80's - the period when compact discs were being introduced. Originally, Rhino resisted the new technology, releasing abbreviated CD versions of their deluxe LP sets and series. Hence, the quintessential The Best Of Cool Yule - as good as it is - is somewhat less than the sum of its parts.

All the same, it's a gas. Thrill to the Marquees' jungle hijinks in "Christmas In The Congo"! Witness Tina Turner rip her guts out singing "Merry Christmas Baby," Charles Brown's formerly mellow classic! Travel down on the bayou with Brenda Lee in "Papa Noel," then hop on over to New Orleans where Huey "Piano" Smith & The Clowns celebrate "Silent Night" like it was Fat Tuesday! In addition, we get Solomon Burke's soulful, magnanimous "Presents For Christmas" and Dodie Stevens' "Merry Merry Christmas Baby" (1960), which was adapted from Joann Campbell's "Happy New Year Baby" (1958), which was itself adapted from the Tune Weavers' "Happy Happy Birthday Baby" (1957)!

Unfortunately, one track on Cool Yule is highly questionable. Rhino includes former Monkees Davy Jones, Mickey Dolenz, and Peter Tork's plodding 1976 version of "Christmas Is My Time Of Year" rather than the effusive 1968 original by Christmas Spirit. Christmas Spirit, you see, was a one-off group consisting of Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman (later Flo & Eddie) of the Turtles; erstwhile Byrd Gram Parsons and his brother Gene; a young-and-as-yet unheralded Linda Ronstadt; and (from the sound of it) anyone else who happened to be hanging around the studio. Kaylan cowrote the song, and the group released it on the Turtles' label, White Whale, in 1968. The record flopped miserably, and though it was preserved for posterity on Rhino's 1984 LP, Rockin' Christmas: The 60's, it has never been released on compact disc. Why Rhino used the Monkees' lackluster version here is a mystery....

Anyway, don't let this lapse in judgment deter you from searching down The Best Of Cool Yule. It's an all-time Christmas classic of (nearly) non-stop fun including several songs unavailable anywhere else. Though out-of-print, copies are relatively common on Amazon and elsewhere. [top of page]