The Christmas Spirit
Occupation
- Johnny Cash, vocals, guitar
- Luther Perkins, lead guitar ( electric guitar )
- Marshall Grant, Bass
- W. S. Holland, drums
- Grady Martin, guitar
- Jack Clement, guitar
- Bob Johnson, flute
- Bill Pursell, Piano
- Hargus Robbins, organ
- Maybelle Carter autoharp
- Anita Kerr, organ
The Christmas Spirit is the 17th studio album of the American country singer Johnny Cash. It was released in November 1963 on Columbia Records and was produced by Don Law and Frank Jones.
Having already recorded two albums with religious Hymns by Johnny Cash and Hymns from the Heart, The Christmas Spirit was his first Christmas album. Surprisingly, it took on the Billboard pop charts in seventh place and thus was a great success, although it did not receive good reviews.
Content
The album is a mix of his own compositions and known standards. Cash himself wrote next to the title song still The Gifts They Gave, and We Are the Shepherds. Together with June Carter, he wrote Who Kept the Sheep. Ringing the Bells for Jim was a collaboration with Jan Howard, who had co-authored with June Carter and Christmas as I Knew It. A further piece titled Here Was a Man composed cash together with Tex Ritter.
The following are standards such as Silent Night, Blue Christmas and Little Drummer Boy. Furthermore, the two classic poems set to music Cash Ballad of the Harp Weaver by Vincent Millay and I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, which had been adapted for Cash by John B. Calkin.
Title list
Chart success
The album was number 7 on the Billboard pop album charts. The single Little Drummer Boy was first published in 1959 and had reached rank 24 at the time of the single- country charts.
Reviews
In allmusic.com the album received only two out of five stars. Peter Hogan wrote in his compact Johnny Cash manual story and songs on the disc that nothing essential is to find and this not even for listeners that collect Christmas albums. He is particularly critical of the background singers and terrible arrangements in songs like Blue Christmas.