Big Band Wonderland | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | September 14, 2015 | |||
Recorded | Kenilworth Studios | |||
Genre | big band | |||
Length | 39:33 | |||
Label | BOS Records | |||
Gary Williams chronology | ||||
|
Big Band Wonderland is jazz vocalist Gary Williams's eighth album, recorded in Kenilworth Studios in 2015. It is a collection of Christmas classics, recorded with full big band and featuring duets with Clare Teal and Michael Feinstein. More than half of the money for the album was raised with a crowd-funding appeal. [1]
This is how Williams described his love of Christmas: "I was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, so I didn't celebrate Christmas till I was sixteen years old. When all my mates where out singing carols I was sitting at home cataloguing my stamp collection! Maybe that's why I love Christmas so much now, I'm making up for lost time." [2]
His live Christmas show was given five stars by the London Evening Standard which described Gary as "…the UK's leading standard bearer for the supercool era". [3]
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" | 2:19 |
2. | "Mistletoe and Holly/Marshmallow World" (with The Patriot Girls) | 4:05 |
3. | "The Christmas Waltz" (with Clare Teal) | 2:47 |
4. | "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer" | 2:39 |
5. | "The Christmas Song" (with The Patriot Girls) | 2:42 |
6. | "Caroling Caroling" | 2:54 |
7. | "Snowbound" | 3:34 |
8. | "Let It Snow" | 2:13 |
9. | "(Everybody's Waitin’ for) The Man with the Bag" (with Michael Feinstein) | 2:30 |
10. | "Winter Wonderland" | 2:58 |
11. | "Sleigh Ride" | 2:34 |
12. | "Jingle Bells" | 2:15 |
13. | "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" (with The Patriot Girls) | 3:00 |
14. | "I'll Be Home For Christmas" (bonus track – download only) | 3:03 |
Total length: | 39:33 |
Performers
Technical
Big Audio Dynamite were an English band, formed in London in 1984 by Mick Jones, former lead guitarist and co-lead vocalist of the Clash. The band mixed various musical styles, incorporating elements of punk rock, dance music, hip hop, reggae, and funk. After releasing a number of well-received studio albums and touring extensively throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Big Audio Dynamite broke up in 1997. In 2011, the band embarked on a reunion tour.
The Beach Boys' Christmas Album is the seventh studio album by the American rock band the Beach Boys, released November 9, 1964 on Capitol Records. It contains five original songs and seven standards on a Christmas theme. The album proved to be a long-running success during subsequent Christmas seasons, initially reaching No. 6 on Billboard's Christmas LP's chart in its initial release and eventually going gold. Music historian James Perone wrote that it is "regarded as one of the finest holiday albums of the rock era".
Playback is a box set compilation by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, released in 1995. It contains popular album tracks, B-sides, previously unreleased outtakes, and early songs by Petty's previous band Mudcrutch.
Don't Mind If I Do is the fifth album by the British new wave band Culture Club, released in 1999 by Virgin Records. The album was released only in Europe and Japan, though some promo copies also circulated in Australia.
Malice in Wonderland is the eleventh studio album by Scottish hard rock band Nazareth, released in January 1980. After the heavy lurch of the previous album, the band chose to follow a more commercial path and the album produced the hit singles "Holiday" and "Heart's Grown Cold". This is the second and last studio album to feature guitarist Zal Cleminson of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band as a member of the band.
Tom Howard was an American pianist, musical arranger and orchestral conductor.
A Very Fine Love is the fourteenth studio album recorded by singer Dusty Springfield, and thirteenth released. Recorded in 1994 with producer Tom Shapiro and released on 20 June 1995 in the US and six days later in the UK. It was a Columbia Records release in both countries, and Springfield's first such simultaneous release since Living Without Your Love in 1979.
Cool Yule is a first holiday album by American singer Bette Midler. It was released on October 10, 2006, through Columbia Records. The album features many standard Christmas tunes as well as a reworking edition of her Grammy-winning hit "From a Distance". In 2008, Cool Yule was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album category.
Courteeners are an English band formed in Middleton, Greater Manchester, in 2006 by Liam Fray, Michael Campbell, Daniel "Conan" Moores and Mark Cuppello (bass); the last was replaced by the band's producer Joe Cross in 2015. They previously toured with pianist Adam Payne, who has been featured on every album, but in 2019 was replaced with Elina Lin. In December 2012, the band dropped "The" from their name, continuing simply as "Courteeners". In 2024, Cross and Lin became official members of the band.
American country music singer Glen Campbell released fifteen video albums and was featured in twenty-one music videos in his lifetime. His first two music videos, "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" and "Wichita Lineman", were directed by Gene Weed in 1967 and 1968 respectively. Campbell released his final music video, "I'm Not Gonna Miss You", in 2014 to coincide with the release of the documentary Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me.
Gary Williams is a British jazz singer, writer, broadcaster and photographer whose performances include concerts, cabaret shows, and theatre. Williams has recorded ten solo albums and written Cabaret Secrets, a book on stagecraft.
Big Bang are a British electronic music duo formed in 1988 by the founder of Trade nightclub, Laurence Malice, and writer Iain Williams. Based in London, the duo were signed to Swanyard Records and spearheaded the music genre known as big beat.
III is the seventh studio album by English pop band Take That. It is their first studio album since 2010's Progress and the first to feature the band as a trio, following the departures of Jason Orange and Robbie Williams. The album was released on 28 November 2014. According to Gary Barlow, the album's sound is an "amalgamation of the past eight years" of Take That material.
The Classic Christmas Album is a Christmas compilation album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on October 7, 2014, by Columbia Records and includes two 1961 recordings that were previously unavailable: "Ol' Kris Kringle" and the original version of the title track from his 1969 Christmas album Give Me Your Love for Christmas. Three other songs make their debut on compact disc as of this release, and two other non-album singles can be counted among the rarities here. The collection also includes a selection or two from several of Mathis's Christmas studio albums—"Sleigh Ride" from Merry Christmas, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" from Sounds of Christmas, "Calypso Noel" from Give Me Your Love for Christmas, "The Christmas Waltz" and "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" from Christmas Eve with Johnny Mathis, and "Home for the Holidays" from Sending You a Little Christmas—as well as his duet with Bette Midler from her 2006 holiday album Cool Yule, which was a medley of "Winter Wonderland" and "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!".
Gold: A 50th Anniversary Christmas Celebration is a compilation album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on September 19, 2006, by Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings. It includes selections from four of the first five Christmas albums that he had recorded: Merry Christmas, Sounds of Christmas, Christmas Eve with Johnny Mathis, and The Christmas Album. Two tracks that were recorded with other artists are also included: "O Tannenbaum", which comes from Mannheim Steamroller's 2001 album Christmas Extraordinaire, and a medley duet of "Winter Wonderland" and "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" with Bette Midler from her 2006 holiday album Cool Yule.
The Complete Christmas Collection 1958–2010 is a three-disc box set by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in 2015 by Real Gone Music under license from Columbia Records. The set includes Mathis's five holiday albums from the period in their entirety: Merry Christmas, Sounds of Christmas, Give Me Your Love for Christmas, Christmas Eve with Johnny Mathis, and The Christmas Album. It also compiles all of Mathis's holiday songs that were only released as singles, as well as thematically-appropriate tracks from his non-holiday albums: "When a Child Is Born" from I Only Have Eyes for You, the holiday version of "What a Wonderful World" from Let It Be Me, and his two recordings of "Ave Maria" from Good Night, Dear Lord, which bookend the set.
Wonderland is the eighth studio album by English band Take That. It was released on 24 March 2017 through Polydor Records.
At The Movies is the ninth album from jazz vocalist Gary Williams. Recorded at Kenilworth Studios in 2017, the album was originally intended to feature only Disney songs but was later expanded to cover songs from the movies. It was recorded with full big band and a jazz combo.
Treasure Seeker is the tenth album from jazz vocalist Gary Williams and his first as singer-songwriter. Recorded at Kenilworth Studios in 2018, all songs are co-written with Jonathan Nickoll. It was recorded with full big band and a jazz combo.
Legends is the eleventh album from jazz vocalist Gary Williams. Recorded at Kenilworth Studios in 2019, it is a tribute to the stars of Las Vegas including Tom Jones, Elvis Presley and The Rat Pack. It was recorded with big band and a jazz combo.