🎧 Album Details
Artist: Elvis Presley
Album: Elvis’ Christmas Album
Released: 15 October 1957
Label: RCA Victor
UK Chart: 2
US Chart: 1
Produced by: Steve Sholes
File Under: Christmas / Rock ’n’ Roll / Cultural Moment
🎧 Listening Status
Returning favourite… with caveats.
This one gets dragged out every December whether I’m in the mood or not.
Surprisingly before this morning, I’ve not dug it out.
Some years it hits perfectly. Other years it feels like it’s looming over the room in a slightly judgmental way.
Desperately trying to feel like it’s Christmas but the foul, rainy, depressing Manchester weather is making that task nigh on impossible.
But, soldiering on listening to festive efforts back to back!
Right now? I admire it more than I enjoy it — but I’d miss it if it wasn’t there.
💾 Context
This isn’t just a Christmas album — it’s the Christmas album, whether you like it or not.
I didn’t grow up with Elvis in the house, but this record feels like it’s always existed. It’s embedded in the culture. Shops, films, TV, Christmas compilations — you absorb it by osmosis.
Coming back to it now, what strikes me isn’t nostalgia so much as how serious it is. This isn’t Elvis having a laugh or knocking out festive fluff between movies. He’s fully committed.
Almost reverent. Which, depending on your mood, is either powerful or a bit heavy-handed.
🔊 The Sound
This album splits cleanly in two. And I love albums split in two!
Side one is full-throttle, church-door-open, stained-glass Christmas. Big hymns. Big voice. Big intent. Elvis sings like Christmas matters, and he’s determined to make sure you know it does.
Side two loosens up a bit — still traditional, but warmer, more human. Less pulpit, more fireside. Tinged with gospel leanings. Something Elvis was to explore a lot throughout his career.
Excellent back up vocals from The Jordanaires as always.
The production is clean but of its time, and Elvis’s voice is already inching toward that rich, rounded peak that would define his best work.
Living with this album feels like being told to sit up straight… then being allowed to relax slightly afterwards.
Hard to believe he was only 22 when this was recorded. Sounds like the work of someone much more mature and older. A far cry from the rock n roll he was producing at the time.
Which, for me, makes it all the more better.
⭐ Standout Moments
- “Santa Claus Is Back in Town” – Still brilliant. Swaggering, bluesy, and the closest this album gets to rock ’n’ roll mischief.
- “Blue Christmas” – The obvious one, but for good reason. Lonely, restrained, and genuinely affecting.
- “White Christmas” – Elvis plays it straight, almost too straight, but the sincerity carries it.
- “Silent Night” – Beautifully sung, but it does feel like the room goes very quiet very quickly.
You can admire the ambition while quietly wishing for a bit more looseness here and there.
🎵 Sound Bite Summary
Elvis’ Christmas Album works because Elvis takes it seriously — maybe too seriously at times. It’s not cosy background music or novelty nonsense; it’s a statement. It lasts because his voice is undeniable.
As the album draws to a conclusion, the content is more gospel than Christmas but if your in the mood, this section is as thrilling as the more traditional songs on showcase.
It matters because it set the template that everyone else has been trying (and mostly failing) to escape ever since. I don’t always want to live with it — but I wouldn’t want Christmas without it lurking somewhere in the background.
The Listening Log 
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