Quantcast

Call for Feature Essays About Any Aspect of Popular Culture, Present or Past

Music
cover art

Tony Bennett

Snowfall

The Tony Bennett Christmas Album

(Sony; US: 25 Sep 2007; UK: Available as import)

Tony Bennett is a classic, and this latest reissue of his Christmas album Snowfall does nothing to hurt, nor particularly enhance, that reputation. Originally released in 1968, Snowfall is a lovely bit of crooning, running the gamut from the joyous (“Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town”) to the reflective (“Snowfall”). The addition of a couple of those peripherally-related songs that weren’t actually meant as Christmas songs but have come to be known as such, like “My Favorite Things” and “Where is Love” add a little bit of variety, and the whole thing is over in half an hour, before Bennett’s excessive vibrato and slippery style has a chance to grate on you. This 2007 reissue adds a bonus DVD with a few selections from the long out-of-print video Tony Bennett: A Family Christmas, though generally, the visuals don’t add too much to Bennett’s distinctive stylings. The DVD could only be called essential if you’re an archivist. Still, if a previous iteration of Snowfall has never found its way into your Christmas collection, now’s as good a time as any to correct that little oversight.

Rating:

Mike Schiller is a software engineer in Buffalo, NY who enjoys filling the free time he finds with media of any sort -- music, movies, and lately, video games. Stepping into the role of PopMatters Multimedia editor in 2006 after having written music and game reviews for two years previous, he has renewed his passion for gaming to levels not seen since his fondly-remembered college days of ethernet-enabled dorm rooms and all-night Goldeneye marathons. His three children unconditionally approve of their father's most recent set of obsessions.


Tagged as: tony bennett
Media
Tony Bennett - Santa Claus is Comin' to Town (Live on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, 1996)
Related Articles
16 Dec 2011
The Classic Christmas Album offers a compelling case that 40 years of constant performances and near-universal adulation haven't dulled his skills at giving the people what they want.
10 Aug 2011
On this collection of gems from his short-lived 1970s label, an aging Bennett sounds both reinvigorated and wistful.
By Mark Stryker
21 Apr 2009
4 Dec 2008
Tony Bennett releases his first holiday album in 40 years and it's worthy of becoming a holiday staple.
Comments
Now on PopMatters
A Painting Come to Life: 'The Mill & the Cross' (Short Ends and Leader) [Fri, 4:00 pm]
A Far Too Safe... and Strained... 'House' (Short Ends and Leader) [Fri, 9:00 am]
'Safe House' Is Ersatz Edgy (Reviews) [Fri, 8:06 am]
The 10 Greatest Shakespeare Film Adaptations of All Time (Short Ends and Leader) [Fri, 7:50 am]
  1. 'Nebraska': Bruce Springsteen's 'Heart of Darkness' (Columns)
  2. The 10 Greatest Shakespeare Film Adaptations of All Time (Short Ends and Leader)
  3. Slipped Discs 2011 - Part 1: From 13Ghosts to Friendly Fires (Features)
  4. The Best Games of 2011 (Features)
  5. Not-So-Central Casting: Kevin Smith and the Birth of the Reality Podcast (Features)
  6. The 10 Greatest Movie Spies Ever (Short Ends and Leader)
  7. Slipped Discs 2011 - Part 2: From the Go! Team to the Phoenix Foundation (Features)
  8. Slipped Discs 2011 - Part 3: From Real Estate to Youth Lagoon (Features)
  9. Lana Del Rey: Born to Die (Reviews)
  10. The Top 15 Madonna Singles of All Time (Sound Affects)
  11. Get Off of My Cloud!: 'Collecting' Music in the Digital Age (Features)
  12. Leonard Cohen: Old Ideas (Reviews)
  13. Google and the Production of Curiosity (Marginal Utility)
  14. Carole E. Barrowman’s Authorial Journey to Hollow Earth (Features)
  15. “Don’t Let Me Fall”: Hip-Hop in the Age of Austerity (Features)
  16. Tower Songs: Townes Van Zandt (Columns)
  17. Black Bananas: Rad Times Xpress IV (Reviews)
  18. The Gay Ole Countryside (Columns)
  19. Paul McCartney: Kisses on the Bottom (Reviews)
  20. Of Montreal: Paralytic Stalks (Reviews)
  21. Counterbalance No. 67: John Coltrane’s 'A Love Supreme' (Sound Affects)
  22. The 10 Best John Coltrane Solos (Sound Affects)
  23. Nick Cave’s The Death of Bunny Munro: A Rock Star’s Midlife Crisis or Valid Literature? (Features)
  24. A Look to the Past, An Insight Into the Present: The Use of Gender in 'Mad Men' (Features)
  25. A Tale of How Great Journalism Became Revisionist History: Grambling State U Football (Columns)
  26. Chairlift: Something (Reviews)
  27. Mark Lanegan Band: Blues Funeral (Reviews)
  28. The Asteroids Galaxy Tour - "Heart Attack" (Cosmic Kids Remix) (PopMatters Premiere) (Mixed Media)
  29. The Barbaric (and Poetic) Yawp of Shelby Lynne (Notes from the Road)
  30. After Cease to Exist: The Far-from-Final Report of Throbbing Gristle (Features)
PM Picks
Music Archive
Announcements

© 1999-2012 PopMatters.com. All rights reserved.
PopMatters.com™ and PopMatters™ are trademarks
of PopMatters Media, Inc.

PopMatters is wholly independently owned and operated.
PopMatters is a member of BUZZMEDIA Music, MOG and Guardian Select.