The Smiley Smile Message Board

I just got a copy of "Christmas Album", the old CD with the four bonus tracks.  Most of it's fine, but the vocals on track 1 ("Little Saint Nick") are ATROCIOUS!  Sounds like someone scrunched the tape into a ball before they transferred it...

Is every copy of that version like that??

No one?  Andrew???

Been a while since I listened to that particular CD - I'll dig it out later.

For what its worth, I have a 97 Japanese version with 5 bonus tracks, 3 of which are LS Nick. All are good although No15 done in a 'At The Drive In' style is just a bad version IMO.

That's the first thing I noticed when I bought my copy of that edition about twelve years ago.  The vocals have a real garbled sound, especially on the intro.  I haven't heard the more recent edition that includes the 70s Christmas tunes, but I assume it must be better with all the stereo remixing and such.

Another thing that bugged me was that even though the liner notes claimed that everything except three of the bonus tracks was in stereo on that 1991 cd, all the songs between LSN and Frosty were still mono.  I understand the newer cd remedies this problem.

Oh good, at least it's not just me. :-)  Oh well, maybe I'll come across the 'Ultimate' version at some point.