Glen Campbell has come a long way from his "Gentle On My Mind" and "Wichita Lineman" days in the '60s, and it's easy to forget just how big he was.
Campbell managed to straddle both the country and pop fields, partially because his music was so mainstream, but also because he was a darn good singer with good songs. His mass popularity and winning vocals also made him the obvious candidate to put out several Christmas albums.
Glen Campbell Christmas, issued in 2000 by Capital-EMI, repackages -- in the oddest of fashions -- a number of earlier recordings. The good thing is that most of these songs -- "The Christmas Song," "Pretty Paper," and "Christmas Is for Children" -- have been taken from
Campbell's classic (and best) holiday album,
That Christmas Feeling. What makes this important is that, as of the end of 2004, the album was out of print in the U.S. and hard to find as an import. So...there are at least seven excellent Christmas songs on
Glen Campbell Christmas. The others -- like "Silent Night" and "I Believe in Christmas" -- have been salvaged from latter-day, and much lesser, efforts.
Glen Campbell Christmas doesn't replace
That Christmas Feeling, but it's the next best thing until the older album is properly reissued.