Elvis Presley - O Come All Ye Faithful - From First Take to the Master - And Beyond

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Whilst Elvis' first Christmas album in 1956 titled simply "Elvis' Christmas Album" was an excellent collection of traditional carols, yuletide ballads and seasonal rock 'n roll his second from 1971 titled "Elvis Sings The Wonderful World of Christmas" was more a mixed back ranging from the sublime to the downright awful.
The album was themed more in the vein of the country leaning ballads that were in common with much of Elvis' studio output at the time and this is evident in songs such as "If I Get Home On Christmas Day" or "On Snowy Christmas Night". There were however songs which would have been better left unreleased such as "Winter Wonderland" which does not suit Elvis' 70's vocal or the awful version of "The First Noel" which is sung in too high a key as is heard at points where Elvis voice is so strained that he struggles to reach the highest of the notes. Much of the mediocrity pf the album is down to the all to obvious boredom that is apparent when listening to Elvis on this album although recording festive songs in a balmy Nashville May would not have helped with even the placing of a Christmas Tree in the studio in an attempt to create the correct mood seems to have been unsuccesful.
This being said there are some highlights on the album but none like the final master of "O Come All Ye Faithful" which fortunately with a wonderful arrangement, which seems to avoid the bombastic approach which was becoming all too common, manages to bridge the gap between traditional dirge and uplifting Christmas Carol. The beautiful soprano of Kathy Westmoreland coupled with the lovely orchestral crescendo make this the standout track on the album.
Since the release of the original there have been three re-recordings, two duets, of the songs and all seem pointless in there own way as they in no way enhance the original. The first of these was in 2008 for the "Christmas Duets" album which featured Olivia Newton John dueting on this song but somehow the arrangement sees her vocal placed over all of the best parts of the original.

The second was in 2013 and featured Scottish singer Susan Boyle, winner of the 2009 UK talent show "Britain's Got Talent", with a whole new arrangement and vocals besides Elvis'. The contrasting stature and pedigree of the two singers could not be more wide and had it not been released as charity single for "Save The Children" then it could quite justifiably be seen as the most cynical of money making ventures by Sony/RCA although if nothing else is further proof of Elvis' enduring popularity.
The third and final re-recording was that from 2017 as part of the final RPO collaboration "Elvis : Christmas with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra" an album which finally was finally killled the goose that laid the golden eggs as a venture too far and whilst the original was clever in where the orchestra was introduced and therefore had a build up to that lovely crescendo, this version saturates the song with strings from the get go and the result os a sickly mess which completely detracts from the song itself.

This video contains:
Take One (The Undubbed Master);
Take Two;
The RCA master;
The 2008 re-recorded duet with Olivia Newton John;
The 2013 re-recorded duet with Susan Boyle for "Save The Children";
The 2017 re-recording with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

As with all of these videos, to get the most out of the audio, I highly recommend you use ear /headphones and turn the volume up as much as you dare!