BURNING THE GROUND HOLIDAY EXCLUSIVE
I couldn’t really figure out what to post for Christmas this year so I decided to put together a selection of tracks taken from two seperate Warner Brothers Christmas compilations. “Yulesville” (1987) and “Winter Warnerland” (1988). Most of the tracks were exclusive to these records at the time of their release. The selections that I chose are some of my favorites from these two records. I hope that they will become favorites for you too. Merry Christmas!
“We Three Kings” is a Christmas carol that was written by John Henry Hopkins, Jr. in 1857. Produced by the prodigious Flood, who has worked with artists such as Erasure and Depeche Mode, Book Of Love’s holiday offering is positively regal, and should whet the appetites of kings, queens and everything in between..
“Silent Night” performed by British synth-pop band Erasure who at the time had just released their LP “The Circus” added not only a Christmas message but their own Erasurized version of this holiday classic.
“Blue Christmas” is a Christmas song written by Billy Hayes and Jay W. Johnson and most famously performed by Elvis Presley. Former LEMMON KITTEN, Danielle Dax who at the time had just relesed her album “Dark Adapted Eye” which featured the UK smashes “Cathouse” and “Big Hollow Man”. recorded her version of “Blue Christmas” which is so good, it ought to keep Elvis from coming back for more…(oops, did I say that?)
“I Believe in Father Christmas” is a song by English musician Greg Lake with lyrics by Peter Sinfield. Canadian band Honeymoon Suite recorded the song exclusively for the “Winter Warnerland” compilation and it’s a beauty.
Both tracks taken from the original vinyl release.
YULESVILLE:
Book Of Love – We Three Kings 3:17
Producer – Flood
Erasure – Silent Night/Erasure Christmas 0:54
Producer – Erasure
WINTER WARNERLAND:
Danielle Dax – Blue Christmas 1:35
Producer – Danielle Dax
Recorded by Danielle Dax and David Knight
Recorded at Fortress Dax Studio
Honeymoon Suite – I Believe In Father Christmas 3:06
Producer – Honeymoon Suite
Engineer – Michael Sarracini
VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint
RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Warner Bros. Records – PRO-A-2896, Warner Bros. Records – PRO-A-3328
Format: Vinyl, 12″, Compilation, Promo, Red/Green Transparent
Country: US
Released: 1987/1988
Genre: Electronic
Style: Synth-pop, Alternative
CREDITS:
Engineer – Lee Herschberg, Marc Craue
Executive Producer – Greg Lee, Kevin Laffey
Mastered By – Bobby Hata
NOTES:
Taken from promotional compilation LP’s “YULESVILLE” and “WINTER WARNELAND”.
EQUIPMENT USED:
Turntable: Pro-Ject Debut Carbon (DC)
Cartridge: Ortofon 2M
Stylus: Ortofon 2M Bronze
Isolation: Auralex Acoustics ISO-Tone Turntable Isolation Platform
Platter: Pro-Ject Acryl-It platter
Stabilizer: Pro-Ject Record Puck
Phono Pre-amp: Bellari VP130 Tube Phono Preamp
Tube: Tung-Sol 12AX7ECC803-S Gold Electron Tube
Soundcard: ESI Juli@
Record Cleaning: VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine
Artwork Scans: Brother MFC-6490CW Professional Series Scanner
SOFTWARE USED:
Recording/Editing: Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Down Sampling: iZotope RX Advanced 2
Artwork Editor: Adobe Photoshop CS5
Click Removal: Manual
FLAC/MP3 Conversion: dBpoweramp
M3U Playlist: Playlist Creator
RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
MP3 (320kbps)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi
Loving the version of I Believe In Father Christmas. I’m a huge fan of Honeymoon Suite’s “imperial” phase (around their first two albums and almost including the Lethal Weapon theme) so it’s great to find a hidden gem from right around that time.
Thanks again Paul!
RIP, George Michael. Thanks for the music. Your songs made the world a better place.
George Michael Died. Today I was listening his song “Last Christmas”, and coincidentally he passes away on Christmas day. Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou (25 June 1963 – 25 December 2016) I love you forever GM.
R.I.P. George Michael. Damn 2016.
Damn. George Michael and Rick Parfitt in one Christmas. 2016 just keeps on giving…
Merry Christmas Dj PaulT! Here’s wishing you and your family a warm holiday. 🙂
Merry Christmas Paul!!
Paul T,
I hope you have the merriest of Christmases and am, along with so many here, thankful for the work you put in so that we can enjoy our favorite music again. Bless you and yours for many years to come!
CakeSaint
Wow, a very cool and unusual choice! I wish these kind of vintage releases were issued again on CD.
Been following this blog for some time, but never commented before. There have been so many brilliant 80s singles which you have painstakingly brought up to HQ scratch to be enjoyed again.
Hope you have a peaceful Christmas and New Year, and that your health is not too bad now.
Regards,
Eric.
Oh Paul, thank you for this incredible rip. I loved the Danielle Dax cover so much. And boy, the Honey Moon Suite did a glorious job covering ELP on their Christmas Classic. And Erasure and Book Of Love, I have goosebumps. Thank you again for playing Santa, our Saint Rip. You are a brilliant, talented and superior person and friend.
Jeff
P.S. I’m loving my Christmas Eve right now and it’s all because of you. Tremendous thanks and mad love Paul!!!!
Thanks, hombre. I’m a huge fan of Book of Love and Erasure, but the real treat here is Danielle Dax (one of my favourite artists), and I’ve never heard this track by her before. She’s another singer that I wish was still making music today. Her solo career was far too short. Anyways, thanks for all the great rips in 2016. You’re awesome! Have a wonderful Christmas, Paul. Best wishes in 2017!
Merry Christmas to you all. Hopefully,death will leave the entertainment world alone in 2017.
Merry Christmas everyone. Be with your loved ones and cherish your time together. Remember,
you do not know whether you will see them all again.
Enjoy.
Song_And_Dance
Hi Paul!! These are GREAT. Curious if you have Tommy Page’s “Christmas Without You” ripped from ‘Winter Warnerland’. One of my favorite songs from that promo record. We used to play many of those songs on KYMC in St. Louis back in the late 80s.
Hey Paul,
This is too cool… I hadn’t heard about Yulesville before. I have the Winter Warnerland and it’s GREAT! Any chance of getting the completed Yulesville posted? Please! 🙂
Oh thanks for the link Paul! You rock! (as always)
Hope you have a wonderful holiday! 🙂
Thank you for being the vinyl messiah. So many great tunes. Those warner compilations were pretty cool. I am sure you have been able to extract the maximum sound from the old slice of red vinyl. We lost some great musical figures this year, your site has been a great reminder of why we loved them.
Merry Christmas Mr. DJ Paul T.
-Joey
Joey, I loved what you said, calling Paul “the Vinyl Messiah.” I couldn’t put it any better than that. Have a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year too.
Jeff
I wanted to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas, thanks for being a musical Santa year round.
All my best for you this holiday season. Carl
Your new needle sounds great! Excellent sound on that Honeymoon Suite track.
Sorry to report there’s a glitch in We Three Kings, at 2:42!
Thx,
Buon Natale DJPaul!☺
Now this is such an excellent Christmas present Paul!! I had chills just seeing your great montage of the compilations!! Whoa!! I can’t believe you gave us Book Of Love’s “We Three Kings!!!” I just love their rendition of this classic carol. Book Of Love’s use of crystalline bells and keyboards with great production by Flood, it all takes me back. Really hyped about Erasure’s offering and Danielle Dax’s cover too. Man Paul, I can’t begin to thank you for this holiday offering and all that you give us everyday. Thanks ever so much for this sparkling release. I can’t… Read more »
Merry Christmas Jeff thank you for your friendship 🙂