ALL EYES ON WHAT MAKES A GREAT CHRISTMAS ALBUM: Record Executive Jay Landers 'Weighs-in' with Richard Jay-Alexander

Jay Landers has been a record executive ever since I can remember. He grew up around the music business, as his Dad, Hal Landers was somewhat of a legend in the biz. Yes, by all means, GOOGLE away! I first met Jay, while he was at Columbia Records, when we recorded The Original Broadway Cast Recording of FIVE GUYS NAMED MOE.

Jay is an enormous fan of Broadway and all its denizens and has done many Broadway Cast Albums, but he has also worked with every great star of our time in every category of music.

It was Jay who suggested to Barbra Streisand and Marty Erlichman that they meet me, which happened back in 1994. I had met Barbra socially, while I was in AMADEUS, with Amy Irving, back when Amy got cast in YENTL. We had a lovely dinner at Orso, along with Cis Corman and I couldn't have imagined back then what the future might bring.

Jay Landers is a 'human jukebox' and wealth of knowlege and he and I have done many projects, worked with many of the same artists, both together and individually, written various and sundry Liner Notes and even written some songs together.

We are a perfect compliment of worlds and background and constantly go back and forth with each other on information and exchange of ideas. Most of all, Jay Landers has, what I would call, impeccable taste!

This year, as I was pulling out the Holiday Music and Christmas Albums, I noticed how many of them had his name on them, either as A&R, Producer, Exceutive Producer, etc. and I called him to tell him as such and we got to talking and I actually asked him if he would share with (ALL OF) us, what makes a GREAT Christmas Album.

Here, in his own words:

"Faithful friends who are dear to us, gather near to us once more," the immortal lyrics to "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas," written in 1944 by Hugh Martin & Ralph Blane are an apt way to describe the very best holiday albums. Like relatives we're happy to visit with once a year (and relieved when they leave!), we gravitate towards the same thirty or so yuletide staples we've grown accustomed to spending time with each December.

With so many recording artists drawing water from the same well, when it comes to Christmas albums, the qualities that separate the insipid from the inspired, are as follows: the careful balance of familiar repertoire - secular and spiritual - the occasional new song that stands easily amidst the evergreens, the occasional non- holiday song recast in a holiday setting, and most important of all, well-conceived arrangements that allow the singer to express themselves in ways that make us feel, understand, believe and dream. While recording artists reinvent this familiar repertoire to make it their own, I'm always wary of arrangements that trivialize the original intent of the songwriters.

As a music aficionado who has overseen the creation of quite a few Christmas albums (once dubbed by an acerbic colleague as "The Jew who saved Christmas"), this balance is something I'm consciously aware of in the Christmas albums I study for inspiration, and is a quality I'm always striving for in my own productions.

Perusing the 1,025 Christmas tracks in my personal iTunes library on this rainy L.A. morning, I'm struck by the fact that only a small percentage hold up as stand-alone albums - meaning collections that are completely satisfying to listen to from beginning to end. More often than not, I find myself enjoying individual tracks from these albums and then making my own compilations - so I'm providing two lists - one of my favorite full-length LPs and the other my favorite individual recordings.

- Jay Landers
Los Angeles, California December 20, 2013