LES FRADKIN: Spirit Of Christmas

Les Fradkin

Spirit Of Christmas

© 2006 RRO Entertainment (634479335280)

CD IN STOCK. ORDER NOW. Will ship immediately.

SPECIAL: 10% discount if you buy more than one copy of it today!

(About MP3 downloads at CD Baby)

A Jangle & Chime Rickenbacker 12-String Christmas. 9 BRAND NEW Christmas tunes, 2 Beatles Holiday oldies AND the Roy Wood fave. If you love the Beatles, The Beach Boys and Phil Spector, you'll want this. On RRO-"The Sound Of Your Digital Lifestyle"

notes

FEATURING THE SMASH HIT:
"Christmas Vacation"

Every year, so many people say they wish they could hear sone brand new Christmas songs. Well, here they are.... and as a bonus, you'll get new covers of George Harrison's "Ding Dong, Ding Dong", John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" and Roy Wood and Wizzard's "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday." Get them as part of the CD, digital downloads or mp3's.

Les' Rickenbacker 12-String Guitar jangles and chimes throughout this holiday disc packed with big Beach Boys style harmony vocals guaranteed to please "Pet Sounds" and "Beach Boys Today!" fans.

Les' new songs for Christmas include some done in a Beach Boys/Brian Wilson meets Joe Meek and Phil Spector style ("Say You Love Me For Christmas", "Jangle Bells", "Hello Christmas, Goodbye Year"), a Beach Boys meets Roy Orbison styled "The Spirit Of Christmas", an Edison Lighthouse and White Plains British Pop styled "My Baby Loves Christmas", a Jangleholic meets Jimmy Buffett exploration on "Christmas Vacation", the Les Fradkin and Raven Kane collaboration and Procol Harum influenced "A Christmas Gone Too Soon" and the song Les and collaborator Diana Haig originally wrote for The Drifters- "There Won't Be Christmas This Year....an anthem for the men and women in the Armed Forces of the USA.

For those people who love "A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector" and Rickenbacker jangle, here's Something new for Christmas!

You can download "The Spirit Of Christmas" (the whole CD or individual songs at Apple iTunes:

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playListId=167740120

"Give More for Christmas with Les!"

A BIT OF BIO:

Les Fradkin is one of the guitar legends of the 1970's. As well as being a veteran member of The Original Cast of Beatlemania, he has found success as a recording artist, composer and producer with MGM Sunflower, ESP-Disk', Bell, Arista, RCA, and Laurie Records. Les has written the well known French hit "La Chansons Des Souvenirs" ("Song Of A Thousand Voices") for the famous Mireille Mathieu. He has played 12 and 6-string Guitar, Bass, Mellotron, and Piano on dozens of Top 40 hit records throughout the early 1970's , scoring many US and UK chart placings throughout his career.

His 12-string guitar, vocals and production with legendary underground psychedelic folk- rock group,The Godz, resulted in several albums for ESP Disk among which "Pass On This Side" (featuring Les' song "God Bless California"), continues to influence and mentor generations of new musicians to this day.

In 1976, Les was selected over thousands of other auditioning guitarists to appear in the original cast of the smash hit Broadway musical "Beatlemania" playing lead guitar and the part of "George Harrison" in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago. Running for two and a half years from May 1977 thru October 1979, every show (including over 1200 in New York alone) was sold out and the musicians quickly became celebrities with magazine cover stories ("Newsweek","Time", "People", "Rolling Stone") and many major television show appearances. With his guitar-playing in the international spotlight from the show, Fradkin developed a cult following that has avidly followed his career and made him a celebrity among guitar fans.

He has enjoyed chart success on the net as well with his songs reaching mp3.com's 1 position 16 times! New Gandy Dancer Rock Magazine named Les' CD "A Day At The Beach" it's 2004 Album Of The Year. In addition, Les has performed with The Ventures as 2nd Lead Guitarist. Nokie Edwards of The Ventures has performed with Les on several occasions and is a featured guest on his "While My Guitar Only Plays" CD. In fact, Les has been acknowledged as a guitar virtuoso for over 30 years and he has been featured in issues of 20th Century Guitar Magazine, Pipeline and New Gandy Dancer Magazines.

Today, Les has released 15 solo CD's on his RRO Entertainment Indie label and has had over 300,000 downloads bringing him several substantial hits on Apple iTunes and other download sites across the Internet.

reviews

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  • author: Per-Ake Pettersson

    Very good and fun!

  • Search this out!!
    author: Mistletunes

    This felt so familiar on first listening that I assumed it was mostly covers, but no, seven tunes are by Les and Loretta Fradkin and two more are co-written with Les by Raven Kane and Diana Haig. The three covers are the Roy Wood and John Lennon classics plus the rarely covered "Ding Dong" by George Harrison. What's really familiar is the 70s pop-rock pomp, a Spectoresque wall of sound channeled through Jeff Lynne's mixing board. I had the feeling that Les was a one-man band kind of guy, and it turns out I was right, but what I didn't know was that he had a long pedigree in the business, working with everyone from Edison Lighthouse to the Godz (yes, the ESP Disk Godz), and a long stint in "Beatlemania" as George to boot. By the way, Edison Lighthouse was part of a continuum of late 60s-early 70s top 40 hits done by Flying Machine, Brotherhood of Man and White Plains. And you could easily justify this disc based on the nice job he does on the aforementioned songs, but his originals like "Say You Love Me For Christmas," "Christmas Sleeps Tonight," "Hello Christmas (Goodbye Year)," "Jangle Bells" and the lightly Caribbean-flavored "Christmas Vacation" argue for you to search this out at Not Lame, iTunes or CDBaby.

  • Pulsing pop/rock excitement!
    author: Carol Swanson from Christmasreviews.com

    Les Fradkin delivers pulsing pop/rock excitement in Spirit of Christmas, a rollicking collection of largely original holiday tunes. This is music in the vein of the Beach Boys and the Beatles; in fact, the Beatles contributed two tracks (Happy Xmas (War Is Over) by John Lennon, and Ding Dong, Ding Dong by George Harrison). The mood is brightly rockin', and the beat will have you bouncin' in your chair, if not gyrating on the dance floor. Spirit of Christmas opens well with I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday. The memorable chorus hangs with you long after the cut ends. Fradkin's own numbers are equally memorable--his Say You Love Me for Christmas, for example, had me singing the refrain the first time through. Christmas Vacation (no relationship to the National Lampoon holiday film classic) is another terrific Fradkin creation; its wonderful steel pan island vibe will transport you to the tropics in December. The Beatles' numbers are especially fine. George Harrison's Ding Dong, Ding Dong adds another dimension entirely. Although I am a big fan of the Beatles' work, both as a group and as separate artists, this number was unfamiliar to me. It's "Ring out the old, ring in the new; ring out the false, ring in the true" phrasing was a fun discovery. Fradkin's voice shines on Happy Xmas (War Is Over), especially on the opening bars. He also provides expressive vocals on the ballad A Christmas Gone Too Soon. Generally speaking, I wish the vocals had been given more prominence on this recording. The stars, however, tend to be the instruments--mostly, the Rickenbacker guitars. And Fradkin certainly knows how to milk those instruments for all they are worth! Les Fradkin's Spirit of Christmas is a strong choice for those who crave creatively-penned holiday romps with a 1960s flair. Very nice!

  • The perfect stocking stuffer gift!
    author: Eric Sorensen, Fufkin.com

    Spirit of Christmas - twelve jangly tracks brought to you by none other than … Les Fradkin! Mix some holiday spirit with lots of chiming guitars, Les’ sonic production techniques and a dash of Phil Spector’s “wall of sound” … and you’ve got the perfect stocking stuffer gift for your Boomer pals.

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