Holiday vinyl may not have the appropriate dimensions to fit neatly into most stockings. It can, however, still make for a memorable gift for the record collector or hobbyist old enough to appreciate the physical format, but young enough not to have entirely abandoned the season’s spirit.
And yet, with decades of releases to sort through, picking the most essential wax inspired by the most wonderful time of year can get a little tricky. But fear not, the Complex Shop has been topped up with dozens of festive and funk-fueled frequencies. And we’ve gone through the inventory to hand-pick a grip of noteworthy selections so that this Christmas (word to Donny), you can give the gift that keeps on spinning.
Check out the best holiday vinyl in the Complex Shop below.
Various Artists, Motown Christmas 1’s
For Motown, soul is more than a seasonal bag-grab event. It’s the spiritual and commercial core of an innovative and iconic banner cashing checks on decades of classics all year long. That said, the label has a number of Christmas albums and compilations worth exploring under their belt (some of which you’ll see reissued below.)
Their latest, Motown Christmas 1’s, houses four sides of holiday hits. But it might be worth the tag along for the inclusion of a pristine version of Marvin Gaye’s “I Want To Come Home for Christmas,” a marvelous, miraculous, and confoundingly overlooked cut in the singer’s grailed Christmas catalog.
Boyz II Men, Christmas Interpretations
Should there be any doubt as to Boyz II Men’s strength of spirit—holiday, holy, or otherwise—it might be worth revisiting Christmas Interpretations.
Opting for uncommonly inventive original arrangements and semi-secular spins on venerated staples of the season, the 1993 holiday album technically serves as the group’s sophomore studio outing, and it accomplishes what few albums of its kind has in decades prior or since, presenting material clearly inspired by Christmas that you might willingly return to well after the tree comes down and all the leftovers are gone.
The Temptations, "Give Love At Christmas"
As one of the Detroit label’s earliest signees, The Temptations are one of few groups on Motown with more than one Christmas entry in their catalog. In October of 1970, they got way out ahead of the holiday when they released their funk-fueled, yet borderline conventional, The Temptations Christmas Card.
But when they sent up season’s greetings ten years later, the group offered more than just a sequence of staling standards. On Give Love At Christmas, you’ll hear a pair of familiar interpolations pulled from their previous collection, but also crucial covers of The Jackson 5’s “Give Love on Christmas Day,” Donny Hathoway’s “This Christmas,” and more.
The Jackson 5, Christmas Album
If there is such a thing as a GOAT-ed holiday project, The Jackson 5’s Christmas Album is surely amongst them. In fact, it might as well be the final boss in the battle for seasonal supremacy. Hitting the golden ratio of overly commercial to categorically classic compositions, The Jackson family’s Christmas collection is an essential pick-up at any time of the year, but maybe especially the most wonderful one.
The Beach Boys, The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album
Before The Jacksons and their labelmates came to rule the holiday season, The Beach Boys had a claim of their own to the crown. In 1964, Brian Wilson, Mike Love, and the gang snapped out of their surf-rock stupor and demonstrated just how tall and intricate their vocal stacks could get on The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album. Containing some tediously crafted, master-class level harmonies and song structures built for and around traditional pop balladry, this one could, and probably should, find a home in the collections of any music theorists on your shopping list who might look past a tried theme and hear it for how absolutely wild these vocal configurations are.
Chuck Berry, “Run Rudolph Run”
Whether for pure novelty or just a worthwhile and quirky white elephant selection, you’d be remiss to sleep on this grinch green pressing of Chuck Berry’s “Run Rudolph Run.” Aside from holding the loose and light-footed Christmas recalibration of the 12-bar blues riff Berry popularized with his hit “Johnny B. Goode,” the 7-inch reissue is adorned with an eye-catching illustration of the duck-walking godfather of rock merrily and mightily riding the back of a sleigh on its sleeve.