Glitzy, ostentatious, overindulgent and thoroughly warped by the clammy hand of commercialism - Elvis and Christmas go together rather well.
Listening to Elvis inevitably comes with an unfortunate dash of irony - he's just been lampooned too many times for both his fashion excesses and singing style not to seem slightly cartoonish. But cut through all the hubris and the man still had a glorious voice. Tender, raucous, pleading, defiant, playful, devout - it's all there.
Elvis' Christmas Album originally came out in October 1957 and featured a religious and a secular side. Despite the controversy just a year earlier when the Ed Sullivan show would only broadcast pictures of Elvis from the waist up, his choice of traditional songs such as Silent Night and Oh, Little Town Of Bethlehem caused scarcely a stir.
The same could not be said for his cover of White Christmas, however, which composer Irving Berlin lambasted as a 'profane parody', despite the fact that Elvis' version drew heavily on The Drifters' take on the song, which had come out three years ealier.
Berlin (a Russian Jew) rated White Christmas as one of his finest works, reportedly telling his secretary in 1940: "I want you to take down a song I wrote over the weekend. Not only is it the best song I ever wrote, it's the best song anybody ever wrote."
The public certainly agreed - Bing Crosby's version has now sold north of 50million copies, making it the most popular single of all time. Though a few of those may have been by people simply determined to stop Achy Breaky Heart from taking that particular accolade.
Elvis' Christmas Album was a solid seller at the time but it didn't get the cash registers jingling at full pace until 13 years after its originally release when RCA Camden put out a budget version that ditched the 4 gospel songs (Peace In The Valley, I Believe, Take My Hand Precious Lord and It's No Secret), added the 1966 single If Every Day Was Like Christmas and then padded out the running order with the 1970 B-side Mama Liked The Roses, a maudlin song about his dead mother than isn't in any way festive.
Despite the reduction from 12 to 10 songs and the rather slapdash way it was put together, the RCA Camden reissue proved massively popular, going on to sell 9million copies.
As well as finishing with the gloomy Mama Liked The Roses, the LP also starts with a cover of Ernest Tubbs' 1949 country hit, Blue Christmas. However, Elvis and the Jordanaires gave this tale of pining for a loved one at Christmas a few rock'n'roll embellishments that hint of good times just around the corner. If you want a gloriously maudlin version of Blue Christmas, head straight for Low's Christmas LP.
Silent Night is another song previously cover by Crosby, and Elvis gives it a beautifully devout reading, his voice at its most softly angelic.
Following the controversial take on White Christmas, Elvis decided the time had finally come to really rock out with Santa Claus Is Back In Town, one of two original numbers on the album. Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who had previously supplied him with Jailhouse Rock and Don't, as well as writing Hound Dog for Big Moma Thornton, apparently knocked the song together in minutes in the studio and Elvis rips through it gleefully, revelling in the sly innuendo lurking in the lyrics.
I'll Be Home For Christmas is yet another tune popularised by Crosby, particularly hitting a note with servicemen based overseas and their families. Twelve months after releasing his own version, Elvis was drafted into the army himself.
Side 2 starts with If Every Day Was Like Christmas, a towering slice of smaltz given a Phil Spector-style Wall Of Sound production job that betrays the fact that it was recorded nine years later than most of the other songs.
Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane) is a jaunty take on an old Gene Autry hit from 1947, Elvis again tipping his stetson to his old country heroes.
A respectful take on Oh, Little Town Of Bethlehem is followed by a perky new number, Santa, Bring My Baby Back (To Me), written by Claude Demetrius and Aaron Schroeder, the latter of which also wrote It's Now Or Never, A Big Hunk O'Love and the theme tune to Scooby-Doo.
Despite Mama Liked The Roses providing a slightly odd finale, Elvis' Christmas Album still nags you into repeated plays. It's less than 25 minutes long but still manages to cover rock'n'roll, country, blues, traditional seasonal songs and some old-school crooning. Just like that tin of Quality Street you've got in for the holidays, it's hard not to keep dipping in. After all, if you accidently pick a Toffee Penny you can soon follow it with a Strawberry Cream to get rid of the taste.
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