Music / Merry Christmas from The Beach Boys

Unofficial bootleg cover art, using a mid-60s picture of the group.

Merry Christmas From The Beach Boys is a cancelled album by American rock band The Beach Boys. Its conception started before the recording of their M.I.U. Album and ended during the recording of that same album. It would have been their second Christmas album after The Beach Boys' Christmas Album from 1964.

Following the cancellation of their previous attempt at an album (the Broadway-flavored Adult Child), the band worked on two projects simultaneously, doing a lot of the recording at Maharishi International University, a meditation center located in Iowa. One was this album, which, since The Beach Boys' Christmas Album was such a perennial favorite, they expected to be well-received, while the other one was called California Feelin' (named after a song Brian recorded in 1974). They finished the Christmas album first, but dropped some of the newly recorded material in favor of "Child of Winter", originally recorded and released as a seasonal single in 1974, plus two previously unreleased non-Christmas songs: "Seasons in the Sun" (recorded in 1973) and "Michael Row The Boat Ashore" (recorded during the sessions for 15 Big Ones). But Reprise rejected it because Brian Wilson didn't contribute enough on it. So they finished California Feelin' , which included some of this album's songs with alternate, non-Christmas-related lyrics, then renamed it Winds Of Change after Brian asked them to remove "California Feelin'", then finally released it as the M.I.U. Album in late 1978.

Most of the tracks from this album's sessions were finally released on the 1998 compilation Ultimate Christmas (which also included all of The Beach Boys' Christmas Album), while other songs can only be found on bootlegs. "Seasons in the Sun" was released on the Feel Flows box set in 2021, but in a slightly different mix than the one that was going to be used on this album (the Feel Flows version lacks the vocal harmonies in the chorus).

Tracklist:

Side one

1. "Christmas Time Is Here Again"
2. "Child of Winter (Christmas Song)"
3. "Winter Symphony"
4. "Michael Row The Boat Ashore"
5. "Seasons In The Sun"
6. "Morning Christmas"

Side two

1. "Alone On Christmas Day"
2. "Go And Get That Girl"
3. "Santa's On His Way"
4. "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"
5. "Xmas Carol Medley"

Other songs recorded for the album are "Melekalikimaka", "Bells Of Christmas", "(I Saw Santa) Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" and "Santa's Got An Airplane".

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Principal Members:

• Al Jardine
• Mike Love
• Brian Wilson
• Carl Wilson
• Dennis Wilson

Merry Christmas from TV Tropes:

• Archangel Michael: The subject of "Michael Row the Boat Ashore".
• Black Sheep: "Seasons In The Sun".
  Goodbye Papa, please pray for me
  I was the black sheep of the family
  You tried to teach me right from wrong
  Too much wine and too much song
• Christmas Episode: Duh, although some songs have nothing to do with Christmas ("Seasons In The Sun" and "Michael Row The Boat Ashore" for example).
• Christmas Songs : Eight songs on the album are christmas-related ("Winter Symphony" is season-related while the rest of the tracklist ("Michael Row the Boat Ashore" and "Seasons in the Sun") doesn't mention christmas at all).
  • Played straight on "Christmas Morning":
  Children love to sing
  A Christmas song
• Cover Version: "Christmas Time Is Here Again" is a christmas version of Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sue".
  • Two classic christmas songs are covered on this album: Jimmy Boyd's "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" and Gene Autry's "Here Comes Santa Claus" which is part of "Child Of Winter". "Xmas Carol Medley" is comprised of classic christmas carols.
  • "Seasons In The Sun", an English version of the Jacques Brel song "Le Moribond", which Rod McKuen (who also wrote the adapted lyrics) first recorded in 1961. Terry Jacks of the Canadian group The Poppy Family convinced The Beach Boys to try an arrangement he concocted for it, with Jacks producing. When they decided not to release it, Jacks took the arrangement and recorded his own solo version, which became a massive hit. Jacks' version rewrites some of the lyrics and adds a new verse, but the Beach Boys stuck to McKuen's lyrics, which follow Brel's outline but softens his tone.
  • "Michael Row The Boat Ashore" is a slavery liberation song originating from the middle of the 19th century.
• Did I Mention It's Christmas?: "Go And Get That Girl" barely mentions Christmas and is more about getting a girlfriend when you have the occasion.
• Gratuitous Panning: Particularly evident on "Santa's Got an Airplane" (if you listen to the song in stereo, that is).
• Limited Lyrics Song: "Morning Christmas"
  Holy holy
  Halo glowing
  Candle burning
  Christmas evening
  Cold wind blowing
  Old Man Winter
  Inward glowing
  Outside snowing
  Morning Christmas
  Children love to play
  Children laugh
  Children love to sing
  A Christmas song
• One-Man Song: "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" (named after the archangel).
• One-Woman Song: "Go and Get that Girl".
• One-Word Title: "Melekalikimaka", though it really should be two words—Mele Kalikimaka is the English phrase "Merry Christmas" rendered in Hawaiian phonology, so the title as-is amounts to "Merrychristmas".
• Precocious Crush: "Christmas Time Is Here Again"
  She's so pretty but I'm so young
  When I'm sixteen I'm gonna have some fun
• Rearrange the Song
  • "Christmas Time is Here Again" would go back to its original form as a straight-up cover of Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sue" on the M.I.U. Album.
  • Dennis Wilson reworked the outro of "Morning Christmas" as "Common", one of the tracks planned for the Bambu album which eventually didn't get released.
  • "Melekalikimaka"/"Kona Coast" and "Bells of Christmas"/"Belles of Paris" were apparently both composed with two sets of lyrics (Christmas and non-Christmas) written simultaneously, and they worked on both versions at the same time. After this album got rejected, "Kona Coast" and "Belles of Paris" ended up on the M.I.U. Album.
  • "(I Saw Santa) Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" uses the same instrumental track from "Hey There Momma", a song intially recorded by the band for The Beach Boys Love You. This song remains officially unreleased to this day.
  • "Santa's Got an Airplane" is simply "Loop de Loop (Flip Flop Flyin' in an Aeroplane)", a song first attempted in 1968 that kicked around the Beach Boys camp for a while, with a new set of Christmas lyrics.
• Snowball Fight: "Child of Winter"
  I'm making a snowball
  That someone will throw
• Song Style Shift: "Morning Christmas" starts off as "Holy Night"-inspired chanting, then gets uplifting during its last minute.
• This Is a Song: "Alone On Christmas Day".
  Here's the message we are bringing
  In this little song we're singing
• Translated Cover Version: "Seasons In The Sun" is Rod McKuen's English version of the Jacques Brel French song "Le Moribond" ("The Dying Man").
• Truck Driver's Gear Change: On "Seasons In The Sun".
• Vacation Episode: "Melekalikimaka"
  For years I saved my pennies and planned it
  The great Pacific Ocean, we'll span it
  I wanna spend Christmas where I dig it the most in Hawaii
• Vocal Dissonance: Brian Wilson is unrecognizable yet credited as the "Grinch voice" on "Child of Winter".