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Phil Spector is featured at GQ.com for April 30, in the magazine’s daily look back at stylish men and women.

The following is an excerpt from an interview with Mike Ragogna at The Huffington Post:

Why do you think A Christmas Gift For You has become one of the most cherished holiday albums of all time?

Phil Spector: Because I turned Christmas songs into real music. This album made what was just once a year songs into year round songs. I really wanted to show that Christmas songs were really beautiful songs written for anytime of the year, and could be sung by anybody anytime of the year. I wanted to make masterpiece songs and prove a point that Christmas music was great music. I made each song like a hit record. I was not just making music that would be here today and gone tomorrow. I truly believed this about every record I made. That it was going to be elevator music and department store music. That I was going to be the Irving Berlin of tomorrow and I had to think of the future. That I was not just making music for today but for tomorrow. Philles Records’ moto was “tomorrows music today.” It was on each record jacket.

La La Brooks: I think Phil loved Christmas. It was a special holiday for him. The music on the album was so commercial that it will last for all time. He made the arrangements very “hip.” He put an upbeat spin on some of the more traditional songs. A lot of those songs were for an older generation; Phil recorded his for all generations.

Read more at The Huffington Post.

The album A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector is celebrating its 50th anniversary with another holiday commercial. “Marshmallow World” by Darlene Love is featured in the new Cadbury Christmas commercial “Unwrap Joy.” Watch the clip below!

PHIL SPECTOR’S 1963 ALBUM IS NOW CONSIDERED A HOLIDAY CLASSIC

In 1963, Phil Spector released his first and only Christmas album, A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector. The album, in which he incorporated his legendary Wall of Sound into Christmas standards using his roster of popular artists from his Philles label, marks its 50th anniversary this month. The album has become a Christmas classic. In fact, it is often cited as Beach Boy Brian Wilson’s favorite album of all time. The album features vocal performances from The Crystals, The Ronettes, Darlene Love, Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans.

First released on November 22, 1963, the same day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, the album did not fare well and peaked at No.13 on Billboard magazine’s special year-end, Christmas Albums sales chart. Its low ranking was in part due to a moratorium placed on rock music during this time of national mourning. Spector adored President Kennedy and had even visited the Kennedy White House. With the whole world in mourning, Spector himself concluded that this was no time to promote a merry Christmas album, and pulled his masterpiece from the marketplace. Original pressings are scarce and collectible today.

However, the album eventually became a seasonal radio favorite especially after its reissue on Apple records in 1972, peaking at No. 6 on Billboard magazine’s special year-end Christmas Albums sales chart, its highest chart ranking ever. It grew in popularity and eventually, 50 years later, it is considered to be a seasonal favorite. Several of its tracks have become iconic Christmas songs for generations, most notably, Darlene Love’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” which ironically was the first single released in 1963.

A Christmas Gift for You also occupies a special place in rock history because it marked the first time that teenagers were able to study the names of the players who worked on many of Spector’s productions at Gold Star Studios. Known behind the scenes as “The Wrecking Crew,” many of these names became established artists in their own right within a few years. Credit went to Jack Nitzsche as arranger, Larry Levine as the Gold Star studio engineer, and the Johnny Vidor Strings.

The horn section comprised “Teenage” Steve Douglas (saxophone), Jay Migliori (saxophone), Roy Caton (trumpet), and Louis Blackburn. On guitars were Tommy “Arbuckle” Tedesco, Bill Pitman, Irv Rubins, and Nino Tempo. Ray Pohlman and Jimmy Bond played bass. Keyboards were listed as Leon Russell, Don Randi, and Al Delory. Sonny Bono, Frank Kapp and Jack Nitzsche were the percussionists. On drums was the legendary Hal Blaine, a charter member of “The Wrecking Crew.”

The release history in the U.S. of A Christmas Gift for You is part of the album’s mystique. After the original Philles issue in 1963, the Beatles’ Apple edition in 1972 actually hit the Top 10 in Billboard. The first stereo mastered LP was issued in 1974, on the Warner/Spector imprint. CBS Records even released the album once, via its Pavilion associated label in 1981. Rhino went back to the mono mastering when it issued the record on CD for the first time in 1987. Two years later, a new mono version of the CD appeared on Allen Klein’s ABKCO Records, which kept the title in print until 2007, when EMI Music Publishing took control of the Philles catalog, as the next – and most eagerly anticipated – phase of the Philles story began to take shape in partnership with Sony Music, which reissued the album in 2009.

A CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR YOU FROM PHIL SPECTOR
(Phil Spector Records/Legacy 88697 59214 2)

1. White Christmas – Darlene Love
2. Frosty the Snowman – The Ronettes
3. The Bells of St. Mary – Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans
4. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town – The Crystals
5. Sleigh Ride – The Ronettes
6. Marshmallow World – Darlene Love
7. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus – The Ronettes
8. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer – The Crystals
9. Winter Wonderland – Darlene Love
10. Parade of the Wooden Soldiers – The Crystals
11. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – Darlene Love
12. Here Comes Santa Claus – Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans
13. Silent Night – Phil Spector and Artists