ALL EYES ON WHAT MAKES A GREAT CHRISTMAS ALBUM: Record Executive Jay Landers 'Weighs-in' with Richard Jay-Alexander

Jay Landers has been a record executive ever since I can remember. He grew up around the music business, as his Dad, Hal Landers was somewhat of a legend in the biz. Yes, by all means, GOOGLE away! I first met Jay, while he was at Columbia Records, when we recorded The Original Broadway Cast Recording of FIVE GUYS NAMED MOE.

Here, in his own words:

"Faithful friends who are dear to us, gather near to us once more," the immortal lyrics to "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas," written in 1944 by Hugh Martin & Ralph Blane are an apt way to describe the very best holiday albums. Like relatives we're happy to visit with once a year (and relieved when they leave!), we gravitate towards the same thirty or so yuletide staples we've grown accustomed to spending time with each December.

With so many recording artists drawing water from the same well, when it comes to Christmas albums, the qualities that separate the insipid from the inspired, are as follows: the careful balance of familiar repertoire - secular and spiritual - the occasional new song that stands easily amidst the evergreens, the occasional non- holiday song recast in a holiday setting, and most important of all, well-conceived arrangements that allow the singer to express themselves in ways that make us feel, understand, believe and dream. While recording artists reinvent this familiar repertoire to make it their own, I'm always wary of arrangements that trivialize the original intent of the songwriters.

As a music aficionado who has overseen the creation of quite a few Christmas albums (once dubbed by an acerbic colleague as "The Jew who saved Christmas"), this balance is something I'm consciously aware of in the Christmas albums I study for inspiration, and is a quality I'm always striving for in my own productions.

Perusing the 1,025 Christmas tracks in my personal iTunes library on this rainy L.A. morning, I'm struck by the fact that only a small percentage hold up as stand-alone albums - meaning collections that are completely satisfying to listen to from beginning to end. More often than not, I find myself enjoying individual tracks from these albums and then making my own compilations - so I'm providing two lists - one of my favorite full-length LPs and the other my favorite individual recordings.

- Jay Landers
Los Angeles, California December 20, 2013