Musical delights for Christmas

This happens every year from September up to Christmas time. With all that extra money just raring to be spent, all music artists with available materials rush out to get a new album out in the stores. It is time to get copies of the latest hits because Christmas is a time when we all feel free to indulge ourselves. It is also a time for nostalgia and nothing beats listening to the music we like while taking stock of past Christmases and the years when we felt they were the best times of our lives.

These albums may be by artists, new and young like American Idol finalist Clay Aiken. They may be by sensational new stars like John Mayer and Outkast. The established big sellers of the past few years like Dido and Dave Matthews. And best of all, these are by the biggest pop music stars of the past 30 or 40 years. Fondly referred to in the industry as "dinosaurs," these can be artists living or dead, Rod Stewart, As Time Goes By and Elvis Presley, 2nd to None. New recordings of old materials, Barbra Streisand’s The Movie Album and This Left Feels Right, Bon Jovi’s acoustic rehash of his hits. New albums with all new materials like Sacred Love by Sting or the usual greatest hits collection.

Whatever they contain, it is a fact that these albums make excellent Christmas presents and here are three dinosaur releases guaranteed to please the rockers in your gift list:

• Eagles: The Complete Greatest Hits by one of the biggest selling and most enduring bands from the ’70s. Pinoys just adore the Eagles. Watch local movies from the ’70s and you will surely find several of them made use of Hotel California in the soundtrack. This is not the group’s first compilation but this one does not only have the hits but also the Eagles best. Great too is the booklet that comes with the two-CD package. It contains personal reminiscences about every cut by Eagles Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Randy Meisner, Bernie Leadon, Don Felder, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit.

There are 33 cuts and the best of the lot are Hotel California, Heartache Tonight, The Long Run, Tequila Sunrise, New Kid in Town, Midnight Flyer, Lyin’ Eyes, Love Will Keep Us Alive, Desperado, The Last Resort, Take It to the Limit and because of the Season, there is also the band’s version of Please Come Home for Christmas.

• This Left Feels Right by Bon Jovi: How else would you describe an album by Bon Jovi which has titles like Wanted Dead or Alive and Livin’ on a Prayer but as a greatest hits collection? It is not. The latest from the rockers from New Jersey has 12 Bon Jovi chestnuts but all of the cuts are new acoustic recordings. Bon Jovi has joined the acoustic bandwagon in a big way by presenting pared down versions of its biggest hits. Time now to appreciate the group’s songwriting prowess. Songs do sound better when performed without a loud rock accompaniment. Time too to introduce Bon Jovi to the acoustic market. And time to once more fall in love with the music of one of the most commercially successful bands of all time.

Also included are Bad Medicine, Lay Your Hands on Me, You Give Love a Bad Name, Everyday, Born to be My Baby, Keep the Faith, I’ll Be There for You, Always, a lyrical Bed of Roses, and a beautiful It’s My Life, which is almost hypnotic.

• The David Gates Songbook by David Gates: Here is music by another pop icon from the ’70s and another big favorite among Pinoys. Gates is of course, also one of the most romantic composers of our time and his If is certainly one of the most beautiful love songs ever written. The album is sub-titled A Lifetime of Music and Gates, who personally put together the collection, has included tunes from his Bread era (If, Diary, The Guitar Man, Aubrey, Everything I Own, Make It with You), his solo years (Goodbye Girl, Lost without Your Love, Love is Always Seventeen) and some new ones, I Can’t Play the Songs, The Mustang, Mirror, Mirror and Find Me. Be they old or new, performed with Bread or David on solo, the songs spell magic, fitting testimonies to the art of a truly great songwriter.

There are now only 45 days to go until Christmas so better add these three CDs to the shopping cart.