Christmas with the Everly Brothers and the Boys Town Choir

For their Christmas album, the Everly Brothers opted for the most traditional approach possible, enlisting the help of the Boys Town Choir and the Boys Town organ in Omaha, NE. The 33-member choir gets co-billing on the disc, and they earn it. They have two songs, "Away in a Manger" and "Angels, From the Realm of Glory," entirely to themselves, and they sometimes dominate the tracks they share with the Everly Brothers, who often seem to check in during the middle of the song for only a chorus. Don Everly is heard without his brother on "What Child Is This?," then leaves the spotlight to Phil Everly for "O Little Town of Bethlehem." But the Boys Town Choir backs them up regardless. One might have hoped for something livelier in a holiday collection from the Everly Brothers, but that does not detract from a release that takes a "choir boy" approach in more ways than one. [The 2005 reissue adds one bonus track, "The First Noel."] ~ William Ruhlmann