A Bobby Helms Christmas (EP)

Though Bobby Helms recorded country and easy listening material through much of his career, his most enduring hit was 1957s "Jingle Bell Rock," an upbeat and easygoing Yuletide tune that added a light rock & roll rhythm to a lyric of wintertime fun. The song was a Top Ten hit the year it was released, and it would return to the charts in time for the Christmas season four more times, later going on to become a hardy perennial on Top 40 and oldies radio in the last month of the year. A Bobby Helms Christmas is a seasonal EP that includes his original recording of "Jingle Bell Rock," its 1957 flip side "Captain Santa Claus (And His Reindeer Space Patrol)," and two more holiday numbers Helms recorded in the 1960s, "The Bell That Couldnt Jingle" and "Those Snowy, Glowy, Blowy Days of Winter" (a good-natured parody of Nat King Coles hit "Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer"). The EP closes out with a 2024 remix of "Jingle Bell Rock" by producer and mixer Ryan Riback, giving the classic tune an updated electronic pulse while retaining Helms original vocals. ~ Mark Deming