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List Price: $9.99 | | Label: Columbia
Salesrank: 3408
Released: October 10, 2006 |
| Our Price: $2.49 |
| Used Price: $2.41 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Cool Yule Track Listing:
1. Merry Christmas
2. Cool Yule
3. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
4. Winter Wonderland/Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!; Winter Wonderland\ Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Featuring Johnny Mathis
5. I'll Be Home For Christmas
6. What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?
7. I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm
8. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
9. Mele Kalikimaka
10. From A Distance
11. White Christmas
Editorial Review:
She smiles, she sizzles, she coos, she swings. So goes the lively and completely charming Christmas record by the cheeky Divine one. There's never a note out of place, a chart too excessive, or the sentiments too sentimental. Plus Midler's tasty stable of producers and arrangers have packed the big band and stringed arrangements with their own musical warmth against Midler's smart song choices and contagious vocal performances. Cool Yule mixes the standard traditional pop pieces--like Steve Allen's snappy title track, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," and "I'll Be Home for Christmas"--with the sole hymn, "O Come, O Come, Emanuel." But nobody's picking up this stocking stuffer because they want to go to church. Bette's got merrymaking on her mind more than anything else. Her duet with Johnny Mathis on "Winter Wonderland/Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" is as much fun as her "From a Distance (Christmas Version)" is a somber and sobering antiwar statement. How she can move from sounding girlish and playful to sophisticated and jazz-smart in the space of one note to the next may not be supernaturally inspired, but it sure is fun to hear the joyful sounds she makes. From her lips to your ears, you gotta love it. --Martin Keller
Cool Yule Reviews:
An excellent Christmas album 
2009-09-08 - Containing a mix of familiar and less obvious material, ballads and up-tempo songs, this album has something for everybody The booklet contains liner notes including comments from Bette in which she acknowledges the passing of her long-time producer Arif Mardin. So it seems that she had to find a new producer for this album, but the quality of this album shows that Robbie Buchanan was an able replacement.
The set opens with a lovely slow song titled Merry Christmas, then explodes into life with the rousing, joyful Cool Yule, followed by the very familiar ballad Have yourself a merry little Christmas. Johnny Mathis joins Bette for a playful medley of Winter wonderland / Let it snow let it snow let it snow, which they have a lot of fun with. Next comes the reflective I'll be home for Christmas, one of best Christmas ballads there is. After this Bette sings another fine ballad, What are you doing New Year's Eve?, which isn't strictly about Christmas but it's close enough. In any case, I'm not sure that that there are enough New Year songs to compile an album of them.
The next ballad, I've got my love to keep me warm, mentions December and snow but not Christmas. Nevertheless, it's most welcome here. Bette follows this song with O come o come Emmanuel, the only religious song here. After all those slow songs, the tempo picks up again for Mele Kalikimaka, the Hawaiian Christmas song normally associated with the Andrews sisters. Of course, this isn't the first time that Bette has recorded one of their songs. Two very familiar songs close the album, these being the Christmas version of From a distance (not that different from the original, though the differences are noticeable) and White Christmas, which includes the oft-omitted first verse setting the scene in Beverley Hills.
Overall, this is an excellent Christmas album that Bette clearly enjoyed recording. One wonders why it took her so long to record a Christmas album, but whatever the reason, it was worth the wait.
Cool Yule
2009-03-06 - I played this at many Christmas parties and always had great compliments on the music. What an incredible talent! Thanks for speedy shipping.
This is an awesome, inspiring, fun-filled CD.
2009-01-18 - You can't go wrong with this CD. Mele Kelikimaka is one of the best I've ever heard.
Still the best!
2008-11-01 - Halloween is barely over, I am listening to Christmas music already. I heard this cd back last year. Nice collection of music genres in this christmas cd. Enjoyable to the ear. Tis the season to be relaxing, not getting freaked over shopping.
One of my Holiday Favorites!!
2008-09-23 - The Divine Miss M has created yet another stunning piece of work! You hear all the wonderful colors of her voice in this album. From the jazzy Cool Yule to the somber O Come Emmanuel. This is definitely one of my favorite Christmas albums!
