Ah, this is jingle bell rock the way it's supposed to be, with driving guitars, splashy drums, and full stereo separation. The Ventures' Christmas Album just might be the best rock & roll holiday record ever made. The instrumental twang kings deliver pretty much what you'd expect--note-for-note renditions of standards, all dressed up with ubiquitous sleigh bells as well as the requisite reverb. What really makes this disc a blast though is the way the quartet weaves 1960s pop signatures into every tune; warping "Woolly Bully" into "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," "I Feel Fine" into "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," and so on. Spin this and let your party guests have fun guessing which hit single will morph into a Christmas classic. --Michael Ruby