Special Christmas Programming 

Modified: March 24, 2023

Artist: Elvis Presley
Release: RCA Victor UNRM-5697 Special Christmas Programming (LP)
Release Date: 11/1967

Track Listings: (click here to expand / collapse)

Side 1

Intro: Here Comes Santa Claus
Announcer (Buzz Benson)
Here Comes Santa Claus
Announcer (Buzz Benson)
Blue Christmas
Announcer (Buzz Benson)
O Little Town of Bethlehem
Announcer (Buzz Benson)
Mr. Robertson
Announcer (Buzz Benson)
Silent Night
I’ll Be Home for Christmas
Announcer (Buzz Benson)
I Believe
Announcer (Buzz Benson)
If Every Day Was Like Christmas
Announcer (Buzz Benson)
How Great Thou Art
His Hand in Mine
Announcer (Buzz Benson)
Background Music: I’ll Be Home For Christmas
Announcer (Buzz Benson)
Elvis: Special Christmas Message
I’ll Be Home for Christmas
Announcer (Buzz Benson)

Side 2

blank

unrm-5697-cover-side1unrm-5697-cover-side2

Cover: Front and back. The album is reported to have been released without a sleeve. There is an interesting note about this copy, it was found in New York in 1976 in a blue cover with the insert of the reel to reel tape glued on it. Nobody knows if it belongs to the record and who made it.1

unrm-5697-1967-side1-wlp

Disc: White label.2

Matrix number
Side 1: UNRM -5697- 1S (machine stamped) (Rockaway pressing)3

RCA’s Custom Recording Order4 instructs that label copy to Rockaway to be run on white label without logo. Ship all 25 copies in plain white inner sleeve to: George Parkhill – RCA Victor – 155 East 24th Street. The title and artist “ELVIS PRESLY SPECIAL CHRISTMAS PROGRAMMING” and “NOTE: RECORD IS ONE SIDE ONLY”.

This Special Christmas Programming album has a running time of 28 minutes 45 seconds on a single side of this two sided album. The other side is blank.

billboard 2012-1202 p33,000 Stations To Air Presley Yule Program

New York – More than 3,000 stations will broadcast an Elvis Presley Christmas radio program on Dec. 3 and 10. The half-hour program will include selections from his RCA Victor Christmas single “If Every Day Was Like Christmas,” two sacred albums and one Christmas album.

A spot announcement by Dale Robertson for Christmas seals also is part of the program. One minute has been left at the end of the program for local public-service announcements. Victor is supplying stations with special program kits containing a 7 1/2 – i.p.s. tape of the program plus a complete script with timings and a separate copy of the single. Being mailed separately are two four-color posters for store use and an ad mat for local tie-ins by dealers and radio stations. Trade and consumer advertising also is slated.

Stations carrying the program also will receive complete Presley disk and 8-track tape CARtridge catalogs, 100 Presley Christmas cards, 50 1968 Presley calendars, a package of Christmas seals, and handbills.

-Billboard Magazine, December 2, 1967, page 3.

Promotional Material
A black-and-white advertisement features Elvis’ Christmas and sacred album and single collection. Hear Elvis’ special radio program on more than 2,000 stations. Coast-to-Coast ~ Sunday, Dec. 3rd 1967 ~ Coast-to-Coast. Also on Many Other Radio Stations Sunday, Dec. 10th, Coast to Coast. 5

A 28-page booklet is a listing of the radio stations carrying Elvis’ 30-minute Christmas Special radio broadcast, and also promotes Elvis’ movie “Clambake”, three Christmas albums, and two albums of sacred music. Another page offers Seasons Greetings from Elvis Presley Music, Inc. and from Gladys Music, Inc., and the back cover is a holiday message from “Elvis and the Colonel.6

billboard 2012-1202 p45christmas-radio-spot-flyerx600

  1. Images and details from the collection of Christian (of France).
  2. Image from the collection of Christian (of France).
  3. Matrix numbers from the collection of Christian (of France).
  4. Flynn, Keith. “United States Discography (1960’s).” Keith Flynn’s Elvis Presley Pages. 23 March 2023.
  5. Elvis For Christmas, Billboard Music Week. December 2, 1967, p. 45.
  6. Elvis’ Christmas Special Promotional Booklet (1967). Heritage Auctions. August 14, 2012