'' We Three Kings'' is an album by the folk trio
the Roches, released in 1990. It is a collection of Christmas songs.
The sisters wrote two of the album's 24 tracks.
''We Three Kings'' is considered a classic of unconventional Christmas music.
MCA Records allowed the album to go out of print; it was reissued by
Rykodisc in 1994, after the label had signed the trio. For years, the sisters performed selections of the songs at their annual
Bottom Line
In business and accounting, net income (also total comprehensive income, net earnings, net profit, bottom line, sales profit, or credit sales) is an entity's income minus cost of goods sold, expenses, depreciation and amortization, interest, a ...
shows.
Production
The album was produced by the Roches and
Jeffrey Lesser. It marked a return to the sisters' roots, as they had first sung together as carolers in Manhattan. Due to their familiarity with the carols, the sisters did many of the songs in one take. ''We Three Kings'' was recorded in New York City during a July 1990 heat wave; the sessions were slightly delayed while Maggie Roche got over laryngitis.
Most of the tracks are sung a cappella; it took the Roches six weeks to obtain the vocal strength to get through "
For Unto Us A Child Is Born".
[ "Star of Wonder", written by Terre Roche, was composed after a friend died in the Lockerbie bombing. Suzzy Roche wrote "Christmas Passing Through". " Winter Wonderland" is sung using stereotypical New Jersey accents; "Frosty the Snowman" employs a chorus of children. Other songs incorporate elements of Middle Eastern music and Caribbean music.
]
Critical reception
''The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
'' thought that "the avant-garde folkies play it pretty straight this time out, using their sisterly harmonies to wade through a generous selection of Christmas favorites." ''Newsday
''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and f ...
'' stated that the Roches "adorn two dozen yuletide standards with their trademark harmonies, skating vocal figure-eights around each other with the navigability of Dancer, Prancer and Vixen."
The ''St. Petersburg Times
The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single ...
'' deemed the album "wonderful listening" and "an instant classic." '' The Boston Globe'' determined that "the sometimes silly sisters take their tongue out of their collective cheek and come up with a classic." The '' Windsor Star'' noted that "''We Three Kings'', while containing the obvious, is definitely not-so-obvious in its arrangements."[
AllMusic wrote that "when they put their formidable vocal chops to work on tunes as potentially complex as 'Angels We Have Heard on High' and 'The Holly and the Ivy',' the results can be as gorgeous as they are unique."][ '' The Times'' called the title track "lushly gothic, augmented with a tender oboe and, yup, restless country guitars ... The swooning 'Oooohh' that leads up to the chorus is utterly thrilling." The '' Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' deemed it "a perfect showcase for the trio's crystal-clear harmonies and offhand humor."][ Reviewing the 1994 reissue, the '' Rocky Mountain News'' opined: "No doubt about it: ''We Three Kings'' may well be the best holiday album of the year."]
Track listing
# "Break Forth O Beauteous Heavenly Light"
# " For Unto Us A Child Is Born"
# " Angels We Have Heard on High"
# "Deck the Halls
"Deck the Hall” is a traditional Christmas carol. The melody is Welsh, dating back to the sixteenth century, and belongs to a winter carol, "Nos Galan", while the English lyrics, written by the Scottish musician Thomas Oliphant, date to 1862.
...
"
# "Christmas Passing Through"
# " Sleigh Ride"
# "Away in a Manger
"Away in a Manger" is a Christmas carol first published in the late nineteenth century and used widely throughout the English-speaking world. In Britain, it is one of the most popular carols; a 1996 Gallup Poll ranked it joint second. Although i ...
"
# "Here We Come A-Caroling
''Here We Come A-wassailing'' (or ''Here We Come A-Caroling''), also known as ''Here We Come A-Christmasing,'' ''Wassail Song'' and by many other names, is a traditional English Christmas carol and New Year song, typically sung whilst wassailing, ...
"
# "The Little Drummer Boy
"The Little Drummer Boy" (originally known as "Carol of the Drum") is a popular Christmas song written by American composer Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941. First recorded in 1951 by the Trapp Family, the song was further popularized by a 19 ...
"
# " The Holly and the Ivy"
# " Frosty the Snowman"
# " Do You Hear What I Hear?"
# " We Three Kings"
# "Star of Wonder"
# " Winter Wonderland"
# " Joy to the World"
# " O Little Town of Bethlehem"
# " Good King Wenceslas"
# " Jingle Bells"
# " The First Noel"
# "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen
"God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen" is an English traditional Christmas carol. It is in the Roxburghe Collection (iii. 452), and is listed as no. 394 in the Roud Folk Song Index. It is also known as "Tidings of Comfort and Joy", and by other varia ...
"
# " It Came Upon the Midnight Clear"
# " O Come, All Ye Faithful"
# " Silver Bells"
Personnel
Musicians
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:We Three Kings (The Roches Album)
The Roches albums
MCA Records albums
Christmas albums by American artists
1990 Christmas albums
Folk Christmas albums