White Christmas/ The Bells of St. Mary's

This is an original 1954 stock copy from the collection, in its original Atlantic Records factory sleeve. This classic Christmas single, here credited to "The Drifters featuring Clyde McPhatter and Bill Pinckney," was released by Atlantic many times over the decades, starting with this one — the rare first pressing on the yellow/black Atlantic label. The red Atlantic label release (without the fan logo) came in 1957. Note: This 45 is among those in the Neal collection that she may have actually played, and this one appears to have spent some time outside its protective sleeve. The labels are Near Mint, reflecting a few light touches of ringwear (too light to show up in the scan). The vinyl looks like a strong Excellent, with fairly light signs of scuffing and no obvious scratches. I'm grading the audio EX overall, although the A side leans to the strong side of Excellent, reflecting some light native surface noise and an occasional light "pop;" the B side audio has more noticeable surface noise, grading a strong VG, though the vinyl looks about the same.