I’m pretty sure Chip Davis had no idea when he created a Christmas album in a studio with a small group of friends that Mannheim Steamroller would take off as it did in the 1980s. Here’s “Deck the Halls,” from that first album released in 1984, called “Christmas.”
The Chieftains with Marianne Faithful sing “I Saw Three Ships” from their 1991 “Bells of Dublin” album.
If there’s any Irish in me it’s buried deep, considering my maternal grandmother’s name was Johnson. My paternal grandmother’s name was Elliott, but that’s Scots, not Irish. Here are Tom Jackson, Pear, and Shannon Gaye singing “Christmas in Killarney.”
On this last weekend before Christmas have you made your list and checked it twice? Here’s Diana Krall with “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.”
I mentioned above that Frank Sinatra asked the composer of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” to lighten up the lyrics for an album he was doing in 1957. Here’s “Mistletoe and Holly” from that very album.
Mary Chapin Carpenter sings “Come Darkness, Come Light,” the title track of her 2008 holiday album. AllMusic.com has a very accurate review of it; all I can say is it goes into heavy rotation in this house at Christmas.
Here’s the song which inspired a few Folgers Coffee commercials: Karen Carpenter sings “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” The song was first recorded by Bing Crosby in 1943 and made it as high as number three on the charts.
I’ll be durned. The first appearance of “Silver Bells” was in a 1951 movie called The Lemon Drop Kid. It was sung by Marilyn Maxwell and Bob Hope. Bob Hope? Yep. Here is that performance:
This is Pentatonix. They’re an a capella group which surfaced on Season 3 of The Sing Off, an NBC TV show. They won first prize in 2011 and received $200,000 and a Sony recording contract. The members first met as a group the day before the auditions for the show. That’s pretty remarkable. Here they …
Dolly Parton does an intricate medley of “Winter Wonderland/Sleigh Ride” here. This goes out to all you folks digging out from under snowdrifts.