Holiday Love – My New Boyfriend

On The 11th Day Of (Jeffrey)Christ-mas…

…Jeffrey gave to you…Stevie Nicks’ version of “Silent Night”…

“Twas the night before Christmas, when all through Stevie’s house, not a Gypsy was stirring…”

Stevie’s haunting reading of “Silent Night” was recorded for the A VERY SPECIAL CHRISTMAS charity album in 1987, the first (and the best) in the long line of Christmas albums benefiting the Special Olympics produced by long-time Stevie fan, producer and now chairman of Interscope records, Jimmy Iovine.

AVSC consists of some wonderful holiday tracks (including Eurythmics’ enchanting “Winter Wonderland”, the Pointer Sisters’ jovial “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” (featured as my 7^th Day Of (Jeffrey)Christ-mas), Bruce Springsteen’s fantastic “Merry Christmas, Baby” and Run-DMC’s classic “Christmas In Hollis”, accompanied by an even better VIDEO), and needless to say to anyone who knows me – at all – the Stevie Nicks reading of “Silent Night” is amongst my very favorite Christmas recordings.

Below is a video I put together called “Silent Night Suite”. It begins with an excerpt of an old MTV special about the making of the album (which includes an interview with Stevie and Iovine), and then the full Iovine interview where that footage was taken from. To, of course, the sterling live version.

With two-maybe-three hit wonder Robbie Nevil lending his vocal, this version of “Silent Night” was performed on the “A Very Special Christmas” concert TV special that aired on CBS in 1987. Hosted by FAME actress Nia Peeples, it featured some of the album’s artists performing their tracks. The show closed with “Silent Night”. When Stevie sings with her long-time backup singers Lori Perry-Nicks and Sharon Celani, the result is always stunningly ethereal, and here is no exception…blending with Robbie’s call-and-response, this live version is actually more exquisite than the recorded version, and sweeps you away into another dimension.

Open your eyes, and you see a Rock ‘N Roll queen sing in celebration. Close your eyes and you are encompassed by the beauty of the song, the luxurious harmony, and the spirit of the holidays.

Music Box: On The 7th Day Of (Jeffrey)Christ-mas…

: The Pointer Sisters recorded “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” for the A VERY SPECIAL CHRISTMAS charity album

…Jeffrey gave to you…“Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” by the Pointer Sisters, one of the most joyous versions of the song.

And what a wonderful song it is to capture the holiday week and the buoyancy after New York’s first big snowfall…outside my window, kids are playing, snow plows are rumbling, dogs are scrambling. Some folks are grumbling and others are whining about the weather, as if the fact that it’s December never entered their stream of consciousness mumblings.

I’d say it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, but it hasn’t snowed in NY on Christmas in years. But it definitely feels like an old-fashioned kind, the Christmases that they wrote about in songs, though rarely seen here in New York nowadays.

“Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” is a grand ol’ tune, of course, and everyone young and old can sing the hook. Overplayed and over-covered by hundreds of performers, sure, but still a staple for any Christmas collection. My favorite renditions, though, are those not performed in the more traditional, original arrangement, but the funkier, more soulful approach that adds more to the fundamental bliss of the lyrics. The Pointer Sisters version, from the first – and still best – volume of the A VERY SPECIAL CHRISTMAS series of charity releases benefiting the Special Olympics, is possibly the most jubilant of versions and probably my favorite.

Their arrangement is pretty much a cover version of the Crystals reading from the classic A CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR YOU FROM PHIL SPECTOR (look for a special posting about this soon), the greatest Christmas CD of all time. Other artists reinterpreting the Crystals classic include the awesome Jackson 5 cover from their classic THE JACKSON 5 CHRISTMAS ALBUM, and the great Bruce Springsteen live track so often played during the holidays.

But it’s the Pointer Sisters, and A VERY SPECIAL CHRISTMAS as a whole, that’s put into heavy rotation at my home every holiday.

The Pointer Sisters peformed the song live on the Johnny Carson show to promote the album~

Music Box: On The 5th Day Of (Jeffrey)Christ-mas…

…Jeffrey gives to you…FIVE…TORI…VIDS!!!! (In case you didn’t get it, that should be sung out like Day 5 of the original “12 Days Of Christmas“. I’m telling you, Christmastime brings out the sap in me!)

I can hear the distant wails of the my fanatical Tori-lovin’ friends from afar, who have pointlessly attempted and failed to convert my early Amos detachment, howling at the moon in disbelief.

You see, I’m not one of those who bow at the altar of Amos. After a stunning solo debut, LITTLE EARTHQUAKES (the genesis of the often accused Kate Bush artifice she can’t seem to live down), followed by the unjustified critical drubbing of the CRUCIFY EP (which consisted of startling, gorgeous takes on the Stones’ “Angie”, Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, and a heart-rendering reading of Zeppelin’s “Thank You”; ironically, her next semi-solid album came a decade later with the 2001 release of another covers assemblage, STRANGE LITTLE GIRLS CD), Tori proceeded to release one cockamamie, nonsensical piece of mooncalf pie after another, each one more ridiculously esoteric then the last. The empress had no clothes. You can’t convince the cavalcade of Toriphiles of this, though, as they will fight you to the edge of Venus for their Queen. Me? I can’t relate to the gobbledygook of her pen.

But leave it to the kooky Queen of Cornflakes to release her only wholly listenable collection since LITTLE EARTHQUAKES as a holiday album! On the elegantly titled MIDWINTER GRACES, Tori reworks seasonal standards by incorporating her own baroque touches, harkening back musically to the sweep of her earlier work, and singing solidly for the first time in as many years. Also, she authored some pretty gorgeous yuletide pieces of her own, including the poignant “Snow Angel”, the pagan Yule “Winter’s Carol”, and the delightfully accessible “A Silent Night With You”, one of the most luxurious original holiday songs in years and one, I’ll bet, that will be covered innumerable times. It’s a new seasonal classic, and it’s the one I wanted to feature for its splendor:

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The collection as a whole is such an ethereal piece of work that I wanted to post 4 other tracks and decided on fan-made vids I found on YouTube (“4” others because of that whole quirky “FIVE TORI VIDS!!” refrain at the start of this post. Did I already mention that Christmastime brings out the sap in me?). These vids showcase how far a fan will go to visualize a Tori Amos work. Marrying image to song could be tricky and more-often-than-not rarely work (just watch the bulk of professionally made music videos to see what I mean) but a few of these are enchanting to watch, even at their most artlessness.

“What Child, Nowell”

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“Winter’s Carol” (Visually, merely a still of her album cover. Sonically, one of the most divine tracks on the CD)

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“Snow Angel” (Like a video version of a beloved snow globe…)

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“A Silent Night With You” (I’m cheating here, I know, because I’m repeating myself. This is not really a “4th other” song from the album. But, it’s my favorite on the collection, and it’s also my favorite fan-made vid. I didn’t post this above because I didn’t want to distract from the actual song, but now that you’ve heard it, this is a magical amalgamation of Amos’ ballad with clips of Tim Burton’s marvelous “The Nightmare Before Christmas”…

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Clichés are cliché for a reason – because they’re borne of truth, and believe this cliché – MIDWINTER GRACES is a must-have collection that you will replay every holiday for years to come.

Somewhere, Scott Batchelor is smiling.

Music Box: On the 4th Day Of (Jeffrey)Christ-mas…

Dr. Andrea Morris Accompanies The 1984-1985 F.D.R. Chorus On "Carol of the Bells"

…Jeffrey gives to you… “Carol of the Bells”!

One of my fondest memories of High School was our annual winter concert. As the lead tenor in the Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School Chorus, in Brooklyn NY, the most exciting night of my winter was our annual seasonal concert. Led by the glorious Dr. Andrea Morris, the head of the music department and our fearless choral leader, we were quite…well, mediocre. There was little interest in performing live for most of the miscreants of the class, but the few of us who thrived live bandied together and made sure that it felt like it was the night of all of our lives. And it was.

One of the songs we sang was Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych’s “Shchedryk”, which was later adapted to English as “Carol Of The Bells”. Or as some people know it, “Hark how the bells, sweet silver bells…”

It’s an exhilarating emotion to sing a cappella, but due to the limits of the actual vocal finesse of the majority of our choral members, who couldn’t differentiate harmony from melody, Dr. Morris wisely decided to accompany us on piano for most of the numbers, including the wondrous “Carol…”, to masquerade any musical infidelity we (they) might have proposed.

Just to remind you, this was 1985 and school shows were rarely, if ever, videotaped for prosperity. Part of me would be awestruck to be able to relive such momentous heartprints of our youths, to watch part of the very thing that helped mold us into the grown-ups so many of us still strive to be. So, sadly, there is no 1984-1985 F.D.R. Chorus recording.

There have been popular readings of this (most notably by the overblown, pretentious Manheim Steamroller, not to be confused with the equally atrophying Trans-Siberian Orchestra, or the soul-free, droning Celtic Women) but my favorite by far is by the successful, enchanting a cappella group called Straight No Chaser. Weaving in and out of the intricate melody are their voices in majestic harmony, simultaneously lilting and haunting, powerful and prodigious. No other interpretation is more sweepingly simplistic.

Here’s a live performance, recorded by an audience member, from a concert from a few weeks ago:

Or you can listen to the track here, from their wonderful holiday collection HOLIDAY SPIRITS:

Music Box: The 12 Days Of (Jeffrey)Christ-mas

Another year, another Christmas. My feeling about the holidays always border on mercurial. Mostly, I bask in the beauty of the spirit, but there are those moments in time when I could feel the soul of Ebenezer creep in. Such is human nature, I surmise, but more often than not, I love the spirit that ’tis the season and find myself bathed in its emotional pull.

Okay, I’ll admit it. When it comes to the holiday and holiday music, I’m a big fat sap.

Which, as a logician, and thus a non-believer, puts me in an odd situation. Some decry or belittle my passion for Christmas and its seasonal tunes – I’m often accused of hypocrisy; “How? You’re an atheist – a non believer!! Blah blah blah!!!” Fair enough (those same town criers say the same because of my love of gospel), but as I alluded earlier, it’s the spirit (yes) but also the ideal of the holiday, and what it should bring out in mankind. It often fails, apparently, but there’s no harm in the yearning. So, I love religious carols too, despite the doctrine. Oh well, it is what it is.

Which brings me here. Because of my unabashed joy of the season, I decided to bring to you these next 2 weeks the 12 Days of (Jeffrey)Christ-mas…a fête, if you will, of some of my favorite carols and canticles, religious and secular, holly and jolly, happy and bittersweet. Now, these selections are not always sung by the most obvious of artists, and not necessarily performed by household names, and a few might or might not be standards, while others have been played to death.

But all hold a special place in my soul – and that is the common denominator.

As a footnote, I will say this – I could easily have written the 20 Days of (Jeffrey)Christ-mas, or even the 30 Days of (Jeffrey)Christ-mas. There are literally hundreds of other songs I could have posted and the aesthete would have been the same.

Happy holidays to you all, believers and non-believers alike.

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On the First Day of Christmas, Jeffrey gave to you…Darlene Love singing “Christmas Baby (Please Come Home)” live from last year’s David Letterman appearance. It’s been a tradition for many years – Letterman invites Love on his show to perform this seminal seasonal classic from what is arguably (or inarguably, if you ask me) the greatest Christmas CD of them all, A CHRISTMAS GIFT TO YOU FROM PHIL SPECTOR. Forget U2s smarmy version (Bono? Smarmy? Noooo!!), the Love original – or any live performance thereof – are the only readings of this song you’ll ever need to hear.

Her canon is rich with some of the most indelible Rock and Roll classics, and her voice has held up better than most women half her age – the most amazing thing about Love is that year after year she never loses her innate joy in her recitals and you realize that the thrill isn’t only in our listening. Like the song, Love remains eternal…