Bing Crosby

Spinning the Christmas Classics

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I think music has always been an essential part of my life for as long as I can remember. Some of my first memories involve hearing my grandmother sing or listening to the old Elvis records.

It made sense when I got a turntable for Christmas two years ago that I’d start stockpiling a collection of Christmas records, especially the classic recordings from the likes of Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, and Ella Fitzgerald.

It’s not like I wasn’t listening to Christmas music before 2022. I had (and still have) my massive collection of Christmas CDs that will one day all be compiled into a massive playlist somewhere. But dropping the needle on a record is like turning back the calendar to 1979 when I could hardly contain my excitement for Santa and presents.

Christmas music was actually my introduction to a lot of great music from the 40s and 50s. Pretty much all the standard versions of the holiday classics are from that era. To risk sounding like an old fart, to me the music from that era was from real singers and real musicians who didn’t need autotune or pitch correction or and kind of computer software to make indelible musical memories.

I don’t even mind having to get up every 20 minutes or so to flip the records over. The physical act makes the nostalgia so much more potent. And all those great songs are basically the soundtrack for all my Decembers for as far back as I can remember. Wrapping presents and decorating the tree isn’t quite the same without a little White Christmas from Bing or a Blue Christmas from Elvis.

And of course all those carols remind me of the real reason for the season, especially O Little Town of Bethlehem and Silent Night. There’s a reason why we still sing lyrics penned centuries ago. There’s a reason why people are still recording those hymns from the 1800s. The message is still as true and powerful now as it was 2,000 years ago on the first Christmas night.

So I guess I’ll keep playing the records and adding to my collection for as long as there are Christmases to celebrate. Christ the Lord is born today. Hallelujah!

Dropping the Needle

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There’s really nothing like dropping the needle on a record to bring back instant memories of Christmas childhood days for me, especially when it’s something the family listened to back in the ye olden days referred to as the late 1900s.

It’s the physical act of positioning the record arm in just the right spot and letting it fall that does so much more than simply pressing play on a CD or cassette player. And don’t get me wrong. I still have CDs (but not really any cassettes).

For me, there are essentials when it comes to the Christmas experience. Seeing Behold the Lamb of God at the Ryman has to be one. Also, experiencing the lights at Opryland Hotel, as well as walking through the decorations at Cheekwood.

But I have my own list of movies and music that is essential to any proper Advent/Christmas season. Movies like It’s a Wonderful Life or White Christmas are always required viewing. Musically speaking, it’s not Christmas without Nat King Cole, A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack, or Bing Crosby. There are more, but it would take too long to list everything.

I understand that you can just go to Spotify or Apple Music for a playlist, but it’s not the same. It doesn’t give me the nostalgia the way playing a record and then having to flip it over to get to the second side does.

As always, I welcome your favorite Christmas movies or albums, so please comment and list your essentials. And thanks again for being faithful readers of these posts. That means the world to me.

It’s Christmas Music Season

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My favorite time of the year has officially begun. One of the many reasons for Advent and Christmas being the best is because of all the great music (including the album shown above) that I love to revisit every year around this time.

I get nostalgic around the middle of November, and I’m drawn to the music that my parents and grandparents have loved. I go back to those old records I listened to when I was little and couldn’t wait for Santa to show up.

I really believe that music is the closest thing to time travel that we have. It’s amazing how certain songs can conjure up memories and images from the recesses of your mind and almost bring them back to life again. I can almost see the faces and hear the conversations and smell the bread baking in the oven.

The last two years, I have been tracking down all the old records from way back when, especially those classic Christmas recordings of yore. As much as I like some of the new music (or more accurately, a small fraction of it), I yearn for the tried and true acts like Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, and so many others who set the standards and recorded the definitive versions of so many Christmas songs that we all know and love.

So from now until possibly the middle of January, I will be revisiting my Christmas collection (and adding to it whenever I get the chance). Throw in a peppermint mocha and a comfy chair and I am a very happy dude.

Plan B (With Apologies to Pete Wilson)

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No, this has nothing to do with the book by Pete Wilson. Hence, the title.

My plan for the better part of the day was to leave work and go to Uncle Julio’s, a new Mexican restaurant in the Brentwood area. I had it all worked out in my mind how the evening was going to go.

I forgot to factor in Nashville traffic. Oops.

What should have taken 45 minutes or less took an hour and a half. While I don’t necessarily mind sitting in interstate traffic when I have Bing Crosby Christmas music playing, it put a bit of a crimp in my plans.

By the time I arrived at said restaurant, the wait was an hour and 15 minutes. Hence the need for a plan B.

Plan B ended up being a tasty burrito at Chipotle with chips and guacamole.

I came away from this Friday night with a few takeaways.

  1. Nashville traffic sucks. It always slows down at the worst possible time and there’s usually never a justifiable reason for the slowness.
  2. Maybe it’s not the best idea to decide to try out a trendy new restaurant on a Friday night.
  3. Plan B doesn’t have to mean a bad night. Sometimes, Plan Bs can be just as good as the original plan.

One thing I know is that with God, there are no plan Bs, especially when it comes to you and me. He is working out His perfect design in each of our lives and knows exactly what He’s doing. Everything– and I do mean everything– that happens happens for a reason. God still works all things together for our good.

You are not a Plan B. You are God’s original design, fearfully and wonderfully made. There will never be another you and there will be another who can play the part God wrote for you in the grand play of life better than you.

In case you were wondering, the chips and guacamole were perfection.

 

I’m Dreaming of a Wet (and Humid) Christmas

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So, apparently my dreams of a white Christmas will have to come true in my dreams. The forecast doesn’t look promising in the least.

Try a week of mid-60s to lower 70’s with rain forecasted for every day up to Sunday. Yep, Christmas will be green . . . and very wet.

Still, it will be Christmas. There will be gifts and food and candles and food and holiday apparel and food. Did I mention food? There will be food aplenty. The diet starts in 2016.

I’m learning to live out of eucharisteo, out of a mindset of joy and thanksgiving. Instead of focusing on all those rain clouds, I choose to see that when people like you and me couldn’t find a way to get to God, God found a way to get to us. To become one of us. To live and die as one of us.

But not just to live and die, but to live in perfect obedience the life that we could never live and to die as a perfect sacrifice to pay for the sin that we could never begin to work off.

That alone is enough for a million lifetimes’ worth of gratitude. That should be enough for me.

Advent is a season not only of awaiting and anticipating the arrival of the Emmanuel, bu also of remembering why He came in the first place. Advent stirs up gratitude and thanksgiving in the hearts of those who know where to look and what to look for.

So I’ll probably get my White Christmas courtesy of Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen. It’s still my favorite Christmas movie and it never fails to deliver the feels.

Then again, maybe the best kind of white Christmas is this one:

“Come on now, let’s walk and talk; let’s work this out.
        Your wrongdoings are blood red
    But they can turn as white as snow.
        Your sins are red like crimson,
    But they can be made clean again like new wool” (Isaiah 1:18, The Voice).

 

 

 

My Secret Christmas Room

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b_christmas-decorated-room-1366x768

For those of you who have lots of money, I just thought of a way to help you spend it. I mean besides buying me stuff like Red Mini Coopers and Mac Book Pros.

I think it would be super-duper neat to have a secret room in your really big house. One of those that you get to by turning a book in the bookcase or pulling a hidden lever located behind the family portrait.

But not just a secret room. It would be a secret Christmas room, all decorated with a Christmas tree and a fire burning in the fireplace and Christmas music playing from hidden speakers in the ceiling.

Some days you just need a little Christmas. Even in the middle of July. After a hard day at work, how nice would it be to be able to spend a little time in your Christmas room, lit only by the fireplace fire and with strains of Bing Crosby’s White Christmas wafting in the air.

That’s what I’d do if I suddenly came into a lot of money. I could save all the trouble of packing up all the Christmas decorations and just move them all to this little room. And you’d be welcome to come over and visit my little secret Christmas room whenever you were needing a bit of the yuletide spirit.

Just let me know in advance when you’re coming over.

 

Additional Worthwhile Christmas Music

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pentatonix-christmas-album

I may or may not have mentioned that I have one of the most awesome collections of Christmas music ever. If not, then I do have one of the most awesome collections of Christmas music ever.

Although I prefer the older Christmas music, I still occasionally pick up new recordings by newer artists from time to time.

Here’s a list of some of my most recent acquisitions that I think are pretty darn good:

1) Sting – If On a Winter’s Night

2) Barbra Streisand- A Christmas Album

3) Johnny Mathis- Merry Christmas

4) Pentatonix- That’s Christmas to Me

5) Bing Crosby- The Voice of Christmas: The Complete Decca Christmas Recordings

6) Richard Marx- Christmas Spirit

7) Mahalia Jackson – Mahalia Sings Songs of Christmas

8) Shawn Colvin- Holiday Songs and Lullabies

9) Mary Chapin Carpenter- Come Darkness Come Light: Twelve Songs of Christmas

10) Barry Manilow- In the Swing of Christmas

That’s not a definitive list of all my new favorites. First of all, I don’t have that kind of time to list them all. Second, I don’t want to come across as the world’s biggest nerd. But that is a sampling of what I’m listening to these days.

To me, it’s not really the Christmas season without Christmas music. So I hope this will help you add to your enjoyment of the season of celebrating Christ’s birth.

Halloween Is Over

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great_pumpkin

Technically, Halloween lasts for another 23 minutes. But really it’s over. I can’t imagine too many kids are still out there trick-or-treating.

And I personally don’t have a problem with Halloween.It really is about kids getting to dress up and have fun and get lots of candy. I mean really what other time will you get to interact with your neighbors and their kids and show them the love of Jesus? When else will you get such a perfect opportunity? Just thought I’d throw that in there for what it’s worth.

The best part about Halloween is what comes after. It’s almost like I can really start anticipating Thanksgiving and Advent season and then, my favorite of them all, Christmas.

Part of me still wishes that retail stores would hold off on the inevitable Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving. At least until after Halloween. But then again, as I get older this part of the year tends to fly by so much faster with each passing year.

I can’t wait to bring out my colossal collection of Christmas movies and music. I have to admit that when it comes to all things Christmas, I like the old stuff. All the old movies like It’s a Wonderful Life, The Bishop’s Wife, White Christmas and Christmas in Connecticut really make me feel all Christmas-y inside. And there’s nothing like Bing Crosby or Nat King Cole to put me in the perfect holiday mood.

Part of it is pure nostalgia. All the old music and vintage decorations really bring me back to when I was a kid and all those people I’ve loved and lost were still a part of my life. It’s like I can remember them more vividly at this time of year than any other time.

Plus, fall is my favorite season. All the crisp weather conjures up visions of bonfires and hayrides and s’mores (with burnt marshmallows) and hot dogs (that are hopefully not burnt).

Oh, and I really like that all those Starbucks out there now have pumpkin spice everything on their menus.

Desert Island Christmas Music Part One

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I love it when someone asks, “If you were stranded on a desert island, what kind of music would you have with you?” Which assumes that you’re either 1) stuck on the only desert island in existance to have electricity and outlets and an unlimited supply of batteries or 2) a very cool solar-powered CD player (or MP3 player if you please). And wouldn’t you be too tied up with small details like finding water and food to be concerned about what’s on your playlist?

Still, I think when it comes to the Christmas season, a few albums come to mind that are essential listening to get into the festive spirit. I’m giving you this list early so you have time to rush out to Best Buy or Barnes & Noble (or one of those “hipper than thou” music stores). Or you  could rush over to your laptop with high-speed internet to amazon.com.

Here’s my list.

1) A Charlie Brown Christmas- Vince Guaraldi Trio. It’s not Christmas without Snoopy and Charlie Brown.

2) Elvis Presley- If Every Day Were Like Christmas. This one has all of Elvis’ Christmas recordings on one fantastic CD.

3) Harry Connick Jr- When My Heart Finds Christmas. This one goes well at any Christmas party.

4) Sarah Maclachlan- Wintersomg. Breathtakingly beautiful.

5) A Christmas Gift for You- from Phil Spector. Vintage 60’s holiday fare.

6) The Christmas Album- David Foster. Lushly produced album with my favorite rendition of “O Holy Night” by Michael Crawford.

7) Croon and Swoon: A Classic Christmas (Volume One and Two). Some of the best voices of yesteryear sing holiday standards.

8) The Christmas Song- Nat King Cole. Perfect Christmas Eve music.

9) Merry Christmas- Mariah Carey. One of my favorites of the contemporary Christmas albums that has a real throwback feel.

10) A Merry Christmas with Bing Crosby & The Andrew Sisters. Again, this is required holiday music.

11) To Drive the Cold Winter Away- Loreena McKennitt. Haunting.

12) Behold the Lamb of God- Andrew Peterson. I think “Labor of Love” would move even the Grinch to tears.

13) A Christmas Cornucopia- Annie Lennox. Very reverent and sacred take on Christmas Carols both popular and obscure.

14) My Holiday- Mindy Smith. A good mix of standards and originals.

15) Christmas- The Big 80’s. Christmas done 80’s style.

Part two coming soon. . .

PS I would love to hear some of your favorite Christmas albums that you listen to every year. I’m always looking to add to my ever-growing, awesome collection of Christmas music.