Christmas Carrolling, 2015

Welcome to my first annual ChattanoogaRadioTV Christmas special.  It features fewer words, and more music and videos.

I’ve written before about misunderstood song lyrics, but I’ve held one back just for Christmas time.  Go ahead, admit it.  When you were a kid, I’ll bet you were like me.  When you heard Silent Night for the first time, you wondered who “Round John Virgin” was, right?  Oh.  Maybe it was just me.

Well, let’s get started.  I am going to play five songs for you, with brief interruptions for some classic promos and one Christmas party.

Song #1 is probably my all-time favorite Christmas song.  It’s the one that truly gets me in the spirit.  I grew up watching Andy Williams Christmas specials, and no one did a better job conjuring up fake snow and fireplaces than Andy.  He taped those shows well before Christmas in sunny Burbank, California, but it sure looked like the Christmas we all wanted.  Andy had a lot of hits in his long career, but he’ll always be the Christmas special guy to me.  This song truly makes it the most wonderful time of the year.  Hit it!

It just doesn’t get any better than that.  It was one of Luther’s favorites too. I’ll be right back after this brief message from 1987, featuring my pal Paul Barys and his beautiful family.

Thanks Sarah, Jamie and Maggie, you are still beautiful today.  And Paul, I hope you still have that sweater.  I want to borrow it!

Back to music.  I’m going to slow it down a bit here.  It’s the Christmas Song, sung here by Judy Garland and the man who wrote it, Mel Torme.  This performance is from 1963, and of course it’s been done by thousands of other singers over the past 70 years.  It was written by Torme in 1945, and he’s the subject of one of the best brief stories I’ve ever read.  Mark Evanier is a Hollywood comedy writer who does an excellent blog.  Several years ago, before Torme tied, Evanier witnessed something truly beautiful while enjoying an outdoor lunch in Hollywood.  If you love good storytelling, click the link and read this now!  You’ll want to share this story, just as I have with you. And then listen to “The Christmas Song.”

I hope you enjoyed that song, and the story about the man who wrote it.  Don’t you wish you had been in LA, eating at the Farmers Market that day?

Before I play another Christmas classic for you, time for a quick break.  Here’s a brief news story from Christmas Eve 1987. It’s the annual Chattanooga City Hall Christmas party.  You’ll see some familiar faces.  Sadly, some of them are no longer with us.  But thankfully, some of them are:

While we’re in a festive mood, I’ll turn it over to Dean Martin.  As was often the case, I doubt Dino spent much time rehearsing this song before he recorded it.  He was so good, he could just show up and start singing.  I’ve often thought that anyone who “makes it look easy” is supremely gifted, because if it WAS easy, we’d all be Dean Martin!  When we finally had a white Christmas in 2010, this was the song in my head:

That was recorded by Dean in 1966, the same year as the Andy Williams song you heard earlier.  1966 must have been a good year for Christmas songs!

I’ll be back with more music, right after this 10-second message from the lovely Cindy Sexton, her dashing husband Gil, and their beloved pet Lucky:

Since that time, Cindy and Gil have added a beautiful daughter Gracie to their family, who is a senior in high school!

The next song wasn’t really intended to be a Christmas song, but it gets played often this time of year, for which I am most thankful.  It’s “Angels Among Us” by Alabama, from 1993.  There are few songs that touch me as this one does.  It was written by Becky Hobbs in 1985, and if you think there may be an amazing real-life story behind it, you’re right!  Again, I’m providing the link because I can’t tell it any better than this.  Click here to read the story of “Angels Among Us” and then listen to Randy Owen sing it, as no one else can.

What a powerful song.  When you combine the words, and Randy’s performance with the real-life heroes (angels) in that video, it is a beautiful combination.

One more break, before my grand finale song.  1987 was my first year at WRCB. Cindy and I had welcomed our first child Chris into the world four months earlier.  Can you tell we were just a wee bit proud?

We did a few more of those family promos into the early 1990s, and if you snoop around my YouTube channel, you can watch for yourself as our family grew!

The final song in my 2015 Christmas Carrolling special is from Darlene Love, who closed out David Letterman’s annual Christmas show for about twenty years.  Now that Dave has retired, so has that great holiday tradition.  Darlene is well into her 70s now, but in my opinion her voice has only gotten better as she’s aged.  Here’s her final Letterman performance from December 2014.  Thanks to the Internet, we can still enjoy this at Christmas.  Who knows, maybe Letterman himself is watching this video right now!

Merry Christmas, and thanks for reading my blog!

Special last-minute bonus:  Here’s longtime Chattanooga wrestling and Morning Show host Harry Thornton, in the spirit, 40 years ago!