One of my friends, team member, and follower of my blog ribbed me the other day because I hadn’t written a blog in several months, and now I’m blogging about how much I luv Christmas? Well a friendly reminder to my team, on my first blog about Christmas I stated this is a hard time of the year for diabetics because of all the Christmas parties, family gatherings, treats, and libations that flows during this time. Blogging is cathartic for me, instead of eating my second slice of sweet potato pie I’m blogging… 😉
On to my therapy session, Luther Vandross’ This Is Christmas is my third favorite Christmas album. During his day, Luther was a “superstar,” the preeminent black male vocalist of his time, and This
Is Christmas aptly showed he was deserving of all those accolades. It’s elegant, flawless, timeless, and definitely Luffa. Not only did he Lutherized a couple of the classics to make them his own, he also gave us a few original classics. Basically, this album has ten songs, and seven of them were written by the man himself. Honestly, does the Christmas season pass without hearing Vandross’ “Every Year, Every Christmas,” the funky, “The Mistletoe Jam (Everybody Kiss Somebody),” and the warm “With a Christmas Heart” somewhere? Absolutely not! Even Luther’s cover version of “My Favorite Things,” other than John Coltrane’s classic jazz version, stands tall amongst the many artists that have also covered it. Although Luther is no longer with us he left us with not only several R&B classics but also a few Christmas classics that will be enjoyed by generations to come. This Is Christmas ranks right along with the other classic Christmas albums.
My second favorite album, A Motown Christmas. It’s Motown need I say more? Okay, if I must, A Motown Christmas is a double album that comes in with twenty-five beautiful and soulful songs performed wonderfully by some of the best artists ever to record on the Motown label. Many of the songs on this album have gone on to
become Christmas standards in their own right. The album ranges from a youthful Michael Jackson with the Jackson 5 covering “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” and “Frosty The Snowman” to the Stevie Wonder original “Someday At Christmas” and Marvin Gaye’s “I Want To Come Home For Christmas”. Although “Silent Night” by The Temptations is not my favorite version by them (they recorded a version in the 80’s which I like better), it’s still considered by many to be the best version of “Silent Night” ever recorded. The song I really liked on A Motown Christmas from The Temptations is “Rudolph The Red-nose Reindeer” which is fun, playful, and it showed The Temps versatility. A Motown Christmas is the first album I play every Christmas morning while opening our gifts. Actually, I was playing this CD while writing this blog, my 18 year old son said “Hey, I didn’t realize all the songs I liked from Christmas morning were on one CD!” There you have it, the Millennial Generation gives A Motown Christmas their stamp of approval. Again, it’s Motown need I say more?
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