From the archives...
I first heard this song when the 45 single* was delivered to the college radio station where I was working.
From Shawn's website:
"The Christmas Song was written in a hotel room in Rome, in 1969. I can't remember what I was in Rome for, but it was close to Christmas, and I started thinking about that, and all that entailed, and I wanted to tell the story somewhat differently, and make it fun. A few months later, when we were recording Second Contribution, I played the song for Jonathan Weston, and he didn't want to waste any of the studio time we had. I was determined to get it on tape. So when he and the engineer Robin Cable went out for a dinner break, I got on the phone, and gathered together 19 musicians, and I had everyone of them set up with microphones, and had the levels set, we'd rehearsed it several times, and we were sitting in the studio, and then Jonathan, and Robin walked into the control room. I just told Robin to roll the tape. It was done in the first take."
On the recording, there's a bit of a false start. Shawn gives an infectious, joyous laugh and says "I think that's tremendous" and then launches into the song. I think I love that laughter as much as I love the song.
I posted the song in 2010. I wasn't going to post it again, but then I got an Anonymous comment on that 2010 post that made me change my mind. Let me share it with you...
I have been trying to figure out who did this song and what it was called. Thanks a million. I would also like to find the version with the false start, but I can't find the title "A Christmas Song" on Itunes, but I'm willing to sample each song to find it! I had googled "I think that's tremendous" before, but since it wasn't that unique a sentence, I got nowhere. Even adding christmas music to the search came up dry, and I eventually stopped trying. But I was looking for something else, thought I'd give it another try, and here you are. Thanks a million more times.
I can identify with that. I can think of things that I searched and searched for and pretty much given up hope of ever finding. And then, for some reason, a spark of hope wells up within you and tells you you've got nothing to lose by looking one more time, and...there it is.
"I think that's tremendous". I do, too. More now than ever. I don't always comment on the videos I post, but I did on this one, ten years ago now, and mentioned the very words that weren't in the video I posted then, the only ones our friend here knew to search for. What is it the Good Book says? Seek and ye shall find"?
I don't know what you're looking for this Christmas, but maybe it's too soon to give up looking for it now. You just never know!
Merry Christmas to you and yours! God bless us every one!
(Revised from an earlier post, with updated video)
*For those of you not born in the right century, a '45 single' refers to an analog recording on a vinyl disc, approximately 7" in diameter, with a 1.5" diameter hole in the middle, played at 45 r.p.m. on a 'record player' or 'turntable'. It had a recording on both sides. The secondary recording was on what was commonly known as the "B" side.
The storage capacity of a 45 single was probably an average of about 2 minutes per side. Your grandparents changed records a lot. On record players with an automatic spindle, you could stack 10, 45 singles, for approximately 20 minutes of semi interrupted play.
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