Sunday, December 1, 2013

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A 'BATTLE OF THE BANDS IX'

December 1, 2013; can you believe it? Only twenty-four more days til Christmas. I can hardly wait. I love Christmas. When I was a child I used to spend hours laying under the Christmas tree playing with the Nativity Set. I wanted desperately to spend the night sleeping under the tree but my mother would never let me. Anyway…

This month should prove to be the best BATTLE OF THE BANDS yet, because I figure almost everyone participating with be doing Christmas songs. I know for sure that I will and Mr. McCarthy has already stated his intention to do the same. Based on some of the other participants, I’ll bet they will also. (I am wondering if Todd Rundgren did a Christmas album.)

Well, what do ya say we get this Christmas party started. There are so many great songs to choose from, I really had a hard time, but I’m going to start with one of my favorite Christmas Hymns. ‘O Holy Night’. 

First a little history:
"O Holy Night" ("Cantique de Noël") is a well-known Christmas carol composed byAdolphe Adam in 1847 to the French poem "Minuit, chrétiens" (Midnight, Christians) byPlacide Cappeau (1808–1877). Cappeau, a wine merchant and poet, had been asked by a parish priest to write a Christmas poem.[1] Unitarian minister John Sullivan Dwight,[2]editor of Dwight's Journal of Music, created a singing edition based on Cappeau's French text in 1855. In both the French original and in the two familiar English versions of the carol, the text reflects on the birth of Jesus and of humanity's redemption. (courtesy of wikipedia)

I thought I would let the lady go first. Perhaps you'll recognize her.


Next up, the iconic gentleman Mr. Bing Crosby.


Alright, you guys know how this works. Cast your votes and tell me why. Then visit everyone else participating. Start with the Handsome and Dashing Mr. Stephen T. McCarthy at Ferret Faced Fascist Freinds, then check out that traveling man Mr. Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out. Finally, check the comment box at each site to see who else might decide to jump on the sleigh ride this month.
If you hadn’t heard we fulfilled the first contest with the November 15th BOTB and C.W. Martin was our winner. Mr. McCarthy and I are changing the contest up a bit. It will be more random and give everyone a better chance to win, but you will need to stay tuned for the details on some future post.
I’ll be lookin’ towards your comments and votes.



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16 comments:

  1. Alex J. CavanaughDecember 1, 2013 at 5:24 AM

    Not a Celine fan, so I have to vote for the Crosby version. Although Trans Siberian Orchestra does it best!
    If my post tomorrow wasn't already overflowing, I'd participate...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Arlee BirdDecember 1, 2013 at 5:49 AM

    This is one of my favorite Christmas songs.

    Celine's voice sounds lovely, though a bit breathy and syrupy and too much of vocal acrobatics. I'm going to have to go with the more traditional and more straightforward style of Crosby's version. I especially like the chorus and church bells in the Crosby version.

    Put my vote for Bing.

    Lee
    Tossing It Out

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  3. Stephen T. McCarthyDecember 1, 2013 at 5:56 AM

    FAE ~
    Well, I certainly wasn't expecting THIS to be your first Christmas 'BOTB'. And it certainly changes my December 15th 'BOTB' plan because - yup, you guessed it - I had 'O HOLY NIGHT' scheduled. Only I was planning to go with a different male and a different female singer.

    Oh (Holy) Well...

    I will have to return to listen and vote later today. Jackasses are still sleeping in the house and the music would wake them.

    ~ D-FensDogg
    'Loyal American Underground'

    ReplyDelete
  4. Stephen T. McCarthyDecember 1, 2013 at 5:59 AM

    POSTSCRIPT: Got logo?

    ~ D-FensDogg
    'Loyal American Logo Sender'

    ReplyDelete
  5. CWMartinDecember 1, 2013 at 7:29 AM

    This is not only one of the great Christmas songs, but one of the greatest songs of all time. So powerful that if you have a voice and and an honest desire, you cannot help but produce something beautiful.

    That said, I am far too old not to vote for der Bingle.

    ReplyDelete
  6. farawayeyesDecember 1, 2013 at 8:30 AM

    Seems thus is a favorite for a lot of you. 'great minds...and all that jazz.

    STMc - it was there before I pushed publish. But so were the proper spaces and paragraph breaks. Can't wait to get home.

    ReplyDelete
  7. D.G. HudsonDecember 1, 2013 at 9:03 AM

    NOT a fan of Celine Dion, at all, but love the BING. Bing could sing, with that velvety smooth voice. Breathy females give me reflux.

    My vote is for Bing Crosby.
    And, Congrats to CW Martin!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Pat HattDecember 1, 2013 at 9:12 AM

    Would never pick Celine for anything, so Crosby wins

    ReplyDelete
  9. DiscConnectedDecember 1, 2013 at 12:15 PM

    While I am old enough that I should vote for Bing, I'm going to give it to Celine...never been a huge Bing fan.

    And sadly, Todd did not do a Christmas album. Had I not already chosen the Todd covers concept, I may have done the Christmas idea (although I have enough Christmas discs in my collection that I could probably just do a post every day in December pitting versions of "O Holy Night" against each other).

    LC

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  10. RobinDecember 1, 2013 at 12:23 PM

    This is one of my favorite Christmas songs. I didn't like the Celine Dion version at all, so that automatically gives the win to Bing. However, I didn't LOVE LOVE LOVE his version either.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Stephen T. McCarthyDecember 1, 2013 at 4:44 PM

    FAE ~
    As mentioned above, I was planning to use 'O HOLY NIGHT' on December 15th. (My concept was to do secular on the 1st and Sacred closer to day we celebrate our Savior's birth.)

    I'm yet toying with the idea of STILL using the song and "my" singers for it. (I even briefly considered using THIS version by Celine Dion in my 'BOTB #10' but then settled on a different female vocalist.)

    OK, and now my vote...

    I get the impression that at a couple of spots in Celine's version, the idea is more "showing you what I can do with my voice" rather than "letting my voice authentically express to you what is in my heart while I'm singing this song".

    Even if that's so, it doesn't alter the fact that she has a beautiful voice and this is a gorgeous version of a powerful, powerful song.

    When my Pa used to sing around the house, he was always attempting to imitate the singing style of Dean Martin. And Martin, of course, was often attempting to imitate the style of Bing Crosby.

    Given that, you'd think I might be a Bing Crosby fan, but I never have been. (I don't really even prefer his version of 'WHITE CHRISTMAS', which is definitely considered the "gold standard" for that song by which all other renditions get judged.)

    Having said all that, I was rather surprised that I enjoyed his version of 'O HOLY NIGHT' as much as I did. It was a very pleasant performance, delivered in a straightforward way.

    Nevertheless, I have to go with the overall sheer beauty of Celine Dion's voice and the shining arrangement that her voice was framed in.

    Celine scores her second vote in this battle.

    ~ D-FensDogg
    'Loyal American Underground'

    ReplyDelete
  12. farawayeyesDecember 1, 2013 at 9:36 PM

    Thanks you guys for your votes. I've been on the road for the past few days - family crisis combined with the Holiday - Whoa!

    I apologize for all the errors in this post. I had it all nice and pretty. I hit publish at 6:01AM and then jumped in the car for the trip home. Later I saw that the BOTB logo picture didn't transfer over and several 'spaces' were eliminated. I can't stand it, so I'm going to go in and try to fix it up a bit, even though I'm pretty sure my regular visitors have already been by. Here's hoping I don't lose your lovely comments in the process.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Donna K. WeaverDecember 2, 2013 at 5:24 AM

    Hey lady! Haven't talked to you in forever. Hope you're doing well.

    I like Celine but as I listened to each of them, I have to go with Der Bingle.

    ReplyDelete
  14. A Beer for the ShowerDecember 2, 2013 at 7:04 AM

    Ready for my line of thinking? I can't stand Celine Dion. She's always struck me as so pompous. In fact, in our Slim Dyson novel, her Florida house is actually the exact model for one of the excessively huge, awful mansions that Slim is shown but doesn't want anything to do with. It has an entire water park for a backyard, that consumes so much of the town's water (6.5 million gallons a year) that all of the locals hate her and think she paid someone off/jerked someone off to get the permit for it, since there are people who can't even get pool permits in that town.

    Love Bing's voice. Don't love Celine's. She's a very good singer, but I just don't care for the syrupiness (good word, Arlee) of her voice. Plus, you know, I hate her.

    My vote is very obviously for Bing.

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  15. luckymama13December 3, 2013 at 8:57 AM

    Bing all the way!!

    ReplyDelete
  16. StratPlayerCJFDecember 4, 2013 at 9:01 AM

    Although I'm more of a Google person, I'm going to go with Bing in this contest.

    :)

    Celine has a fabulous voice, but it's striking me as a trifle too "Hey, lookit me!" show-off-y at times. Bing is simply letting the song come through. That works for me.

    ReplyDelete

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