Burl Ives won an academy award. Did you know that? I didn’t until I looked him up on Wikipedia. He served in the Air Force during WWII. And he is likely best known today for his rendition of A Holly Jolly Christmas. Wiki went on to say this about that song:
For the week ending December 8, 2018, the song re-entered the Hot 100 chart. It reached No. 10 for the week ending January 5, 2019.[7][8] On the week ending January 4, 2020, it reached a new peak of No. 4.[9] With this feat, Ives now holds the record for the longest break between Hot 100 Top Tens as he returned to this minimum ranking after 56 years, seven months and two weeks since his previous Top 10 hit and, at 109 years after birth, surpassing Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" (which reached the Top 40 when Armstrong would have been 86 years old) as the oldest artist, living or deceased, to have a Top 40 hit. As of December 2019, Burl Ives' recording has sold 664,000 copies in the United States since becoming available for download in the digital era.[10]
I wasn’t there, obviously, when he decided to cut this record. But if the music industry then was anything like it is today, a Christmas album is just something you do. It’s an easy payday. Your fans will likely give it a listen if not buy it. I mean..pretty much every recording artist who has any commercial viability has cut Christmas songs. If you don’t believe me, give the XM Radio’s Holly Channel a listen. I love Christmas music....I really do...but I have to say that the Holly channel is nails-on-a-blackboard terrible at times. Working overnight in a hospital, they want something upbeat so I hear it often in the wards. I high tail it out of there when Justin Bieber half-asses through a canned version of whatever song he is freshly butchering. As fas as I know, Ives was half-asking it too...but for whatever reason...it stuck.
The same with Feliz Navidad by Jose Feliciano and Gene Autry singing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. And possibly 50 years from now (or sooner) Mariah Carey will be known for her song (which I live by the way)--All I Want for Christmas is You.
I often wonder about these artists who get this form of typecasting. Most of the musical artists I grew up with have retired or I have lost interest in their exploits. Lots of them have passed away unfortunately. But anyway I haven’t been to a concert in quite a while now. Every artists controls what their set list includes of course but I often wonder that if you were to go to a Gene Autry performance or a Mariah Carey concert and it’s April...do you walk away disappointed if they don’t play the song they are arguably known best for? I also wonder how the artists feel about it. Do you feel like singing holiday music in April?
Anyway, if you like Christmas music like I do; XM has a target-rich environment.
For the week ending December 8, 2018, the song re-entered the Hot 100 chart. It reached No. 10 for the week ending January 5, 2019.[7][8] On the week ending January 4, 2020, it reached a new peak of No. 4.[9] With this feat, Ives now holds the record for the longest break between Hot 100 Top Tens as he returned to this minimum ranking after 56 years, seven months and two weeks since his previous Top 10 hit and, at 109 years after birth, surpassing Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" (which reached the Top 40 when Armstrong would have been 86 years old) as the oldest artist, living or deceased, to have a Top 40 hit. As of December 2019, Burl Ives' recording has sold 664,000 copies in the United States since becoming available for download in the digital era.[10]
I wasn’t there, obviously, when he decided to cut this record. But if the music industry then was anything like it is today, a Christmas album is just something you do. It’s an easy payday. Your fans will likely give it a listen if not buy it. I mean..pretty much every recording artist who has any commercial viability has cut Christmas songs. If you don’t believe me, give the XM Radio’s Holly Channel a listen. I love Christmas music....I really do...but I have to say that the Holly channel is nails-on-a-blackboard terrible at times. Working overnight in a hospital, they want something upbeat so I hear it often in the wards. I high tail it out of there when Justin Bieber half-asses through a canned version of whatever song he is freshly butchering. As fas as I know, Ives was half-asking it too...but for whatever reason...it stuck.
The same with Feliz Navidad by Jose Feliciano and Gene Autry singing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. And possibly 50 years from now (or sooner) Mariah Carey will be known for her song (which I live by the way)--All I Want for Christmas is You.
I often wonder about these artists who get this form of typecasting. Most of the musical artists I grew up with have retired or I have lost interest in their exploits. Lots of them have passed away unfortunately. But anyway I haven’t been to a concert in quite a while now. Every artists controls what their set list includes of course but I often wonder that if you were to go to a Gene Autry performance or a Mariah Carey concert and it’s April...do you walk away disappointed if they don’t play the song they are arguably known best for? I also wonder how the artists feel about it. Do you feel like singing holiday music in April?
Anyway, if you like Christmas music like I do; XM has a target-rich environment.
