Playlist

* The Christmas Wish Joyce Poley 3:25

* Gagliarda Renaissance Le Doo Dah Band 2:54

* A Christmas World Randy Sparks and Gayle Caldwell 1:32

Music notes

The Christmas Wish This song might sound familiar to you, but maybe you can’t quite place where you heard it before. If so, try imagining it as being sung by Kermit the Frog. Danny Allen Wheetman, a member of John Denver’s backup band, wrote it in 1979 and the song was used that year in both a best-selling Christmas album and a prime-time TV special called John Denver & The Muppets: A Christmas Together. At the time, both the Muppets and John Denver were at the peak of their popularity.

The vinyl album was released in October of that year and it became an instant hit as a children’s Christmas album that also appealed to adults, and it has continued to sell very well ever since. I was one of the people who bought it when it was first issued - it’s release made quite a splash in the popular press at the time - and I can remember really looking forward to watching the upcoming TV special.

On the album, A Christmas Wish was sung by Kermit (voiced by Jim Henson) with the other Muppet voices joining in on the choruses (YouTube link). But on the TV show (beginning at 22:20) it is sung as a duet between Kermit and John Denver during a calm interlude that begins at 18:17. In that interlude, besides singing a duet on this one with Kermit, Denver also recites the story of Alfie the Christmas Tree (which he wrote) and sings David Pomeranz’s poignant It’s in Every One of Us with Kermit on harmony. Then the show returns to Muppet mayhem.

I don’t know why there are different versions of the song on the show and the album. But the music was recorded in June, before filming, and I suspect that the show’s script was then still under development, so they recorded it both ways to keep their options open. Perhaps the deadline for pressing the albums also came before the script was finalized. (Another oddity is that the later-released CD version of the album does not include all of the songs that had been on the original vinyl recording.)

Interestingly, this beautiful Christmas song has not been covered by very many other singers. This version is by Richmond BC based Unitarian-Universalist hymn writer and singer Joyce Poley, with Frank Henning on guitar and John Reischman on mandolin. It is from Joyce’s 1998 self-published CD The Gift of Christmas. As far as I can tell that album is now out-of-print. My copy is one of my best thrift-store finds ever; you can read more about that, and her, here.

I don’t know if you believe in ChristmasOr if you have presents underneath the Christmas treeBut if you believe in love, that will be more than enoughFor you to come and celebrate with me

For I have held the precious gift that love bringsEven though I never saw a Christmas starI know there is a light, I have felt it burn insideAnd I have seen it shining from afar

Christmas is the time to come together A time to put all differences aside And I reach out my hand to the family of man To share the joy I feel at Christmas time

For the truth that binds us all togetherI would like to say a simple prayerThat at this special time you will have true peace of mindAnd love to last throughout the coming year

And if you believe in love, that will be more than enoughFor peace to last throughout the coming yearAnd peace on earth will last throughout the year

Gagliarda is the Italian word for the lively renaissance-era dance galliard, as well as for the music written for that choreographed style of dancing. Galliard dancing was very athletic, involving leaps, jumps, hops and other similar figures. It originated in Italy in the 15th century and became very popular all across Europe in the 16th century. It was the favourite dance style of Queen Elizabeth I when she was young, and she would dance several of them every day as her morning exercise.

According to Chip Davis’ liner notes, this unnamed piece was commissioned from the early Baroque northern German composer Johann Hermann Schein to be part of Christmastide festivities. Davis believes it to be one of the first, if not the first, composed Christmas celebration dance piece. Chip Davis should know. He is the co-founder and leader of Mannheim Steamroller, an orchestra that mostly plays authentic early music that he very knowledgably stylistically updates for modern tastes. I think of Mannheim Steamroller as being the early music equivalent of folk-rock. (The group’s name comes from a dramatic 18th century German composition technique called the “Mannheim roller”.)

One of Mannheim Steamroller’s specialties is making music for the Christmas season. Besides being a talented early music arranger/adaptor, Davis has also developed brilliant marketing strategies to promote his Mannheim Steamroller orchestra. They have released 28 Christmas albums so far, selling over 31 million copies, making them the world’s #1 Christmas artist of all time! And technically, their albums are all self-published because Chip Davis also founded the independent American Gramaphone label that publishes them.

Besides their albums, for over 40 years now Mannheim Steamroller has been touring pre-Christmas concerts to huge audiences, in recent years using two separate touring troupes to be able to hold more concerts. I have seen their Christmas concerts appear on TV at various times of the year.

This selection is from the third Mannheim Steamroller holiday album, Christmas In the Aire, released in 1995. But you are not hearing either of the full Mannheim Steamroller orchestras here. For this track, to get a lighter feel Chip reawakened his earlier 5 piece Renaissance Le Doo Dah Band, the musicians being himself doing percussion, Jackson Berkey on harpsichord, Arnie Roth on alto vielle, Ron Cooley on lute, and Gregory Clinton on cello.

A Christmas World is from the New Christy Minstrels’ 1963 album Merry Christmas. That was during the heart of that era’s folk music revival, when traditional music was commonly heard on the radio and TV airwaves, and folk music singles and albums vied for spots at the top of the pop charts.

Many of the folk revival stars were individuals, but harmonizing folk groups of 2, 3 or 4 members were also very popular. The new Christy Minstrels were different. Founded by Randy Sparks, they were more like the folk music equivalent of a big band, with 9 singers. Under Randy’s musical direction and with his arrangements, they had a number of hit songs, such as Green, Green, Today, Saturday Night, and We’ll Sing in the Sunshine, and they were regulars on Andy Williams’ popular prime-time TV show.

As folksingers and folk groups became famous they were rushing to release a Christmas album because they were reliable good sellers. That is the challenge that the New Christy Minstrels faced in Summer of 1963, when Green, Green was getting frequent play on pop 40 radio, and their introductory album had just won a Grammy. Their record label, Columbia, was strongly urging them to release an album for the coming Christmas season.

Randy Sparks was the group’s leader, but he did not perform as one of the nine singers. He had a behind-the-scenes role as their leader, arranger and music director. Just as Chip Davis had decided with Gagliarda, Sparks determined that this song required a lighter touch than 9 voices could give it. So he chose for it to appear on the album as a simple duet, and also decided to sing it himself along with the group’s soprano, Gayle Caldwell. Columbia Records’ archivist, sleeve-note writer, and New Christy Minstrels historian Tom Pickles opines that this is one of Randy Sparks’ “finest recorded performances.”

Authorship of the song is credited to the singer-songwriter couple Pat and Victoria Garvey, but as far as I can tell they never recorded it. The arrangement is credited to New Christy Minstrels member Art Podell who provides the gentle guitar accompaniment. The lyrics are:

Spring goes by and snowflakes fly, And all the dreams of summer die.Time engenders love and then A Christmas world is young again.

Wish I had a golden bin to put my treasured memories in.Near forgotten, now they lie Clouded like a winter sky

But December days are born, And we the old with new adorn.Time engenders love and then A Christmas world is young again.

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