Ray Charles was such a celebrity during the last decade of his life that sometimes it is easily forgotten just what a huge influence he exerted upon American music. From his first releases in the early 1950\u2019s until his death in 2004 at the age of 73, he established a catalogue of music that has rarely been equaled by any other artist. <\/p>\n
I find it amazing that he did not issue a Christmas album until 1985. The Spirit Of Christmas <\/i>was originally released on vinyl and has been reissued several times in CD form, but none match the clarity of this 2009 remastered version. <\/p>\n
The album was a moderate seller upon its release but received a great deal of attention several years later when one of its tracks became well-known as a part of the movie Christmas Vacation. <\/i>As Chevy Chase\u2019s character Clark Griswold watches old movies of family Christmases, it is \u201cThat Spirit Of Christmas\u201d playing in the background. It is one of the finest Christmas performances you can find, as Charles\u2019s subdued and relaxed vocal gets the words and intent of the song just right. Here, you receive the full five-minute version.<\/p>\n
There are a number of well-known secular seasonal songs that receive his unique treatment here. \u201cLittle Drummer Boy\u201d uses a steel guitar and a horn section to support his bluesy lead vocal. \u201cRudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer\u201d has a swinging jazzy feel, which is far from what Gene Autry had in mind. Charles even manages to make the over-recorded \u201cSanta Claus Is Coming To Town\u201d not only listenable, but actually very good. <\/p>\n
He goes in a different direction with some lesser-known songs: \u201cChristmas Time\u201d and \u201cChristmas In My Heart\u201d both return him to his rhythm and blues vocal roots. <\/p>\n
There is one bonus track on this disc. \u201cBaby Its Cold Outside\u201d is a duet with Better Carter, recorded in the early \u201860s. It was a traditional pop song written by Frank Loesser, and won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 1949. It may not be a reverent holiday song, but it is a great one all the same. Charles and Carter get the humorous vocal interplay just right, and it provides a nice finale for the album.<\/p>\n
The Spirit Of Christmas <\/i>is a fine addition to any Christmas collection, and it always receives some holiday play in my home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":30134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6747],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-41773","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ray-charles","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41773"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}