Reba McEntire's Merry Christmas To You, from 1987. First, can we talk about the cover? How fabulously '80s country is that? The fur collar, the teased red hair, the press-on nails? If I ever did drag, this would be my costume. Lord knows Reba's had some bigger hair, but that is still a lot of look!
We had the album on cassette (you do remember those, right? They're the funny boxes that make up my blog background...) when I was but a wee lad. I remember listening to it every year, along with an Avon compilation cassette that featured Anne Murray and The Carpenters. There is a reason I love sappy Adult Contemporary this time of year.
But this album, which I bought as a two disc set called Christmas Collection that also includes Reba's other Holiday album Secret Of Giving, is pure country magic. Reba has never been in better vocal form, her range is one of the best in country. She does the most difficult carol "O Holy Night" so well, I defy Barbara or Celine to even attempt it again. She also does "White Christmas" with so much charisma I think Bing would be impressed and "I'll Be Home For Christmas" in an upbeat Texas swing style, a variation I've never heard before or since. Three originals add to the charm of this album, including a song called "A Christmas Letter" in which Santa asks for peace on earth this Christmas. From his lips to God's ears...
My favorite track is not even a song, really. "The Christmas Gift" is a spoken word moment, a story of a man who was visited by Jesus in a dream. He is told that the Lord would visit him on Christmas day, and Conrad got very excited. On that day, he waits for the visit but is distracted by a beggar who needs shoes in the cold snow, a lost child he helps find her way home and a homeless woman who needed a meal. At the end of the day, Conrad is depressed that Jesus never shows. That night He appears in a dream again, and Conrad asks him why he never shows. He tells him "Remember the woman, the lost child, the shoeless man? That was me!" It's a tale sometimes told as The Cobbler And His Guest, but the story is an important one. Especially in this day and age when religious folk spend all their money trying to keep two men from marrying instead of spending it to keep two children from starving on Christmas day. Matthew 25:40 - "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."
2 comments:
I recently did a post called "Proof Jesus Doesn't Love Me." Well, I take that back. That cover is proof that Jesus loves all of us! I am finding and listening to this album for the cover picture alone!
Reba's hair spray bill truly does prove God's love for us all.
Also, my current copy does not have the fabulous cover. :( It has a very tasteful Reba: The Series era short-haired picture with a pink background. I have hunted my Mom's house looking for the cassette, because I need that cover back in my life. I actually want a vinyl LP copy, so I can frame the cover in all it's Tyra level fierceness/drag-tasticness.
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