A New York Christmas

Christmas with Maureen McGovern; Maureen McGovern

I have enjoyed the artistry of Maureen McGovern since I first heard her on The Tonight Show some time in the 1970’s when she sang “Spain” by Chick Corea with the NBC Orchestra with Doc Severinson. I wish that I could tell you that I’ve purchased more than one of her thirteen albums. But I haven’t. I wish that I could tell you that I bought the singles “The Morning After” in 1973, “We May Never Love Like This Again” in 1974 and “Can You Read My Mind” in 1979. But I didn’t. I wish that I could tell you that I heard her live at Carnegie Hall in 1989, on Broadway in “Little Women”, in concert as a headliner or a guest with symphony orchestras all over the country or in cabaret at any number of solo rooms throughout Manhattan. But I heardn’t.

I guess you would have to call me a casual fan. I’ve never forced my hand to make myself appear where she performs. And, to tell you honestly, I don’t even remember the circumstances under which I purchased this CD. Yet, here it is. And I love it.

The energy on this album has all the hustle and bustle of New York; you can hear the uptown-ness in the arrangements. In “Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town”, she makes reference to the tree at Rockefeller Center, the show at Radio City Music Hall, Deer Park, the snowflake at 57^th and brunch at the Blue Note.

She brings freshness to all of the standard Christmas songs: “The Holly And The Ivy”, “O Holy Night”, “I Wonder As I Wander”, “Sleigh Ride/Winter Wonderland/Let It Snow”, “White Christmas”, “The Christmas Song” and the like. She makes the rounds with Alfred Burt, singing “Bright, Bright, The Holly Berries”, “Some Children See Him” and “Caroling, Caroling”. She also includes a jazz tune called, “A Child Is Born”, a song attributed to jazz composer Thad Jones with lyrics that COULD pertain to the nativity scene but historically don’t.

“Toyland”, by far the most creative segment, is absolutely fat with recollection of youth, evoking priceless hours of childhood fantasy played out to scale, and made all the more real by the mere presence of a truck, a ball, a doll, a cowboy hat, a magic wand, a football helmet or a stuffed bear.

When you’ve grown up my dears,

And are as old as I,

You’ll often ponder on the years

That roll so swiftly by, my dears,

That roll so swiftly by

And of the many lands

You will have journeyed through,

You’ll oft recall

The best of all

The land your childhood knew!

Your childhood knew.

… goes the verse. The music box ending so poignantly suspends in mid-air the imagined spectacle, so far away, of a boy with his toy horse and a girl with her fairy princess tiara. Worth the price of admission.

People audibly gasp when I reveal that I’ve never watched “White Christmas” on TV. I haven’t specifically avoided seeing it. We’ve just never been in the same room together. “Christmas with Maureen McGovern” has provided me with the only recording that I’ve ever heard of “Count Your Blessings Instead Of Sheep”. Somebody had to actually tell me that this song comes from “White Christmas.” Until that time, I assumed that Ms. McGovern had intended to include an obscure Irving Berlin Thanksgiving song in the mix.

The powers what be have (stupidly) opted to discontinue the manufacture of this CD. If you can find one, prepare to pay many dollars if it’s new. Used ones usually fall into the “reasonably priced” category.

I hope you had a blessed and merry Christmas.

Credits: To Victor Herbert and Glen MacDonough, for their operetta “Babes In Toyland”, and their unique insight to the magical lure that toys possess, and the power of reminiscence they can engender.