I tip my hat to this day to my friend Ted Blades for pointing me toward Leon Redbone's Christmas Island, which somehow escaped me when it was released in 1987. More than a decade later, I caught up, and it's been a Christmas staple since.
Christmas Island - the fifth entry in a musical advent calendar I'm compiling this year, with a list of great Christmas music - is a treat because so it sounds so relaxed and happy; you can imagine Redbone, who brings in his trademark retro arrangements from the ragtime and Tin Pan Alley eras, and his friends having a hoot as the tape rolled.
The highlight: a rollicking two-minute duet with Dr. John on Frosty the Snowman, which ends with Redbone doing a little yodel. When my son was younger, we played the song over and over, just so he could howl along. As Redbone has spent much of his career raking over standards, it's not a surprise that most of his choices here are pretty traditional, but have that raspy flavour of his voice: there's the strum of Let It Snow, a sincere croon on White Christmas (take that, Bing Crosby), and a sprightly take on Winter Wonderland.
Here's that video of Redbone's duet with Dr. John, on my favourite version of Frosty the Snowman. It always makes me smile.
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