Hands down my favorite Christmas song of 2018. I passed up this album in favor of Jackie Gleason’s Tis The Season, a purchase I do not regret, but this song is definitely worth the price of the vinyl. I love it when Frank sings melancholy, and this one has that quality in spades. Nostalgia, regret, and loneliness are all wrapped up in that golden bow of his amazing voice, a voice that forces your ears to attention when you hear it, never aging, never dulling, calling your life before your eyes, and all but materializing that glass of whiskey or scotch in your left hand, as your right hand reaches to pull the brim of your fedora down a little more to cover the tears in your eyes. Merry Christmas!
October, you have been one long, soggy mess. C’est la vie, I suppose. To commemorate what I anticipate to be tonight’s non-event, I have chosen this song to be the official “hold” music of Halloween 2018, to be played in a continuous loop until one metaphorically throws up one’s hands in disgust, and finally gives up the game. To pick it up again next year? Perhaps. But never quite in the same way.
We are officially in the “-BER months” now, a time of year that for my generation is indelibly stamped by the melancholy Peanuts cartoon soundtracks of Vince Guiraldi and his trio. Though the nostalgic quality of these tracks reaches fever pitch around Christmastime, we begin our seasonal contemplation with this wistful little tune, quickly supplanted in the Guiraldi lineup, but never quite forgotten. It remains one of my favorites, but I’ll only listen to it from the start of September through Halloween.