Don McLean remembers sitting around the record player with his family, listening to holiday music around Christmas time, playing everything from Gene Autry and Bing Crosby. Revisiting some Christmas classics he previous recorded and reimagined 12 with new arrangements for the 2023 season on Christmas Memories: Remixed & Remastered.
On Christmas Memories, McLean revisits Elvis Presley’s 1957 hit “Blue Christmas” along with classics like “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” “Let It Snow,” “Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem,” “Rudolph,” “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town,” and “Silent Night,” among others.
Along with McLean musician Tony Migliore arranged each track, some revamped with strings and other instrumentation. “All I did was bring the song to him,” McLean tells American Songwriter of his recording of “The Burgundian Carol,” originally released on his first holiday album Christmas in 1991.
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“He created this baroque sound with a string quartet,” he adds, “and when you listen to ‘I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day’ that’s Tony Migliore and the upright bass. That’s it.”
Based on the 1863 poem “Christmas Bells” by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and its refrain of Peace on Earth, good will to men, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” was first covered by McLean fon his 1997 album Christmas Dreams and is a song he was first introduced to with Johnny Cash‘s version 1963.
“I always loved that song,” says McLean. “I know I’m a bit of a sentimentalist, but I think it’s beautiful at the end of the year to stop holding grudges and forgive people and wish the best for our fellow man, because we’re all struggling.”
The song, says McLean, is one that captures the truer essence of Christmas. “It’s so magnificent the way the year is lined out, starting in the cold and January, brand new, then into the beautiful spring and, and a carefree summer,” he says. “Fall is a dramatic moment with Thanksgiving, and what we have to be thankful for this year. Finally, there’s this celebration of Christ and forgiveness and love one Christmas, and then we start our year over again hating each other.”
He continues “But the idea of Christmas is to forgive people and move on and start the new year fresh.”
Produced by longtime producer Mike Severs, Christmas Memories rounds out with McLean’s newly arranged renditions of “The Christmas Waltz,” and closing “Winter Wonderland.”
When it came to remixing the Irving Berlin classic “White Christmas,” also recorded by McLean on the Christmas album, he wanted to switch up the regular bass parts our for an upright, played by Jim Ferguson.
“I chose those for two reasons,” shares McLean on the collection of songs on Christmas Memories.
“Number one: I love them,” says McLean, who is already working on new arrangements around remaining holiday recordings for release in 2024. “And number two: I think they were among the most successful recordings that we made of that kind of music that turned out really well so I wanted to make them even better.”
Photo: Courtesy of 2911 Enterprises
