{"id":4496,"date":"2013-12-19T12:09:41","date_gmt":"2013-12-19T17:09:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=4496"},"modified":"2013-12-19T12:09:41","modified_gmt":"2013-12-19T17:09:41","slug":"charles-brown-merry-christmas-baby-1970","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=4496","title":{"rendered":"Charles Brown – Merry Christmas Baby (1970)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Example\" <\/strong><\/p>\n

Charles Brown<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Example\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Listen\/Download Charles Brown – Merry Christmas Baby (1970) <\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

NOTE: \u00a0Don’t forget to tune into t<\/strong>his year’s Funky16Corners Radio Show Christmas special. It airs on Friday night 12\/2o at 9PM on Viva Radio.<\/a>\u00a0If you are out making merry at that hour, you can catch up by subscribing to the show as a podcast in iTunes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Enjoy!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Greetings all<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

As mentioned in our previous post, of Ike and Tina Turner<\/strong> KILLING \u2018Merry Christmas Baby\u2019, the original version was recorded by Charles Brown with Johnny Moore\u2019s Three Blazers<\/strong> in 1947.<\/p>\n

The tune became a holiday standard, and was covered by many people (including Ike and Tina, Chuck Berry, Otis Redding, Booker T and the MGs, Kenny Burrell<\/strong> and Bruce Springsteen<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

Brown himself returned to the well frequently over the years, recording the song anew many times.<\/p>\n

The version I bring you today is something I dug up this past summer on a record safari to the Finger Lakes region of New York.<\/p>\n

When I saw it, I was unaware of Brown\u2019s many rerecordings, and assumed it to simply be a later pressing of the tune.<\/p>\n

When I finally got home and gave it a spin, it was immediately clear \u2013 via the wah-wah guitar<\/em> \u2013 that what I was hearing was a recording of a much later vintage.<\/p>\n

A little bit of research revealed that Brown had redone the tune for Jewel records (along with a new version of \u2018Please Come Home For Christmas\u2019) in 1970.<\/p>\n

Though I haven\u2019t been able to track down any session info (I really wish I knew who the guitarist was) I think it\u2019s a safe assumption that it is Brown himself tickling the ivories.<\/p>\n

His voice \u2013 in the words of Slim Gaillard<\/strong>, \u201cmellow like a cello\u201d \u2013 one of the finest\/smoothest that ever was, was still in fine shape (and would remain so for many years) and the vibe is relaxed.<\/p>\n

What amazes me about this song in particular is how flexible it is.<\/p>\n

You can line up the versions that have appeared in this space \u2013 or on the Funky16Corners Radio Show<\/strong> \u2013 by Ike and Tina, Otis Redding<\/strong> and the Soulful Strings<\/strong> \u2013 next to Brown\u2019s, and marvel at how different the song (a fairly simple blues) manages to sound in each interpretation.<\/p>\n

I love to hear Charles Brown\u2019s voice (right up there with Lou Rawls<\/strong> for pure listening pleasure) and he clearly dug this song.
\nI hope you do too.<\/p>\n

See you next week with some more holiday soul!<\/p>\n

Keep the faith<\/strong><\/p>\n

Larry<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Example\"<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong> <\/strong> \u00a0<\/strong> ___________________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!<\/strong> The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.<\/strong> They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).<\/strong> Click here to go to the ordering page.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/strong> \"Example\"<\/strong><\/a> \"Example\"<\/strong><\/a> \u00a0 <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charles Brown   Listen\/Download Charles Brown – Merry Christmas Baby (1970) NOTE: \u00a0Don’t forget to tune into this year’s Funky16Corners Radio Show Christmas special. It airs on Friday night 12\/2o at 9PM on Viva Radio.\u00a0If you are out making merry at that hour, you can catch up by subscribing to the show as a podcast […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[89,79,58,14,64,12,18],"tags":[180,166,173],"class_list":["post-4496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blues","category-christmas","category-cover-songs","category-funky16corners","category-rb","category-soul","category-soul-45","tag-christmas","tag-funky16corners","tag-rb"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-1aw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4496"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4518,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4496\/revisions\/4518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}