Here's the first in a series of posts about Elvis and Christmas. It's easy to focus on the overrated, bloated, sad old Elvis from the mid- and late-70s, but he was an innovative performer and he LOVED Christmas music.Elvis released two Christmas albums. The first was released in 1957 and charted six consecutive Decembers, till 1962. The second was released in 1971, and is the source of today's track. This is Elvis's take on the perennial Charles Brown classic "Merry Christmas, Baby." (I posted it last year as part of a Multiple Monday, but it's reupped today for this Elvis Holiday Retrospective.)
Here, you can hear Elvis grooving on his band, shouting the blues and begging the band to play louder and harder. (That's legendary James Burton on guitar, and Ronnie Tutt who Elvis exhorts to "wake up." This is the long extended mix put out on Reconsider Baby, the OOP blues compilation from the 80's, where the buy link goes.)
Tomorrow and Friday, more Elvisy things.
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