BMLG RecordsWhen Lady A was curating the track list for the deluxe edition of On This Winter’s Night, they were intentional in selecting Christmas songs that aren’t typically covered.
In addition to the original number “Christmas Through Your Eyes,” which Dave Haywood describes as a “really fun write,” the trio also recorded their own renditions of Paul McCartney‘s “Wonderful Christmastime,” “Little St. Nick” by the Beach Boys, and the little-known Ray Charles tune, “Spirit of Christmas.”
“There’s a lot of very familiar Christmas songs, and we wanted to find a couple that were familiar, but there hasn’t been a ton of covers of,” Charles Kelley describes of the song selection process. “And there really hasn’t been that many covers of ‘Little St. Nick’ or Paul McCartney’s much at all, and so we thought that’d be kind of different and unique.”
Charles also points to a humorous scene in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation when Chevy Chase‘s character is trapped in the attic and finds an old-fashioned song reel, selecting Ray’s “Spirit of Christmas,” a song that Charles Kelley notes is hard to come by.
“But it’s such an amazing song and Ray Charles is just one of my idols. And so I said, ‘man, I’ve always wanted to try this,'” Charles continues. “So those are the four new songs.”
On This Winter’s Night Deluxe was released in October. Upon the original edition’s release in 2012, it hit number one on the Billboard Top Holiday Albums chart and number two on the Top Country Albums chart.
By Cillea Houghton
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