Anthems and carols

"The Little Drummer Boy" like you've never heard it before.

Some songs just shouldn't be messed with. The “Star-Spangled Banner" comes to mind immediately. Every time one of these hip-hop bee-bop rapper types opens a football game with it, I cringe. The little curlicues and flutters they are compelled to add at the ends of phrases do nothing to enhance the presentation, just satisfy the singer's ego that he or she can make this song better. They can't. And they shouldn't try. It should be sung the regular way every time. That song belongs to all of us. Every single citizen of the United States has a stake in that song and these pretenders should just leave it alone. That 12-year-old girl who sings it at the beginning of Miami Heat games could show them how.

Covers of some songs are all right.  Most of them aren't as good as the originals and are hardly worth a second listen and some you have to approach as if they were completely different songs from the originals to find any appreciation for them at all. Only once in a while does someone really nail a cover.

Another whole group of songs that individuals should leave alone is the religious songs of Christmas. 

They can do anything they want to what I like to call the party songs of Christmas. I don't really care how anybody sings "I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus." But the traditional and even the new religious carols should be sung they way they were intended, and not how some rock and roller thinks they should sound as a dance number or something.There many attempts and many failures, but every once in a while a new rendition of a carol comes along and knocks me over. The video at the top of this is one of those.

It's by a group called Pentatonix which looks to be a mixed ethnic group of four men and a woman and they appear to be singing on a hill outside Los Angeles. They add their own a cappella touch to the performance but they don't take away from the original in doing it. The woman's voice is so clear and at the end so powerful. It sent that warm shiver through me that a song hitting home emotionally  can do and I bought that one and and two others.  They do a credible version of "O Holy Night," too.

It is December 2, now, so to my mind it is all right to do Christmas songs.  This was the one that opened that door for me when I heard it earlier today.

I remember years ago talking with a woman friend about Christmas and how I am not really a believer but there is one part I love. She knew exactly what I was talking about and responded, "Yeah, we have the best music."

So true.

Julia Dale sings "The Star-Spangled Banner."