Song of the Day 12/25: The Band, “Christmas Must Be Tonight”
H/t El Somnambulo, who suggested this for the Christmas playlist back in March.
This Christmas song by Robbie Robertson went overlooked for years. Written and rejected for the Band’s 1975’s “Northern Lights – Southern Cross” album, it didn’t see release until 1977 on their final, contract-fulfilling LP “Islands,” a grab-bag of covers and tracks cut from earlier albums that was widely ignored.
The version recorded during the sessions for “Northern Lights – Southern Cross” sounds a little too up-tempo for the lyrics. You can hear that production on the track wasn’t finished, but Rick Danko’s vocal is still the highlight.
Robertson must have like the tune, because he recorded it twice more during his solo career, including this version for the soundtrack of “Scrooged,” the 1988 Bill Murray vehicle.
Other artists started to cover it in the early years of the century. Hall and Oates, Darlene Love, My Morning Jacket and Train are among the many who’ve taken a crack at it. The most unusual is a rocked-out version that Peter Holsapple of dB’s fame released in 2019.
