> No...not a joke at all. Barry's latest is called "A Christmas Gift Of Love" > and includes the usual suspects, plus River, plus the title song which he > wrote, plus "My Favorite Things"....since when is THAT a Christmas song? > Anyway, he obviously has no clue what "River" is about...he sings it like > it's a little pop ditty. > I buy one or two holiday CDs each year (I'm getting sentimental as I get older and would never have even considered buying Christmas music until a few years ago) and this year I decided to go with Manilow because of River and because I had read the album includes a number of swing-style arrangements. It's not a bad album at all, as far as holiday music goes (which, let's face it, is often really awful). I like the big band-style arrangements and his voice sounds quite good (without much of the mono-tonal stuff he has done so much of). Anyway, I have to agree that, for this Joni fan, his treatment of River misses the mark (but of course he gets to decide which mark he's aiming for, doesn't he). I've read on the web that Barry's fans are ga-ga over River. But no matter how he does it, I think "it's a good thing" when singers cover Joni compositions and spread around some siquomb to people who might not otherwise be exposed. Some of them, no doubt, will pick up a copy of Hits as a result.
Bryan
