Merry Christmas, baby
Sure do treat me nice
Merry Christmas, baby
Sure do treat me nice
Bought me a diamond ring for Christmas
I feel like I’m in paradise…
Quite frankly, Lou Rawls is just so beautifully unique in our musical heritage, it’s almost as if I don’t need to say another word whatsoever.
But this is Park Ranger Mills, reporting for duty, so…
Look, so we have Christmas songs that twinkle like so many lights adorning your tree. Bright, baubly, beautiful, and is baubly even a word? Hmm…
And then there are those songs that simply exude that slow, smooth, almost impossible confidence. No twinkling required; the voice sparkles all by itself just fine, thank you.
Enter Lou Rawls. And his 1967 take on the resplendent holiday standard Merry Christmas Baby.
Sure, you could randomly throw a rock out the window and hit any one of a dozen amazing covers of this song. Written in 1947 by Lou Baxter and Johnny Moore, Merry Christmas Baby has been beautifully rendered by the likes of Ray Charles, Otis Redding, Booker T & the MGs, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Etta James, Bonnie Raitt…
And those are just the R&B/Blues covers alone.
So why Lou Rawls? Besides the fact that it’s Lou freakin’ Rawls?
Because nobody slides into this sucker like Lou Rawls. He doesn’t just sing Merry Christmas Baby, he’s pouring it smooth over ice and letting it swirl around the living room. There’s a late-night fireplace glow, the lamps are dim, and someone’s staying late after the party ended because things just got interesting.
Rawls’s baritone is so warm and rich you could practically paint the house with it. He finds that bluesy groove, nestles into the pocket, and just takes his time establishing and maintaining that vibe with breathless ease.
As the song opens with a swing-era DNA humming through its veins, it quickly shifts into a sauntering blues shuffle that disarms as quickly as it charms. Nothing flashy here, nothing overdone. Rawls’s voice does all the heavy lifting, keeping that perfect groove steady and stylish.
Merry Christmas Baby is all about mood, seduction, and commanding charm. It’s Christmas with cool soul swagger, making the whole season feel just a little warmer, a little smoother, a little more luxurious.
I feel mighty fine, y’all
I’ve got music on my radio
Feel mighty fine, girl
I’ve got music on my radio, oh, oh, oh
I feel like I’m gonna kiss you
Standing beneath that mistletoe…
Mills
A South Florida native and part-time iguana, Mills has slaved in the mine-pits of Information Technology since 1995, finding solace in writing about the things he loves like music, fitness, movies, theme parks, gaming, and Norwegian Hammer Prancing. He has written and published hundreds (thousands?) of reviews since 2000, because Geeking Out over your obsessions is the Cosmic Order Of Things. He is, at heart, a 6'3 freewheeling Aquarius forever constrained by delusions of adequacy.