Quote Originally Posted by aarondillon2011@gmail.com View Post
Speaking of Mary's "Christmas Song" what happened to it?
my understanding is that Mary only recorded a rehearsal take of the song. for whatever reason they didn't record a "full" version. my guess is that a rehearsal take of the song would be performed by the singer at partial performance level. they might be testing things out, experimenting, working through the arrangement, etc. Saying the singing is only singing at partial level is by no means a knock to the singer. You have to preserve your voice and can't risk damaging it through over use. that's why they might only half sing or commit to the performance.

as such there might be entrances that aren't perfect, pitch issues. again they're just testing out the piece.

if that's all we have, kudos to Mary. I think the ending at 1:41 where Mary sings "Merry Christmas" is one of the most beautiful phrases Mary ever committed to vinyl. She hits the note perfectly, opens up the vowel and just caresses the lyric. it's magical even if only a brief passage.

and she was only 21 at the time.

so i'm thrilled we got this selection out. they might have done it as a duet in order to edit out bits that were "rehearsal level"

This is all just my speculation as i've never heard the entire Mary version