Artist:Peter, Paul and Mary
Song:We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Album:A Holiday Celebration
If you weren't around in the 60s, you might be surprised at how popular the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary were back then. And if you were around, you may be surprised that they never recorded a Christmas album. Doesn't everyone record a Christmas album? I'm sure it would have sold well. They corrected that mistake with this 1988 PBS special and album A Holiday Celebration. After having great success in the 60s, Peter, Paul and Mary split up in 1970. Mary Travers and Paul Stookey had success as solo artists. Peter Yarrow had success as a songwriter and producer of the 1977 chart topper Torn Between Two Lovers by Mary McGregor. They reunited for a 1978 reunion tour and released a live album. The tour went so well that they toured regularly until Mary's 2009 death. And they released albums on the folk label Gold Castle. And that led to this 1988 PBS Christmas special A Holiday Celebration with an album that could be sold on pledge breaks. The choir is the New York Choral Society. Yarrow produced the album. There are a couple of standards like We Wish You a Merry Christmas. But all three wrote originals with conductor and arranger Robert DeCormier. This album is available on CD. And the entire show can be streamed on YouTube. Peter, Paul and Mary continued to tour until Mary was diagnosed with leukemia in 2004. She died in 2009. Here's the video of We Wish You a Merry Christmas which I think is the opening of the TV show.
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