Tonight's Christmas music comes to us courtesy of Jo Stafford, a singer with one of the most pure and angelic voices I have ever heard. The album is Happy Holidays, an all-too-brief selection of ten songs, including the stuning "O Come O Come Emmanuel" (her voice is perfectly suited for this song) and a heartfelt version of "The Christmas Song." I discovered Jo Stafford in the 1990s, and was lucky enough to have a chance to write her a letter and let her know how much I enjoyed her distinctive vocals. She wrote back a very kind response that I still treasure. We all too rarely have a chance to tell those whose work we enjoy how much it brightens our lives; I'm glad I took the time to do so. If you've never heard her clear, pitch-perfect vocals, you really should; she avoids the gimmickry, the warbling vibrattos, the up-and-down-the-scales vocals and just delivers a song exactly as it should be sung.
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