I found it somewhat strange that this year’s three major Christmas releases, Wrapped In Red by Kelly Clarkson, A Mary Christmas by Mary J. Blige and The Magic Of Christmas by pianist Jim Brickman, would all include My Favorite Things, when it is not really a Christmas song.
This sent me in search of other versions of the song. I looked and looked and I am still looking for them but all that I could find are in Christmas albums. I do not know how it happened but My Favorite Things, one of the most memorable numbers from the musical The Sound of Music, has definitely become a much-favored song for the Christmas celebration.
Composed by the great tandem of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, My Favorite Things was introduced on Broadway by Mary Martin, who played Maria Von Trapp and Patricia Neway as the Mother Abbess in the Tony Award-winning first staging of The Sound of Music in 1959.
Written as a song about conquering one’s fears My Favorite Things made its appearance in Act One when Maria was told that she would be working as a governess for the seven children of Captain Von Trapp. Fearful about what lies ahead for her outside the convent walls, she sings of her favorite things with the Mother Abbess.
This was changed in the screenplay of the Academy Award-winning movie version where Julie Andrews as Maria sings of the favorite things to calm the children during a thunderstorm. This is how everybody remembers the song.
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with string
These are a few of my favorite things
Cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels
Doorbells and sleighbells and switchels with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on her wing
These are a few of my favorite things
Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that turn into springs
These are a few of my favorite things
When the dog bites,
When the bee stings,
When I’m feeling sad,
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don’t feel so bad.
It was really a simple song with a list of pretty things and images sung to a repetitive melody. But it caught the fancy of jazz legend John Coltrane, who covered it two years later with an interesting, rather long arrangement. This was a big hit and became one of his most performed songs. I also recall a nice, more pop version by another jazz artist, Dave Brubeck. But since then, nearly every version of the song recorded was for a Christmas album.
The first artist to find Christmas in the song was Jack Jones who included it in The Jack Jones Christmas Album in 1964. It was most probably because My Favorite Things makes mention of things that we have come to associate with December when Christmas comes like sleigh bells, snowflakes and silver-white winters that turn into springs. Jones’ rendition must have been so effective that nearly every big-name artist who did a Christmas album after him chose to include My Favorite Things.
Just take a look at the names I found on Amazon: Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, Barry Manilow, the Carpenters, Andy Williams, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Johnny Mathis, Eddie Fisher, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Kenny Rogers, Luther Vandross, Dionne Warwick, Anita Baker, Kenny G., Rod Stewart, Brian Setzer and his orchestra Chicago, Sisters With Voices and even the cast of Glee and many others.
American Idol winner and now country music star Carrie Underwood also has her own version. This is in the soundtrack of the live staging of The Sound of Music on television held last Dec. 5 on NBC. Take note of how the airing was timed for the Christmas Season. Underwood played Maria and performed My Favorite Things with Audra McDonald as the Mother Abbess.
The show was well-produced, the singing was great and there is the nostalgia sentiment to keep you watching throughout. Now, Underwood is no Julie Andews and Stephen Moyer of True Blood is no Christopher Plummer but they were more than competent. Truth to tell, Underwood’s vocals were her best and most versatile, ever moving confidently from The Lonely Goatherd to Something Good to all those other unforgettable songs.
Her My Favorite Things went from fear to inspiration and ended with courage. That is the message of the song, something that rings true for anybody who ever ventured into the unknown, whether to the moon, out into the world or to a new love. One does not really need Christmas for that but who’s to stop anybody from putting magic into anything through Christmas? It is a time when hope abounds.
Snowflakes, sleigh bells, switchels? Perhaps not hereabouts. But lights twinkling brightly in the night, the smell of freshly-baked cookies, a jelly candy melting in my mouth, soft, warm socks, and on and on. No wonder they found Christmas in My Favorite Things. Favorite things can make Christmas out of anything. And nobody has to feel bad anymore.
Let us all have a blessed Christmas.