Finnginn's Festive Countdown: Number 6

My annual YouTube Music listening statistics came through and, once again, I am in the top 2% of Bob Dylan listeners globally - in 2022, I listened to 371 minutes of Bob Dylan. If that puts me in the top 2%, y’all aren’t listening to enough Dylan.

But even we super-Dylan listeners find our fingers hovering over the ‘skip song’ button when his rasping ineffectual rendition of Do You Hear What I Hear? from 2009’s Christmas in the Heart starts playing.

Do You Hear What I Hear? has been covered many times since it was written by two musicians (Noël Regney and Gloria Shayne) during October 1962. You heard me correctly - Regney and Shayne came up with their choral masterpiece during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Knowing that they thought the world was ending, makes the song’s central message all the more poignant.

Plot-wise not much is going on in Do You Hear What I Hear? Essentially, various protagonists (Night Wind, Little Lamb, Shepherd Boy, Mighty King) share various aspects of the Nativity story until the Mighty King proclaims peace and goodwill to the people everywhere. 

This is in stark contrast to the actual Nativity story, in which you will recall that the Mighty King on hearing the news of Christ’s birth orders the slaughter of all boys under 2 years of age in the entire kingdom. (Matt 2:16)

I’ve listened to this song a lot this week. And I can tell you that it turns out that Dylan’s cover is far from the worst. That honour goes to the Jessie J and Mary J Blige version some mixes of which last a full 5 and a half minutes! They linger so long on presenting the Christ-child with silver and gold that I started to doubt Jessie J’s earlier protestations that it was not about the money money money and the ba-bling ba-bling. 

William Becket has a version that I first encoutered on an album called Punk goes Christmas that manages to achieve a sound that is neither punky nor Christmassy.

So what am I looking for in my search for the perfect rendition of Do You Hear What I Hear? The song benefits from being tight. The original recording by the Harry Simeone Chorale is magical and only 3 minutes long. Mahalia Jackson belts it out in just 2 minutes 20, but she chose a musical rather than vocal echo on the Do You Hear What I Hear? bits so she narrowly misses out to:

Number 6: Do You Hear What I Hear? by Andy Williams

From the prominent military snare drum to the sustained final note, Andy’s version has everything that we’re looking for. And is supported by a female choir doing the echoey bits and a male voice choir adding some baritone harmonies. Gradually, extra elements (including some Christmassy sounding tubular bells, and an orchestra and brass section) are introduced with the whole never becoming too bloated.

Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy,

“Do you hear what I hear?

(Do you hear what I hear?)”

Think you hate this song? There's a version for you out there somewhere. Share your favourites in the comments below or on Facebook. But forgive me if I listen to them next Xmas - I've kind of done this one to death this week in researching this blog!