This is Later with Lee Matthews, The Lee Matthews Podcast More What You Hear
weekday afternoons on the Drive Love It. Raymond Arorero is a Fox News contributor
appears regularly on The Ingram Angle. He is also a New York Times bestselling
author and acclaimed vocalist. He unveils the hidden backstories of some of the most
beloved Christmas songs in his upcoming three hour radio special, which we will air
Thanksgiving weekend and Christmas weekend right here, and his debut album, Christmas Mary
and Bright, is already topping Amazon's Music Jazz charts. Welcome Raymond Arroyo.
Hey Lee, I'm so delighted to be on the program and so excited to
bring people this special Christmas Marry and Bright playback Stories, because it's sort of
the backstories, the origin stories of all these Christmas songs that we so love
and that are part of our lives. We've been singing them for years.
But I bet a lot of people don't realize the significance of bells on bobtail
ring. Well, now you're going to get me into all kinds of trouble.
Lad you know? My wife after I recorded the album. You know,
when I was building the album Christmas, Mary and Bright, I went
back and pulled all these lyrics and then I said, I'm going to do
a deep dive and find out who wrote them, what was the context,
what was their intention? And I have to say I was shocked by what
I found lee No less when I looked at jingle bells. Now, this
is a song we've heard like a thousand times. You've heard a million children's
choir sing it. We've heard it for years. It is not at all
what you think. First of all, the song was originally called one Horse,
Open Sleigh. Okay. It was written by a guy named James Lord
Pierpont. JP Morgan was his nephew. It was written in Medford, Massachusetts,
in a tavern, which is an indication of what the song is really
about. Medford. Medford was known for rum production. That's what they did.
They made rum and they drank a lot of it in the wintertime and
apparently when it snowed down the main street of Salem, they would have drag
races in the snow. Now, James Lord Pierpont was a skirt chaser.
He left his wife. He ran after women he married the Mayor of Savannah's
daughter. So the song is really about drinking, girl chasing and drag racing.
That's what the song is about. Now people say, oh no,
no, don't run it for me. I'm not running anything. That's the
history. And when you go to the third verse and listen to it,
the lyric is now the ground is white, go it while you're young.
Take the Laurel tonight and sing this slaying song. I mean, it's all
about getting a girl alone in a sleigh in the dark. And the jingle
bells, by the way, we're needed because you had no headlights in the
dark when you were alone with the girl racing, so they had to jingle
the bells so you knew the oncoming sleigh was on its way and to avoid
any other calamities. So that's what that song's about. So when we were
to do the album, Kevin Cosca, who did arrange The Greatest Showman and
Lion King and The Dark Knight, he was our arranger on this and we
decided to set all these songs in their original context. So jingle Bells has
a decidedly randy arrange. I love it, I love it, and hark
the Herald Angels thing is appropriately you know, of a high octane and dynamic,
because that's another one that's been sort of leeched of its drama, leached
of its dynamism. And when you dig into what that is about and what
it was intended to be, it changes, It just changes your whole approach.
Certainly my performance as well. Well. The performance is on the album
Mary and Bright by Raymond Arroyo, and that is that out yet, it's
already topping Amazon's Yeah, okay, so that's out. And then the three
hour radio special will be heard on this station Thanksgiving weekend and also Christmas weekend
at various times. I'll be posting those a little bit later on what brought
you to music? You've been singing all your life? Well, in my
early life, I I sang in musicals. I was trained as an actor,
and you know this, the old album really came about. Every year
on my Christmas show, I would feature what I call great voices of Christmas,
Jose Feliciano and Andy Williams and Aaron Neville Keeley Smith. So I sang
with these people over many years, and a record producer approached me and said,
have you thought about doing your Christmas album and I said, no,
I haven't so, but I went back dug into these songs and realized,
yeah, there's something here that I could contribute to the Christmas canon. And
I love what we've done. It's you know what it is more than anything
else. Ly, it's an explosion and an infusion of joy at a moment
when the world needs it most. I think. So it pays respect to
our great Christmas carols, it gives new life to some contemporary Christmas songs,
and it's continuing the threat, continuing the tradition, and that's what I love
about it. And I think that's why it's on the top of Amazon's Jazz
release and it hit Billboard's charts because it's resonating with people. There's something that
once traditional about it, but new and fresh, and that's what we wanted
and I'm thrilled we could do it. That's what people are looking for too.
I think, Yeah, we love the old favorites and the songs that
we grew up with, but then every now and then you need to freshen
things up a bit, you bet, no, no, And look,
we crave traditions at Christmas time. It's a time for families and friends to
come together. And these songs they're eternally you know. When I started looking
at them, I thought, more than any other genre ever made, this
is the only genre that your great grandparents sang, you'll sing, and your
children's children will sing. There's no other genre like that. So there's a
certain reverence you have to come to some of these songs with and we did.
And then there's others that you know, you can play with and bend
around the edges. And I love that we were able to have fun,
dive into both the sacred and the secular here and revive them a little bit,
bring them to a new audience, and you do it in a fun
way that's accessible, I think cross generations. And Raymond Arroyo does it with
Christmas, Mary and Bright, available now on Amazon and everywhere you get music.
Be listening for the three hour radio special where he talks about the behind
the scenes, hidden backstories of some of these beloved Christmas songs. As a
trained singer and actor, did you ever get into sight reading or do you
just kind of wing it by ear? Lee? It's all by ear But
I'm in good company, you know. Sinatra Judy Garland. They didn't read
music emails. I figure they can do it. I can do it,
but yeah, I mean I can kind of read in between now and then,
but no, they have to play it out for me and I have
to do it by ear. And look, we're going on the road.
I'm Josea Lusiano and I are going on the road doing a five city Christmas
tour. People can go to Raymond Arroyo Christmas dot com. We start in
Phoenix Thanksgiving weekend when the special airs, and then we're in Dallas and Tampa
and Cleveland and then Nashville at the Ryman Auditorium on the twenty first. So
it's going to be a fun tour and I hope people will get the album
and listen to the special Christmas. Mary and Bright play backstories, all the
backstories, belove Christmas songs, and Amy Grant's on the special with me,
jose and others. So it's a lot of fun and I think it will
change. It's not only going to lift your spirits, it will change the
way you understand and appreciate these songs. And you can do so by getting
your copy of the album. Raymond Arroyo Christmas Mary and Bright. The special
will be aired Thanksgiving weekend and Christmas weekend. And Merry Christmas to you,
Raymond Arroyo, thanks for joining us Harry Christmas, Thank you for having me
late. Ry Christmas you and all your listeners. Thanks for listening to Later
with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to The
Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and Iheartsmedia Presentation