Most of the time, when I record a song, I just do it while on the job, plug in the Zoom H2, then play back the entire job while driving home so I can determine what I did right, and of course, what I did wrong.

When I recorded Merry Christmas Darling, I did it at home, and while in my head I was hearing Karen Carpenter, of course, my vocals and chords were doing something else. Uncle Dave, who is among my many mentors here, hit it right on the money when he listened and commented on the recording. IT WAS AWFUL! At least, IMO. I had an opportunity to listen to it today while on the way to a job and the first thing that came to mind was "Damned, that's just awful. Why in the Hell would I ever post a song without listening to it first. - My mistake!

The chords were right, but my vocals just plain sucked! No question in my mind, and obviously Dave's as well. But, he was just too diplomatic to use those words.

Thanks Dave, I've since cleaned it up, got the vocals down to where they sounded good to me today, and my audience loved the rendition.

Thanks again,

Gary

Gary are you going to post the corrected version for us again now?

Maybe tomorrow when I get the keyboard out of the van.

Gary

You Da Man!!

Hi Gary. That is a very hard song both in chord progression and vocals to sing. Of course, Karen makes it sound easy. That's why she was as good as she was. Her voice made every song seem like it was a part of you. I'm impressed you even tried this song. I haven't tried to sing it for years just because I think of her rendition as the only one. Kudos to you for trying.

Merry Christmas,

Joe

Sure wish I could sing with the voice quality of Karen Carpenter, but this old crooner has to live with the cards that were dealt to me. I trudged through the snow this morning to pull the keyboard out of the van and do some things to get ready for tomorrow's jobs. Yeah, I'm still doing doubles once in a while, but I try to avoid doing a second job, even when they're not a long distance apart.

Uncle Dave, here's the redo from an old sailor who's freezing to death in his office today.

Merry Christmas Darling

Happy New Year everyone, and as always, constructive criticism is always welcomed. And, yes, I do read your comments and often take your advice and use it wisely.

Gary

Beautiful, Gary. I knew you had it in ya!
Now, as for the chords ..... well, they're closer! There are so many altered chords and "/bass" type chords - it's a tough one, but you made a very recognizable, and really smooooooth version that I'm sure everyone enjoys as much as I do.
Love ya., man.

Just gave it a 'quick listen' Gar and thought it sounded much better - very good ...
As we know, one problem with 'iconic' songs such as this one, is that people's minds will automatically revert back to the original (and I am not referring to Uncle Dave here) ... that is not to say that yours or anyone else's version isn't good, it's just not the 'original', ESPECIALLY when the original is done by a beautiful, 'lilting' female voice like Karen's and then covered by a bass/baritone voice such as yours ... it is like the comment Ian made about my version of the Michael Franks' song "The Lady Wants To Know" - there is a big difference in the 'type' of voice and the delivery ...
We are fortunate that at 'our age', we can do what we do in 'our style' ...
That being said, I still think the chords from Wikifonia (RIP ) give the song more 'meat' ...

PS ... when I hit 'submit' I saw that UD had similar comments ...

When I was learning this tune by ear, I had a quite a time getting the chords right...the on-bass chords are tricky, but, they are what gives this song it's mood and without them, it will be harder to capture it.

As been said, Gary, this last one is much closer.

Ian

Yeah, the wikifonia chords were dead on for the original, but I kinda liked the Chordie version a bit better, and for me it was easier to play. Thanks again guys for the comments, and I really appreciate you taking the time to listen again.

Tony, you're right, we should be very thankful at our advanced age that we can still carry a tune in a 5-gallon bucket, let alone keep the ladies and gents of our audiences happy. Yesterday was a real eye opener for me when I did the job and noticed that two of the people in the audience looked very familiar. One I went to school with, same age as me, early onset of Alzheimers, while the other person, whom I knew from when I had a fishing tackle shop many years ago, has stage-4 lung cancer and the family dumped him there to die. It really tore at my heart strings to sing for them, knowing that it won't be long before either one of them is gone. I managed to keep up a good front, kept the pace upbeat by singing my crazy versions of traditional Christmas songs, and some oldies rock and roll. Before heading out I talked with both of them, introduced them to each other, and gave them both a CD for a Christmas present.

Thanks again for helping me make this song better,

Gary