Music Review: Robert Bannon Redecorates DON'T SAVE IT ALL FOR CHRISTMAS DAY & Does Celine Proud

Heigh Ho, dear lovely rainbow tribe, welcome back to Bobby’s CD sandbox where we offer our broken-down breakdowns of new music releases. So, strap in and get ready, as Bobby goes on the record ABOUT the record.

This week’s album entry in the BobbyFiles comes from cutie patootie podcasting show business workhorse (in the best sense of the word) Robert Bannon, who just released a Christmas single of a Celine Dion song - how’s THAT for Christmas bells?!  Heavens to Betsy!   Celine The Queen will always set the bar high and even though there are decades worth of people who want to emulate her genius and rise to her occasion, it’s a tricky thing to do.  But just grabbing a karaoke mic and belting out MY HEART WILL GO ON is one thing, my dearlings… singing a song that Celine Dion helped to write that is featured on one of the all-time greatest Christmas albums (if you know, you know) takes temerity.  And Bold Bannon is not too shy to take on the impossible.  And do you know what, angels?

He shoots.  He scores. (Bobby is SO sporty!!)

DON’T SAVE IT ALL FOR CHRISTMAS DAY is one of the stand-out songs on Celine’s 1998 modern-day Christmas Classic THESE ARE SPECIAL TIMES, the album that gave us mere mortals bang-on recordings of the spiritual (AVE MARIA), the secular (BLUE CHRISTMAS), the festive (FELIZ NAVIDAD) and the radio-ready (CHRISTMAS EVE).  The song was written by Peter Zizzo, Rick Wave, and Our Lady Celine, herself, and is a pretty-as-a-present ballad just right for modern times, and Little Bobby hasn’t heard very many covers of it, so we were a tad surprised to learn that the boisterous poster boy for bouncin’ behavior had decided to take it on.  But what Bobby forgot for a moment, there, is that Robert Bannon does not ever do anything you expect him to do.  He is a carousel of creativity who gets that wild hair across his Christmas Pudding and runs with it, the result being one of the most varied artistic aesthetics in the business of show… and don’t we all love him for it?

Produced by the artistic throuple that is Bannon himself, Robbie Rozelle, and Yasuhiko Fukuoka, the song was arranged, mixed, and mastered by the musical genius that is Mr. Fukuoka, and it features Robert’s NJPAC Musical Theatre students (remember everyone?  Robert is teaching when he isn’t preaching), and the whole five-minute musical story is just a slice of Christmas heaven.  When it comes to holiday music, TBH, Little Bobby leans into Brenda Lee, The Crystals, and Mariah Carey.  The ballads are beautiful but the bop is better, doncha know?  But we do, all of us, need these ballads, especially when they have a message, and the message here is as important as it is pretty, without hitting you over the head:  Love people every day of the year, not just 12/25.  It’s such a pretty song, and truth is, more people should sing it.  But we have the OG recording and, now, we have this one, and that’ll do just fine.  Little Bobby Bannon has all that a recording of this composition needs.  His voice is so dreamy and velvety - which we already know - but he has the honest-to-goodness depth of emotion in his acting intentions.  Little Bobby often mentions singers with a tear in their voice, but Robert Bannon does not - he has an entire heart in there.  You’ll be feeling all the feels from just about the opening two sentences - you can tell that he chose this song because he believes it (but he’s a gay man, so we also know he chose it because Celine) and he just lays all that belief into every single sweetly sung note, and completely present emotion.  The addition of the chorus (and some killer horn action) just makes the whole thing swell like a star, glowing atop the tree.  La Dion would probably heartily approve.

Speaking technically, Yaz has done a masterful mixed and mastered (see what Bobby did there?) the recording so that the balance of Bannon’s voice and the chorus AND the instruments stays straight and even and that nobody overpowers anybody else, which can be tricky with these independent recordings, but not here. The triumvirate is a good one, and that’s why they stay together, obvi, because whenever the Larry, Curly, and Mo of Cabaret get together, something good is on the horizon.  DON’T SAVE IT ALL FOR CHRISTMAS isn’t on the horizon, dear Bobby readers, it’s here already and poised to be put on your playlist for your holiday party… well, your holiday dinner party, rather than your holiday dance party.   All in all, Robert Bannon’s new Christmas single is a winner and a keeper and 

This one gets 4 Out Of 5 Rainbows - Put this one in your collection/stream today.

Jump In The Amazon And Stream This One: HERE

OR
 

Stream This One On Your Spotifies: HERE
 

You Can See And Hear Everything About Robert Bannon On His Webbysite: HERE

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