Jim Caruso's Sixth Day of Christmas... Get Jolly with the Carpenters!
By: Ashlee Latimer Dec. 18, 2016
This ravishing song has an interesting history. The lyric was written in 1946 by a nineteen-year old Frank Pooler, as a gift to a girlfriend he was missing. Twenty years later, a nineteen-year old Richard Carpenter set it to music. In four years, this recording by The Carpenters went to #1, which it did for three consecutive holiday seasons. It sounds as fresh today as it did in 1970, partly because of Richard's lush arrangement and backup vocals, and that famous tenor sax solo. But honestly, it's all about Karen. For my money, Karen Carpenter had one of the warmest and truest voices in the history of popular music. Sometimes the universe makes a terrible mistake and we lose someone way too soon...long before they've finished. That's how I feel about Karen Carpenter.
Jim Caruso made his Broadway debut alongside Liza Minnelli in the Tony Award- winning Liza's At The Palace!, singing, dancing and celebrating the music and arrangements of Kay Thompson and the Williams Brothers. He has won six MAC Awards for his nightclub appearances, performed with the New York Pops in a tribute to Kander & Ebb, performed with Rosemary Clooney in a celebration of Bing Crosby, and sang songs of Hope & Crosby with Michael Feinstein at Carnegie Hall. Jim was honored to sing with Barbara Cook at President Clinton's First State Dinner at the White House. For the past fourteen years, he has hosted the weekly showbiz bash "Jim Caruso's Cast Party" at Birdland, Town Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center and across the globe. He also produces the Broadway at Birdland concert series and has a weekly segment on Legends Radio 100.3 FM called "A New York Minute with Jim Caruso." As a crooner, he performs regularly with Billy Stritch at Bemelmans Bar at The Carlyle Hotel. His two cds, "The Swing Set" and "Caruso Live and In Person" are available online. Over the next few weeks, you can catch Jim hosting Cast Party every Monday at Birdland, and singing at Bemelmans Bar at The Carlyle Hotel every Sunday. He'll be joining his pals KLea Blackhurst and Billy Stritch in "A Swinging Christmas" at The Long Center in Austin, and for the seventh year in a row at Birdland during Christmas week.
Photo Credit: Bill Westmoreland
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