The Twelve Days Of Christmas

My feelings about The Twelve Days of Christmas are that a) it's a fun song and b) the best thing you can do with it is get through it as fast as possible. It's too long, and when people start playing games with it, there's a tendency for it to get tedious. Well, at about the third day, during last night's Boston Pops concert, I started to get very concerned. What followed, however, was brilliant.

"I knew we had a winning new arrangement of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" when we premiered it in 2007, but the audience's enthusiastic response night after night was unlike anything I've ever seen at the Pops," said Boston Pops Conductor Keith Lockhart. "Then a flood of letters and phone calls came in requesting a recording of the new arrangement-an incredibly creative twist on one of the greatest Christmas-time classics. We knew then and there that we would make a recording of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" and that it would become a staple of our Holiday season programming."

A different piece of (appropriate) music for each day, and the result is spectacular. As Lockhart said last night, it's a "bit of a mixed blessing" because they all know that they're "never going to get away with not doing it again."

The Pops at Symphony Hall is a real treat, and, in addition to Sleigh Ride, they'll be doing that arrangement for a long time.