Christmas/Holiday Duets - A Holly Jolly Christmas

[rrayner]

"A Holly Jolly Christmas" was written by Johnny Marks in 1962.

Some of you may think it is too early for a holiday song, but in the past, Sherry advised me that our players need time to practice for holiday presentation before the Holidays get here.

This song was performed by many artists, but perhaps most famously by Burl Ives. It is written in Pop Swing, so I have adjusted the attack and duration of the eighth notes to approximate this feel.

If you would like to see the lyrics or the chords, you can use Composer commands to display them: for lyrics use qsl; for chords use qscn.

Ralph R. Rayner

[rrayner]

A second file, Holly Jolly Christmas, A Duet2.not, has been added to this thread. I had used a published lead sheet for the melody, with all of the syncopations as written. Cynthia and I have been hearing the Burl Ives version every Christmas season for many years as we cycle through our Christmas CDs. We have found it awkward to play the song as written, because our ears keep hearing the recording. So, I have added this second file with changes in measures 4, 8 and 22, rather than replacing the original. Choose whichever file you prefer to play.

Ralph Rayner