River - I have always been partial to Robert Downey Jr.'s version of this song. He's just such a fabulous singer. James Taylor also does a version and I'm sure there are others. I actually didn't want to just copy anybody and since I love hearing vocals, I just went for it and did my own arrangement. I sang this in a quick take with the tail end of a cold, but hey, that's life! I'd like to thank my buddy Mike Gauthier for telling me how he loved JT's version the best and reminding me of this tune. He has constantly been raving about how Joni Mitchell was such an icon. This is the second song I have recorded of hers so I guess I tend to agree :-). I find Christmas a tought time of year for personal reasons. The lyrics of this song are extremely sad and I didn't want to sing a heartbroken ditty without hopefully giving it some edge. The B3 organ sound is similar to Gimme Some Lovin' (Spencer Davis Group) so I liked the humour in that. For the acoustic guitarists out there, please note that that something interesting is going on and it's regular tuning. If a guitarist actually tries to play the part, that's when you'll understand that something doesn't add up. I just played it so please don't shoot the recording engineer thinking there were strange overdub tricks or something... lol I ran the vocals through a Great River MP-2NV using a Blueberry microphone. The acoustic guitar uses a single Schoeps CMC 6 with MK 4 classic cardioid pattern throught the MP-2NV.