Little Drummer Boy

Album: The Spirit Of Christmas, Columbia 39415, January 1986.

The tracks of this album were recorded at RPM International in Los Angeles – almost all of them with members of the Ray Charles Orchestra – in the fall of 1984.

The one exception was this tune, which was recorded “off season” (i.e. in a hiatus between tours, maybe in early 1985 before Ray hit the road again) with a few LA session musicians, amongst whom James Gadson.

Arranged by Ray Charles and Larry Muhoberac.

Ray had toyed with the idea of a Christmas album for many years. Proof of that can be found in a documentary item produced by the ABC news magazine 20/20, aired on 12 November 1981  – with a few seconds where you can see Ray working in his studio, experimenting with a recording of Little Drummer Boy (in a radically different arrangement).

Gospel concert 2002:
Update 14.02.2021: the video of this performance is no longer available, please let me know in the comments below if you have any footage, thanks — Cyd

Live:
’88c TV Christmas – With orchestra tape
’02 LC Gospel – Released