My favorite Christmas song of all time is Adolphe Adam’s “O Holy Night“—so much so that I wrote a subscriber-only post analyzing the song way back in 2019. Naturally, it’s a perennial standard in my school’s annual Christmas concert.
In the interest of changing things up and preventing listening fatigue, I don’t program it every year, but it shows up just about every other year, so it’s fairly ubiquitous. If I a particularly gifted singer, it makes for even more poignant performance.
This year I have been thus blessed. Not only is the singer great, but the band is, too!
Of course, this video is not from an open mic night, so the title is (yet again) a bit of a misnomer, but it certainly fits into the spirit or ethos of the proud open mic tradition I so cherish.
Here are my students performing “O Holy Night”:
The mother of one of the bassists—who upgraded himself to electric guitar for the day!—took the grainy cellphone video, so if you see a lot of shots focusing on the young man with the pink guitar (it’s a donation to the school, not his own, lest anyone think anything inaccurate about “kids these days”), that’s why. You’ll also notice yours portly jumping around and flailing his arms wildly—I’m the big guy in the red coat.
I’ve got another good one from the concert for next Tuesday, so stay tuned! In the meantime, enjoy this powerful rendition of an incredible song.
Merry Christmas!
—TPP
Other Editions of Open Mic Adventures:
- “Open Mic Adventures I: Oingo Boingo’s ‘Just Another Day’“
- “Open Mic Adventures II: Billy Joel’s ‘Piano Man’“
- “Open Mic Adventures III: Joanie Sommers’s ‘Johnny Get Angry’“
- “Open Mic Adventures IV: KISS’s ‘I Still Love You’“
- “Open Mic Adventures V: ‘There’s a Light (Over at the Frankenstein Place)’“
- “Open Mic Adventures VI: Journey’s ‘Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’“
- “Open Mic Adventures VII: ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’“
- “Open Mic Adventures VIII: Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘The Sound of Silence’“
- “Open Mic Adventures IX: Journey’s ‘Faithfully’“
- “Open Mic Adventures X: ‘Time Warp’”
- “Open Mic Adventures XI: Spooktacular Supergroup Covers ‘Monster Mash’“
- “Open Mic Adventures XII: ‘Ghostly’“
- “Open Mic Adventures XIII: The Penguins’ ‘Earth Angel’“
- “Open Mic Adventures XIV: ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’“
The Portly Politico 
Mothers, grandmothers, and great grandmothers who watch this will get little tears in their eyes, as I did. So young, so full of hope, so excited for what comes next. It’s humbling. They worked their little behinds off for this. And you, my friend, are a gentle soul. They are blessed to have you.
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Thank you for your sweet words, Audre! I’m glad the kids’ performance moved you so. I am super proud of them, and I am blessed to work with them!
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A great rendition mate. The kid leading the song really attacked those high notes well. It’s a tricky song to sing – just check out Marty Crane’s attempt at that song. You should be able to find it on Youtube.
Who was the handsome devil in the red jacket conducting the band? He did a sterling job. 🙂
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Yeah, that young lady is a phenomenal singer. You’re right—it’s VERY tough, but she nailed it!
Just a young Santa Claus having some fun!
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At a Christmas party a colleague who was also a musician was going to sing O Holy Night, but was complaining about a frog in his throat.
“Here, have a whiskey,” I said, “knock it back, should help.”
“Wow, yeah,” he said. “Helps a lot.”
The music was delayed, so I called the friendly waiter for another whiskey… then another… then another.
Finally his turn to sing, he went up to microphone and crooned “O holy night, the stars are shitely brineing…”
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😂😂😂😂😂😂
That sounds like a superb party. I bet your colleague roared with laughter when told about it the following day!
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He did laugh. Fortunately HR never found out how drunk we were.
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