Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers’ “Once Upon A Christmas” is the Greatest Holiday Album of All Time

And there, I said it. This musical masterpiece has been a holiday staple in my family since it came out way back in 1984. It’s a perfect blend of holiday classics and original tunes written, arranged, and performed masterfully by some of the best talent that Nashville and LA had to offer at the time.

I break out this album just after Thanksgiving every year and I try to spin it as often as I reasonably can right up through Christmas Day. My efforts in passing this tradition along seem to be making an impact as my own kids now hum along with the melodies every December.

Just last year I found sealed NOS versions of the original compact disc and vinyl versions on eBay which were really fun to hunt down and even more fun to play. The originals have a different track list than what you’ll find on streaming services, so there’s that too. For example you’ll miss out on Dolly’s “Silent Night” and “The Christmas Song” on the Spotify version.

I also found myself digging through the liner notes in an attempt to figure out the magic of this album to some degree, trying to figure out: What makes this album so amazing? Why is it such a joy to listen to year after year? Certainly it can’t just be a random stroke of luck in the studio so I thought I’d take a deeper look at the production and talent involved in the album, name by name.

I am not an expert on 1980’s Nashville or LA session players by any means and I was 5 when the album came out, so what follows below is the result of a bunch of Internet searches and Wikipedia rabbit holes.

I was able to find everyone easily with the magic of Google and they seem to all be famously skilled at the craft of recording excellent country music based on what I’ve found. Let’s learn about a few of these people according to the World Wide Web:

Producer: David Foster. According to Wikipedia he’s won 16 Grammy Awards with 47 nominations. Canadian Music Hall of Fame Inductee, Hollywood Walk of Fame star, actor, musician. He’s also produced Christmas albums for at least 7 other artists including Celine Dion, Rod Stewart, and Mary J Blige. Seems like he was the right guy for the job.

Arrangements: Jeremy Lubbock. Multi-Grammy Award winner, has worked with Elton John, Joni Mitchell, Sting, Whitney Huston, The Four Tops, Michael Jackson, and dozens more.

Keyboards: John Hobbs, David Foster (also the album producer), Jimmy Cox, Randy Waldman, Erich Bulling. John was honored by the Country Music Hall of Fame and is a legendary Nashville session player. He’s worked with Lionel Richie, Merle Haggard, Reba McEntire, George Strait, and more. Jimmy has toured with Neil Diamond, Ringo Starr, Aerosmith, and P!nk. Randy is another Grammy Award winner who has worked with Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Beyoncé, Ray Charles, and Stevie Wonder. Erich has worked with Christopher Cross, Kenny Loggins, Earth.

Drums: John Robinson aka JR, one of Rolling Stones’ top 100 greatest drummers of all time. Has played drums on more than 50 Grammy Winning songs. Ed Greene has worked with Jeff Back and Steely Dan. Paul Leim is a multi-award winning Nashville session player who has toured with Tanya Tucker, Randy Travis, and Neil Diamond.

Shall I go on? Well, we have to take a look at the guitar players as well as bass and percussion. Here we go:

Guitars: Fred Tackett, a member of the band Little Feat and acclaimed session multi-instrumentalist. Paul Jackson Jr. is an accomplished musician and session player who worked on multiple Michael Jackson albums and as a sideman for dozens of famous artists throughout the years. John Goux, Billy Joe Walker, Michael Landau, Kin Vassy also contributed to this album.

Bass: Dennis Belfield , who has worked with Ringo Starr, Barry Manilow, Neil Young, Art Garfunkel. Joe Chemay, who has worked with Shana Twain, Christopher Cross, The Beach Boys, and Roger Waters. Neil Stubenhous who has toured and recorded with dozens of huge stars.

Percussion: Victor Feldman, famous percussionist and pianist who recorded with Frank Zappa, Steely Dan, Joe Wash, and more.

So there you have it. This album is absolutely PACKED with Nashville talent. Masters of literally this type of music exactly. Let’s not forget the stars of the show though…

Vocals: Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. These two need no further introduction or embellishment from me as their lengthy and incredibly successful careers tell that story better than I ever could. What I can say, though, is that their vocal performances on this record are just amazing to me. I feel like they were having an absolute blast while singing all of these tunes, the vibe is so palpable.

Whether trading verses or harmonizing perfectly, their voices compliment one another perfectly, song after song. My favorite example of this is the tune “A Christmas To Remember”, where they playfully trade verses and come together in harmony on every chorus. Of course all along singing verses that paint a cozy, snowy picture of serendipitous romance in the mountains of Tahoe. So great.

As if all that talent wasn’t enough, Dolly penned 5 original tunes on this album: “A Christmas To Remember”, “With Bells On”, “Christmas Without You”, “Once Upon a Christmas”, and “I Believe In Santa Claus”. These songs are awesome songs, too, written by arguably one of the best songwriters of all time (see also: I Will Always Love You, Jolene, etc.).

As Thanksgiving ticks by this crazy year and we once again break out this fantastic multi-platinum recording, I realize that we’ll be doing so for the first time since Kenny Rogers’ passing. As such maybe we’ll listen a little more carefully to his enthusiastic and masterful contribution and appreciate not only his voice but also his spirit as a cheerful “Santa Claus” from a simpler time.

If you haven’t heard this album, maybe this is the year to hunt it down and fold it in as a backdrop to your own family holiday traditions. After all, we could all use a little boost of cheer this year. I guarantee you it won’t disappoint and with a new Dolly Parton Christmas album released this October you’ll have this enduring and epic work to compliment it.