Iconic Singers Perform on PBS's A Classic Christmas!

Hosts Marion Ross and Gavin MacLeod.

Imagine Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, Nat King Cole, The Carpenters, and other legends performing on the same Christmas holiday special! That's just what you'll see when A Christmas Classic (My Music) premieres on PBS on Saturday, November 16th (check local times).

Hosted by Gavin MacLeod (The Love Boat) and Marion Ross (Happy Days), this nostalgic TV special features archival footage of traditional carols and popular standards performed by some of music's biggest stars of the last 70 years. It's part of TJL Productions' series of My Music specials, which have aired on PBS over the last 20 years. The series has highlighted a variety of music genres, spanning soul, rock, disco, folk, doo wop, and the British invasion. Producer Jim Pierson thought this was the perfect time to do a show on Christmas classics.

Ronnie Spector sings!

"It's really the first time that footage with the original artists spanning the decades from the 1950s through the 1980s has been compiled in a TV special," said Pierson. "Plus, we've got a wonderful newly-recorded segment with Ronnie Spector singing a pair of Christmas songs that the Ronettes famously recorded in the 1960s, but were never sung on television until now."

Pierson and his associates faced unique challenges in finding usable footage of some of these Christmas hits.

"A truly 'classic' Christmas special must have as many of the songs as possible that have been popular over the past fifty or sixty years and appeal to multiple generations. A lot of vintage television music and variety shows from the 1950s and 1960s no longer exist and some of the most favorite holiday songs were not always performed on television. But we dug hard and deep to find some rare material that hasn't been seen in decades, such as Brenda Lee singing 'Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree,' Gene Autry doing 'Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer' and Jimmy Boyd performing 'I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.' The latter two were both from Perry Como shows that fortunately were saved on filmed kinescope copies dating to the 1950s."

Other iconic singers that will also be featured include: Rosemary Clooney, Johnny Mathis, Burl Ives, Mitzi Gaynor, The Beach Boys, The Lennon Sisters, Eddy Arnold, Mahalia Jackson, The Harry Simeone Chorale, Jose Feliciano, The Drifters, and Andy Williams (see clips in the promotional video below).

So, get your whole family in the holiday mood by watching this all-star Christmas music extravaganza. And if it inspires you to get all your Christmas shopping done early, you don't even have to thank us!