Old Enough to Forget

I was a baby when this came out. So I can't say I was a fan when it was first released. Like a lot of people, I came late to the party, really late. Sure, I knew about him from The Godfather , but that hardly counts. It was the maligned Godfather Part III  and Johnny Fantane's character when he sang, "To Each His Own" that sealed it for me as an Al Martino fan. That was awesome. "Promise Me You'll Remember (Love Theme from The Godfather Part III)" was supposed to be the big crooner moment with Harry Connick Jr. but a quick A and B between Al and Harry shows the absolute gulf between them as vocalists. I like Harry, Al was simply on another level. "To Each His Own" was supposed to be played at our wedding, except I forgot the cassette at home that had some of the songs we wanted to play. Which sucked because we wanted to exit the reception to Michael Nesmith singing "Eldorado to the Moon" and when he got to the part where he sang, ...

Over the last few years this has become part of our Christmas Eve, although usually in a truncated fashion. We'd all gather together in the family room with the lights out, the room a muted kaleidoscope of colours from the Christmas tree in the corner. We start with the CBC recording of Al Maitland narrating Frederick Forsyth's The Shepherd and then we'd play A Child's Christmas in Wales , by Dylan Thomas. Now I didn't have the recording, and we'd find selections on YouTube, but seldom the entire version. This one was important to my wife, and was more a nod to her childhood memories. Last year I found this vinyl copy, and we forgot to go to the basement and listen to it as we got lost in the hustle of trying to ensure everything was in order for Christmas morning. This year I'm cheating, I am sitting here a couple of days in advance hoping to take this in and see what the fuss is all about. I have it ready for Christmas Eve. This recording was made Februar...