Lots of people call Adam’s O Holy Night their favorite Christmas song. Popular numbers like this provide a pretty good opportunity for doing side by side comparison of voices so I thought that this Christmas Eve you might enjoy checking out the song as performed by five of the 20th century’s greatest tenors. First, Enrico Caruso, the first great recorded tenor of the 20th century.
Update
For some reason my embeds stopped working so I’ve also included links.
Link to Caruso rendition
A beautiful, lyrical rendition of the song. They really don’t make them like that any more. Now Georges Thill, probably the greatest French tenor of the 20th century.
Link to Thill rendition
What a stirring rendition! That guy really had a great control of his instrument. Now IMO (and that of a lot of other people) the greatest American tenor of the 20th century, Mario Lanza.
Link to Lanza rendition
Too much chorus, not enough Lanza. Now the late Luciano Pavarotti.
Link to Pavarotti rendition
What a great voice! And now my favorite tenor, the perfect tenor, Jussi Björling.
Link to Björling rendition
I only envy one singer and it’s Björling. If I could sing like anybody, it would be he.
Merry Christmas, everybody. Be very careful out there.