John Denver And The Muppets: A Christmas Together

by Jane Roser

Christmastime in my family is not complete unless we’re singing along to this album in the car while driving to our church’s candlelight service after our annual dinner at Peking Duck. Hey, some traditions are just sacred.

Thirty-five years ago, on December 5th, 1979, ABC aired a one hour TV special called John Denver And The Muppets: A Christmas Together. The accompanying record included many songs from this show and in 1980 it reached #26 on Billboard’s Top LPs and Tapes chart, eventually going Platinum. Denver mentions in the album’s liner notes how he and Jim Henson began collaborating over the phone, putting together a long list of possible songs to include before eventually whittling them down to 13 tracks. Denver recorded the basic tracks in Los Angeles, leaving some room for The Muppets to play, then he flew to London and met with them in the studio to see what kind of magic they could conjure. Denver states that The Muppets themselves were the inspiration for “Alfie, The Christmas Tree” and it became one of his favorite compositions.

My dear friend Steve Weisberg, who played lead guitar and dobro with Denver in the 70s, commented that he felt Denver’s songs have endured because of the common values and feelings of hearth and home that he sang about. Weisberg said that Denver had a way to bring people in touch with the part of themselves that they liked the best and this album personifies this gloriously.

When I was growing up this record was always playing on my dad’s turntable at Christmas. He is a huge John Denver fan and I always loved the honesty and simplicity of Denver’s songs. This album is very nostalgic for so many people and reminds us of a simpler, magical time. I read several comments on John Denver’s Facebook fan page from folks who listened to this record as a kid and now play it to their own children. “My favorite Christmas album ever” was the phrase I most often came across.

While A Christmas Together includes several traditional songs such as “Deck The Halls” and “Little Saint Nick”, it is the non-traditional songs that touched me the most. “A Baby Just Like You” was co-written by Denver for his son Zachary and include some of the most beautiful lyrics I have ever heard: “That peace on earth fills up your time; that brotherhood surrounds you; that you may know the warmth of love and wrap it all around you.”

“Noel: Christmas Eve, 1913” is a poem written by Robert Bridges and set to music by Lee Holdridge that speaks of simply walking home at Christmastime and hearing music playing. The author stands on a hill and just listens while being filled with a spirit of nostalgia and images of the first Christmas.

Of course, it’s the wacky fun that The Muppets bring that really fleshes out this record. Whether it’s Animal shouting out “run, run reindeer!” on “Little Saint Nick” or Miss Piggy getting angry at Gonzo for singing “now bring us some figgy pudding” on “We Wish You A Merry Christmas”: Miss Piggy: “Piggy pudding?!” Gonzo: “No, figgy pudding. It’s made with figs.” Miss Piggy: “Oh. Sorry!” Gonzo: “And bacon.” A pissed off Miss Piggy: “What?”

Denver’s real last name is Deutschendorf which means “German village”. My brother has fond memories of first hearing this album while we were living in Munich, Germany and told me how “others may have found it odd to hear Gonzo singing in German, but all of the carolers in Munich were singing “Stille Nacht”, so why shouldn’t The Muppets?” I had a really good childhood and this album was a part of it. John Denver and Jim Henson have both passed away, but this album will always keep them alive in my heart.

“Christmas For Cowboys”

Steve Weisberg wrote this very special Christmas song for Denver’s 1975 Rocky Mountain Christmas album and I would watch him perform it every Christmastime with John Denver tribute artist, Ted Vigil when they were in town visiting. The audience clapped like crazy at the end and Weisberg would always tell the story of how he wrote this song. He felt that the album was missing a song and Denver said ‘you’re right, it’s missing a cowboy song. I’ll have to write one unless my lead guitarist writes one first (hint, hint).’

Weisberg was up all night trying to come up with the lyrics and finally had it: “It’s tall in the saddle, we spend Christmas Day, driving the cattle over snow covered plains. So many gifts have been opened today, ours is the sky and the wide open range. It’s Christmas for cowboys, wide open plains.” He would then joke about how this song became hugely popular “until The Muppets came a-calling.” After that, Weisberg kidded, whenever he went to a restaurant, he would always ask the waiter if they had any frog legs on the menu.

John Gifford and his daughter Chelsea remember “Christmas For Cowboys” holding a special place for them while they ushered in the holiday season. “I asked him about that song and he became particularly animated when telling me about it. Steve said that John had offered him an opportunity to write a song for his upcoming Christmas album and Steve couldn’t wait to get on it, but then he got writer’s block. He was so excited to write it that he became paralyzed by it. Then as he played a little guitar riff, the tune slowly started to develop around it. Steve pictured the plains of Texas (where he was from) on a cold winter’s day, with cowboys herding cattle and thinking about their way of life and the words organically developed until the song was finished. John loved it and when they met in a hotel lobby soon afterwards to cut a demo of “Christmas For Cowboys”, Steve noticed that John didn’t have his guitar with him, so he figured he’d just left it in the studio. When they arrived at the studio, Milt Okun, the producer, had John go into the booth with the microphone and set Steve up with the guitar, then asked them to do a dry run. Steve played and John sang, both flawlessly. What was supposed to be just a practice run turned out to be the final cut, so what we hear when we listen to “Christmas For Cowboys” is that magical moment that rarely happens the way it did.”