I'm a big fan of Christmas music.
I've always avoided the CD 'Lou Rawls - Christmas' because I thought it was kinda sad when I learned he recorded it soon after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Mr. Rawls passed away on 1/6/06 and the CD was released for the 2006 Christmas Season. Plus I kinda figured he was past his prime and it probably wasn't very good. Anyway, I finally picked it up today and after listening to the first few tracks, I was surprised at how good and upbeat the music was... and most importantly how great the vocals were. Anyway, I started going through the liner notes and was more surprised to find that a member of the "little big band' assembled for the session included Gregg Bisonnette on 'Drums & Bells'.
Don't know if it warrants a whole thread, but I thought it was a nice piece of trivia (if it hasn't been mentioned here already).
Another interesting member of the 'little big band' was Lanny Cordola on guitar. Lanny replaced Craig Goldy in the band Guiffria when Goldy left to play with Dio... the band Guiffria was fronted by a DLR wanna-be David Glenn Eisley.