Motown's Holiday Hits That Should Have Been

Merry Christmas to you all, and thanks for stopping by in 2019. I'm going rogue with the Christmas songs this year.

For casual fans of Motown, Kim Weston is probably best known for singing the duet "It Takes Two" with Marvin Gaye. I'm more than a casual fan of Weston's. She is, in fact, my favorite female voice on the label. Weston's song "Wish You a Merry Christmas" was written by Motown's A&R manager Mickey Stevenson, and she recorded it as an unknown and newly signed artist in 1962. She was just 22 years old. The song was ignored and not even included on Motown's huge holiday compilation, the double LP "A Motown Christmas, when it was released in 1973. Only big names like the Temptations, the Supremes, the Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, the Four Tops and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles were included. I could be wrong, but I don't think the song ever appeared on a compilation until 1994. Since then, however it has become a staple on just about every Motown Christmas album and reissue.

Kim Weston - "Wish You a Merry Christmas"

Marvin Gaye is a household name, but he doesn't pop up on the holiday radio stations too often. That's probably because his seasonal tune "I Want to Come Home for Christmas" was never a hit, and the lyrics are most unusual. Gaye helped write Forest Hairston's composition in 1972, during the Vietnam War, and the song is sung in the first person from the point of view of a POW. The lyrics begin this way:

I'd give anything to see
A little Christmas tree
And to hear, hear the laughter
Of children playing in the snow
To kiss my baby, under the mistletoe
But I can't promise my eyes this sight
Unless they stop the fight
'Cause I'm a prisoner of war
Lying here in my cell
Hoping my family is well
Wish they wouldn't worry so much about me
Just try to get us home
In time for the Christmas tree

The song wouldn't be released until 18 years later and six years after Gaye's death. It's a beautiful song but a tough one to hear next to the often upbeat holiday standards.

Marvin Gaye - "I Want to Come Home for Christmas"