Media mogul Martha Stewart aims to please. Among her many business interests are a television talk show, a radio program, books, magazines, and online products including everything from coffee tables to mattress covers. As if that's not enough, her company also offers a floral service, DVDs, and, as VOA's Doug Levine tells us, Martha's favorite mix of music for the holidays.
You can wait for Martha to tell you how to prepare for the holidays, or you can just bring Martha home. Rather … bring home her new collection of holiday music.
You have to give Martha Stewart credit for her impeccable timing. The release of a three-CD set of holiday classics on the Martha Stewart Living Music label comes during the busiest shopping season of the year. After all, who wouldn't want to shop to the golden tones of Nat "King" Cole singing "The Christmas Song."
Memories of growing up with Jack Frost nipping at your nose, Yuletide carols being sung by a choir, and mistletoe dangling above the doorway are part of the inspiration for Martha Stewart's "Holiday Collection." Nat "King" Cole's take on "The Christmas Song" comes from one of three discs in the collection, Traditional Songs for the Holidays.
On Classical Favorites for the Holidays, listeners can celebrate with the New York Philharmonic, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Placido Domingo or the Boston Pops Orchestra.
Another universal favorite is "Sleigh Ride," performed by the Boston Pops Orchestra.
Who knew Martha Stewart was a jazz fan? Described as "an ideal soundtrack for a holiday cocktail party," Jazz for the Holidays comes complete with 16 classic and contemporary tracks that just beg for an audience to mix and mingle. Among them, Dexter Gordon's "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas."
Take jazz, rock, classical and country music, add a pinch of holiday spirit and you've got yourself a merry little recipe for a festive celebration.
Speaking of recipes, each CD in the "Holiday Collection" comes with Martha Stewart's own recipe for a special holiday dish. Maybe Martha was brushing up on her Shakespeare and remembered the line, "If music be the food of love, play on."
