I was flipping around the channels last night, the final Christmas specials winding down as the holiday came to an end. I ended up on an old Christmas episode of The Monkees from around 1967. It was a show that I had loved as a kid of 8 or 9 and it had Butch Patrick, the kid who played Eddie Munster on the also adored The Munsters TV show, as a guest. How bad could it be?
God awful. That’s how bad.
Luckily, I came in near the end but was amazed at how utterly terrible it had been put together, almost to the point of being unwatchable. The writing was bad and the schtick, worse. I began to wonder if all of those other things I loved as kid had aged so poorly.
But just as I was about to flip to anything else, the band came on and began performing a song a capella. Sung in what seemed to be Spanish or Portuguese, it was mesmerizing with its harmony. Beautiful. The whole show was saved by this act of redemption.
The song was Riu Riu Chiu, a 16th century song from the Iberian region. Roughly translated, it means The Nightingale’s Sounds and is a telling of the Nativity. Not being well versed in Renaissance era choral music, the song was new to me but I’m sure it is familiar to some of you out there. But, even so, it is a stirring and lovely version by the Monkees.
And here it is, in a separate clip so you don’t have to suffer through a terrible episode of their show.
Redtree Times 