Search - Teddy Pendergrass :: This Christmas (I'd Rather Have Love)

Teddy Pendergrass's distinctive husky voice and soul-man persona turn Christmas standards and inspired originals throughout This Christmas (I'd Rather Have Love) into a lovable Tedfest. While many similar records and their singers tend to overproduce and oversing holiday work, Pendergrass and company keep the schlocky string arrangements and excessive emoting to a minimum. They've also cranked out great holiday tunes in "Having a Christmas Party" and "Happy Kwanzaa," and devised tasty new versions of "Joy to the World" and "We Three Kings." The former gets a lilting funk treatment while the latter works as a jazzy, bluesy ballad. In his most surprising choice of covers, Pendergrass even reinvents John and Yoko's "Happy Xmas" as a romantic plaint and plea for racial harmony. --Martin Keller