There’s more to Christmas music than Mariah and Bing : World Cafe : NPR

DJ Robert Drake has hosted WXPN’s Christmas special, “The Night Before,” for more than 30 years.

Paige Walter/WXPN

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Paige Walter/WXPN

Today on World Cafewe’d like to introduce you to someone who knows more about Christmas and holiday music than almost anyone else in the world. For the past 32 years, DJ Robert Drake has hosted an annual marathon celebration every Christmas Eve on WXPN in Philadelphia, where we World Cafe.

It’s called The night beforeand for 24 nonstop hours, Drake spins from his collection of Christmas tunes. If you tune in, don’t expect “All I Want For Christmas Is You” and “Last Christmas” on repeat. Drake’s collection is full of unique nuggets, some of which haven’t seen the light of day in decades.

Drake has given us an early Christmas present in the form of a playlist to give us a taste of what’s to come on The night before. This mix includes brand new music from gospel legend CeCe Winans and her new Christmas record, Joyful, Joyful: A Christmas Album. There are also tracks with unique perspectives; Alicia Witt’s “Weird Time of Year” is sung from the POV of Witt’s dog. Ilene Weiss’ “Tree,” one of Drake’s favorite Christmas songs, is sung from the perspective of a Christmas tree just after the holidays.

We’ve also thrown in one of Ben Folds’ songs from his new Christmas album, Sleigh. You can watch our session with Folds here.

Oh, and happy holidays from World Cafe team!