38 Special is the latest band to release a holiday album. Titled A Wild-Eyed Christmas Album, it finds the Southern rockers running through traditional holiday favorites, including “Jingle Bell Rock,” “O Holy Night,” and “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” along with originals like “Hallelujah! It’s Christmas,” “It’s Christmas And I Miss You,” “That Old Rockin’ Chair,” and the title cut. A Wild-Eyed Christmas Night is available from CMC Records.
LAUNCH asked singer-guitarist Donnie Van Zant where the idea for a holiday album came from. “You know, I think it started with us doing a, a song on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Christmas CD. CMC Records liked what we did on it, and offered us a, a deal here to do a complete Christmas project, you know, so we jumped on it, man.”
Singer-guitarist Don Barnes revealed that the hardest part of making the album was the fact that they had to get into the holiday spirit back in the spring, when the band went into the studio. Barnes said, with Van Zant laughing in the background. “Donnie in an elf suit is not a pretty thing, you know? Because we had done the song a year before, we realized that you do have to kind of gather the spirit together and…so yeah, you just kinda, like, picture it being December already, and the holiday season.”