Irish Christmas

Perry does forget the words to some of the innumerable songs in this concert, but this is a problem in many concert films. It might have been easily fixed with proper editing and sound mixing. Como was still the best of many singers who went on too long after their prime. I recall Sinatra had to sit during his last concerts and used a teleprompter to remind him of lyrics to songs he'd been singing for nearly fifty years.

It was only when an associate told Perry that he looked a bit ill during this concert that the legendary singer chose to end his concert career and his tradition of Christmas specials. I would have liked it if he chose to still do a low-key special with musical guests (he always worked well with Ann-Margret) from one of his several homes. Perhaps we could have spied a brief glance of his notoriously camera-shy wife. Anyway, taking his Christmas specials as a whole, there was never a better TV tradition than Perry Como's Christmas specials. How I miss them--and how I lament what passes as musical entertainment on TV these days.

In January 1994, Perry Como was filmed in what was to be his last publicised concert. Perry sings many Christmas songs on this show, along with lots of old favourites as well. Perry appears with a special guest star Adele 'Twink' King, and a whole host of choirs, and choruses. The highlight of the show is when Perry sings 'And I love you so', his voice breaks into his usual fully relaxed and smooth tone. Even though, for the entire concert, Perry performed well, except for the odd forgotten line, or slight croak in his voice. BUT! For an 81 year old he was absolutely superb, amazing, brilliant, and fascinating. A well worth watching show for all fans of Perry Como. This show is poorly edited however, one minute Perry might be wearing a tie, the next, he might not be. This is because filming for this show took well over 4 hours, even though the filmed (edited) show only lasts 83 minutes (approximately). In all honesty, Perry shouldn't have really been there, but loyal to his fans as usual, Perry promised he would make it for the concert, plus he had always dreamed of doing a show in Ireland! This show is well worth watching.