The Johnny Cash Christmas Special 1977 DVD Review

The Johnny Cash 1977 Christmas Special is a collection of traditional songs like “Blue Christmas,” “Here Comes Santa Claus” and “Frosty the Snowman,” and non-traditional tunes such as “Whole Lot of Shakin’ Going On,” and “Big River.” The Christmas songs are sung by numerous artists, including host Johnny Cash, Rockabilly pioneers Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Roy Orbison, and also June Carter Cash, The Carter Family, and the Statler Brothers.

Johnny Cash opens with “Christmas Time’s A-Comin,’ then introduces his wife, June Carter Cash, calling her “the best Christmas present I ever had.” The two have a hilarious exchange about Christmastime; Mr. Cash refers to the season in the romantic sense, describing the fire and beautiful tree, to which Mrs. Cash responds how much she likes presents, gifts, and the things underneath the tree. Then they sing the duet “Darlin’ Companion.” The songs are periodically interrupted by stories from Johnny Cash about Christmas memories that take place on sets away from the stage in costume.

Along the way, a tribute is given to Gene Autry for being the original singing cowboy, and Elvis Presley, who died two months prior to the filming of this Christmas special. Mr. Cash, Lewis, Orbison and Perkins join together to sing a gospel song in Elvis’ memory, “This Train is Bound For Glory.”

There are no extras to this DVD, which runs about 45 minutes total in full screen format, but Johnny Cash drops his own commentary of sorts throughout the show.

A big highlight of the DVD is Jerry Lee Lewis singing “Whole Lot of Shakin’ Going On;” at the end of his song, he lifts up the piano keyboard cover, drops it, punches the keys, elbows the keys, and finally, sits on the keys. The song is perfectly performed, up to the final bun-drop onto the keys, followed up by his interpretation of “White Christmas.”

One of the most difficult movies to find during the holiday season is a DVD that is not offensive or distracting that can be played as visual and audio background for Christmas and New Year’s Eve parties. If that’s what you’ve been looking for, your search is over! The Johnny Cash 1977 Christmas Special is light-hearted and simple; nothing about it is distracting or incredibly outstanding. And yet, there is a charisma about Johnny Cash that cannot be ignored. His stories are charming and his stage interactions with his accompaniments pleasant. Perhaps the most incredible thing about seeing artists perform as they age is the energy that disappears more and more rapidly as time goes by. But, this is not so with Mr. Cash, who appears just as magnetic a character as ever.