Happy Tuesday, y’all.
Today for the Song of the Week, we have a tune from Kacey Musgraves called “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?”
Her version was included on her 2016 A Very Kacey Christmas album, which is one of my personal favorite Christmas albums and perfect to spin the week before we turn the page to a new year.
Kacey noted that, while she had never heard the song before, when her producer suggested it for the aforementioned album, she fell in love with it and knew she wanted it to be part of the tracklist:
“We chose this song that, honestly, I had never heard before, but Kyle, one of the producers was like, ‘You gotta hear this song. I think it should be a good candidate for the record.’
It was written in 1947, and it’s called What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?’ It was a hit for Ella Fitzgerald, among other people.”
Written in 1947 by Frank Loesser, as Kacey mentioned, Ella Fitzgerlad included her famous version on her 1960 Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas album.
Kacey also says she wanted to take the record through Christmas and have it end at New Year’s Eve party, and this song was the perfect fit:
“But I think it’s really fun that the record, you go through Christmas the whole time, and then the record ends on New Years, and then it has a little moment at the end that kind of lets you feel like you’re maybe at a New Year’s Eve party.
That one kind of gets me because I don’t know why this s a fun fact about me, but I always cry on New Year’s eve and I don’t know why. It’s not something I can really pin point.”
She’s even had to leave the room during the countdown to midnight because it made her so emotional…
“And last year, the countdown was going on, you know maybe champagne has something to do with it, but they were totally laughing at me, cuz I had to go out of the room during the countdown. It just made me really emotional.
And I think it’s just the passage of time, the aspect of nostalgia and going into something new that is overwhelming. So I’m glad that we included a moment like that on the record.”
Kacey’s cover is very simple and classic from a production standpoint, and her vocals sound incredible, per the usual.
And with us being just days away from 2023, make sure you give this one a listen and enjoy what’s left of 2022 and the holiday season:
“What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?”
Here’s a little bit more from Kacey on the song:
