Robbie Nevil
 

Just curious - does anyone know how Robbie Nevil was chosen to sing background on Silent Night with Stevie? I think they sound good together - I was just surprised at the time because he was a newer artist with only a hit or two.

I didn't remember him. Actually I didn't know him but when I googled and watched the C'est la Vie video, I do remember that song. I see his album was released by a different label than Stevie's or the Christmas albums. So the connection is not from there.

I didn't like when I heard Silent Night then. I thought at that moment the voice her used to have in the 70s and early 80s is definitely gone, or the song was not idoneous for her current voice. I like it a little more now, but still not big deal.

The song was recorded in the summer of 1987 fresh from rehab. Its one of her first recordings with klonopin and you can hear that in the vocal. However she nailed the song because she made it her own. In the mid to late 80s Stevie was really big with " Well well well.....she said, he said, well well" stuff. She adds "well it was a Silent Night." She puts her stamp on the song. If my memory is correct Robbie was brought in by Jimmy. Robbie had just come off as one of the biggest new artists in 1986. There is a fantastic video of Stevie performing with Robbie in the UK and its a live vocal.

I find her vocal on Silent Night horrible.....droning, zero nuance...ick. His vocal adds some much needed contrast to her flat, nasal, boring vocal. The song needed SOMETHING to lift it out of the rut of her delivery:sorry:

The klonopin era had just begun :(

I hadn't listened to this in 20 years... and I still get the same second-hand embarrassment from listening to it. Stevie's vocals are so lifeless and bland and Nevile's vocals are whiny and cheesy.

Jimmy Iovine put that whole project together for Special Olympics and then produced the album, so he may have suggested the pairing.

Who suggested her other "pairings"?

Snuffy, the Peruvian god?:woohoo:

Hey! Snuffy is just an imposter! Don't confuse it with Apu Kon Illa Tiqsi Wiraqucha!!! :lol:

Second-hand embarrassment…well stated. I feel exactly the same way.

FB short on the making of the studio track: www.facebook.com/reel/1563202931393646

Thankyou cbBen!

I love watching her recording in the studio. :)

I always loved that clip of Stevie and her words about recording Silent Night. I also love her “ Tango era” voice.