Holy Smoke

Raymond Arroyo on the joys of a Sinatra-style Christmas

22 min listen

In This Episode

In this festive episode of Holy Smoke, we’re taken back to the Christmasses of the 1950s and 60s by Raymond Arroyo, Fox News and EWTN presenter, whose enemies in the Vatican have been trying to silence him for years. 

They’ve failed, thankfully – and now silencing him is even harder. Raymond, who trained in musical theatre, has produced an album entitled Christmas Merry and Bright in which he sings well-loved Christmas songs and carols in spectacular big-band arrangements inspired by one of his musical heroes, Frank Sinatra. And in one track, ‘Feliz Navidad’, he’s joined by its composer – his friend the legendary José Feliciano. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. One thing’s for sure: you’ll never hear ‘White Christmas’ the same way after you’ve heard Raymond tell the story of how it came to be written…

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