The 3 minute monologue by Steve Martin in this timeless classic takes this song to a whole new level. Although it isn’t mentioned on this YouTube version, I was led to believe that it is, in fact, Billy Joel playing the piano on here. Legend has it that these 3 were boozing it up pretty good prior to this being recorded.
I’ll never be able to listen to this classic again without thinking about egg nog and tequila…
Billy Joel is now confirmed! Found this piece in American Airlines’ “American Way” magazine, Nov. 15, 2001, issue:
http://www.americanwaymag.com/christmas-paul-simon-steve-martin-st-regis-new-york
ONE GREAT NIGHT IN NEW YORK
“One night around Christmas 20 years ago, I was doing a recording session at A&R Studios in Hell’s Kitchen. We had just finished the session, and my producer and I decided to get some food. It was fairly late at night, and we ran into Paul Simon and Steve Martin at the restaurant. We had a little bit of wine, and then we had a little more wine. Nobody was feeling any pain. We got a brainstorm that we would go back to the studio and record a Christmas record. It must’ve been about midnight at this point. So we go back to the studio, and Paul Simon and I are singing in the background that Christmas carol ‘Silver Bells.’ We’re harmonizing, and Steve Martin starts into this soliloquy ‘What Christmas Means to Me,’ with these hysterical descriptions of the secretary sitting on the copying machine, all these very risqué scenarios. And Paul and I are just trying to keep it together. We did this maybe in one take and we had a Christmas single. Now, it was never given to a record company, but there’s a copy of it floating around somewhere. Stuff like that happens in New York. It’s a small town.”