One of the essential personalities in the Christmas-music canon, Burl Ives began his career as a folk singer and actor, but his enduring legacy in the popular consciousness rests with the 1964 Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer TV special. Not only did the jovial star’s version of the title song become one of the defining recordings of the Christmas standard, his 1965 single of the special’s rollicking tune “A Holly Jolly Christmas” made it a new seasonal classic. From the '50s until his passing in 1995, Ives recorded eight LPs of sacred and secular holiday favourites, along with celebrated versions of hymns and spirituals.