Johnny Cash Christmas Special, 1978 - 1979

Johnny Cash Christmas Specials were a tradition of sorts in the later 70s that saw Cash coming into the holiday living room from 1976 though 1979 repeating the glory of his late 60s TV show. Last year saw the release of the 1976 and 1977 specials, and now the set becomes complete with the addition of The Johnny Cash Christmas Special 1978 and 1979, released on DVD.
Frankly these last two years are the better of the set mainly because the guest comics include Steve Martin (he was so much funnier in the 70s than now) and Andy Kaufman.
Cash especially had clout in this era attracting guests across the spectrum from singers like Joni Mitchell and Melanie for his late-60s ABC show to Tom T. Hall on the 1979 Christmas special. Cash even had a mid-70s Summer replacement show, Johnny Cash and Friends. All of his shows would be DVD collectibles if only for the amount of talented performers involved, many much better early in their careers than later. Rights clearance for so many artists must be a bitch.
1978’s special guests include Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge, and like Cash and June Carter they were a married couple that electrified audiences with their duets. The 1979 guest list varies from Anne Murray to Hall, but nothing comes even close to Kaufman when he channels Elvis. Here Kaufman wows the crowd with as good an imitation of the King as anybody ever did, doing one of E’s early recordings “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin.” Combine that with Johnny and June singing “If I Were A Carpenter” and this disc is a keeper. The Christmas specials are available as a box set with all four years or single discs.