Originally published in 2020. All of your friends at WRTI wish you a peaceful and joyful Thanksgiving. We're so happy to bring you this very special Thanksgiving playlist—selected lovingly by our hosts and content staff. It's music we can all be grateful for.
Check out our Spotify playlist hereor watch the YouTube videos below.
Gregg Whiteside's pick: Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring —All-American tunes, 19th-century settlers, a farmhouse and the Shaker Hymn. I can almost smell the turkey and turnips.
Bob Perkins’ pick: Julie London, "Let There Be Love"
Debra Lew Harder's pick: Chanticleer performing "Keep Your Hand on the Plow" a song from the African-American spiritual tradition, and John Rutter's "For the Beauty of the Earth"
Maureen Malloy’s pick: Vince Guaraldi's Thanksgiving Theme. Growing up, you knew that a holiday was getting closer when The Peanuts special for it came on television. This one is the main theme from A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.
Kevin Gordon’s pick: Dvorak's Largo, Symphony No. 9, (From the New World), the melody was transformed into the song, "Goin' Home," with lyrics by William Arms Fisher.
Josh Jackson’s pick: Thelonious Monk - "Stuffy Turkey." While it isn't one of Monk's well-known tunes, devoted jazz fans trot it out every Thanksgiving for the name, and its combination of high art made simple in its dank funk and ear-catching melody.
Bob Craig’s pick: "Everybody Eats When They Come To My House"
J. Michael Harrison’s pick: "Gravy Train," featuring Lou Donaldson and Lonnie Smith
Heather McDougall’s pick: "Stay in My Arms," music and words by Marc Blizstein. Written for his wife, Eva Goldbeck. No better love song for 2020.
Susan Lewis's picks: "Simple Gifts" in a great a cappella arrangement
Jessica Schultz's pick: Ashokan Farewell by Jay Ungar— it just feels like Thanksgiving.
Bliss Michelson’s pick: Thanksgiving Anthem,"O Praise the Lord of Heaven" by William Billings, an early-American composer famous for his open harmonies.
Ryan Gottlieb’s pick: "Goin' on Home," Kevin Eubanks & Stanley Jordan. Even though many of us may not be "goin' on home" this year for Thanksgiving, music like this will help to evoke the same sentimental feelings as though we were."
Mark Pinto’s pick: Aaron Copland's "The Tender Land: The Promise of Living"
Matt Silver’s pick: "Jive Turkey (West Side)" by Don Braden. Because as Trading Places tells us: "It ain't cool being no jive turkey so close to Thanksgiving!"
Bobbi Booker’s pick: Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" is a surprise late-stage hit in Louis Armstrong's lauded 50-year career.