For today’s Christmas song I’m tapping in one of the classic titans of the Christmas music scene: the Boston Pops Orchestra. Their annual Holiday Pops concert, started in 1973, is one of the most famous Christmas concert series in the US, but holiday music has been a staple of the orchestra’s repertoire for much longer.

This recording of Parade of the Wooden Soldiers — originally a piano march, but now frequently associated with Christmas — was recorded in 1959 and comes from one of the earliest Boston Pops albums available in digital form. The song features a lot of soloists and individual instrumental sections, but skillfully interleaves them with riffs played by the full orchestra. When you listen to the sophistication of the music, it’s easy to forget that the recording is 60 years old. You’ll want a few loops through this one.

You can now get the entire series of songs as a Spotify playlist.