It's always a good time for a good holiday song, right? Just ask Ronnie Milsap.
The soul-country legend, 77, is set to release a new rendition of a classic Christmas track: "Merry, Merry Christmas Baby" — and PEOPLE has an exclusive listen before it drops Friday.
"I love Christmas!" Milsap tells PEOPLE. "We were having Christmas this summer right under my own roof. Talk about a great time! We decorated a little bit, pulled this vintage holiday song that takes me back to when I was a kid… to when both Dodie Stevens and the Tuneweavers had it out."
The original track, called simply "Merry Christmas Baby" first dropped in Nov. 1947 by Johnny Moore's Three Blazers. It's since been re-recorded by the likes of John Legend, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, Elvis Presley and Bruce Springsteen.
"It has all that doo-wop bluesy stuff that's so sad — and it's a Christmas song that caught how sad something so happy can be when you've lost the one you love," he says.
This isn't Milsap's first time dropping holiday tracks. The six-time Grammy winner dropped Christmas with Ronnie Milsap back in 1986 — "one of my favorite records I've made," he says.
The LP featured several originals along with renditions of songs like "I'll Be Home for Christmas," "O Holy Night" and "It's Christmas."
"It's a long time since 1986, but you know, making Christmas music never gets old," Milsap says. "When we were trying to figure out something to record, I thought about how much fun that album had been to make and figured 'Let's do something Christmasy. It's about time.'"
Milsap adds that this song was a great opportunity to return to "those doo-wop elements" that he loves.
"Merry, Merry Christmas Baby" drops Friday.
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