Follow the Leader: Episode 104: Unwanted Festive Tunes!
Martinex1: With all of the necessary Bronze Age fanfare...let's get today's Follow the Leader started!
I am sure somebody out there in the BitBA team has a great topic, so pipe in and let's converse!
24 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" is currently at No.5 in the UK singles chart (it originally reached No.2 in 1994) and the chart is full of old Christmas songs coming back again. But which Christmas songs aren't welcome back? Which festive tunes do you hate?
I generally like or tolerate most Christmas songs but there are two I would happily never hear again:
1) Mistletoe & Wine by Cliff Richard. The UK #1 for 4 weeks at Christmas 1988, exactly 30 years ago. Bizarrely this song began as a left-wing protest song in the mid-'70s but Cliff Richard changed the lyrics to make it more religious. Listening to that sanctimonious Christian goody-two-shoes Cliff Richard is bad enough but the lyrics of this song are awful: With logs on the fire And gifts on the tree A time to rejoice In the the good that we see...
Yuk! And who puts gifts ON the tree?
2) Christmastime (Don't Let The Bells End) by The Darkness. This ghastly song reached No.2 in 2003 but why?? It's just a tuneless cacophony of noise and it's as festive as terminal cancer.
The Twelve Days of Christmas, sung by anyone, is a torturous for me. I despise that song.
Surprisingly, since I like the Beatles so much, Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmas Time" is good for about one listen per season. After that, I don't care for it.
Doug, I've just been watching "Wonderful Christmastime" on YouTube!!
And a few days ago my local supermarket was playing a terrific live version of "The Twelve Days Of Christmas" recorded in front of an audience. I loved it!
In truth, there are few Christmas songs that I don't love - even the terrible ones - but I can't stand Chris Rea's Driving Home For Christmas, which is pure musical Mogadon.
I also agree with Colin about Cliff's Mistletoe and Wine and definitely agree with Doug about The 12 Days of Christmas. My heart still sinks when I remember us being made to sing that interminable dirge in primary school.
However, I can't agree with Colin about the Darkness's Christmas Time. I always find it hilarious.
I have disliked "Baby It's Cold Outside for a few decades (once I listened to the words) preceding the current controversy of stations banning it. I mean, basically the dude is insisting "you can't go home now... it's time to do the horizontal bop" and I've always turned it off when it comes on. It surprises me it is like from the 1940s?
The "12 days of Christmas" are 9 days too long! Like Steve, I painfully recall this during our grade school recitals. I am sure our parents had to be "egg-nogged" to appreciate it ;) Mercifully my kids never had to sing it, lol.
Generally, I do NOT care for the traditional favorites re-done by folks who scream out loud and wander + / - an octave as they scream / hold a note or going into the "minor" chords for a deviation.
Springsteen's "Santa Claus is coming to town" and falls into the category above. Just sing the doggone song as we all grew up with it, please!!!
Just give me Crosby, Bennett, Guaraldi, McCartney, et al. during their standards a few times throughout the Xmas season and I am more than satisfied!
"Baby It's Cold Outside" was banned here in Canada briefly, but I think some stations are playing it again (which makes me wonder why they bothered banning it in the first place); Regis Philbin and his wife used to sing that song every year on Regis's morning show, trying to make it sound all romantic ... which is a little weird when you think about it.
I remember thinking "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" was hilarious when I was younger, but now it's just kinda stupid.
Heard a song I always liked on the radio this morning: Shake Me I Rattle by Cristy Lane; not strictly a Christmas song, but it seems to get played a lot at this time of year.
It may be heresy, but for me it's "Jingle Bells". I've heard it countless-times-infinity times, which is enough to make it tiresome. What is even worse is hearing the tune and lyrics adapted into TV commercials for everything from RV's to pancakes. Ohhhh, the pain.....
Ha ha. Yes “12 Days” needs to be reduced to about two! Although as a kid the five golden rings part was fun for some reason. And I seem to remember a Muppets version that was funny.
For me, I really dislike the Band-Aid group song “Do They Know it’s Christmastime..”. That always seemed manufactured and I never found it catchy.
And speaking of manufactured - the Alvin and the Chipmunks song is okay once only. It will drive me batty otherwise.
On the good side and modern as well - the Barenaked Ladies and “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/ Three Kings” is a real favorite.
I still like the classics and like Charlie said - Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Burl Ives and the rest are the best!
I have to step in and defend 12 Days of Christmas - provided that it's the version by Bob & Doug McKenzie. I listen to that one a lot this time of year and it never fails to make me at least smile (but usually laugh). As for the standard version, yeah, really not a fan...
Mostly I don't like Xmas songs, whether standard carols or the more 'commercial' holiday tunes, but I can tolerate them for the most part. And I have to say, I don't really mind McCartney's Wonderful Christmastime that much. It's actually a pretty catchy tune.
Wow, can't believe my curse'd schedule delayed my entry into this conversation-- this is a topic that is flippin' DEAR to my very core!
Let's see--- channel-changers for me:
Andy Williams- "It's the Holiday Season". Cannot. Stand. That. Song. HOWEVER-- that one aside, Andy's catalog of Christmas songs is one of my very favorites.
Mariah Carey (and anyone else who now covers it)-- "All I Want For Christmas (Is You)"-- she sings the bejeepers out of it, yes, but it is LONG past its saturation point, and it's an awfully cloying melody to begin with.
Wham (and TOO MANY others)-- "Last Christmas".
"Christmas Shoes"---- omigod, how did no one cite this patently manipulative, absurdly-shallow, and frankly stupid "heart-tugger" already?? Ah-- I bet it doesn't get airplay amongst our Brit contingent, that's why. Ohhhh it's an awful song.
Can't abide the Bruce Springsteen or Jackson 5 takes on "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town"-- which I believe are more or less covers of . . . The Ronettes?. . .Motown recording.
And like Doug, I just don't care for Paul's "Wonderful Christmastime" at all. It doesn't strike me as something he put any thought or effort into at all-- the lyrics are particularly forgettable, even for Paul.
No particular problem with "12 Days of Christmas" for me. What's always made me crazy is that once you get up past Eight (and sometimes even Seven) there's an incredible lack of consensus on what the order should be-- I eventually did a bit of research on it (very old Carol), and there's an early engraving/painting (something) that lists them in what I've always thought of as the "correct" order: 12 drummers, 11 pipers, 10 lords, 9 dancers, 8 milkers-- and the rest (Professor and MaryAnne. . .). Loved singing it as an elementary schooler--- kids LOVE really laying into "Five Go-ohld Riiiiings!" Most enjoyable recent version? Straight No Chaser's--- it's hilarious and still fantastically sung. A technical marvel.
The Baby It's Cold Outside debate is interesting, 'cause it's got about three or four different sides, and I don't think ANY of them are incorrect. My one submission to the discussion is that in the original vocal chart itself, the characters are identified as "Wolf" and "Lamb"-- hmmm.
And say--- if anyone cares to continue on with a slight tangent to this topic. . . it would be delightful to hear what folks' FAVORITE Christmas album is/are, yeah? I'll hold off meself for now, to see if anyone chimes in. . .
Incidentally, our pal Steve Does Comics has been covering this very topic on his blog this week; definitely worth a look! That said, it's a big enough tangent to withstand us addressing it too. So...….
My favorite Christmas album is, definitely, "Charlie Brown Christmas" by the incomparable Vince Guaraldi. Perfect, simply perfect. If allowed only one disc to get through the holiday season, that would be it.
But, Phil Spector's Christmas Album is wonderful as well. I mentioned on Steve DC's post how much I enjoy the version of "Marshmallow World" on that album. I'd add: Darlene Love's "Winter Wonderland" is far and away the greatest arrangement of that song EVER...
And now, Red, I'm wondering---- did we somehow touch on this topic already, not too long ago? 'Cause I'm flashing on having had this discussion. . . via laptop. . . in the recent past. Hmmmm. Welp, doesn't hurt to get these choices out there again, eh?
I. . . do own a LOT of Christmas Albums (CD's). Haven't listened to any TSO this year-- I'm VERY fond of their sometimes overwrought offerings-- but it's easy to fall out of the mood to listen to 'em. MANNHEIM STEAMROLLER's first, like, five albums do get regular play as well-- I never DON'T like them. But none of them climb the podium to Favorite Album, y'know?
So, single album, where I say "I have to hear this, or it's NOT Christmas-". . . would probably be Vince Guaraldi's CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS for me, as well. How about that? I'm not even particularly a jazz enthusiast, but that record- along with the memories it evokes of the TV special- evokes a perfect sense of quiet wonder, and wistfulness, and fun, and poignancy, and childhood. . . even the way winter night-time has a special, unknowable magic all its own. Someone left a used copy of the CD in my shop at my previous theater (like, 20 years ago-!), and it became a prized acquisition.
VERY close runners-up:
Bing's WHITE CHRISTMAS album. In college, it was the ONLY Christmas record they had at the front desk (to play in the lobby). I was a front desk worker for a couple of those years-- often working the late-night shifts, and usually one of the last folks out of the dorm for the holidays. So I had this one on a LOT. Brings back memories of some surprisingly great dorm Christmases. . .
DIXIELAND CHRISTMAS-- a cassette, never released on CD. One of those quick-off's that you'd buy off a rack at RiteAid Drugs. NO credits at all on it-- just "The French Quarter Band". And although cheesy and rather shameless in its knock-off impersonations of other artists (Bing, Louie, and Ella in particular)- the vocalists are fine, and the BAND ITSELF-- geeze, the play the bejeepers out of the arrangements, and are SO MUCH better than the circumstances or package would ever suggest. Still available on Amazon. Highly recommended.
HOLLYWOOD TROMBONES CHRISTMAS-- started out as private party arrangements that the studio musicians did for fun and love. "God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen" and "Silent Night" are particular masterpieces. You could score an entire Christmas movie from this album.
The Barenaked Ladies Christmas Album is also pretty darned high on the list. Maybe a couple too many "filler" tracks-- but sooo much to love, including the "God Rest Ye/We Three Kings" medley w/ Sarah McLachlan. But there's also the incredibly catchy, subversive "Elf's Lament".
Favorites? Well, as noted, I'm not really a fan of Xmas songs, but I already mentioned above that I really like Bob & Doug McKenzie's 12 Days - that's probably my favorite in fact. I also like the Pogues' "Fairytale of New York," and I don't mind hearing "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" every now and then. As you can tell, my tastes are a bit irreverent.
Thanks for the comments - I didn't realise "Baby, It's Cold Outside" was so controversial!
HB, you're correct - I've never heard of "Christmas Shoes".
On the subject of "12 Days Of Christmas" - a few years ago BBC radio broadcast a short comedy about the recipient of all the gifts in the song. At first she is delighted by the partridge in the pear tree and two turtle doves but as the days pass she goes increasingly crazy as her house fills up with various species of birds, leaping lords, drummers, dancing ladies, milk-maids and their cows etc. In the end she shoots herself.
I've also never heard "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" but I intend to remedy that by going to YouTube forthwith and pronto :)
Colin J - Grandma Got Ran Over" has been a staple for several decades now... late 1970s? It's hard to tell how popular a song still is b/c in the last 40 years more and more songs have been introduced thus watering down the Xmas play list but I do still here it on the radio and in department stores while shopping.
Favs of the more religious variety:
O Holy Night - The first USA carol, though written by a Frenchman living in NY as I recall.
Little Drummer Boy - from the marionette 25-minute show which used to be a "must see" in the 60s, 70s, 80s... and then the dam cable and internet diversified kids viewing. I've met numerous of my kids' friends who have no idea the song is based on that show.
Silent Night. We even learned that in German when I was in the Catholic School in my youth. Heilige Nacht, Stille Nacht.... Schlaf in Himmlischer Ruhe, Schlaff in Himmlischer Ruhe.
If we don't see other - a Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday to everyone!
Ha-- now that you've listened to "Grandma etc Reindeer", Colin, let me tell ya--- It was a UBIQUITOUS presence on the radio that Xmas season-! ('79. . . Xmas of my senior year of high school--) WLS in Chicago (a huge presence itself in the lives of our midwest contingent here) must have had it in at least a 3x/hr rotation. . . and you could dial around and find it popping up on the smaller local-market stations w/out any trouble. The corny little tune is as flippin' ear-wormy as anything can get. It's the very definition of Holiday One-Hit Wonder--- sorta like Bill Nighy's claim to fame in LOVE, ACTUALLY.
And a personal addition to the "Least Favorite" list is the locally produced "Christmas Eve In Washington". . . sung by a (then) DC-based artist named Maura Sullivan. It's the gooiest, least-clever, overly-sentimental thing ever-- written in about 20 minutes, as it turns out, as a sort of promotional valentine to the listeners of a local country station (WMZQ). It fondly recalls holiday imagery in DC that doesn't actually exist. . . and it strongly suggests that love of country and love of Christmas are completely intertwined, period. Utterly makes me squirm.
HB and Charlie, "Grandma..." is very catchy - I don't know why it's totally unknown here. Another famous American Christmas song which is virtually unknown in the UK is "Feliz Navidad" - I heard it for the first time in 2014 and I loved it instantly.
Feliz has been a standard since the 1960s and is quite catchy. Also a favorite in schools to teach kids so they learn a little spanish!
Well, there is no explaining what does / does not migrate "across the pond" in either direction LOL. I mean, you'd think it'd be more/less identical.
But to me it is refreshing to think each country still has something unique about it's cultures such that we don't become one, big homogeneous planet (yet, lol).
Well, my daughter has punched in 93.9 FM on the internet (which also broadcasts over the radio on 93.9 FM) non-stop Xmas since like November 1. If you wish, Colin, we can listen together to those heart warming tunes being played throughout Chicago Land! Right now Bing Crosby is doing White Christmas!
24 comments:
Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" is currently at No.5 in the UK singles chart (it originally reached No.2 in 1994) and the chart is full of old Christmas songs coming back again. But which Christmas songs aren't welcome back? Which festive tunes do you hate?
I generally like or tolerate most Christmas songs but there are two I would happily never hear again:
1) Mistletoe & Wine by Cliff Richard. The UK #1 for 4 weeks at Christmas 1988, exactly 30 years ago. Bizarrely this song began as a left-wing protest song in the mid-'70s but Cliff Richard changed the lyrics to make it more religious. Listening to that sanctimonious Christian goody-two-shoes Cliff Richard is bad enough but the lyrics of this song are awful:
With logs on the fire
And gifts on the tree
A time to rejoice
In the the good that we see...
Yuk! And who puts gifts ON the tree?
2) Christmastime (Don't Let The Bells End) by The Darkness. This ghastly song reached No.2 in 2003 but why?? It's just a tuneless cacophony of noise and it's as festive as terminal cancer.
The Twelve Days of Christmas, sung by anyone, is a torturous for me. I despise that song.
Surprisingly, since I like the Beatles so much, Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmas Time" is good for about one listen per season. After that, I don't care for it.
Doug
Doug, I've just been watching "Wonderful Christmastime" on YouTube!!
And a few days ago my local supermarket was playing a terrific live version of "The Twelve Days Of Christmas" recorded in front of an audience. I loved it!
Isn't that funny? That's what I love about conversations on comics, TV, films, music - one person's love is another's trigger.
Doug
In truth, there are few Christmas songs that I don't love - even the terrible ones - but I can't stand Chris Rea's Driving Home For Christmas, which is pure musical Mogadon.
I also agree with Colin about Cliff's Mistletoe and Wine and definitely agree with Doug about The 12 Days of Christmas. My heart still sinks when I remember us being made to sing that interminable dirge in primary school.
However, I can't agree with Colin about the Darkness's Christmas Time. I always find it hilarious.
Nice spin on this question Colin!!!
I have disliked "Baby It's Cold Outside for a few decades (once I listened to the words) preceding the current controversy of stations banning it. I mean, basically the dude is insisting "you can't go home now... it's time to do the horizontal bop" and I've always turned it off when it comes on. It surprises me it is like from the 1940s?
The "12 days of Christmas" are 9 days too long! Like Steve, I painfully recall this during our grade school recitals. I am sure our parents had to be "egg-nogged" to appreciate it ;) Mercifully my kids never had to sing it, lol.
Generally, I do NOT care for the traditional favorites re-done by folks who scream out loud and wander + / - an octave as they scream / hold a note or going into the "minor" chords for a deviation.
Springsteen's "Santa Claus is coming to town" and falls into the category above. Just sing the doggone song as we all grew up with it, please!!!
Just give me Crosby, Bennett, Guaraldi, McCartney, et al. during their standards a few times throughout the Xmas season and I am more than satisfied!
CHeers! Charlie Scrooge LOL!
"Baby It's Cold Outside" was banned here in Canada briefly, but I think some stations are playing it again (which makes me wonder why they bothered banning it in the first place); Regis Philbin and his wife used to sing that song every year on Regis's morning show, trying to make it sound all romantic ... which is a little weird when you think about it.
I remember thinking "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" was hilarious when I was younger, but now it's just kinda stupid.
Heard a song I always liked on the radio this morning: Shake Me I Rattle by Cristy Lane; not strictly a Christmas song, but it seems to get played a lot at this time of year.
Wonderful question and conversation, ho ho ho!
It may be heresy, but for me it's "Jingle Bells". I've heard it countless-times-infinity times, which is enough to make it tiresome. What is even worse is hearing the tune and lyrics adapted into TV commercials for everything from RV's to pancakes. Ohhhh, the pain.....
Ha ha. Yes “12 Days” needs to be reduced to about two! Although as a kid the five golden rings part was fun for some reason. And I seem to remember a Muppets version that was funny.
For me, I really dislike the Band-Aid group song “Do They Know it’s Christmastime..”. That always seemed manufactured and I never found it catchy.
And speaking of manufactured - the Alvin and the Chipmunks song is okay once only. It will drive me batty otherwise.
On the good side and modern as well - the Barenaked Ladies and “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/ Three Kings” is a real favorite.
I still like the classics and like Charlie said - Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Burl Ives and the rest are the best!
Well I got to go with consensus here, "Twelve Days..." I've been over that for about 12 years!
I know what you mean about "Jingle Bells" Red. I want to hate it but dagnabbit, after I hear it I'm humming it for hours afterwards!
Sorry, that was me above..
I have to step in and defend 12 Days of Christmas - provided that it's the version by Bob & Doug McKenzie. I listen to that one a lot this time of year and it never fails to make me at least smile (but usually laugh). As for the standard version, yeah, really not a fan...
Mostly I don't like Xmas songs, whether standard carols or the more 'commercial' holiday tunes, but I can tolerate them for the most part. And I have to say, I don't really mind McCartney's Wonderful Christmastime that much. It's actually a pretty catchy tune.
Wow, can't believe my curse'd schedule delayed my entry into this conversation-- this is a topic that is flippin' DEAR to my very core!
Let's see--- channel-changers for me:
Andy Williams- "It's the Holiday Season". Cannot. Stand. That. Song. HOWEVER-- that one aside, Andy's catalog of Christmas songs is one of my very favorites.
Mariah Carey (and anyone else who now covers it)-- "All I Want For Christmas (Is You)"-- she sings the bejeepers out of it, yes, but it is LONG past its saturation point, and it's an awfully cloying melody to begin with.
Wham (and TOO MANY others)-- "Last Christmas".
"Christmas Shoes"---- omigod, how did no one cite this patently manipulative, absurdly-shallow, and frankly stupid "heart-tugger" already?? Ah-- I bet it doesn't get airplay amongst our Brit contingent, that's why. Ohhhh it's an awful song.
Can't abide the Bruce Springsteen or Jackson 5 takes on "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town"-- which I believe are more or less covers of . . . The Ronettes?. . .Motown recording.
And like Doug, I just don't care for Paul's "Wonderful Christmastime" at all. It doesn't strike me as something he put any thought or effort into at all-- the lyrics are particularly forgettable, even for Paul.
No particular problem with "12 Days of Christmas" for me. What's always made me crazy is that once you get up past Eight (and sometimes even Seven) there's an incredible lack of consensus on what the order should be-- I eventually did a bit of research on it (very old Carol), and there's an early engraving/painting (something) that lists them in what I've always thought of as the "correct" order: 12 drummers, 11 pipers, 10 lords, 9 dancers, 8 milkers-- and the rest (Professor and MaryAnne. . .). Loved singing it as an elementary schooler--- kids LOVE really laying into "Five Go-ohld Riiiiings!" Most enjoyable recent version? Straight No Chaser's--- it's hilarious and still fantastically sung. A technical marvel.
The Baby It's Cold Outside debate is interesting, 'cause it's got about three or four different sides, and I don't think ANY of them are incorrect. My one submission to the discussion is that in the original vocal chart itself, the characters are identified as "Wolf" and "Lamb"-- hmmm.
And say--- if anyone cares to continue on with a slight tangent to this topic. . . it would be delightful to hear what folks' FAVORITE Christmas album is/are, yeah? I'll hold off meself for now, to see if anyone chimes in. . .
Merry Christmas!
HB
Ok, HB, I'll bite. Still watching?
Incidentally, our pal Steve Does Comics has been covering this very topic on his blog this week; definitely worth a look! That said, it's a big enough tangent to withstand us addressing it too. So...….
My favorite Christmas album is, definitely, "Charlie Brown Christmas" by the incomparable Vince Guaraldi. Perfect, simply perfect. If allowed only one disc to get through the holiday season, that would be it.
But, Phil Spector's Christmas Album is wonderful as well. I mentioned on Steve DC's post how much I enjoy the version of "Marshmallow World" on that album. I'd add: Darlene Love's "Winter Wonderland" is far and away the greatest arrangement of that song EVER...
Okay, HB, I expect to hear your favorites now...
And now, Red, I'm wondering---- did we somehow touch on this topic already, not too long ago? 'Cause I'm flashing on having had this discussion. . . via laptop. . . in the recent past. Hmmmm. Welp, doesn't hurt to get these choices out there again, eh?
I. . . do own a LOT of Christmas Albums (CD's). Haven't listened to any TSO this year-- I'm VERY fond of their sometimes overwrought offerings-- but it's easy to fall out of the mood to listen to 'em. MANNHEIM STEAMROLLER's first, like, five albums do get regular play as well-- I never DON'T like them. But none of them climb the podium to Favorite Album, y'know?
So, single album, where I say "I have to hear this, or it's NOT Christmas-". . . would probably be Vince Guaraldi's CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS for me, as well. How about that? I'm not even particularly a jazz enthusiast, but that record- along with the memories it evokes of the TV special- evokes a perfect sense of quiet wonder, and wistfulness, and fun, and poignancy, and childhood. . . even the way winter night-time has a special, unknowable magic all its own. Someone left a used copy of the CD in my shop at my previous theater (like, 20 years ago-!), and it became a prized acquisition.
VERY close runners-up:
Bing's WHITE CHRISTMAS album. In college, it was the ONLY Christmas record they had at the front desk (to play in the lobby). I was a front desk worker for a couple of those years-- often working the late-night shifts, and usually one of the last folks out of the dorm for the holidays. So I had this one on a LOT. Brings back memories of some surprisingly great dorm Christmases. . .
DIXIELAND CHRISTMAS-- a cassette, never released on CD. One of those quick-off's that you'd buy off a rack at RiteAid Drugs. NO credits at all on it-- just "The French Quarter Band". And although cheesy and rather shameless in its knock-off impersonations of other artists (Bing, Louie, and Ella in particular)- the vocalists are fine, and the BAND ITSELF-- geeze, the play the bejeepers out of the arrangements, and are SO MUCH better than the circumstances or package would ever suggest. Still available on Amazon. Highly recommended.
HOLLYWOOD TROMBONES CHRISTMAS-- started out as private party arrangements that the studio musicians did for fun and love. "God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen" and "Silent Night" are particular masterpieces. You could score an entire Christmas movie from this album.
The Barenaked Ladies Christmas Album is also pretty darned high on the list. Maybe a couple too many "filler" tracks-- but sooo much to love, including the "God Rest Ye/We Three Kings" medley w/ Sarah McLachlan. But there's also the incredibly catchy, subversive "Elf's Lament".
Heh-- you KNEW I'd never stop at one, dintcha?
HB
Favorites? Well, as noted, I'm not really a fan of Xmas songs, but I already mentioned above that I really like Bob & Doug McKenzie's 12 Days - that's probably my favorite in fact. I also like the Pogues' "Fairytale of New York," and I don't mind hearing "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" every now and then. As you can tell, my tastes are a bit irreverent.
Thanks for the comments - I didn't realise "Baby, It's Cold Outside" was so controversial!
HB, you're correct - I've never heard of "Christmas Shoes".
On the subject of "12 Days Of Christmas" - a few years ago BBC radio broadcast a short comedy about the recipient of all the gifts in the song. At first she is delighted by the partridge in the pear tree and two turtle doves but as the days pass she goes increasingly crazy as her house fills up with various species of birds, leaping lords, drummers, dancing ladies, milk-maids and their cows etc. In the end she shoots herself.
I've also never heard "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" but I intend to remedy that by going to YouTube forthwith and pronto :)
Colin J - Grandma Got Ran Over" has been a staple for several decades now... late 1970s? It's hard to tell how popular a song still is b/c in the last 40 years more and more songs have been introduced thus watering down the Xmas play list but I do still here it on the radio and in department stores while shopping.
Favs of the more religious variety:
O Holy Night - The first USA carol, though written by a Frenchman living in NY as I recall.
Little Drummer Boy - from the marionette 25-minute show which used to be a "must see" in the 60s, 70s, 80s... and then the dam cable and internet diversified kids viewing. I've met numerous of my kids' friends who have no idea the song is based on that show.
Silent Night. We even learned that in German when I was in the Catholic School in my youth. Heilige Nacht, Stille Nacht.... Schlaf in Himmlischer Ruhe, Schlaff in Himmlischer Ruhe.
If we don't see other - a Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday to everyone!
Ha-- now that you've listened to "Grandma etc Reindeer", Colin, let me tell ya---
It was a UBIQUITOUS presence on the radio that Xmas season-! ('79. . . Xmas of my senior year of high school--) WLS in Chicago (a huge presence itself in the lives of our midwest contingent here) must have had it in at least a 3x/hr rotation. . . and you could dial around and find it popping up on the smaller local-market stations w/out any trouble. The corny little tune is as flippin' ear-wormy as anything can get. It's the very definition of Holiday One-Hit Wonder--- sorta like Bill Nighy's claim to fame in LOVE, ACTUALLY.
And a personal addition to the "Least Favorite" list is the locally produced "Christmas Eve In Washington". . . sung by a (then) DC-based artist named Maura Sullivan. It's the gooiest, least-clever, overly-sentimental thing ever-- written in about 20 minutes, as it turns out, as a sort of promotional valentine to the listeners of a local country station (WMZQ). It fondly recalls holiday imagery in DC that doesn't actually exist. . . and it strongly suggests that love of country and love of Christmas are completely intertwined, period. Utterly makes me squirm.
HB
HB and Charlie, "Grandma..." is very catchy - I don't know why it's totally unknown here. Another famous American Christmas song which is virtually unknown in the UK is "Feliz Navidad" - I heard it for the first time in 2014 and I loved it instantly.
Feliz has been a standard since the 1960s and is quite catchy. Also a favorite in schools to teach kids so they learn a little spanish!
Well, there is no explaining what does / does not migrate "across the pond" in either direction LOL. I mean, you'd think it'd be more/less identical.
But to me it is refreshing to think each country still has something unique about it's cultures such that we don't become one, big homogeneous planet (yet, lol).
Well, my daughter has punched in 93.9 FM on the internet (which also broadcasts over the radio on 93.9 FM) non-stop Xmas since like November 1. If you wish, Colin, we can listen together to those heart warming tunes being played throughout Chicago Land! Right now Bing Crosby is doing White Christmas!
https://939litefm.iheart.com/
Thanks for the recommendation, Charlie :D
You betcha CJ!
Post a Comment