One of my biggest failings in recent weeks has been not providing you with my guide to modern Christmas music. Initially, I wanted to review Band-Aid\u2019s \u201cDo They Know It\u2019s Christmas\u201d and John Lennon\u2019s \u201cSo This Is Christmas\u201d. Then, on my drive from San Jose to Monterey, as I listened to the CD I made for Christmas a year ago, I thought of doing a little blurb on each song I added to that disk. Finally, I decided to pick the highlights from the disk rather than each song. This began in my hotel room in Tucson while watching Rudolph. Sadly, I\u2019m just finishing it now. Hopefully you can use this to prepare for next year\u2019s holidays.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 12 Days of Christmas\u201d \u2013 Bob & Doug McKenzie \u2013 I just discovered what a toque is. So after 20 years, the song finally makes sense. To an 11 year old in 1982, this was the height of comedic genius. Who would have imagined that Eugene Levy and Catherine O\u2019Hara, not Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas would be the most visible stars of SCTV two decades down the road (Not to mention John Candy, RIP)? For those not familiar with the Canadian version:
\nA Beer in a tree
\nTwo turtlenecks
\nThree French toasts
\nFour pounds of back bacon
\nFive golden toques
\nSix packs of two-fours
\nSeven packs of smokes
\nEight comic books
\nThey got distracted and missed the last four days.<\/p>\n
\u201cFather Christmas\u201d \u2013 The Kinks: Full of classic Davies Brothers smarminess, a great song that just happens to be about Christmas. \u201cFather Christmas, give us some money. Don\u2019t mess around with those silly toys. We\u2019ll beat you up if you don\u2019t hand it over. We want your bread, so don\u2019t make us annoyed. Give all your toys, to the little rich boys.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSanta Claus is Coming to Town\u201d \u2013 Bruce Springsteen. Pure holiday joy. \u201cHe\u2019s coming up through Philly. Flying over New York. He\u2019s flying down the Jersey Turnpike.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDo They Know It\u2019s Christmas\u201d \u2013 Band-Aid: The song that launched 1000 tributes. It\u2019s not possible to underestimate how important this song was, how perfectly it fit its times, and how great a song it is to boot. Pure pop simplicity, if you had to pick one song that summed up all the best of the New Wave, pick this. It trounces the utterly ridiculous US counter \u201cWe Are the World\u201d. Where the US singers were all made up following the Grammy\u2019s, and the video was heavily produced, Band-Aid was done on low budget, with many of the artists looking as if they had just rolled out of bed to be there. Forget Ethiopia in 1984, it\u2019s a timeless message that deserves to be repeated each year. The only downsides to the song: Phil Collins\u2019 visible presence and allowing Sting to sing a line with the word \u201csting\u201d in it. \u201cThere\u2019s a world outside your window, and it\u2019s a world of dread and fear.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo This Is Christmas (War is Over)\u201d \u2013 John Lennon: Band-Aid\u2019s older brother, a classic song of the season with a social message. Yoko\u2019s completely over-the-top singing actually makes the song. I\u2019ve always loved the drums coming out of each chorus and the big, bouncing bass line. It just destroys Paul McCartney\u2019s \u201cWonderful Christmastime\u201d once again proving John was the better Beatle. \u201cAnd so this is Christmas, and what have you done?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cChanukah Song\u201d \u2013 Adam Sandler: I\u2019m not a huge Sandler fan. This works nicely, however. \u201cOJ Simpson, NOT A JEW!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus\u201d \u2013 John Cougar Mellencamp: A great example of taking a classic song of the season and converting it to an artist\u2019s sound. The bluesy, southern sound Mellencamp provides here is gorgeous. Adding JCM\u2019s then toddler daughter for the closing chorus was an excellent touch.<\/p>\n
\u201cHave Yourself a Merry Little Christmas\u201d – Various: I\u2019ve always thought this an odd Christmas song, because when sung properly, it\u2019s actually kind of sad and somber. An extremely popular song, I have versions by Coldplay, the Pretenders, Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo, and Diana Krall. Mr. Hanky tugs at the heart with his emotional reading (complete with toilet flush at the end), but Coldplay\u2019s rings truest.<\/p>\n
\u201cChristmas (Baby Please Come Home)\u201d \u2013 U2: Darlene Love\u2019s original version is arguably the greatest rock era Christmas song ever (Bonus trivia: Love was Danny Glover\u2019s wife in all four Lethal Weapon movies). David Letterman has said as much. U2\u2019s version is both true to the original, and modern in sound. More a song about lost love than Christmas, you can hear the pain in Bono\u2019s voice. The band is in extremely fine form as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cChristmas in Hollis\u201d \u2013 RUN-DMC: There were hip-hop Christmas songs before, and since, but it\u2019s never been any better than the masters from Hollis. I love DMC throwing typical MC stylings in, like \u201cthe rhymes that you hear are the rhymes of Darrell\u2026\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s Christmas time in Hollis, Queens. Mom\u2019s cooking chicken and collard greens.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cO Holy Night\u201d \u2013 Eric Cartman: South Park kids + cattle prod = genius. \u201cThose aren\u2019t the words, Eric!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Hanky the Christmas Poo\u201d \u2013 South Park: A modern icon for Christmas, suitable for all religions, colors, and creeds. I hope all of you remembered to eat your fiber on Christmas Eve and got a visit. \u201cSometimes he\u2019s nutty, sometimes he\u2019s corny, he can be green or greenish brown.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of my biggest failings in recent weeks has been not providing you with my guide to modern Christmas music. Initially, I wanted to review Band-Aid\u2019s \u201cDo They Know It\u2019s Christmas\u201d and John Lennon\u2019s \u201cSo This Is Christmas\u201d. Then, on my drive from San Jose to Monterey, as I listened to the CD I made for Christmas a year ago, I thought of doing a little blurb on each song I added to that disk. Finally, I decided to pick the highlights from the disk rather than each song. This began in my hotel room in Tucson while watching Rudolph. Sadly, I\u2019m just finishing it now. Hopefully you can use this to prepare for next year\u2019s holidays. \u201cThe 12 Days of Christmas\u201d \u2013 Bob & Doug McKenzie \u2013 I just discovered what a toque is. So after 20 years, the song finally makes sense. To an 11 year old in 1982, this was the height of comedic genius. Who would have imagined that Eugene Levy and Catherine O\u2019Hara, not Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas would be the most visible stars of SCTV two decades down the road (Not to mention John Candy, RIP)? For those not familiar with the Canadian version: A Beer in a tree Two turtlenecks Three French toasts Four pounds of back bacon Five golden toques Six packs of two-fours Seven packs of smokes Eight comic books They got distracted and missed the last four days. \u201cFather Christmas\u201d \u2013 The Kinks: Full of classic Davies Brothers smarminess, a great song that just happens to be about Christmas. \u201cFather Christmas, give us some money. Don\u2019t mess around with those silly toys. We\u2019ll beat you up if you don\u2019t hand it over. We want your bread, so don\u2019t make us annoyed. Give all your toys, to the little rich boys.\u201d \u201cSanta Claus is Coming to Town\u201d \u2013 Bruce Springsteen. Pure holiday joy. \u201cHe\u2019s coming up through Philly. Flying over New York. He\u2019s flying down the Jersey Turnpike.\u201d \u201cDo They Know It\u2019s Christmas\u201d \u2013 Band-Aid: The song that launched 1000 tributes. It\u2019s not possible to underestimate how important this song was, how perfectly it fit its times, and how great a song it is to boot. Pure pop simplicity, if you had to pick one song that summed up all the best of the New Wave, pick this. It trounces the utterly ridiculous US counter \u201cWe Are the World\u201d. Where the US singers were all made up following the Grammy\u2019s, and the video was heavily produced, Band-Aid was done on low budget, with many of the artists looking as if they had just rolled out of bed to be there. Forget Ethiopia in 1984, it\u2019s a timeless message that deserves to be repeated each year. The only downsides to the song: Phil Collins\u2019 visible presence and allowing Sting to sing a line with the word \u201csting\u201d in it. \u201cThere\u2019s a world outside your window, and it\u2019s a world of dread and fear.\u201d \u201cSo This Is Christmas (War is Over)\u201d \u2013 John Lennon: Band-Aid\u2019s older brother, a classic song of the season with a social message. Yoko\u2019s completely over-the-top singing actually makes the song. I\u2019ve always loved the drums coming out of each chorus and the big, bouncing bass line. It just destroys Paul McCartney\u2019s \u201cWonderful Christmastime\u201d once again proving John was the better Beatle. \u201cAnd so this is Christmas, and what have you done?\u201d \u201cChanukah Song\u201d \u2013 Adam Sandler: I\u2019m not a huge Sandler fan. This works nicely, however. \u201cOJ Simpson, NOT A JEW!\u201d \u201cI Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus\u201d \u2013 John Cougar Mellencamp: A great example of taking a classic song of the season and converting it to an artist\u2019s sound. The bluesy, southern sound Mellencamp provides here is gorgeous. Adding JCM\u2019s then toddler daughter for the closing chorus was an excellent touch. \u201cHave Yourself a Merry Little Christmas\u201d – Various: I\u2019ve always thought this an odd Christmas song, because when sung properly, it\u2019s actually kind of sad and somber. An extremely popular song, I have versions by Coldplay, the Pretenders, Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo, and Diana Krall. Mr. Hanky tugs at the heart with his emotional reading (complete with toilet flush at the end), but Coldplay\u2019s rings truest. \u201cChristmas (Baby Please Come Home)\u201d \u2013 U2: Darlene Love\u2019s original version is arguably the greatest rock era Christmas song ever (Bonus trivia: Love was Danny Glover\u2019s wife in all four Lethal Weapon movies). David Letterman has said as much. U2\u2019s version is both true to the original, and modern in sound. More a song about lost love than Christmas, you can hear the pain in Bono\u2019s voice. The band is in extremely fine form as well. \u201cChristmas in Hollis\u201d \u2013 RUN-DMC: There were hip-hop Christmas songs before, and since, but it\u2019s never been any better than the masters from Hollis. I love DMC throwing typical MC stylings in, like \u201cthe rhymes that you hear are the rhymes of Darrell\u2026\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s Christmas time in Hollis, Queens. Mom\u2019s cooking chicken and collard greens.\u201d \u201cO Holy Night\u201d \u2013 Eric Cartman: South Park kids + cattle prod = genius. \u201cThose aren\u2019t the words, Eric!\u201d \u201cMr. Hanky the Christmas Poo\u201d \u2013 South Park: A modern icon for Christmas, suitable for all religions, colors, and creeds. I hope all of you remembered to eat your fiber on Christmas Eve and got a visit. \u201cSometimes he\u2019s nutty, sometimes he\u2019s corny, he can be green or greenish brown.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[56,9,127],"class_list":["post-127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-holidays","tag-music","tag-nostalgia"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15718,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions\/15718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}