I’ve written many times on this blog over the years about the notion of Christmas as a bittersweet holiday. If you live in America, you are flooded with messages of materialism and familial merrymaking. You are told, through commercials and TV shows and the news, that you ought to be spending money on presents and [...]
Sounds of the Season 2011
As always, here’s the recap post of all of this year’s songs. (For information on these songs, take a look at the previous posts.) Little Marcy – C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S Soul Coughing – Suzy Snowflake Bing Crosby with The Andrews Sisters – Santa Claus Is Coming to Town — BUY The Puppini Sisters – Step Into Christmas [...]
Christmastime on the kosher side
There are Christmas songs and there are Hanukkah songs. And then there’s the category of songs about the Jewish experience of Christmas. For example, there’s the TV Funhouse video that appeared on SNL, “Christmas for the Jews.” And then you’ve got Dr. Dyke & The Cinnamon Cowboys expressing a view of Christmas in Los Angeles, [...]
“Maccabees, yeah, yeah!”
Tonight was the second night of Hanukkah, so I’m a little behind in posting some appropriate songs. In the words of my old joke, “…Hanukkah songs (a.k.a. Chanukah, Hannukah, Hanukah, Chanuka, Chanukkah, Hanuka, Channukah, Hanukka, Hanaka, Haneka, Hanika and Khanukkah — so don’t worry, you can’t spell it wrong).” First, an instrumental from Portland band, [...]
“Hear the sledges with the bells. Silver bells!”
The great American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow composed the poem “Christmas Bells” on Christmas Day of 1864. His wife Fanny had been killed in a fire three years earlier and his son Charles, a lieutenant in the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry, had been wounded in action during the Battle of New Hope Church the year before. [...]
“Merry Christmas, darling, wherever you may be…”
There are a few running themes you’ve hopefully picked up on. Not to knock the Christmas canon (well, not just to knock it), but I’ve always been more interested in new Christmas originals. We’ve had something like 700 years of Christmas music and yet most people seem to keep going back to the same well [...]
“Ring-a-ling, hear them sing…”
A few years ago, there were two singers that I randomly discovered. I can’t say that I really see them discussed all that much and I always meant to promote them on this blog. I failed to do so. Do you still need to buy music for someone this Christmas? You would be well advised [...]
All the Pretty Lights
Nowadays, if they think of Christmas music from the Sixties, young people are apt to think of The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album or Phil Spector’s A Christmas Gift for You from Philles Records or any of the Motown versions. But I think of artists like Perry Como, Johnny Mathis, Andy Williams, and Nat King Cole. [...]
“I’m gonna be at the Christmas tree with my ma chère ami-o…”
Everybody probably knows Brenda Lee’s 1958 single “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.” It didn’t actually become a big hit until 1960, but it’s been heavily played ever since. It’s a decent song, but it wears out quickly. Instead, I prefer two of her other Christmas songs. The B-side of “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” was [...]
“Our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas…”
Carols & hymns are the oldest of our traditional Christmas musical selections. They don’t typically excite people, because they’re not finger-snapping ditties. This is hardly surprising. It’s not pop music, but usually really old church music. But that’s the beauty of pop, taking some staid old standard and pepping it up for modern audiences. Here [...]