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 [...]
“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 [...]
Rockin’ Hard Around the Christmas Tree
As long as I can recall, certain things in life just struck me as funny. Sometimes that was from my skewed view of the world. Sometimes, from my laugh-to-keep-from-crying attitude. Sometimes, it’s just naïvety; I won’t get that somebody is actually serious about what they’re saying. I refer you back to this post from 2005, [...]
Cabaret for the Holiday
Lounge singer Kiki DuRane, accompanied by her longtime piano accompanist Herb, first appeared in San Francisco in the early Nineties. The duo were the alter egos of Justin Bond and Kenny Mellman. Kiki & Herb are a tribute/send-up of old lounge singers, reminiscent of the cabaret culture of the gay scene, a punk rock treatment [...]
Christmas in 3-Part Harmony
Are you a fan of the close three-part harmonies most typically associated with performers like the Andrews Sisters and the Boswell Sisters? Well, you’re in for a treat. Take a look at this Wikipedia entry on “voicing” to read about open and closed harmony, as well as a discussion of the difference here. Suffice to [...]