“Christmas Vacation,” Mavis Staples, 1989
Featured in the opening credits of “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” this song captures the spirit of today’s Christmas by delving into the preparations we all go through in preparing for the holiday: hanging up lights, putting up the tree, shopping for gifts, and even cleaning up the house.
“Baby Its Cold Outside,” Dean Martin, 1959
For all the cock and bull about this classic being (to borrow a friend’s term) ‘rapey,’ this duet was written by Frank Loesser in 1944 and originally performed by he and his wife, Lynn Garland. Lynn was furious when Frank sold the rights to MGM; she considered it to be ‘their’ song. Curiously enough, the ‘mouse’ part is sung by a chorus in Dean’s rendition.
It bears mentioning that the part sung by Dean is marked as the ‘wolf’ in the sheet music. /shrug
“If It Doesn’t Snow on Christmas,” Gene Autry, 1949
Singing cowboy Gene Autry is very well known for Christmas music, in addition to recording several standards, he wrote “Here Comes Santa Claus.” A B-side for the more well-known “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “If It Doesn’t Snow on Christmas” is interesting because for whatever reason, it seems to ignore the fact that Santa’s reindeer can fly.
“Little Saint Nick,” The Beach Boys, 1963
I hail from South Texas, so it is a little bit harder for me to relate to songs about snow and ice and roaring fires. The only fires I experience in December are those started inside of a barbeque grill. The Beach Boys set Santa’s reindeer aside in favor of “a little bobsled called Little Saint Nick.” Appropriately enough, the song’s structure comes from “Little Deuce Coupe.”
“Winter Wonderland,” The Eurythmics, 1987
Except for their big hits, I’m not terribly familiar with The Eurythmics’ music, but their synth-ed up version of Winter Wonderland really does it for me. It stays true to the standard, but The Eurythmics really make it their own. Nothing says 1980s quite like synthesizers!
“Please Come Home for Christmas,” The Eagles, 1978
In the interest of keeping my spirits (and yours) up, I’ve decided to post a different Christmas song here every day. I love Christmas, I enjoy music and so it seems appropriate to celebrate the ‘sounds of the season.’ In addition to the standards, I hope to drop in a few oddballs here and there. Enjoy!
I’ll start out with my all-time favorite: “Please Come Home for Christmas.” Originally recorded by Charles Brown in 1960, the version most folks will be familiar with is this 1978 Eagles cover. To this day, those first four piano notes still make my eyes misty whenever I hear them. I find it odd that I like the song so much because the lyrics are a bit on the depressing side, because nearly all of my Christmases have been joyous affairs. Then again, it is The Eagles, and who doesn’t like The Eagles?
This was taken on September 24th 0_o
I was flipping through the radio stations as I was driving into work today to find that San Antonio station KQXT 101.9 had already started their annual Christmas music marathon. Now, I love Christmas music, but the fact that they were doing so a week before Thanksgiving struck me as being just a hair too early.
The phenomena is known as “Christmas Creep.” While on a certain level it is getting ridiculous, there is one argument against it that I can’t get onboard with. It goes like this: “Why does Christmas stuff have to come around so soon…what about Thanksgiving?”
What about Thanksgiving?
There really isn’t much to it. Most folks will travel, spend a day or two with loved ones and perhaps enjoy a turkey dinner. That’s it. Thanksgiving is just what it says on the box: a day to give thanks and get a day off from work (or a four-day weekend if you are truly fortunate).
While Thanksgiving is special to many people, it isn’t sacred by any stretch of the imagination. Heck, some stores have gone from opening at oh-dark-thirty the day after to opening late on Thanksgiving Day itself.
To be fair, let’s look at it from the store’s perspective: Thanksgiving does little for stores that don’t sell food, so I don’t really blame them for wanting to get an early jump on the Christmas shopping season.
So yeah, while stores opening on Thanksgiving Day sucks and getting a jump on Christmas in September or even October is a bit much, I think the week before Thanksgiving is just fine for retailers to start getting the ball rolling.
Finally, I should confess that I have been tuning to that Christmas music station on occasion, so I’m probably part of the problem. 🙂
I’m one of those oddballs who genuinely likes Christmas music. From the hymns sung in church, to the classics, to the contemporary renditions of those classics, I love it all. Suffice it to say, every radio I own has been almost completely locked to the local Christmas music 24/7 station (101.9). While unpacking my things from visiting the folks for Thanksgiving today, I turned on the radio for some background music, and decided to tune to a different radio station for a little while…come to find out there are now TWO radio stations doing the 24/7 Christmas music thing (105.3 being the second)
The Grinches out there may want to stay away from the radio this holiday season. I love it, though.
I love the Christmas season: the music, the hustle and bustle, baking Christmas cookies, shopping for gifts. Unlike most folks, I actually like listening to Christmas music, and keep my radio locked onto the local radio station playing 24-hour-a-day Christmas tunes.
My favorite contemporary Christmas song is the Eagles’ rendition of “Please Come Home For Christmas.” Its actually a pretty depressing song, go figure.
Anyways, I was happy to hear that the Christmas-a-thon was going to begin today, until the alarm clock went off and I heard “Baby, Its Cold Outside” somehow, it just didn’t feel right. I guess even for me its a little TOO early right now.
Maybe next week. 🙂
I woke up early today because I had to exchange two gifts; a DVD player I had purchased for my mother had to be upgraded (or downgraded depending on your point of view) to a DVD/VCR, and the MP3 player I purchased for one of my brothers didn’t work, so that had to be exchanged.
I first thought to myself “OH NOES! The stores are going to be packed, so I better get out early.” and thus hit the road at about 830. Come to my surprise, there were no lines at any of the service desks and I walked out of Wally-mart with a DVD/VCR combo for Mom. The Best Buy was out of stock of the player I had bought for my brother so I went ahead and returned it, thinking I could easily find a similar one elsewhere.
WRONG. Three Wal-Marts, two Radio Shacks, a Target, and a Circuit City later, I had jack and squat. You know you’re desperate when you’re going to Radio Shack. It wasn’t just that I couldn’t find the same model I had bought for my brother, there were hardly ANY mp3 players to be found for under one hundred dollars! I suppose now that mp3 players with 1GB of storage can be readily had for under $100, EVERYBODY and their cat wants one. Granted, there were some iPods, but I’m on a budget. I sheepishly told my brother that I would find one up here or order it online and get it delivered to him.
That (almost) taken care of, I said my goodbyes and hit the road back to good ol’ San Antone, as today is the day I get the keys to my new apartment and start moving out of the dump I’m living in right now. When I do this, I essentially play a little game I call: “How much crap can Randomizer cram into his car?” I currently drive a 2005 Dodge Neon and I’m discovering that it can hold quite a bit. After two carloads I have the bathroom ready to go; I just need a new shower curtain. The kitchen is almost ready, I just need to move over the food from the refrigerator/freezer, and I have some temporary bedding in place until the boys and I get the big stuff moved this Saturday.
I am enjoying moving my stuff over, just the essentials right now, and by New Year’s I expect to have everything major done and be livin’ la vida loca. No more crappy commute or trashy neighbors, just a nice quiet place where I can rock until I drop, then rock some more!
Eduardo Soliz 