So, it's officially Christmastime. The passing of Thanksgiving lifted my wife's moratorium on Christmas music, so I'm listening to lots of it now. I don't know what happened to me last year, but it was the first year since halfway through high school that I wasn't offended by Christmas music being played ridiculously early, and this year I found myself turning on holiday jingles whenever I was driving somewhere without my wife. It's good to wait till after Thanksgiving, though: since there are only, like, 30 or 40 really good Christmas songs in existence, I'd probably get sick of it by mid-December if I listened to it non-stop.
Anyway, the point of this post is to once again demonstrate the awesome breadth of the internet's reach. When I was very young, we got a Christmas basket from a family in the ward, and one of the things in it was a tape of really random Christmas songs. I remember several of them (one called "Santa Got a Cold on Christmas Eve," one with a refrain that began, "We are Santa's reindeer / We've learned to sing this year," one sung in a weird accent about how the kids go nuts at Christmas, a version of "I'm Gettin' Nuttin' for Christmas" that ended with a burglar coming in a Santa suit...), but my favorite of all of them was a song by Mel Blanc. I remember it was by Mel Blank because my eldest brother had to explain to me who Mel Blanc was when he told me who sang the song.
I loved that song as a kid, and the inventions of Google and YouTube have made me try every year to find it online. This year, I finally did (thanks to Google, not to YouTube). I can't embed it here, so just click on this link to listen. (NOTE: my wife wasn't terribly impressed; I think it'll probably appeal to you a lot more if you're, say, 7 years old.)
Merry Christmas!
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ReplyDeleteI've been meaning to look these songs up every year but never have. Proof you are younger than me, probably. Incidentally, do you know this song?
Also, in terms of good Christmas songs, two thoughts.
1. My friend Katya's carols series. (link)
2. Amazon's free songs of the seasons. (link)
I do know that song, actually. Initially, I thought about making this post a list of obscure Christmas songs that I like, including "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas." Also, that song about Snoopy, The Man with the Bag, Ol' Saint Nicholas, The Man with All the Toys, that one Elton John Christmas song, that one Billy Joel song (which has a ridiculous video), and (my very most favorite lesser-known Christmas song) Perry Como's Christmas Dream.
ReplyDelete(I also really, really love Frank Sinatra's Christmas Memories, but that's the only place I can find it online, and the website takes forever to load.)
How many of my obscure songs do you know?
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I like the (howyousay?) darker Christmas carols like O Come, O Come Immanuel and the Coventry Carol. Katya's list seems to have a lot of those, and I appreciate that because I think they get neglected.
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That's cool what Amazon is doing. How's it work? I clicked you link, and it just told me to make sure I check back daily.