Song of the Day 12/23: Paul Simon, “Getting Ready for Christmas Day”

Everyone knows why there have never been any good Hanukkah songs — the Jewish songwriters were too busy writing Christmas music. From Mendelssohn to Johnny Marks, Jewish composers and lyricists have produced an outsized portion of holiday perennials, so it’s kind of surprising that Paul Simon, who used Christian imagery frequently throughout his long career, didn’t try his hand at one until 2010.

“Getting Ready for Christmas Day,” the first song written for “So Beautiful or So What,” was inspired by a 1941 sermon by pre-war American Christian preacher and gospel singer Reverend J.M. Gates that Simon heard on a box set of historic radio broadcasts.

“It really struck me, not only because it was really an unusual way of having a Christmas sermon, because it’s very dark, it’s like a warning,” Simon told NPR, “but also … there was a real rhythmic pulse to it … it sounded so natural. I lived with that for a while, and then I thought, ‘I could write a song called “Getting Ready for Christmas Day,” and find a way of making verses that lead up to the sermon and then follow the sermon.’ ”

And Simon really did have a nephew who served three tours in Iraq. The song was released as a single, but failed to chart.