Arts and Entertainment
Song of the Day 12/22: The Moonglows, “Hey Santa Claus”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona It’s no art film, but “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” is one of the movies I look forward to most each holiday season. To me it’s not just funny but much smarter and more insightful than the other Lampoon movies — not that it avoids slapstick. It’s one of John Hughes’ […]
Song of the Day 12/21: Jordan Mailata w/ Lady Alma, “Merry Christmas Baby”
When Philadelphia Eagles Jason Kelce, Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata recorded their holiday LP “A Philly Special Christmas,” producers hoped to raise $30,000 for charity. They miscalculated: Sales have been so robust that they’ve already contributed $250,000 to the Children’s Crisis Treatment Center, with more to come. Though all three offensive linemen sing on the […]
Song of the Day 12/20: Frank Loesser and Lynn Garland, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”
Four years ago the Me Too movement boosted this old holiday chestnut to No. 1 on the Most Offensive Christmas Songs list. Personally I don’t see how anything could be more offensive than “Santa Baby,” but a lot of people, put off by the song’s creepy Bill Cosby vibe, pressured radio stations to drop it […]
Song of the Day 12/19: Chris Rea, “Driving Home for Christmas”
One source of Christmas music overload: Too much repetition. Even the best songs start to chafe when you’re hearing them for the hundredth time this month, no matter how different the arrangements. British holiday music provides some relief. Songs that are overplayed in England sound fresh to American ears. This tune by blues slide guitarist […]
Song of the Day 12/17: Slade, “Merry Christmas Everybody”
As Noddy Holder asks in the second verse, does your granny always tell ya that the old songs are the best? If she’s British, this 1973 single by Slade, who ruled British charts in the ’70s, might be one of the tunes she’s talking about. It’s been among the UK’s most-played holiday songs in the […]
Song of the Day 12/16: The Quinto Sisters, “A Holly Jolly Christmas”
I’ll wait a moment for El Somnambulo to leave the room. This is, I believe, his least favorite Christmas song, and I doubt that hearing its first recorded version is going to improve his opinion. The song was made famous by Burl Ives in his role as Sam the Snowman on the animated “Rudolph the […]
Song of the Day 12/15: Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra, “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear”
One reason we get sick of holiday music is that retail stores pump out slick, often treacly pop versions of songs we’ve all heard a thousand times. The problem isn’t so much the songs as how they’re presented. The same tunes you hate hearing at Target sound much fresher when played by a jazz combo […]
Song of the Day 12/14: Johnny Marks, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”
Johnny Marks is responsible for more of the Christmas music you hear than any other composer. He’d be in the running if all he had written was “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” a hit for Brenda Lee, and “Holly Jolly Christmas,” a hit for Burl Ives. But those successes pale beside the song Marks will […]
Song of the Day 12/13: The Monkees, “A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You”
Neil Diamond didn’t write many of the Monkees’ hits — Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart were producer Don Kirshner’s go-to tunesmiths — but their second single, “I’m a Believer,” became their all-time top-seller, and it topped the charts for several weeks to start 1967. Kirshner gave Diamond first crack at the follow-up. He came up […]
Song of the Day 12/12: Supertramp, “Breakfast in America”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona Supertramp had Breakfast in America in 1979. It was delicious. The album “Breakfast in America” propelled a mildly successful British band to one whose songs were heard pretty much everywhere. Quadruple platinum. Grammy nominations for best album and best pop vocal. Elaborate critical praise. ”A textbook-perfect album of post-Beatles, keyboard-centered […]
Song of the Day 12/10: Esther Phillips, “Release Me”
In their ongoing effort to show that they can act like whiny babies over absolutely anything, Republicans are bitching about Joe Biden freeing WNBA star Brittney Griner from Russia in a prisoner exchange. He did it all wrong — wrong American, wrong Russian, wrong timing — so it’s obviously bad news for Biden. It’s good […]
Song of the Day 12/9: Steam, “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye”
If politics were really sports, Democratic senators would serenade Kyrsten Sinema to this tune like she was a relief pitcher getting yanked from the game. The song became a sports venue staple in 1977, supposedly prompted by the White Sox sweeping four games from the Twins. Some fans began singing, “Minnesota, Minnesota, hey hey, goodbye,” […]
Song of the Day 12/8: Ride, “Vapour Trail”
I didn’t want this one to pass unnoticed: Doug Mastriano, the failed GOP candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, thinks the government is using jet vapor trails to manipulate the climate, no doubt cackling and twirling their mustaches all the while. “Vapour Trail” was the closing track on the first full-length LP by Ride, “Nowhere,” a […]
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