Arts and Entertainment
El Somnambulo’s Fave Tunes Of 2021: #’s 50-41
Presented, as always, in reverse numerical order. The only proper way to do a countdown. Otherwise it’s an anti-climactic count-up. Said Captain Obvious. Spotify list once we reach # 1. Let’s get this party started: 50. 49. 48. 47. 46. 45. 44. 43. 42. 41.
Song of the Day 12/25: Chuck Berry, “Run Rudolph Run”
Some Christmas songs belong only to the artists who created them. “Little Saint Nick” is just a Beach Boys car tune, just as “Run, Rudolph, Run” is first and foremost a Chuck Berry song with a Christmas backdrop (in 1958, only Berry would imagine that every boy child wanted a rock and roll ‘lectric guitar). […]
Song of the Day 12/24: The King’s Singers, “Stille Nacht”
The one thing that really does sound better in the original German.
Song of the Day 12/23: Norah Jones, “Christmas Don’t Be Late”
Even bad Christmas songs can be redeemed by the right artist and the right treatment. As evidence, listen to Norah Jones breathe new life into this widely reviled novelty tune. It’s been covered by dozens of people over the years, usually played for laughs using the original arrangement (Tegan and Sara even sped up their […]
Song of the Day 12/22: Alison Krauss, “The Wexford Carol”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona Sure, you’ve got your “Silent Nights” and your “O Holy Nights” and your “Adeste Fidelises.” They’re the stars of Christmas music. But some of the best Christmas songs help fill the frosty air even if we don’t know their names. They’ve always known their names in Sussex and Coventry in […]
Song of the Day 12/21: Low, “Just Like Christmas”
There’s a myth concerning Christmas songs, namely that no new ones are being written. The evidence: the 25-year-old “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is the most recent tune to make the muzak rotation. People forget that didn’t happen overnight. It was released in 1994, and though it got airplay every December, it wasn’t […]
Song of the Day 12/20: Foxes and Fossils, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”
Foxes and Fossils, the Atlanta-based dads-and-daughters YouTube band, this year covered one of my favorite holiday songs, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Civil War Christmas poem set to John Gorka’s original tune. Darwin Conort, the Fossil with the acoustic guitar chops, takes the lead vocal. Longfellow wrote the poem on Christmas Day 1863, just a month after […]
Song of the Day 12/19: The Pogues with Kirsty MacColl, “Fairytale of New York”
This 1987 recording is the most-played Christmas song of the 21st century in the UK, and it’s pretty popular on these shores, too, though I’ll never understand why. Not why it’s popular — it’s a great song, a pungent character study of addiction and co-dependence written with an economy that would do O. Henry proud. […]
Song of the Day 12/17: Sufjan Stevens, “Star of Wonder”
No 21st-century singer has released more holiday material than multi-instrumentalist Sufjan Stevens. In 2006, riding the crest of his critical acclaim (his LP “Illinois” was the highest-rated album of 2005 on Metacritic), released a 5-EP set called “Songs for Christmas.” Four of the discs had been recorded and gifted to friends and family, one each […]
Song of the Day 12/16: Frank Sinatra, “Christmas Waltz”
Guest Post by Nathan Arizona “The Christmas Waltz” is a holiday song that exists for one good reason: FRANK WANTED IT. In 1954 Frank Sinatra was about to enter the studio to record his version of “White Christmas,” which had not been written for him. He insisted that composer Jule Styne write something he could […]
Song of the Day 12/15: The Philadelphia Orchestra with Eugene Ormandy, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”
People like to make cracks about the best Christmas music being written by Jews, but you can’t blame Felix Mendelssohn for getting that ball rolling. The music Mendelssohn composed in 1840 wasn’t intended for Christmas at all — it was part of a cantata to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Johann Gutenberg’s movable-type printing press. […]
Song of the Day 12/14: The Piano Guys, “All I Want for Christmas Is You”
Yes, of course this is Mariah Carey’s song, but the squeaky-clean Piano Guys get the nod here because they assembled a Lego-mation video that uses the pain-in-the-foot building blocks to pay tribute to just about every classic Christmas movie, and they set it to the only tune of the past 40 years to enter the […]
Song of the Day 12/12: Bill Staines, “River”
Guest post by Mike Dinsmore Three million miles. Enough miles to go around our planet 120 times. That’s how many miles folksinger Bill Staines traveled in a career that spanned over five decades. Staines, who died last Sunday at 74 of an aggressive form of prostate cancer, was the consummate performer and traveler, playing over […]
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