Arts and Entertainment
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 […]
Song of the Day 12/11: Michael Nesmith and the First National Band, “Joanne”
Mike Nesmith was a lot more than just a Monkee. He pioneered country rock for a while, then helped make video the dominant music platform of the ’80s. He died yesterday at 78 of heart disease. Contrary to legend, all four of the Monkees had musical experience when TV producers put together the band, but […]
Song of the Day 12/10: Stevie Wonder, “One Little Christmas Tree”
I feel bad breaking my rule about 12 days of Christmas music, and ONLY 12 days of Christmas music*, but the “personalities” of Fox News are having such a meltdown over an arsonist destroying the Christmas tree outside their studios — slow-witted Brian Kilmeade said it was a “hate crime” — I felt I had […]
RIP: Barry Harris
One of jazz’ greatest pianists, and highly-revered by fans, fellow musicians, and his countless students. I was fortunate enough to see Harris and tenor saxophonist Clifford Jordan put on a master class in bop at the Flight Deck (Wilmington version). It might have sounded something like this: Harris performed on an album of duets with […]
Song of the Day 12/8: Tommy James and the Shondells, “Hanky Panky”
Lots of people and groups have been wrongly neglected by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but had more or bigger hits, or a weirder journey through the underbelly of the music business, than the guy born Thomas Gregory Jackson. James started out as Tommy Jackson, the 12-year-old frontman of Tom and the Tornadoes […]
Song of the Day 12/7, Wishbone Ash, “Blowin’ Free”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona Wishbone Ash will probably never get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Too British, for one thing. Reasonably popular in its 1970s heyday, but now lacking the high profile needed to make those lists of “ten bands that should be in the Hall of Fame.” That doesn’t mean […]
Song of the Day 12/6: Phil Ochs, “Love Me, I’m a Liberal”
Some people who vote for Democrats, and some who get elected as Democrats, have been calling themselves liberals for generations now. Phil Ochs isn’t heard much these days, but he had their number in 1966, when he noted that liberals are “10 degrees to the left of center in good times, 10 degrees to the […]
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