Now that the 2023 mix is available it’s time for this blog to turn its attention to what is, after all, its primary purpose — namely, providing a little background on each of the this year’s holiday tracks. We’ll cover anywhere between two and five tracks each day over the next four weeks, except on those days when I don’t feel like writing. Hopefully we’ll share a little something about all 37 tracks by Christmas Eve. Sometimes we make it. Sometimes we don’t. But I’ve got a good feeling about this year’s endeavor.
One quick and silly note about presentation before we get started. In previous years, for reasons I can’t begin to recall, we posted each day’s track listings in reverse order. So, for example, if we opted to post notes on the first four tracks on Monday and the next two tracks on Tuesday, Monday’s post would cover Track 4, Track 3, Track 2 and Track 1, in that order, and Tuesday’s post would begin with Track 6, followed by Track 5. Crazy. This year, the tracks will be simply be posted in numerical order. Despite the overwhelming weight of evidence to the contrary, I’d like to think this shows I haven’t completely lost my mind.
Ready, set … here we go!
Track 1
Jingle Bells, Sonny & Cher
(1972)
During the 1960s and ‘70s, network television was the country’s chief source of popular entertainment, and all three networks worked tirelessly to prepare the nation for Christmas each December. Regular weekly series programs, whether comedy or drama, typically offered at least one holiday-themed show each year; each network offered a variety of annual animated shows including such favorites as “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “The Little Drummer Boy”; some of Hollywood’s biggest names starred in annual variety specials; and, of course, major sponsors tied the whole package together with an endless stream of holiday-themed advertising, some of which was at least as popular as the programming the ads supported. Among the most popular of the variety show programs during this period were the shows hosted by Sonny & Cher, both together and individually. The first track of my 2023 holiday mix is the introduction to the 1972 Sonny & Cher Christmas Special, which features the duo performing a swinging version of “Jingle Bells.”
Of course, Sonny & Cher had been popular entertainers long before their 1972 holiday special aired, and they would go on to enjoy even greater success afterward. They met in late 1962 while they were both working as background singers for legendary producer Phil Spector. They soon became romantically involved and started recording and performing as a duo. Sonny, who was 11 years older than Cher, managed their career and wrote a number of original songs they performed. In the summer of 1965 they released their first album, “Look at Us,” and topped Billboard’s Hot 100 with a tune of Sonny’s called “I Got You, Babe.” This initial success led to more, and they followed their first smash with another album, a string of hit singles including the Top 10 hit “The Beat Goes On,” and appearances on many of the biggest TV variety shows, clubs and concert venues.
By the summer of 1967, however, their career had begun to stall. This was the famous summer of love, and pop music’s embrace of psychedelic rock and edgier, more controversial styles left Sonny & Cher looking slightly passé by comparison. Nonetheless, the couple continued to tour and successfully established themselves as a popular act among more traditional audiences. In 1970, CBS programming chief Fred Silverman caught their stage act and was sufficiently impressed to offer them their own variety show, “The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour,” as a summer replacement program. It did well enough to be picked up for the CBS fall schedule, where it consistently landed among the Top 20 shows each week. Each episode featured a collection of comedy sketches and musical performances built around Sonny, Cher and a rotating variety of guest stars. The show was produced by an experienced group of television professionals, but it was the undoubtedly chemistry of the two hosts that made the show a big hit.
Unfortunately, by start of their show’s third season the couple’s personal relationship had begun to come apart. In late 1974, they formally separated. (I don’t know whether this was a factor in their relationship problems, but it’s worth noting that Cher released a bunch of successful solo records during the first half of the 1970s that Sonny didn’t produce, and three of her solo singles hit #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 during that same period.) Not surprisingly, the end of the marriage meant the end of the show. Both Sonny and Cher were each given their own network shows in 1975, but these were short lived. By 1976, the couple were back on speaking terms and they returned to television with “The Sonny & Cher Show,” which had a similar format to the former “Comedy Hour.” The new show remained on the air for nearly two years, after which Cher turned to acting and Sonny became involved in politics.
The Sonny & Cher franchise produced several successful Christmas specials during the 1970s, including “Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour” programs in 1972 and 1973, a Cher holiday special in 1975, and a “Sonny & Cher Show” holiday broadcast in 1976. All of these specials followed the same general pattern with an opening song and welcome from the host(s) followed by anywhere from five to eight comedy bits and musical numbers featuring a variety of familiar guests before an emotional send-off.
Among the performances from the 1973 special is a medley of holiday carols featuring William Conrad, star of the popular ‘70s detective series Cannon. This number has become almost legendary thanks to the colorful description Paul Shaffer repeatedly offered each year as one of the many holiday traditions of The Late Show with David Letterman. I wrote about Shaffer’s bit several years ago, and you can read about it HERE. You can also watch the entire 1973 special below. The medley Shaffer discussed begins at 17:50.Here’s the first of the Sonny & Cher holiday shows from 1972, with the intro I use to kick-off “My Christmas Dream” at the very beginning:
Just to bring things current, Cher recently released her first album of holiday songs called “Christmas.” She noted on Twitter that while she’d previously been reluctant to record a holiday album, she’s pleased with result and thinks it’s as good as any of her other releases. Darlene Love, Stevie Wonder, Cyndi Lauper and Tyga appear with Cher on this one, and you can preview the album HERE.
Watch Cher’s 1975 CBS Christmas Special,
featuring Red Foxx
Watch The Sonny & Cher Show Christmas Special from 1976
Buy The Sonny and Cher Christmas Collection DVD on Amazon
Buy Cher’s Recent CD of Holiday Songs Called Christmas on Amazon
Track 2
I Wish You A Merry Christmas, Big Dee Irwin, featuring Little Eva (1963)
The second track on this year’s mix is a fun little number by New York native Big Dee Irwin. Irwin got his start as a member of The Pastels, a group he formed in 1955 with a bunch of air force buddies on Greenland’s Narsarsuaq Air Base. In 1957, The Pastels won a recording contract as the first prize in a military talent show. The song they recorded, “Been So Long” became a hit on the R&B charts and the group hit the road to promote the record, appearing in Alan Freed’s Big Beat Show with Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry and others.
In 1958, Irwin set off on his own, and over the next 20 years he released a string of records, mostly soul and R&B, while also writing songs for stars including Ray Charles, Bobby Womack and The Hollies. On several recordings, he teamed with Little Eva Boyd, best known for her 1962 version of “The Locomotion,” written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin. The first of these was their version of the old Bing Crosby song, “Swinging on a Star.” Another was a 1963 song written especially for Irwin called “Happy Being Fat.” The third release with Little Eva was this one, “I Wish You a Merry Christmas,” released in late 1963 as the B-side to “The Christmas Song.” Toward the end of this record, Little Eva jokingly returns to the subject of Irwin’s weight by asking:
Big Dee, did anyone ever tell you you was big … strong … handsome … kindhearted – and FAT!?
Irwin’s last record was released in 1978, though he continued to make live appearances for another 15 years or so after that. He died in 1995.
See Big Dee Irwin Perform The Pastels’ Hit “Been So Long” in 1991
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| Shirley MacLaine |
As a child, it was MacLaine’s love of dancing that led her to pursue a life in show business. She started ballet school at the age of three and says it was the fun of performing that really grabbed her interest. She scored her first Broadway gig before graduating high school. Her next job was as understudy for one of the major roles in the musical The Pajama Game (the character who sings “Hernando’s Hideaway”). As luck would have it, the lead suffered an ankle injury that kept her out of the show for several weeks, and a noted film producer who saw MacLaine filling in signed her to a deal with Paramount Pictures. Her first role was in the Hitchcock thriller The Trouble with Harry, for which she won a Golden Globe — and she was off!
MacLaine was nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award five times for her work in Some Came Running (1959), The Apartment (1981), Irma la Douce (1964), The Turning Point (1978) and Terms of Endearment (1984), winning for the last of these. She also won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special for her 1976 show “Gypsy in My Soul.” In 1998, she earned a Cecil B. DeMille Golden Globe Award, and in 2013, President Obama awarded her the Kennedy Center Honors for her contributions to American culture.
For me, MacLaine’s professional achievements are only part of her appeal. I also enjoy her forceful personality, her political activism and her unique range of interests and enthusiasms. She’s a genuine character, and we’re all the better for having her among us.
Christmas Cheer, The MSR Singers (1978)
Folks who follow this blog and/or listen to my annual mixes know that I’m nuts about “song poems,” an offbeat and sometimes outlandish subgenre within the larger and increasingly popular category known as “outsider music.” Outsider music refers basically to material created outside the professional music industry, often by members of marginalized or disfavored communities. Song poems typically feature lyrics written by non-professionals that are set to music and recorded for a fee by companies set up for that purpose.
Well, this year’s mix is truly top-heavy with song poems — nine in all — and this first one, “Christmas Cheer,” is a true classic. Released in 1978 as part of a full album of holiday song poems, “Christmas Cheer” was produced by an outfit known as MSR, one of the largest song-poem factories. The performance is credited to The MSR Singers, a group of paid employees who sang on dozens if not hundreds of songs MSR created from lyrics they received from their paying customers. The lyrics of this little gem are by Joan Tomaini, and they’re truly special, indeed:
Christmas is a glad time,
Christmas is a sad time,
It’s a time of joy,
For every girl and boy.
But how about the lost souls,
The ones whose lives never unfold,
Does anyone ever think of those
whose life compares to a dead rose?
They’re living, too.
And every day gets duller and duller in every way.
Who is going to bring them cheer?
Isn’t that why you and I are here?
Think of them at Christmas time,
As you go bustling in your prime,
And when somebody says, “Brother, can you spare a dime?”
That this could happen to you sometime.
Now, the sentiment that folks should help cheer the less fortunate at Christmas is a common holiday theme. There’s nothing novel about that. What makes this song incredible is its dramatic descriptions. “Does anyone ever think of those whose life compares to a dead rose?” Wow. “Every day gets duller and duller in every way.” This is the kind of Christmas cheer I suspect many of us would just as soon do without!
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