Christmas Cheer - Part 2

We continue our look at the tracks on my latest holiday mix, Christmas Cheer, with background on Tracks 5, 6 and 7.

Track 5
Jingle Mint Twist, Sammy Marshall (1962)

Today's first track is another song poem, and it’s from the TJB Brandes Records label. The artist is the prolific Sammy Marshall, a/k/a Marc Stewart Simpson, or as he’s known on this 45 “Singing Sammy Marshall.” I first ran across the track more than a decade ago in a posting by song-poem aficionado Bob Purse via a post on the wonderful WFMU “Beware of the Blog” site, which is sadly no longer active. As Bob notes, this one doesn’t necessarily establish itself as a holiday song right off. At first blush it seems to be a song about a kind of dance. But there’s at least a tenuous holiday connection via the lyrical instructions to would-dancers to strap some jingle bells around each ankle before commencing any twisting. That sounds good enough to make this a Christmas song in my book. More to the point, it’s good enough for Bob Purse, so “case closed.”

Regular readers of this blog are no doubt familiar with Andy Cirzan, who’s been creating and circulating amazingly good holiday mixes each year for a good many years more than I. We report on Andy’s compilations nearly every year, and he appears on the popular music show Sound Opinions each December to play selections from his latest mix. Andy included “Jingle Mint Twist” on his 2005 mix, so how much more of a Christmas song could this possibly be?

Marshall is among the most prolific artists in the song-poem business, and he’s recorded tunes in a relatively wide range of styles. I include links to several of his non-holiday tunes, below, including a tribute to the late President John F. Kennedy that really tugs at the heartstrings this week, 60 years after that tragic day in Dallas.

Hear Sammy Marshall’s “Bang? Bang? Mr. Badman!”

Hear Sammy Marshall’s “Salt, Salt, Salt”

Hear Sammy Marshall’s “The President’s Eternal Light,” a Tribute to JFK

Review a List of Some of Sammy Marshall’s Releases

Track 6
Holiday Greetings from Dick Van Dyke

Growing up in the 1960s and ‘70s I spent a lot of time watching and listening to Dick Van Dyke. My family enjoyed his very funny network sitcom, of course, which ran on CBS from 1961 to 1966, co-starring Mary Tyler Moore, Rose Marie and Morey Amsterdam. As I kid, though, I especially enjoyed his work in Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, two of the most iconic family movies of that wonderful era. Dick Van Dyke will celebrate his 98th birthday on December 13, and by all accounts he’s still going strong. I featured a wonderful song he recorded with Jane Lynch a few years ago on my 2018 mix, My Christmas Time Philosophy. You can see them perform “We’re Going Caroling” HERE. It’s guaranteed to help put you in the holiday spirit!

On February 29, 2012, Van Dyke, at the age of 86, married Arlene Silver, a 40-year-old make-up artist he met at a Hollywood awards show. 

Programming Note:  CBS will be celebrating Van Dyke's amazing career with a special called “Dick Van Dyke:  98 Years of Magic” that will air Thursday, December 21 from 9 to 11 p.m. on the network. It will also stream live and on demand for Paramount+ subscribers. Paramount+ Essential subscribers can stream the special on demand starting December 22.

See Highlights from the Kennedy Center Honors 2021 Tribute to Dick Van Dyke

Watch an Episode of "This Is Your Life," Celebrating Dick Van Dyke

 

Track 7

Christmas, Dillon Fence (1978)

I don’t know an awful lot about the band Dillon Fence, but I understand they formed in the mid-1980s in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and that their name is taken from an iconic fence made by a bunch of artists in Dillon, South Carolina. The band was signed by Mammoth Records in 1991 and their first release was a three-song EP titled “Christmas.” This song, of course, is the title track. I really like this song a lot — in fact, it’s probably my favorite track on this year’s mix. I guess I’m naturally predisposed to root for a band whose first commercial release was an EP of Christmas songs.

The band released three albums on Mammoth between 1992 and 1995, and they split up after the label rejected their initial demos for a fourth album. The band subsequently regrouped a couple of times to tour in support of their post-separation live album and greatest hits packages. They continue to play occasional shows in North Carolina.

While the principal members of Dillon Fence continued to make music after the bank’s break-up, lead guitarist and chief songwriter Greg Humphreys has perhaps been the most active. In 1996 he founded the soul/funk group Hobex, which was active through 2007. He subsequently recorded a series of solo albums before forming The Greg Humphreys Electric Trio in 2012. Humphreys has also collaborated with Stax recording artist William Bell, who had a Top 10 hit in 1978 with “Trying to Love Two.” 

Hope everyone had a pleasant Thanksgiving and didn't spend more than you can afford today on Black Friday. I'll be back with more someday soon.