I hope everyone survived yesterday's Black Friday festivities, although this post-Thanksgiving ritual doesn't seem to be the kind of all-hands-on-deck event it used to be. I make it a point to stay at home on Black Friday myself each year. Who needs the aggravation?
Time now for a quick look at the next several tracks on my latest holiday music mix, "I Wish It Was Christmas Today!"
Track 4 Holiday Greetings, Steve Schirripa as Bobby Baccalieri of “The Sopranos”
Steve Schirripa
I first heard of the HBO series The Sopranos at a 1999 concert by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band when Bruce introduced his longtime pal and lead guitar player Steve Van Zandt as, among other things, one of the stars of the blockbuster mob-related drama. That was 25 years ago, and while I've probably seen bits and pieces of a majority of the show's 86 episodes it was only recently that I finally started to watch the series from start to finish. It's an incredible show, and I guess I'm lucky to be able to have so many dramatic moments to look forward to when they're probably old news for everyone else.
Steve Schirripa plays the character known as Bobby Bacala, a former driver to mob boss Junior Soprano who takes on increasing responsibility and eventually goes to work for Junior's nephew, Tony. Bobby is a fascinating character. Although his family has deep roots in organized crime, he is a quiet and sensitive guy who is deeply devoted to his wife and children. While I haven't reached this point in the story yet, I understand that Bobby will eventually lose his wife in a car accident and marry Tony's hot-tempered sister, Janice. I have a feeling this isn't going to turn out so well.
Schirripa is a wonderful actor, and he manages to make Bobby Bacala a sympathetic and even likable character. Schirripa has appeared in a range of dramatic and comedic roles on TV and film, many of which involve playing goombas, tough Italian-American guys with possible ties to unsavory organizations. Schirripa has taken advantage of this by authoring a number of books including A Goomba's Guide to Life, The Goomba's Book of Love and The Goomba Diet: Large and Loving It.
I enjoy Schirripa's work in The Sopranos. It's refreshing to see even the toughest characters acknowledge and appreciate the tenderness and compassion that are such a key part of his character's personality.
Track 5 Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, A Mark and Lard Classic Cut, featuring Perry Como (2002)
(L to R): Marc Riley and Marc Radcliffe
I'm not sure where or when I originally found this clip, but I stumbled on it in a folder or assorted tracks while putting together my latest mix this fall. I've since discovered that Mark and Lard are Mark Radcliffe and Marc "Lard" Riley, who hosted several popular radio shows on Britain's Radio 1 network in the 1990s and early 2000s.
The duo is known for its series of "classic cuts," unique versions of classic songs that have supposedly been modified in various ways while stored in the station's audio vault. These alterations include not only scratches, hiss and other signs of wear and tear, but various comic edits that call attention to aspects of the artist's past or other cultural phenomena.
I confess that I engaged in a little editing of my own on this track, and I'm still a little torn about whether my changes were appropriate. The track features crooner Perry Como singing the classic "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," but Mark and Lard have replaced the words "Coming to Town" with the word "pissed throughout the tune. It's not clear whether "pissed is supposed to mean angry or intoxicated, but either way it's not exactly something you'd want young children to hear on Christmas Eve. I've gone through and cleaned up their substitutions in all but one instance, and the resulting clip still sounds a lot more interesting than the straight Perry Como version. Can you find the one remaining place where the word "pissed" appears?
Formed around 2009, The Garlic Kings were a Russian folk/punk band that tempered a brash punk sensibility with elements of traditional folk, humor and youthful cynicism. It was a mix that appealed to audiences from the disparate punk, skins and folk communities in their native St. Petersburg and beyond. Indeed, their core philosophy — described as "no politics, no racism" — built on this musical pastiche and attracted notice from well outside their native country. While the band broke up less than ten years after getting started, they left a wealth of spirited recordings including a four-track EP titled "Yo-Ho-Ho Motherf**kers!"
Here's the song I included in this year's mix:
Back some day soon with thoughts on the next several tracks. My latest mix is now available on my holiday music blog.
Once again this year I'll be posting a classic holiday clip
from NBC's Saturday Night Live every Saturday between now and the end of the
year as part of our regular "SNL Holiday Flashback Saturdays" series. This is SNL’s 50th year, and there’s no shortage of memorable
holiday-themed sketches in the show’s extensive vault.
Our first clip of the
season is from the show's December 16, 2023, episode, which was hosted by former cast member Kate McKinnon. McKinnon joined former cast members Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph and current cast member Bowen Yang in a portrayal of the Swedish supergroup Abba touting their fictional Christmas album.
My 20th and latest holiday mix is complete and ready for your review via my holiday music website. It's called "I Wish It Was Christmas Today," and, like its 19 predecessors, it features an irreverent mix of holiday goodies you're unlikely to find anyplace else. I started making these mixes shortly after leaving Boston for Los Angeles in 1999. My first several efforts were made chiefly for my personal enjoyment, but beginning in 2005 I started recording my mixes on CD to share with family and friends each year in lieu of a traditional holiday card. People seemed to enjoy these mixes, and because a good portion of the material I use has been relatively esoteric, each new mix brought requests for information about one track or another. I started this blog to share some background about the various tracks on each year's mix.
Between now and the end of the year I aim to offer at least a little background about each of the 41 tracks on this year's mix. I'll try to cover somewhere between two and five tracks at a time on those days when I feel like writing. Some days I may post on related or even unrelated topics, though I'll try to limit myself to the subject at hand. With all this in mind, let's get started with our review of the tracks on this year's collection:
Track 1 Introduction and Liberace Show Holiday Episode Opening, Liberace (1954)
This year's mix begins with a montage of sounds centered around the opening number of the 1954 Christmas episode of The Liberace Show. I often start my mixes with a selection from out of the past and there's nothing quite like a blast of Liberace to start things off in a festive mood. While his heyday occurred some years before I was born, I've had at least a dim recollection of Liberace for as long as I can remember.
Born Wladziu Valentino Liberace in Wisconsin in 1919, Liberace (known to his family as Walter and to his friends as Lee) grew up in a family of modest means. Both of his parents were musicians , and he started playing piano at the age of four. Mocked by his peers for his slight build and effeminate manner, Walter threw himself into his music and quickly developed into a talented classical pianist. In his mid teens, he began to perform publicly in various competitions, and by his early 20s he was appearing in cabarets and strip clubs. He became known for mixing different musical styles, and was cited for making classical music more accessible to popular audiences. He also developed a keen interest in fashion, adopting an increasingly colorful and flamboyant style. As Liberace himself noted, "I don't give concerts, I put on a show."
Liberace leveraged his musical talent, irrepressible personality and trademark flair to become one of the country's most successful entertainers throughout the 1950s and beyond. His extravagant lifestyle was legendary and nearly everything he did became fodder for the tabloid press. Liberace worked hard to become and remain successful, touring frequently, playing extended runs in Las Vegas and Palm Springs and hosting his own syndicated TV program. Bypassing the networks allowed him to keep the bulk of the show's profits, and he managed to amass a significant fortune.
To me, one of the most interesting facets of Liberace's story was his ability to maintain a wildly colorful and unabashedly flamboyant lifestyle while remaining popular with middle America, especially middle-aged and older women. While many of his fellow entertainers "knew" or assumed he was gay, Liberace never publicly acknowledged his homosexuality. He repeatedly denied he was gay in interviews, sued several publications that alleged he was gay, and made it a point to accompany well-known women to various social functions — including Debbie Reynolds and Betty White — in an effort to demonstrate his heterosexuality.
Reynolds, who played Liberace's mother in the 2013 HBO biopic "Behind the Candelabra," was quite candid about the star's private life.
"I have never had a better time than being Liberace's
date," Reynolds explained after his death. "We all knew he was
homosexual. That was a friend: You know what they love and the people that they
love, and what they are."
"I don't want him to be remembered just for being
homosexual," Reynolds explained. "He should be remembered as a great
entertainer and loved by so many.
Here's the complete 1954 Christmas episode of The Liberace Show, the first part of which is featured on this year's mix:
Track 2 I Wish It Was Christmas Today, Cast of Saturday Night Live (2000)
The title track to this year's mix has been hailed by Slate magazine as "the only original Christmas song to even gently shake the cultural firmament" in this century — a classic Saturday Night Live (SNL) offering called "I Wish It Was Christmas Today," which first aired in 2000. The sketch stars Jimmy Fallon, Chris Kattan, Tracy Morgan and Horatio Sanz performing a notably amateurish ditty about looking forward to the holidays.
Sanz, the lead vocalist, is playing a small guitar while Fallon occasionally taps a Casio keyboard held by Kattan, who turns his head from right to left to the point of distraction throughout the performance. Morgan neither sings nor plays anything but rather seems to be jogging in place. This is one of those "so bad it's good" bits, which, of course, makes it a perfect fit for my holiday collection.
I understand Sanz was the principal songwriter of this classic, with assistance from Fallon on the lyrics. Although the words evolved with each subsequent appearance of the foursome, the original words are as follows:
I don't care what your mama says,
Christmas time is near,
I don't care what your daddy says,
Christmas time is near.
All I know is that Santa's sleigh,
Is making its way across the U.S.A.
I don't care what the mayor says,
Christmas is full of cheer,
I don't care if you think it's a lie,
Christmas will soon be here.
I don't care about the C.I.A.,
I don't care what the calendars say,
I wish it was Christmas today,
I wish it was Christmas today.
He's the original appearance of the song on December 9, 2000, with an introduction by the one and only Don Pardo:
The sketch proved sufficiently popular that Fallon, Kattan, Morgan and Sanz performed it an additional eight times on SNL over the following decade. The AV Club offers a rather thorough analysis of the song's subsequent evolution and performance history (see link below), and several of these subsequent performances are included in the following:
SNL is currently celebrating its 50th anniversary, which, as one who remembers the show's launch, is rather hard to accept. It's obviously had a lot of ups and downs, but few media outlets provide a more accurate shorthand reflection of popular culture over the past half-century, ands this silly little tune has certainly earned its place in the holiday archive.
The Pacific Northwest has long been known as a breeding ground for developing musical styles and edgy new bands, many of which have gone on to achieve considerable success and broad acclaim. Of course, for every great success there are a larger number of terrific bands that never quite made the big time. Back in the mid-'60s, three such bands got together to record a holiday album, "Merry Christmas from The Sonics, The Wailers and the Galaxies." Released in 1965 on Etiquette Records, the album contains a total of ten tracks — four from The Wailers, and three each from The Sonics and The Galaxies. I've included two of The Wailers' tracks on previous mixes, and this year I'm using "Santa Claus," by The Sonics.
The backstory of the album is summarized especially well on the wonderful hip christmas holiday music website (see link below).
The first time I heard The Sonics' track "Santa Claus," it reminded me of the classic song "Farmer John," originally released in 1959 by the R&B duo Don and Dewey and later covered in a more popular version by The Premiers. Many other groups have done versions of their own including Neil Young, who included a version of the song on his 1990 album Ragged Glory, featuring Crazy Horse. Several of the others tracks from the three-band "Merry Christmas" collection also bore a striking resemblance to other tunes. Among these was a track by The Sonics' called "It's Christmas," which took its melody from the famous Drifters' hit "On Broadway" and added a set of Christmas lyrics. Sometime after the release of the album, the label was denied publication rights for the song, which necessitated the album's recall.
Despite the problems with their joint Christmas release, The Sonics enjoyed a measure of success in the Seattle market and have left a significant mark on the national music scene. Formed in Tacoma in 1960, the band is known for its hard-edged, garage-band style and served as inspiration for later groups including The White Stripes and Nirvana. Although they only released a couple of albums before breaking up in 1967, they have reunited a number of different times including a noteworthy performance on Halloween night of 2008 at Seattle's Paramount Theater, where they were joined by longtime fan Steve Van Zandt.
Their 1965 song "The Witch" is representative of their early work:
In 2015, The Sonics performed live in the studios of KEXP in Seattle:
I understand that a record number of people will be traveling in the United States over the next several days and that stormy weather is expected in many parts of the country. As I reflect on the many blessings I'm thankful for tonight, I'm especially grateful to be enjoying Thanksgiving at home. For those of you who are or will be on the move, here's a brief look at some of what you may be in for.
I'm pleased to report that my 20th annual holiday mix, "I Wish It Was Christmas Today," is now complete and available for your listening pleasure. It runs a little over 75 minutes, contains 41 tracks and features my typically divergent mix of good, bad and ridiculous holiday tunes and other sounds. I'm especially proud to have it completed before Thanksgiving for the second year in a row, which allows folks to play it during dinner tomorrow should the conversation turn to politics.
This mix opens with an excerpt from the 1954 holiday episode of TV's "Liberace Show." Noted for his colorful and flamboyant style, Liberace's weekly program made him one of the country's most successful performers in the 1950s, and his schmaltzy, enthusiastic style is immediately apparent in this year's opening number. It's followed by the title track, "I Wish It Was Christmas Today," which should be familiar to fans of NBC's "Saturday Night Live" (SNL). This track features SNL cast members Jimmy Fallon, Chris Kattan, Tracy Morgan and Horatio Sanz. The song was first performed on December 9, 2000, and was sufficiently popular that the foursome returned to do it on 10 additional episodes of the show over the subsequent decade. SNL is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, so it seemed like a good time to feature this classic number.
(L to R): Horatio Sanz, Jimmy Fallon, Christ Kattan and Tracy Morgan.
Information about the other 39 tracks will be posted in this space between now and the end of the year in groups of around two or three per day. My aim, as in previous years, is to share at least a little background about every track. Many if not most of the cuts will probably be unfamiliar to you, so I hope this background will be of some interest. I will also include a number of posts about holiday music in general, and each Saturday we'll once again feature a vintage SNL holiday sketch as part of our SNL Holiday Flashback series.
For more information about this year's mix, please visit my holiday music website via the link below. The website also contains links to my previous mixes and other holiday-related material. It's hard to believe I've now been doing this for 20 years, but it's been worth it if I've managed to help make your holidays even a little brighter.
