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)
Introduction and Liberace Show Holiday Episode Opening, Liberace (1954)
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)
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.
Track 3
Santa Claus, The Sonics (1965)
Santa Claus, The Sonics (1965)
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:
See the Trailer for "Boom," the 2018 Documentary About The Sonics
Read About "The Second Coming of The Sonics"
Watch Selected Videos of The Best Songs of The Sonics
I'll be back sometime soon with some thoughts on the next several tracks on this year's mix.
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