I Wish It Was Christmas Today - Part 5

Today we continue our look at the 41 tracks on my latest holiday mix, "I Wish It Was Christmas Today," with some thoughts on the next two tracks, numbers 12 and 13:

Track 12
Rockin' Around the WBCN Christmas Tree, Tom Sandman for WBCN Boston (1986)

I wrote a little bit about Boston radio station WBCN-FM back in 2011 (see HERE) in connection with one of the station's holiday promos from the 1980s that was included on that year's mix, "Gee Whiz … It's Christmas (Again!)." Originally launched as a classical music station, WBCN switched to a free-form rock format in 1968 and quickly became one of the region's best and most popular outlets. I was a regular listener from 1980 through the mid-1990s, when the station was known as "The Rock of Boston" and widely regarded as one of the best FM rock stations in the country. Home to such highly regarded DJs as Charles Laquidara, Carter Alan, Oedipus, Ken Shelton and Mark Parenteau, the station was known for breaking new acts such as U2 and The Cars; supporting local bands and comedians and providing strong news and public affairs programming.

Among the station's greatest strengths was its incorporation of comedy and listener participation as side dishes to complement the music. Mark Parenteau featured comedy every afternoon at 5 pm, including live interviews with local and nationally known comedians. Charles Laquidara's "Big Mattress" morning show wrapped-up at 9:50 each morning with a wild trivia game for listeners called "Mattress Michegas" which served as an effective transition to Ken Shelton's 10 am to 2 pm program. The centerpiece of Shelton's show was the "Mighty Lunch Hour," which was introduced each day with parody versions of familiar tunes focused on various noontime meal options. The station was fortunate to have a couple of high wattage creative weapons contributing to these features — voice actor Billy West and producer Tom Sandman, who worked at WBCN in the 1980s. The two also created a variety of classic promos and bumpers that aired throughout the day. These features helped WBCN stand out from its competitors and gave the outlet a sound all its own, particularly during December, when their memorable holiday promos made the station even more festive than usual. 

This year's mix features three classic holiday-themed promos, the first of which borrows from Brenda Lee's classic "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," which last year topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and became the song that took the longest from its original release to reach #1 — 65 years!  

We'll have more about WBCN in our write-ups on Tracks 25 and 35, coming up — stay tuned.

Hear WBCN's "Merry Christmas, Boston" Promo, by Billy West and Tom Sandman

Track 13
Santa's Too Fat for the Hula Hoop, The Pixies, featuring Thurl Ravenscroft (1958)

While men, women and especially children have almost certainly been twirling round hoops around their waists for centuries, the modern era of the practice began in the late 1950s when California's Wham-O Toy Company began marketing round plastic tubes under the name "hula hoops." As the Music Weird blog notes in a feature on "Hula Hoop Songs of 1958-59," Wham-O's release of the toy coincided with a surge of interest in Hawaiian music, so there was something of a perfect storm around the time The Pixies released this record, featuring the one and only Tony the Tiger, a/k/a Thurl Ravenscroft. Hawaii was admitted to the United States as our 50th state in 1959, so all of this seems to be of a piece.

When most people see a reference to The Pixies they think of the Boston-based alternative rock band that started in the mid-1980s, and they're a different outfit altogether. I wasn't able to find out much of anything about these Pixies until I came across a response posted to a piece in a blog called Gorillas Don't Blog that contained a note purportedly from a woman named Judy Steinfeldt, who wrote:

Ravenscroft

I was 1/2 of the Pixies. We were two junior high girls who loved to sing. I was the soprano. An entertainment lawyer heard us and started the ball rolling. We auditioned with a song we had written, "My Johnny.” That was actually our first record. Our second record is [Santa’s Too Fat for the Hula Hoop] and originally was recorded without Thurl [Ravenscroft]. We did all of the vocals. At one point the studio added him, which was brilliant. Santa came out the same Christmas as [The Chipmunks Song].

From what I can see, The Pixies don't appear to have released a third record.

Ravenscroft, of course, has a variety of other credits as a singer and voiceover actor. He was the originally uncredited singer of the holiday classic "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch." He was finally credited as the song's vocalist in a version released posthumously that reached #32 on Billboard's Hot 100 for the week ending January 2, 2021. So the late Thurl Ravenscroft finally hit the Top 40 16 years after his death in 2005.

Here's Ravenscroft playing Santa Claus in "Santa's Too Fat for the Hula Hoop" from 1958:

Hear Thurl Ravenscroft's "Your a Mean One, Mr. Grinch"

Back again soon with more . . .