C'est Noel, Part 13 and Out (Tracks 33-35)

Today is Christmas Eve, and I'm writing this post from North Yarmouth, Maine, where it's cold and slightly overcast with a nice coating of snow on the ground. Our chief piece of unfinished business is posting a few thoughts on the three remaining tracks from my latest holiday mix, C'est Noel!  I do this in reverse order within each day's entry so you can scroll the blog in reverse to read all of the track entries in reverse order without having the list jump back and forth too much. It seemed like a good thing to do when I started the blog three seasons ago, but now I'm not sure that it just doesn't make me appear that much more eccentric than I already am. OK, then . . . let's get started!

Track 35
Cristo Redentor, by Donald Byrd (1963)



The jazz world lost one of its truly iconic artists this year with the passing of Donald Byrd, an American jazz, funk and rhythm and blues trumpet player who died in February at the age of 80. A native of Detroit, Byrd left for Manhattan in the 1950s where he earned his master's degree at the Manhattan School of Music and began to play with some of the best jazz musicians of the day including John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and Thelonious Monk. Pianist Herbie Hancock credits Byrd as one of his principal mentors, and Hancock was a key contributor to several of Byrd's most successful jazz albums, including the popular Blue Note release Free Form (1961). Following a brief sabbatical in Paris, Byrd released the brilliant album A New Perpective in 1963, which, among other things, added touches of gospel to the mix. "Cristo Redentor" is perhaps the most notable of the tracks on that record – indeed, of Byrd's career. Of the album, Byrd later said:

I mean this album seriously. Because of my own background, I've always wanted to write an entire album of spiritual-like pieces. The most accurate way I can describe what we were all trying to do is that this is a modern hymnal. In an earlier period, the New Orleans jazzmen would often play religious music for exactly what it was - but with their own jazz textures and techniques added. Now, as modern jazzmen, we're also approaching this tradition with respect and great pleasure.

"Cristo Redentor," which translates as "Christ the Redeemer," isn't, strictly speaking, a Christmas song, for its meaning extends well beyond Christ's birth and its celebration. But it's a magnificent piece of jazz whose soaring trumpet and soothing vocals elevate the spirit and captures the joyous celebration that Christmas has come to embody. It strikes me as a wonderful way to close almost any collection.

Track 34
Christmas on the Block, by Alan Mann (1986)



In this increasingly homogeneous age, where shopping malls from Anchorage to Miami are anchored by identical Bed Bath and Beyonds, it's nice to see a bit of local color and tradition survive in different cities and towns across the country. If you're not from Philadelphia, you've probably never heard this tune before; but, if you've ever lived in the City of Brotherly Love during the holidays, it's almost sure to ring a bell or two. The song was written by Alan Mann, who was active in Philadelphia's South Street punk scene in in the early 1980s. Before that, he'd been into folk music, and his fledgling band could pretty much play anything from the Byrds to Springsteen to the Sex Pistols. While walking around Philadelphia's Overbrook neighborhood one day, he spotted a lavishly decorated house and asked someone who lived there. It turns out the building was a group home for the blind, and even though the residents of the home were unable to see the fruits of their labor, each year they spent hours putting up Christmas lights and decorations for their sighted neighbors to appreciate. This got Mann to thinking, and the result was this song, which he wrote in 1982. Mann first recorded the song with his band, and later brought in a second grade class to add the adorable vocals you hear in this version. The song received modest local airplay at first, but it didn't really achieve classic status until it was turned into a video several years later and became the first independent video aired on MTV in regular rotation. Although this wasn't disclosed for many years, the original video wouldn't have been made without the quiet backing of Yoko Ono, who was moved by the story and the children's choir Mann had used, which reminded her of the song she and John Lennon had recorded several years earlier, "Happy Christmas (War is Over)." Tragically, Mann was killed in a fire several years after this song was recorded. But both Mann and this song are still celebrated each Christmas season, and the message of "Christmas on the Block" still resonates today.

Track 33
I'll Always Believe in Santa Claus, by the Russ Morgan Orchestra, with Joey Alfidi (1956)

I'm afraid I don't have an awful lot of information to share about this track, which was recorded in 1956 by the Russ Morgan Orchestra. Morgan was a pianist, trombone player, composer and big band leader who was active and popular from the 1930s until his death in 1969. He traveled extensively throughout the period, recorded for films, hosted a number of very popular radio shows, and had several hit records, but he was best known for his lengthy live performance runs at some of the better known hotels in the country, including the Biltmore in Los Angeles, the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago and the Dunes in Las Vegas, where he was the headliner at the Top O' the Strip club for nearly 12 years. This track is a rather obscure record, but one that seemed appropriate for the end of this year's mix as a nice way to bring things down a bit.

That concludes our look at the 35 tracks on this year's mix. I hope you've enjoyed my latest collection of holiday mishegas, and that we'll be able to get together again next Christmas for another mix of interesting holiday music. I'll have a few more items to post before we close down the blog until next season, so be sure to check back between now and January 1. But for now, I hope you enjoy Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in whatever way is most meaningful to you.

C'est Noel, Part 12 (Tracks 31-32)

Here are a couple of thoughts about the next two tracks from my latest holiday mix, C'est Noel:

Track 32

Happy Holiday, by Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé (1964)

Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé

Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé were most popular with folks a couple of generations before me, and I can't say I know an awful lot about them or their music. I know them more as cultural icons, thanks to their appearances on shows like The Nanny and satirical bits about them like Phil Hartman's 1991 Sinatra Group sketch on Saturday Night Live. Nevertheless, the news of Eydie's passing pained me. Since her marriage to Steve in 1957 the two were practically inseparable, and they seemed to love working together. I've enjoyed what music of theirs I've heard, and they've certainly released a prodigious amount of great Christmas music. For this year's mix, I chose their version of "Happy Holiday," which was written by Irving Berlin and first performed by Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire in the 1942 film Holiday Inn. In the movie, the song was performed on New Year's Eve, and the lyrics are sufficiently vague so that it could actually be sung on almost any holiday and still work. But it's come to be seen as a Christmas song, and it's usually presented as "Happy Holiday" instead of "Happy Holidays" to emphasize the identification with Christmas alone.

Track 31

Christmas Is for the Children, by David Frost (1970)

David Frost and Richard Nixon

I can remember when David Frost's talk show first started to air in the United States, and for awhile here, he was a huge success. This was the late 1960s, and Frost was showing up the likes of Merv Griffin and Mike Douglas. I remember at the time that my mother and the other stay-at-home moms in the neighborhood were especially keen on him, and somehow I associated a British accent with popularity and success. Frost didn't stay on top for long, but his career enjoyed a definite resurgence in 1977 when he scored a major interview deal with former President Richard M. Nixon and managed to get the former president to acknowledge that he'd let the country down. Frost died this summer at the age of 74, and in his honor I added a little snippet he recorded in 1970 about a fellow hotel guest he'd met whose words and actions on the subject of Christmas are at odds with one another.

(Some people have reported problems listening to the SoundCloud clip, above. If you can't hear it, try clicking HERE.)

C'est Noel, Part 11 (Tracks 29-30)

Here's some dirt on two more of the songs that appear on my latest holiday mix, C'est Noel!

Track 30
New Baby for Christmas, by George Jones (1964)

George Jones (right) reviews a painting his wife commissioned of his famous DWI arrest while driving a riding lawnmower to the liquor store.

On the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's assassination last month, some 112 artists gathered with thousands of fans at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena for what co-host Charlie Chase called "the largest tribute event in music history" in honor of the late country music legend George Jones. Jones' facial features led him to be nicknamed "The Possum," and his long battle with alcoholism caused him to miss more than a few gigs over the years, so last month's show was aptly christened "Playin' Possum:  The Final No Show," and it seems to have been a night to remember. As former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee remarked from the stage, "You're all going to remember where you were on November 22, 1963." That's a different issue, of course, but everybody knew what he meant. Jones, who died on April 26 at the age of 81, had his first #1 country hit in 1959 with the song "White Lightnin'," and despite a good number of ups and downs, he went on to top the country chart with 13 additional songs and remained a vital presence in country music throughout his life. "New Baby for Christmas" is one of about a dozen Christmas songs Jones recorded over the years, although I don't believe he released a holiday album until this year's Classic Christmas Album, which consists of songs previously recorded with his ex-wife, Tammy Wynette. "New Baby for Christmas" appears in its original form on the Classic Christmas Album, and it's a great little tune from an extremely talented man who epitomized the hard-living, hard-working country musician.

Hear George Jones and Tammy Wynette Sing "Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus"

Hear George Jones Sing "Lonely Christmas Call"

Read About How George Was Arrested for Riding a Lawnmower to the Liquor Store


Track 29
O Christmas Tree, by James Gandolfini and Ben Affleck (2004)

Gandolfini (left) and Affleck

More than a few of us were taken aback by the sudden death of actor James Gandolfini this past June, partly because he was only 51 years old, but also because he was such a vital and vigorous man who seemed to be really hitting his stride. Best known for playing mob boss Tony Soprano in HBO's smash hit series The Sopranos, a role that won him three Best Actor Emmys, Gandolfini also produced several documentaries for the network about issues of concern to U.S. veterans of the War in Iraq. I'd hoped to include a clip in this year's mix from one of the Soprano family's holiday extravaganzas, but despite a painstaking review of Tony's many holiday appearances, I was unable to find a suitable audio clip lasting longer than five seconds that wasn't interrupted by profanity. (If you're over 18 and don't mind adult language, be sure to check out this classic scene in which Tony Soprano realizes in a holiday flashback that a former associate was wearing a wire for the feds while playing Santa Claus for a neighborhood Christmas party.) Lucky for me, Gandolfini also appeared alongside Ben Affleck in the 2004 movie Surviving Christmas, which is where I found the clip for Track 29. In the movie, Affleck plays a wealthy but lonely executive who pays Gandolfini's character $250,000 to spend the holidays with him and his family. The movie received bad reviews and did poorly at the box office, but I thought the clip I used was rather endearing, and a whole lot more acceptable than the kinds of scenes that made The Sopranos so successful. By all accounts, Gandolfini was about as different from Tony Soprano's bad qualities as one could get. He's another man gone too soon.

C'est Noel, Part 10 (Tracks 26-28)

We've been examining each of the 35 tracks that comprise my latest holiday mix, C'est Noel!, with an eye toward offering some background on the whole lot before Christmas Day. Once the today's post is up, a mere seven tracks remain and we've got six days to chat about them, so I'd say we're in pretty good shape. As a reminder, C'est Noel will be available on my holiday music website only through the end of 2013, so be sure to check it out 'twixt now and then.

These next few tracks were selected to honor several gifted entertainers who died during the past year. It's a tradition I started a couple of years ago, and it makes me acutely aware of just how many talented folks are living, and aging, among us. Eight of this years tracks celebrate the lives of artists no longer with us – Tracks 26-32 and Track 35. Here are the first three:

Track 28
Just a Toy, by Annette Funicello (1961)

Annette Funicello

Most of her best professional work was done before my time, but I've always thought highly of Annette Funicello, who passed away this past April at age 70. From her earliest days in show business as one of the original Mouseketeers, to her post-adolescent years frolicking on the beach with Frankie Avalon and their friends, Funicello helped an entire generation of young Americans grow into adulthood. Painfully shy as a child, her parents enrolled her in a Burbank, California dancing school, where she was spotted by Walt Disney himself in 1955 and recruited for his new Mickey Mouse Club program. Disney maintained a close eye on her career, signing her alone to a film deal after the first group of Mouseketeers graduated from the program. In 1961, she starred in Disney’s production of Babes in Toyland, the movie that featured “Just a Toy,” which appears on this year's mix. Unlike so many other child stars, Funicello maintained her wholesome image throughout her life. Except for a brief stint as a spokesperson for Skippy Peanut Butter, Funicello kept out of the public eye for most of her adult years, raising three children and living a relatively modest and by all accounts happy life outside of Los Angeles. In 1992, she announced that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which she fought courageously, both privately and by raising awareness and money to fight the disease. She was a model Mouseketeer and a class act to the end.

Watch Annette and the Other Original Mouseketeers During Roll Call

Watch Episode 1 of the Mickey Mouse Club Serial, "Annette"

Watch the film Babes in Toyland (1961)*

*Annette sings "Just a Toy" at the 1:18:25 mark

Watch the Opening of Beach Blanket Bingo (1965)

Watch One of Annette's Skippy Peanut Butter Commercials


Track 27
Edith Greets the Carolers, The Cast Of “All In The Family,” featuring Jean Stapleton (1971)

Jean Stapleton

Best known for her portrayal of Edith Bunker, the simple, long-suffering, loving wife of America's best-known bigot, Archie (played by the late Carroll O'Connor), on television’s All in the Family, Jean Stapleton played a wide range of challenging roles in films and on stage and TV. Following her death this past May at the age of 90, she was remembered by fellow co-stars and others as a talented professional and a delightful colleague. Actor, director and producer Rob Reiner, who starred with Stapleton in All in the Family, said, "Working with her was one of the greatest experiences of my life." Sally Struthers, who played Gloria in the same show, said, "Jean lived so in the present. She was a Christian Scientist who didn't say or think a negative thing. She was just a walking, living angel.” The short clip I used in this year's mix typifies the Edith Bunker character Stapleton played – and, apparently, Stapleton herself. It’s taken from the episode “Christmas at the Bunkers,” which appears in full below:

UPDATE, 11.18.14:  It seems the video originally posted below is no longer available; however, this same episode can be streamed via Hulu by PRESSING HERE. Fans of All in the Family may also want to check-out the two-part holiday episode that aired during Season 7 in 1977, which posted two days ago HERE.

UPDATE, 4.18.22:  You might also try this link:  HERE.

 


If you'll notice, at about 22:05 Archie kicks off the same argument I posted about yesterday – namely, are Santa Claus and Jesus white, or black? Megyn Kelly doesn't seem to have moved the ball too much farther down the field than when Archie Bunker tried to field the issue in 1971 – 42 years ago.

Track 26
Holiday Greetings, by Lou Reed (1988)

Lou Reed

When I was 14 1/2 years old, I started my first “real” job as a junior kitchen assistant for the girls’ summer camp my grandmother and godmother ran for more than 40 years in Raymond, New Hampshire. There were five of us "boys" in the kitchen – three juniors and two assistants – plus the chef, and we regularly fed about 250 people, only 15 of whom were male. We worked 70 hours each week and the juniors were paid $25 per week, plus room and board, and I loved every minute of it. Hell, I guess it would have been a dream job for most guys my age. When I first heard that Lou Reed had died this past October, I suddenly remembered something from that wonderful summer that I hadn’t thought of in ages. The senior kitchen assistant had just graduated Andover Academy that year, and he was a big Lou Reed fan. I was considerably younger and liked Elton John. The other “kitchen boys” were “townies” from Raymond and liked mostly country and heavy metal music. They ragged on us something awful at first for our taste in music, although by the end of the first week I noticed we were kicking off most of our lengthy afternoon breaks by playing either Rock and Roll Animal or Goodbye Yellow Brick Road at full blast as we fell asleep on the roof of our tiny cabin. Music can bring people together, and it can expand people’s horizons. Lou Reed’s certainly did both that summer. It can also transport people backward in time, as Lou's timeless record just did for me. I'm grateful.

Jenny said, when she was just five years old
There was nothin' happening at all
Every time she put on the radio
There was nothin' goin' down at all, not at all
Then, one fine mornin', she puts on a New York station
You know, she couldn't believe what she heard at all
She started shakin' to that fine, fine music
You know, her life was saved by rock'n'roll . . .

Listen to "No Lou this Christmas," by Tom Dyer and His Queen's Pajamas

Read About Lou Reed's Surprising Christmas Music Canon

Read Patti Smith's Beautiful Remembrance of Lou Reed in The New Yorker

We'll be back again soon with more.

C'est Noel, Part 9 (Tracks 24-25)

Here's some background on two more tracks from this year's holiday mix, titled C'est Noel. Only ten more tracks to go after this post is done, eight of which are tributes to great entertainers we lost in 2013. Only eight more days until Christmas. How are your preparations coming?

Track 25
A World to Grow Up In, by William B. Williams (1961)

(L to R): Williams with Eydie Gormé and Peggy Lee

This next track is a rather frightening period piece from 1961 by William B. Williams, legendary WNEW radio announcer and longtime host of  “The Make Believe Ballroom.” Williams first joined WNEW's on-air team in 1944, working several different shifts until he was fired in 1947 for either putting his shoeless feet up on the studio console (management’s story) or taking aggressive positions in his role as union shop steward (Williams' explanation). He was rehired by the station in 1953 following a change in management, and remained at WNEW for the next 33 years. In 1954, he took over the station’s popular “Make Believe Ballroom” show, which had already been on the air for 20 years by that time and featured popular standards and big band hits. As host, he developed his own unique style for the program, offering anecdotes and observations about the various performers he played and inviting the artists themselves to appear on the air from time to time. Williams, who came to be known to listeners as “Willie B.,” was an enthusiastic booster of pre-rock radio and an especially big promoter of stars like Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney Ella Fitzgerald, and Frank Sinatra. In fact, it was Williams who coined the tag “Chairman of the Board” for Sinatra, who was so pleased with the moniker that he recorded the following promo* for Williams’ show:

 

“A World to Grow Up In” is reminiscent of the letter that sparked the famous “Yes Virgina, There Is a Santa Claus” editorial in the New York Sun. This track is supposedly based on a young boy’s letter to Santa Claus in which he expresses his fear of thermonuclear war and writes that he’d gladly forego this year’s allotment of toys in exchange for “a world to grow up in.” The way he figures it, if Santa could only instill a little Christmas spirit in the world’s leaders, there would never be another war. You may think this record reflects a pretty naïve way of thinking, but recall for a moment what happened just ten months later, in October 1962. Following the discovery of Soviet nuclear weapons on the island of Cuba, hardliners in both Washington and Moscow urged immediate military action that could have easily led to nuclear war. Thankfully, President Kennedy and Premier Khrushchev were able to negotiate a way out of the crisis, at great risk to their reputations in their own countries. Do you suppose they each had a visit from Santa the previous Christmas, and received the dose of Christmas spirit the  young author had prescribed?
____________
*The image that appears in the promotional video (above) of Williams holding his nose was taken from a 1950s print ad that appeared under the headline "We asked William B. Williams of WNEW Radio what he thought of rock 'n' roll." I can't agree with Willie B. on that point, but I share his optimism about the power of the holiday spirit.

Track 24
What Would You Put on My Christmas List, by Pee-wee Herman (1988)
Ask a few average adults what they know about Pee-wee Herman and they’ll probably mention a single indiscretion that took place many years ago in Florida. I don’t know exactly what went down that day, but I do know it shouldn't unduly besmirch this fellow's contributions to popular American culture. What should be remembered is that Pee-wee developed and starred in a terrific children’s show called Pee-wee’s Playhouse and that the “Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special” episode that aired during the show’s third season is a bona fide holiday classic. Guest stars included Grace Jones, k.d. Lang, Oprah Winfrey, Whoopie Goldberg, Magic Johnson, Dinah Shore, Cher, Little Richard and Zsa Zsa Gabor – and that's for this single one-hour episode, mind you. Track 24 of my latest holiday mix features a short clip from this holiday episode in which Pee-wee starts to prepare his Christmas wish list for Santa. You’ll have to listen to the clip for details, but let’s just say it’s a pretty comprehensive list – so lengthy, in fact, that Santa later visits the Playhouse to explain that if he fulfilled Pee-wee’s wishes, many other good children would have to go without. (Therein lies the lesson, you see.)

The Christmas Special was the third and final episode of the program’s third season, which was dramatically shortened by a television writers’ strike. I almost used a second clip from the Christmas episode on this year’s mix, in which two additional guests, Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon, show everyone how to make Christmas cards. Unfortunately, I had to cut that clip at the last minute due to lack of space. Here’s a video clip of what wound up getting cut:




And here, thanks to the magic of YouTube, is the full episode of the “Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special,” from 1988:




More Christmas fun will be coming up soon, and we'll resume our review of the tracks from my latest holiday mix on Wednesday (or thereabouts).

C'est Noel, Part 8 (Tracks 21-23)

Here's some background and random thoughts about the next three tracks from my 2013 holiday mix, C'est Noel!:

Track 23
WrestleMania Christmas, by The Yule Logs (2011)
I've posted previously about The Yule Logs, a great group from Chico, California billed as "the hardest working band in snow business." This track is from their 2011 album You Ruined Christmas, and, according to the band's drummer, Jake Sprecher, it's based on a true story:

When I was six years old I desperately wanted WrestleMania for Nintendo, as I was obsessed with the WWF. Christmas day at my Gram's house I began snooping under the tree till I found what I was certain was a video game, and tore part of the wrapping to be sure. Indeed it was WrestleMania. But then I had something of a freak-out, and decided that instead of being caught red-handed, I would take the present out to the backyard and bury it in the dirt. Later that evening as our entire family was opening presents, my Gram confusedly said something to the effect of, "Jacob, I think you're missing a present." I tried to play it off, ran out back and unearthed WrestleMania. I then brought it back inside and promptly began to weep like the child that I was.

Touching story, huh? Well, not really. But The Yule Logs have no peers when it comes to putting out first-rate holiday music, featuring both classic and original tunes. This song's a good example of that, and I urge you to buy one or more of their records to brighten your home during the holidays. The MUSIC page on their website contains a list of available albums, and you'll find links to various online vendors under each of the album pictures.

I used to love professional wrestling myself when I was a kid, although that was before wrestling really caught on in the 1980s. Back in my day, wrestling was a cheaper and more tawdry affair starring fat, out-of-shape villains; crazy, ill-tempered "managers" and a svelte, pre-steroid version of Vince McMahon, who played the role of a mild-mannered announcer. In honor of the good old days, here's an old-fashioned recipe for holiday cookies from the craziest of the crazy managers, the late "Captain" Lou Albano. (CAUTION: Do NOT make these cookies at home, or anywhere else for that matter.)  If you watch carefully, you'll see a very brief cameo by McMahon at the 0:30 mark, and a longer, more twisted appearance by former villain George (the "Animal") Steele:




Track 22
I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas, by Wing (2006)

I've used 398 different songs on my various holiday mixes to date, but only a handful of performers show up on the cumulative track list more than once. Six different songs by Johnny "Bowtie" Barstow have appeared on previous mixes I've circulated, which puts him in first place, followed by William Hung and Wing, who are tied for second place with four appearances each. This year's mix includes the fourth track I've used from Wing, which she calls "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas," also known simply as "White Christmas." The song was written by Irving Berlin in 1941, although there's apparently some dispute about where it was written. Several reports suggest it was written at the La Quinta Hotel in California's Coachella Valley, although Phoenix's Arizona Biltmore Hotel claims Berlin wrote it there. There appears to be general agreement about where and when it was first performed in public:  Christmas Day 1941 on NBC Radio's Kraft Music Hall show by Bing Crosby. Crosby's performance was well-received, but it wasn't until the following year when the song was featured in the Paramount film Holiday Inn  that it really caught on. At first, it was overshadowed by another song from the Holiday Inn soundtrack, but as Fall arrived, it started to climb the record charts, eventually reaching the #1 position, where it remained for 11 weeks. "White Christmas" charted again when it was released several years later, reaching the #1 spot in both 1945 and 1946. One factor that probably accounts for its phenomenal success is its popularity with American soldiers during World War II. After all, the song played to people who were feeling melancholy ("Just like the ones I used to know") and eager for images of home ("Where the tree tops glisten"). For many years, this was the uncontested champion of the bestselling single contest, with total worldwide sales of over 50 million copies (100 million, including copies that were sold on various LPs in addition to the 45 RPM single version). In recent years, the song's faced competition from Elton John's tribute to Princess Diana, "Candle in the Wind 1997." But according to the latest Guinness Book of World Records, Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" retains the title of bestselling single of all time, an honor it's held consistently since the Guinness people published their first records book in 1955.  This song has been recorded by hundreds of acts over the years, but I guarantee you've never heard a version of it quite like Wing's.

Track 21
Santa Claus Is a Black Man, Akim and the Teddy Vann Production (1973)

I'm indebted to John Waters for introducing me to this song – and for lots more, if I'm going to be honest about it. This one appeared on the wonderful album A John Waters Christmas, along with several others I've used previously such as "Little Mary Christmas," by Roger Christian; "Happy Birthday, Jesus," by Little Cindy; and Tiny Tim's version of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."  This is sort of ironic because Teddy Vann wound up suing Waters for including the song on his album without first securing the proper approvals and making arrangements to pay for using it on a commercial venture, although it's likely Vann's real beef with Waters was the fact that Waters had called the song a "crackpot carol" and a "lunatic holiday song." I can't agree with Waters about those descriptions. "Happy Birthday, Jesus" is a crackpot carol; "Santa Claus is a Black Man" is a delicious period piece that represents what Teddy Vann was all about – namely, multiculturalism, joy and respect. Vann, who died in 2009, is a Brooklyn record producer who won a Grammy in 1991 for co-writing the Luther Vandross smash "The Power of Love/Love Power." He was one of the early adherents to the Black Consciousness movement of the 1960s, although he was also quick to celebrate the history and achievements of people of other backgrounds, too. I understand he learned Yiddish so he could communicate more readily with some of his older Jewish neighbors. This song features his daughter, Akim, who claims to have seen Santa Claus in the living room with her mother the previous evening. She reports that Santa looked like her Daddy in that he was black, handsome, had an Afro, and was really out of sight. This is one of the few songs I've heard that wishes its listeners both Merry Christmas and Happy Kwanza. It's a great holiday song by any measure, and I can't imagine why it's not in the heavy airplay rotation at radio stations across the country at this time of year. Oh yeah, that's right – we need to hear that abomination by Wham! more often.


BULLETIN! BULLETIN!  (12/16/13):  I've just seen the tail end of a story Chris Hayes reported on MSNBC tonight concerning a brewing dispute about Santa Claus's race. It seems Fox TV personality Megyn Kelly recently reported that both Santa and Jesus Christ are white, and that because these are indisputable facts, there can be no further debate on the subject. Because this report calls into question one of the many assertions made by this blog (see "Santa Claus Is a Black Man," above) I feel compelled to investigate. I haven't time to do this vital story justice tonight, however, so I'll simply post a link to the Media Matters report on the story and promise to add a new post when I'm able. 



More tunes from C'est Noel! examined tomorrow!

C'est Noel, Part 7 (Tracks 19-20)

More background on the tracks that make up my latest holiday mix, C'est Noel:

Track 20
Wonderful Christmastime, by Martin Sheen, John Spencer and Stockard Channing (2000)


(L to R): Martin Sheen, Stockard Channing and the late John Spencer 

I don’t watch much TV, but when I find a show I like, I tend to really get into it. The last broadcast series I really fell for was The West Wing, which ran on NBC for seven seasons from 1999 through 2006. Created by Aaron Sorkin, the show was based in the White House during the fictional presidency of Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen), a liberal Democrat from New England. Bartlet had been urged to seek the presidency by his close friend Leo McGarry (John Spencer), who, upon Bartlet's election, was appointed White House chief of staff. As a liberal Democrat from New England myself, I simply adored this program, which depicted the kind of administration many Americans yearned for during the real-life administration of Republican George W. Bush. The show was a smash with the critics, winning the Emmy for Best Dramatic series four years in a row. The writing was sharp and carefully researched, and the cast was remarkably talented – particularly Sheen, Spencer and Stockard Channing, who played First Lady Abigail Bartlet.

As luck would have it, I got to spend some time with John Spencer in October of 2000, just as the show was starting its second season. I'd helped put together a group of coworkers to participate in the annual L.A. AIDS Walk that year, and he just happened to be milling around near us as the Walk took off. He appeared to be alone, so I invited him to join us and he ended up walking the entire route with our group. It was great fun to get his thoughts about the show, his career and the current political scene, and he couldn't have been more friendly and down-to-earth. Tragically, John suffered a fatal heart attack five years later, just as the show was winding down. It was a great loss.

With all this as background, you can imagine how excited I was several years ago when I discovered that Sheen, Spencer and Channing had contributed a Christmas song to a charity album recorded in 2000 by a variety of NBC’s then-current stars.

It kills me to say it, but this trio really should have written checks instead.

To start with, "Wonderful Christmastime" is perhaps my least favorite holiday song of all time. And it's not simply that I don't like it as much as the other hundred thousand or so holiday songs out there – I mean I actually detest this song. I can't listen to it for more than ten seconds without feeling physically unwell. Why? I'm a little uncertain myself. The demonic synthesizer riff that opens the song has something to do with it, I'm sure. I don't care for synthesizers much. I've always preferred songs made with traditional instruments like electric guitars and the themerin, and when this song was first released in 1979 I remember thinking of it as the first in a likely wave of computer-generated music to be made by individuals working alone late at night in their basements. Another factor was my feelings about McCartney himself. I'd always been a huge fan, but by the time this song came out I was beginning to cool on him. This song followed his 1978 album Back to the Egg, which I found very disappointing. In fact, it's the first McCartney album I didn't purchase. I liked his next album, McCartney II, even less.  My diminishing enthusiasm for Sir Paul coincided with a growing interest in the music of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. And, what do you know? It was around this same time that I transformed from a moderate Republican to a left-wing Democrat by way of a brief flirtation with several more radical organizations. In any case, I loathe "Wonderful Christmastime," and I'm pretty sure that even a joint cover by Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young couldn't change my mind.

Finally, the version these good folks recorded isn't even as good as McCartney's. It starts with a hurried and completely artificial discussion about the different ways of decorating Christmas trees. As happy as we are to have that business end, it doesn't take long to realize that the cost for this trade-off is listening to them sing. Had I been there, I think I would have asked them to discuss their differing views on carving the roast instead. I feel awful about trashing what was clearly a generous gesture on their part, but on a scale of 1 to 10, this thing's more like that temperature reading the other day from Antarctica. What was it, something like –135°?


Track 19
Party for Santa Claus, by Lord Nelson (1963)


Lord Nelson

Three cheers for Lord Nelson, who's established himself as one of those rare good souls who actually considers poor Santa's well-being rather than merely his own. Here's what he has to say on the subject in our next track, "Party for Santa Claus," which became a hit for Lord Nelson 50 years ago, in 1963:

Christmas time is the time for giving we learned from since we’re small
But year to year it’s the same old thing, Santa’s coming to call.
We always ignore it or forget it, this year we know it’s true
So this coming Christmas let’s all make an effort get a present for Santa too!

Let’s trade in the old sleigh and the reindeer for a big car with a chauffeur
get a helicopter, because everybody loves dear old Santa Claus.

Christmas is here and we’re all having fun, Santa brought presents for everyone
But he had to squeeze through a chimney, poor Nicholas, what a horrible place to pass. 
Why not open your window, or your front door, so Santa could bring his gifts,
I find that climbing on a rooftop and coming through a chimney is a whole lot of stupidness.

Move him from the North Pole, ‘cause it’s so cold
Give him an apartment, modern equipment, a maid, a butler, he deserves
Let’s show our love to dear Santa Claus.

Everybody drinking beer, whiskey and rum, poor Santa ain’t getting none.
And as jingle bells jingle, there’s dear old Santa wearing the same old red clothes
We should be ashamed, we should be blamed, to treat Santa Claus like a brute,
So let’s chip in some dollars, take him to the tailors for a new Continental suit.

Take him out to a nightclub, or a movie, get some fine chicks and give a party
It’s time to chip in and do our share, to make sure he comes more than once a year.


Considering some artists have expressed a desire to lasso Santa Claus. hold him up at gunpoint or glue him to the floor, I'd say we could use a few more folks like this good man around here.

Born and raised off the coast of Venezuela on the island of Tobago, Lord Nelson immigrated to the United States in the early 1950s and had plans to settle in Brooklyn, New York. Before he could get settled, however, Nelson was drafted for service in the Korean War. While in the military, he had a chance to try his hand at entertaining and performing for the troops, which he enjoyed and was good at. Upon leaving the service, Nelson returned to Topanga for good, he soon became one of its most successful calypso artists. Calypso really took off in the 1970s, and Lord Nelson has been playing and performing it for well over 50 years. I only hope someone's watching out for his interests as well as he's watching out for Santa's.

Jack Webb

Oh, yes – the last few seconds of this track are from an old episode of Dragnet. I added them just for fun. What you hear is an apparently overserved patron of one of our city's many fashionable nightspots asking LAPD Sgt. Joe Friday (played by Jack Webb) if he could join Friday's "party."  Friday, who's sitting alone at a table, ramrod straight, responds about as you might expect: "I'm not having any party, fella." And a Merry Ho! Ho! Ho! to you, too!


Preview or purchase A Calypso Christmas, featuring "Party for Santa Claus"

C'est Noel, Part 6 (Tracks 17-18)

I started this blog two years ago as a place to share a few occasional thoughts about some of the tracks on my annual holiday music mixes. The scope has expanded slightly since then, but I haven't lost sight of that original mission. My latest mix is called C'est Noel, and we've been looking at each of the 35 tracks it contains. Today we look at Tracks 17 and 18, and once these two are covered, we'll have crossed the half-way mark on this year's release.

Track 18
Christ Was Born on Christmas Morn, by the Cotton Top Mountain Sanctified Singers (1929)

Miller (left) and Jackson

It’s been called “one of the most transcendently joyous, exuberant records ever made,”* and while that strikes me as a bit of an overstatement, this one really does have some spirit, don't you think? Recorded in Chicago in August 1929, it was released a little less than four months later – or two months after the Great Stock Market Crash. I'd guess that whatever exuberance there is was more urgently needed by then than was first supposed. The Cotton Top Mountain Sanctified Singers consisted of Frankie “Half Pint” Jaxon, a cabaret performer, jazz singer and occasional female impressionist; Ernest “Punch” Miller, a jazz trumpet player; and the Cotton Top Mountain Sanctified Choir from a small church on Chicago’s West Side. This track is one of only a handful of songs the group recorded together, and it doesn't appear that this one got much traction before the Great Depression tightened its grip across the country. Sometime in the early 1980s, radio host Dick Spotswood began to play the song regularly during the holidays on his bluegrass radio show on Washington's WAMU-FM. In 2002,  it was included on the Dust to Digital CD Where Will You Be Christmas Day? 
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*Sullivan, Steve, Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings, Vol. 2 (2013), at 32-33.

Track 17
Transylvanian Christmas, by Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper (1986)

Mojo Nixon (left) and Skid Roper in 2012

Our next tune is probably among the best 15 or 20 psychobilly holiday instrumental songs released during second half of the Reagan administration, so why wouldn’t it be included in one of my mixes? It was only a matter of time, really. Part of the song’s beauty lies in its simplicity – less is more, and all that, you know. It basically consists of Skid Roper playing two verses of “Joy to the World” on harmonica while Mojo Nixon beats on the bongos. Somehow Roper’s tweaked his instrument to make it sound kind of ominous. That’s sort of the overall MO of these guys, who released six albums during the 1980s before going their separate ways. They liked to shake things up a bit by fusing different styles together and parodying pretty much whatever came into view. Nixon went on to release a few more albums on his own and with others, and recently he’s launched several radio shows on Sirius.

For insight into Mojo Nixon’s First Amendment philosophy, catch his 1990 appearance on CNN's Crossfire with Pat Buchanan and Michael Kinsley, HERE.

Some of you may recall Wesley Willis, the outsider artist whose song “Merry Christmas” was included on my 1997 mix Let’s Trim the Christmas Tree. Well, are you ready for this? Wesley actually recorded a tribute song called “Mojo Nixon,” which is available HERE.

C'est Noel, Part 5 (Tracks 13-16)

Time to get back to work with our continuing review of the 35 tracks in my latest holiday mix, C'est Noel! I've already shared some background and thoughts on the first dozen tracks, and today we're going to tackle the next four tunes. Hold on tight, because here we go:

Track 16
Woody Guthrie's Happy Joyous Hanukkah, by The Klezmatics (2006)


The Klezmatics (L to R): Frank London, Matt Darriau, Lisa Gutkin, Lorin Sklamberg, Paul Morrissett (Photo: Joshua Kessler)

Even many longtime fans of the late folk singer and social activist Woody Guthrie were caught off guard when the Grammy Award-winning American klezmer group The Klezmatics released their eighth album in 2006, Woody Guthrie's Happy Joyous Hanukkah. "Wait a second," you could almost hear people thinking. "Woody Guthrie was Jewish?" No, he actually wasn't, but his second wife, Marjorie, was, and during the late 1940s and early '50s, the "Dust Bowl Troubadour" quietly established a lively partnership with his Jewish mother-in-law, the well-known Yiddish poet Aliza Greenblatt. Guthrie and Greenblatt shared both a love for the written word and a passionate commitment to social justice, and their collaboration and mutual encouragement resulted in a sizable number of poems, song lyrics and other writings that celebrated the history of the Jewish people and the joy of their customs and holidays. Guthrie didn't do much with these works during his lifetime, but when they were discovered by his daughter, Nora Guthrie, some 30 years after Woody's death, she gave the lyrics to The Klezmatics to see if they might be turned into something. The first batch of lyrics were eventually developed into a set of songs that were recorded as Wonder Wheel: Lyrics by Woody Guthrie.  Released in 2006, the album won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album in 2007. Later in 2006, the group released Woody Guthrie's Happy Joyous Hanukkah, of which this song is the title track.

 

It's a fascinating album that on first listen seems weighted toward lighthearted tunes and songs for children. Guthrie's own children figure prominently in the lyrics, and each song seems full to overflowing with good cheer. Woody Guthrie's life was not always easy, but this record is a genuine celebration, and a revelation as well. 

Hear NPR Music Critic Robert Christgau discuss the album HERE.

Murray Horwitz hosts an NPR broadcast featuring highlights of a 2007 holiday concert by The Klezmatics from Los Angeles’ Disney Concert Hall. Listen HERE.


Track 15

1913 Massacre (Excerpt), by Woody Guthrie (1941)

Exactly 100 years ago this Christmas Eve, 73 people, including 59 children, were crushed to death at a holiday party in Calumet, Michigan in what has come to be known as the Italian Hall Disaster, or the 1913 Massacre. Calumet was a coal mining town, and as the holidays approached that year, it was in the midst of a bitter labor dispute. The strike had been spurred by the introduction of the one-man drill, which led to fear among the workers of one-man teams and reduced work. Employees of the Calumet and Hecia Mining Company (C&H) had only just recently organized, and they were striking primarily for an eight-hour day and for a daily wage increase to $3.50. Strike leaders had scheduled a Christmas party for December 24 to rally the troops, and hundreds of striking workers and their wives and children assembled at Italian Hall to celebrate the season. At one point in the festivities, someone apparently yelled "Fire!" and while no fire existed, scores of people were crushed trying to escape through a non-functioning exit. Although it has never been definitively established, many believe that one of the thugs on C&H's payroll was responsible for falsely yelling the warning.

 

Guthrie read about the incident some 25 years later and wrote "1913 Massacre" as a result. It's a haunting and powerful song, in which the narrator welcomes each listener into the Hall to experience the tragedy first-hand:

 

1913 Massacre, by Woody Guthrie

(Press HERE to listen)

 

Take a trip with me in 1913,
To Calumet, Michigan, in the copper country.
I'll take you to a place called Italian Hall,
Where the miners are having their big Christmas ball.

I'll take you in the door, and up a high stairs,
Singin' and dancin' is heard everywhere,
I'll let you shake hands with the people you see,
And watch the kids dance round the big Christmas tree.

You ask about work and you ask about pay,
They'll tell you they make less than a dollar day,
Workin' the copper claims, riskin' their lives,So it's fun to spend Christmas with children and wives.

There's talkin' and laughin' and songs in the air,
And the spirit of Christmas is there everywhere,
Before you know it, you're friends with us all,
And you're dancin' around and around in the hall.

Well, a little girl sits by the Christmas tree lights,
To play the piano, so you gotta keep quiet.
To hear all this fun you would not realize,
That the copper-boss thug-men are millin' outside.

The copper-boss thugs stuck their heads in the door,

One of them yelled and he screamed, "There's a fire!"
A lady, she hollered, "There's no such a thing!
Keep on with your party, there's no such thing."

A few people rushed, and it's only a few.
"It's just the thugs and the scabs foolin' you."
A man grabbed his daughter and he carried her down,
But the thugs held the door and he could not get out.

And then others followed, a hundred or more,
But most everybody remained on the floor.
The scabs and the thugs they still laughed at their joke,
While the children were smothered on the stairs by the door.

Such a terrible sight I never did see,
We carried our children back up to their tree.
The scabs outside still laughed at their spree,
And the children that died there were seventy-three.

The piano played a slow funeral tune,

And the town was lit up by a cold Christmas moon, 

The parents they cried and the miners they moan,
"See what your greed for money has done."

I opted to include only a short excerpt of this song on my 2013 mix. On the one hand, it's an important piece of history and Guthrie's telling of it is nothing less than brilliant. But it's also a horribly grisly story, and it's bound to be upsetting, especially for small children at Christmas. Of course, the families who suffered so terribly a century ago were spared nothing on that horrible evening. I can't help but notice that the same pernicious forces that caused this tragedy are once again abroad in our country this holiday season. It's evident as WalMart, one of the most successful companies in the world, solicits canned goods for the benefit of its underpaid employees. They are present while the party of Theodore Roosevelt allows the federal government to close in its rabid zeal to deny basic health care to millions of our citizens. If Woody Guthrie were alive today, you can bet he'd be writing lots of new songs, any one of which might easily conclude with the same stark observation with which he ends this song:

"See what your greed for money has done."

 

Track 14
Clean for Christmas, by James Brown (1999)
Dubbed "the hardest working man in show business," James Brown died on Christmas Day in 2006, which is sadly appropriate, as he left behind an amazingly colorful body of Christmas music. Brown essentially recorded four albums of holiday tunes: Christmas Songs (1966), Soulful Christmas (1968), Hey America (1970)  and The Merry Christmas Album (1999), as well as The Complete James Brown Christmas (2010), a posthumous compilation. I say "essentially" because his songs have been repackaged and reissued in so many different combinations over the years that it's practically impossible to make a definitive count. Even when Brown was alive, a couple of his holiday records were packed with non-Christmas hits to goose the sales up a little. But there's still something special here – special and unique. While the Christmas records many artists release are typically regarded as separate and apart from their regular catalogue, Brown's Christmas albums ignore that distinction. The holiday records use holiday themes and props, of course, but the musical style is pretty much the next step on Brown's evolving vibe. What's also striking is how much the holiday songs reveal about Brown's background and personality, for while there's lots of strutting, ego-powered funk, there are also a number of sad, plaintive tunes that speak in an outsider's voice. Some of Brown's seasonal selections are laughably bad, with a few bordering on self parody. Others seem to have been thrown together quickly, with minimal care. Frankly, I'm not sure exactly what to make of "Clean for Christmas." It was recorded relatively late in Brown's career, by which time his difficulties with drugs had not only cramped his style but harmed his reputation as well. I'm inclined to believe that this song speaks to that issue, and represents Brown's commitment to getting clean for the holidays. Of course, he might just be needing a shave and some clean clothes. I've added an unrelated clip to the start of this track from a 1968 episode of the TV crime series Adam-12. It involves the arrest of one James Brown, and a potentially illegal search and seizure. (Press HERE to watch the full episode of that dreadful drama. It was produced by Dragnet czar Jack Webb, but that should be instantly clear to most viewers. The final Christmas show of the series, which aired in December 1974, is available HERE.) 

Track 13

Merry Christmas, James Brown! by The Peanuts Gang (c. 2002)

 

This is a rarely heard track that was originally released in 2002 or thereabouts* on an album titled National Lampoon’s Off-White Christmas, Volume 2. National Lampoon was once a very successful franchise. Founded by former members of the Harvard Lampoon, the name was first applied to a monthly humor magazine whose first issue hit the streets in 1970. The magazine thrived during the 1970s, when it was known for its brash parodies, and the founders expanded their reach to produce books, radio and television show, record albums, plays and movies. Over time, the success of these endeavors led many of the most creative people to cash out or accept better opportunities, and the enterprise began to slip through the 1980s and ‘90s. The last edition of the magazine was published in November 1998. The brand also appears on a number of movies, although exactly what constitutes an official National Lampoon movie is open to some debate. National Lampoon’s Animal House, one of the most successful comedies of all time, featured a number of the magazine’s key players among the credits list. National Lampoon’s Vacation series, including National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, also did well. The Off-White Christmas series of CDs included four separate releases, none of which seems to be commercially available today. I first found this track on the Traitor Vic 2009 Low-Budget Xmas Mix, and it actually made me laugh out loud. Still, I must admit to a certain amount of ambivalence about including this one on one of my mixes. While Brown certainly had some verifiable personal shortcomings, it doesn’t seem quite right to capitalize on them after his death. In the end, however, I decided to use this track because it really is funny and it pokes fun at Brown with a relatively light touch. I’d be interested to hear from anyone with thoughts about whether this track should have been removed for being overly disrespectful. 

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*Until just the other day, my best information suggested this song was first released in 1998, but the correct date, I believe, is actually 2002. Most of the CDs I’m distributing this year list the date as “c. 1998.” Do you suppose that by putting the abbreviation for circa in front of the date that I bought myself enough wiggle room to cover myself?

 
 

C'est Noel, Part 4 (Tracks 10-12)

My latest holiday mix is called C'est Noel!,  and as in previous years, I'm currently sharing some background information and random thoughts about each of the individual tracks I've included. There are 35 tracks altogether, and we've looked at nine so far. We'll look at another three today, which still leaves plenty to write about between now and Christmas Day.

Track 12
Purple Snowflakes, by Marvin Gaye (1964)



Marvin Gaye

I hate to sound like a bitter old man, but there’s just no way today’s most popular music can hold a candle to the kind of stuff that was regularly being produced back in the 1960s and ‘70s. In those days, it was the Beatles, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones. Today it’s Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber and Kanye West. OK, so maybe that’s not such a fair comparison, but answer me this: Which of today’s artists can come close the legendary Marvin Gaye? I’ve been a fan of this guy's music ever since I can remember. I love the feel-good innocence of his early Motown songs recorded under Berry Gordy’s direction, and the album he recorded with Diana Ross was one of the very first records I ever purchased. (I bought it on cassette, actually.) The lusciously sensual “I Want You” has to be among the most erotic songs ever recorded, while the infectious groove of “Got to Give It Up” sets old and young alike into motion, as demonstrated by the success of “Blurred Lines,” this year's biggest hit, which is based entirely on its compelling and distinctive beat. But the fullness of Gaye’s musical genius is best represented by the album made over Gordy’s strong objection, the brilliant and topical What’s Going On? To this day, it stands as the most accurate and detailed portrait ever made of Vietnam-era America.

Gaye didn’t record an awful lot of Christmas music in his lifetime. The best known of his holiday releases was probably “I Want to Come Home for Christmas,” which was released as a single in 1972 and later appeared on the compilation “A Motown Christmas” the following year. Written by Gaye and Forest Hairston, this incredibly beautiful and touching song is written from the point of view of a soldier serving in Vietnam. Amazingly, it never received much airplay until years after its release due to the allegedly sensitive nature of its subject.

“Purple Snowflakes” was written by Dave Hamilton and Clarence Paul and recorded by Gaye in 1964, but for some reason it remained in the vault until well after Gaye’s death. So far as I can tell, it was first released in 1993 on Motown’s “Christmas in the City” compilation. The Jackson 5 recorded the song in 1970 for their first Christmas album, but it didn’t make the cut. Gaye’s version has subsequently been included in a dozen or more different compilations, and it’s no longer so unusual to hear it in stores or on the radio. Of course, if I ran the world, this one would be played at least once an hour from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day.

Track 11

Just a Sad Christmas, by The Soul Duo (1969)
As most of us know all too well, Christmas isn’t always merry and bright; the good cheer we celebrate too often masks sadness, loneliness and despair, as evidenced by the many hard luck stories that find their way into the holiday music bins. (Don’t believe me? Check out any of the little Christmas ditties by country western singer Red Sovine, like this one, for example.) One of the nice things about this track is that while it starts out on a decidedly sad note, by the time it ends the light of increasingly good times is illuminating the end of the tunnel. Another nice thing is that it’s just a damn fine piece of classic soul.

Sadly, this terrific tune is one of the few songs The Soul Duo recorded together. The act consisted of Little Ida (Ida Sands) and Little Daddy (Joe Webster from The Anglos). Their first single, “This Is Your Day," was recorded in 1969 for the Philadelphia-based Shiptown label and subsequently distributed nationally on Jamie Records. “Just a Sad Christmas” was the duo’s follow-up effort, and it was apparently a solid holiday hit in the mid-Atlantic area. And for good reason: 

Ida and Joe turn in some amazingly deep vocals on this hard-hitting ballad with perfectly sympathetic backing from The Sounds Band (love that bluesy organ!). Definitely not your run-of-the-mill seasonal fluff, we think "Sad Xmas" deserves to be included amongst the classic soulful Holiday songs.

Funky Virginia Blog. I couldn’t agree more. Sadly, Ida Sands passed away earlier this year. Further details about her life and career, including clips, are available HERE.

Hear an alternate version of “Just a Sad Christmas” by the group Grillade HERE.


Track 10

Blue Christmas Lights, by Buck Owens (1965)

I can’t claim to be a big Buck Owens fan, or, for that matter, to know very much about country music at all. This song was recorded in 1965 for the album Christmas with Buck Owens and His Buckaroos, which appears to be one of several holiday records Owens released over his long and very successful career. I like this tune, and I thought it would be nice to include it next to a couple of soul tracks to illustrate just how well holiday music can bridge the various gaps between different styles of music and points of view.

We've now covered one-third of all of the tracks from this year's mix. Sooner or later, I'll be back with some thoughts on the next several cuts.