It's Christmas Time Again, Part 7

Christmas may indeed be over but we're only about half-way through the tracklist of my latest CD, "It's Christmas Time Again." Here are some observations on a few more tracks.

Track 23
Spending Christmas with the Blues, by Floyd Miles and Gregg Allman (1996)

Gregg Allman's life was rarely easy. Born in Nashville to a family of modest means, his father was shot and killed by a hitchhiker when Gregg was only two years old. His mother eventually put Gregg and his older brother, Duane, in a military academy in order to attend college and become a CPA. Gregg interpreted his mother's decision as a sign that she didn't love him, and he found the school to be incredibly difficult and unpleasant. Fortunately, Duane watched out for him and the two forged a tight bond that eventually expanded into a shared love of music. They founded the Allman Brothers Band in 1969, but just two years later, as they first began to experience real success, Duane was killed in a motorcycle accident. Raised in these circumstances, it's easy to imagine how Gregg developed an affinity for the blues.

Music is my life's blood. I love music, I love to play good music, and I love to play music for people who appreciate it. And when it's all said and done, I'll go to my grave and my brother will greet me, saying, "Nice work, little brother—you did all right." I must have said this a million times, but if I died today, I have had me a blast.

Track 22
What Lucy Really Wants for Christmas, by the Cast of Peanuts (1965)
If you grew up in the '60s, chances are you spent at least several nights in front of your TV each year during the lead-up to Christmas watching a litany of hard-to-forget holiday cartoon specials -- broadcasts that were as much a part of the Christmas holiday season as your Christmas stocking and the family advent calendar. You know the ones I'm talking about here -- they were on every year, you never missed a one of them, and they each featured a song or two that you can still sing today as easily as "Silent Night" or "Joy to the World." There was "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (1964), "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (1966),  "The Little Drummer Boy" (1968), "Frosty the Snowman" (1969), and perhaps the most beloved of them all, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (1965). That's the broadcast this very short clip was taken from, and it remains a great favorite of mine to this day.

If you don't already own your own copy of this holiday classic, I recommend that you buy the 50th Anniversary Deluxe edition from amazon.com today, It's now available for less than ten bucks and it includes a feature titled "A Christmas Miracle: The Making of a Charlie Brown Christmas," which I found to be entertaining and chock full of interesting details.

Buy the 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition from amazon.com

See TIME Magazine's list of the 10 Greatest Christmas TV Specials from Your Childhood 

Track 21
I've Got Some Presents for Santa, by Sarah Taylor and Bill Mumy (1994)

Bill Mumy (fifth from left) and the cast of Lost in Space (1966).

You know, I think it's true when they say that once you start to lower your standards it becomes easier and easier to continue in that same downward direction. Once I decided to let some adult content sneak through the back door in the form of the Drive-By Truckers' "Mrs. Claus's Kimono" it didn't seem like such a big deal to look the other way when this sexy little number climbed in through a basement window. At first listen, it's a pretty little tune about a young woman's hospitality as she offers a brief respite to Santa during his big package delivery runs every December. But upon closer inspection of the lyrics, the truth emerges. The plain truth is that while the tune may be pleasing, the lyrics are downright nasty! The only package this woman cares about is the one Santa carries back with him to the North Pole each year -- you know, the one most of us thought only Mrs. Claus was familiar with.

I couldn't resist including this song in the mix -- not so much because of the naughty element, although that was surely a factor -- but rather because the song was written and performed by Sarah Taylor and Bill Mumy. If Mumy's name sounds familiar to you I'm not surprised. He was the star of one of my favorite TV shows growing up -- the '60s classic "Lost in Space," on which he played the pre-teen astronaut Will Robinson. He also played young Anthony Fremont in "It's a Good Life," one of the most memorable episodes of another cult classic, "The Twilight Zone." But in recent years, Mumy's been more of a musician than an actor, and once the kids are in bed, this isn't such a bad little song to stick on the Victrola. Give it a listen HERE.

Watch Bill Mumy discuss the Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life"

Listen to Bill Mumy Discuss His "Lost in Space" Castmates


Track 20
Hasmonean (A Hamilton Hanukkah), by The Maccabeats (2016)

The Maccabeats have done it again! Several years ago, this Orthodox Jewish a cappella group hit it big with the Hanukkah-themed "Candlelight," which was a take-off on the the Taio Cruz smash hit "Dynamite." This year, they've turned the score of the biggest Broadway show in years into yet another catchy celebration of December's most popular eight-night holiday. As with "Candlelight," "Hasmonean" is more than merely entertaining. There's a solid history lesson here, too – along with a heavy dose of the kind of special energy that's made Lynn Manuel Miranda's "Hamilton" such a runaway success.



We'll be back with additional commentary sometime soon.

It's Christmas Time Again, Part 6

These next three tracks will drag us across the half-way point for this year's mix, so let's get right to it:

Track 19
Christmas Seals Promotional Spot, by George Takei

George Takei

After adding the two Mark Jonathan Davis clips featuring Lt. Hikaru Sulu on the bridge of the Enterprise (Tracks 8 and 15 from this year's mix), I did a quick internet search to see if I could find any holiday-themed audio featuring George Takei, the actor who played Lt. Sulu on the Star Trek series. This Christmas Seals promotion was the first and best clip I found, although the "Oh myyyy" tagline at the end wasn't in the original promo, but rather copied and added from one of Takei's many appearances on the Howard Stern program. The rich baritone of Takei's "Oh My" has become something of an audio meme of Takei's, and well it might be. It's an appropriate comment on this actor's rather amazing career history. As a child, he was forced into a World War II internment camp in California due solely to his family's Japanese heritage. As an adult, he became a moderately successful actor, best known for his work on Star Trek. But it's only in the past decade that he's reached the highest levels of popular recognition and popularity, and that's due primarily to his coming out as a gay man and his tireless advocacy for the rights of the LGBT community. Takei's odyssey is well-described by a recent New York Times profile about his role as a gay icon. It's hard not to be wowed by how much progress he and the rest of us have made over the past 75 years. But as Takei himself would no doubt agree, it's frightening to contemplate how precarious this progress truly is as a result of the current administration in Washington.


Track 18
Mrs. Claus's Kimono, by Drive By Truckers (2009)
I believe this is the very first track on any of my 20-plus holiday CDs over the past 17 years to merit a parental warning, but I included it nonetheless because I've become such a fan of the group that recorded it. They're called the Drive-By Truckers and while they're currently based in Athens, Georgia, the two lead vocalists who also write most of their songs (Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood) are both from the Shoals region of Northwestern Alabama, and their home state plays a prominent role in a lot of their music. The band got started a little over 20 years ago and they've built up a loyal following as a result of their heavy touring schedule and substantial library of fine material. I'm embarrassed to say that I knew little about the band until I happened to hear a few tracks from their powerful album American Band shortly after its release in 2016. It's a courageous album in a bunch of different respects, from the opening notes of  "Ramon Casiano," which tells the story of the militant former National Rifle Association leader who shot a 15-year-old Hispanic youngster near the Mexican border to "Baggage," in which Patterson Hood reflects on his own struggles with depression in the wake of comedian Robin Williams' suicide. It's a driving, guitar-based album marked by the band's deeply-held political views, the proud Southern sensibilities of its members and the conflicts that sometimes arise between these two powerful forces. The track that first caught my attention was "What It Means":



I've always enjoyed introducing friends to new music I like, and its been years since I've followed the music scene closely enough to be able to do that very often. About the closest I can come today is sticking the occasional odd track on one of my holiday mixes, which I'm not above doing. After falling hard for this band last year I was determined to find something holiday-related that I could use on last year's compilation, "Let It Snow," but the only track I could find was this crazy number about a guy who conspires with red-nosed Rudolph to get Santa arrested on drug charges so he can bed Mrs. Claus. It was way too raunchy for my holiday mix, I thought -- after all, there are lots of kids who listen to these things. In fact, I'm certain that at least a couple of my friends have yet to listen to a one of them but rather give them immediately to the little ones to play.

But that was last year, and things sure have changed a lot in the past 12 months. God knows the children of this country have been exposed to lots worse than a couple of risque lyrics since Mr. Trump took the oath of office, and unlike most of his shameful shenanigans, this song just a made-up story. Well, come to think of it, nearly everything he says seems to be a made-up story, too. Anyhow, I doubt that this song is going to hurt anyone . . . and it's a whole lot of fun.




Track 17
We Three Kings, by Rev. Horton Heat (2005)
I would have bet anything that I'd included at least one track from the good Rev. Horton Heat on one or more previous mixes of mine, but I've just checked and it seems this is the first. Rev. Heat, of course, is the stage name of both musician Jim Heath and his Dallas-based psychobilly band of renown. Their 2005 album We Three Kings is a treasure trove of Christmas classics that are just off enough to be interesting but not so odd as to raise a whole bunch of eyebrows if you were to bring it along to a holiday gathering (speaking hypothetically, of course). Try bringing a copy of Johnny "Bowtie" Barstow's album  to your next party and see how well that works out!

* * *

Tonight is Christmas Eve — a night of pure magic for most kids and for many adults as well. None of us is ever too old to search for and even to find some small doses of magic from time to time. Whatever you do and whoever you are I hope you can find some in this wonderful season and that when you do, you can pass it on.

Back soon with more jottings on the remaining 18 tracks of this year's mix. 

It's Christmas Time Again, Part 5

Here we come with notes on four more of this year's tracks, including the second of the 12 songs on this year's mix that pay homage to one of the many entertainers we lost during 2017. Since we first started recognizing recently departed entertainers in this way several years ago the list of recent deaths has grown longer with each passing year, and this year's list includes some real superstars and trailblazers. Here are the next four tracks:

Track 16
It's Christmas Time Again, by Harley Poe (2006)
I ran across this little gem on an EP from several years ago called "A Very Standard Christmas," which featured holiday tunes from artists on the Standard Recording Records label. It's by a group named Harley Poe, which has been described as a "[h]orror infused folk punk act out of Kokomo, Indiana." With a rap like that, you just know these guys have got to be infused with the Christmas spirit, right? The band was formed by the former lead singer of Calibretto 13, a "Christian surf punk band" (I kid you not), only I'm told that Harley Poe dropped the Christian angle. Another blogger describes the act this way:

Horror-folk artist Harley Poe is one of the fright scene’s best-kept secrets. He’s kinda like Voltaire, but less pretentious and actually funny. This is probably the best “Santa as a serial killer” song ever. Sleigh bells and jangly guitars back a stern warning about making Santa’s acquaintance on Christmas. You don’t want to find out what’s in his sack!

Any wonder why I chose to make this cut the title track of this year's mix?

Check out the Blog of Harvey Poe Front Man Joe Whiteford


Track 15
The Christmas Song, Mark Jonathan Davis as Lt. Hikaru Sulu (1995)
See notes to Track 8, HERE.

Track 14
Christmas All Over Again, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (1992) 

The death of Tom Petty on October 2 was unexpected and profoundly sad, as he was, in many ways at the top of his game and widely recognized as among the most successful musicians in rock history. He had spent the previous six months on a nationwide tour with his longtime band the Heartbreakers, finishing it up with a hugely successful performance at the Hollywood Bowl exactly one week before his death. Between his work with the Heartbreakers and the Traveling Wilburys and as a solo performer, Petty sold close to 90 million records, and he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. I had a couple of different shows at my college radio station in Baltimore, WJHU-FM, and I prominently featured Petty's music on each of them. Starting with "Breakdown" in 1977, "I Need to Know" the following year, the album "Damn the Torpedoes" in 1979 and 1981's "Hard Promises," there was always a Tom Petty record within easy reach of my turntable.

"Christmas All Over Again was released in 1992 on "A Very Special Christmas 2," the second in a series of compilations of holiday songs by established rock artists to benefit the Special Olympics. Petty contributed another song, a fine version of the blues classic "Little Red Rooster," to "A Very Special Christmas 5."


Track 13
The Best Santy Claus I Ever Heard, Andy Griffith and Don Knotts (1960)

Don Knotts as Deputy Barney Fife

As I noted five years ago, The Andy Griffith Show has always been one of my very favorite programs. I ran across this brief clip several years ago on the wonderful Check the Cool Wax blog and adding it to the mix was an easy call. I could be way off on this, but I think including short little bits like this between songs not only helps to break things up but also seems to pick up the pace of the whole CD, thereby making for a more upbeat feel. If you don't believe me, search for any of the classic Check the Cool Wax mixes, many of which are relatively easy to find via Google. Unfortunately, I've only just now noticed that the blog seems to have stopped in its tracks in early 2015 and I've been unable to locate any explanation anywhere. I'm hoping there's some good explanation for this -- like maybe the blog switched to a different hosting service? The blog's author who goes by the name Brainwerk is obviously a very talented entertainer who's responsible for a lot of smiles and laughter -- not just during the holiday season but throughout the year. I hope all's well.

This clip comes from Season 1 Episode 11, of The Andy Griffith Show, "The Christmas Story," and it's a classic. It's also the only Christmas-themed show in the entire series. While many episodes of this series are apparently in the public domain and therefore freely available online, this one isn/t. The only version I could come across is available HERE, but it comes in a pretty creepy format. See if you can block the woman watching with you from your mind while you watch. I know I couldn't.

Watch Matt Lauer's 1996 Today Show interview with Andy Griffith and Don Knotts

It's Christmas Time Again, Part 4

Looks like we've fallen hopelessly behind with our look at this year's tracks, so I've accepted the fact that this enjoyable exercise will continue until well after Christmas Day. Hey, that's OK. It's kind of fun to be able to stretch the Christmas season past its ordinary limits. Ready to get back to work? Well, I am . . . so here we go!

Track 12
One Christmas Catalog Too Many, Captain Sensible (1984)



The lyrics to this song don't make a whole lot of sense, and I don't suppose it's a track many people have ever heard. It's got a catchy enough beat and a tuneful melody, I guess, and it's probably worth including on that basis alone. But there's another reason I chose this song for this year's mix and that  has to do with another song by the artist who made this one. This track and the other are by a guy named Raymond Ian Jones, a British singer/songwriter better known as Captain Sensible. He was one of the co-founders of the punk group The Damned, which was among the first group of British punk bands to catch on back in the late 1970s. Sensible has also enjoyed a moderately successful solo career before, during and after his his work with The Damned. I can recall hearing his version of "Jet Boy, Jet Girl" back in the day, and his cover version of the song "Happy Talk" from South Pacific made it all the way to #1 on the British charts in 1982. But I first became acquainted with Captain Sensible as the guy who wrote a pop song about one of my favorite characters in Washington political history -- one of the genuine heroes of the Watergate scandal, the inimitable Martha Mitchell.

I was just finishing the 6th grade when a group of agents from the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP) were arrested in Washington's Watergate Hotel as they tried to bug the offices of the Chairman of the Democratic Party on behalf of Republican Richard Nixon in June of 1972. Nixon was running for re-election that year and he desperately wanted to not only win but win big. Knowing that a very large portion of the electorate opposed both him and his policies, Nixon and his henchmen decided that their best shot was to rig the Democratic contest to ensure that the opposition party nominated its weakest challenger, Senator George McGovern, and then paint him as a crazy kook far outside of the American mainstream. And they succeeded. The bugging of the Watergate was just one small piece of an elaborate scheme that included manufacturing fake news, interfering with Democratic rallies and events, raising millions in illegal campaign contributions, and even breaking into the psychiatrist's office of a well-known Nixon opponent. By Election Day, the Nixon team managed to secure exactly what Nixon had wanted -- a landslide election victory. They had also managed to keep the arrest of the Watergate burglars from becoming a major story. But once Nixon was sworn in for his second term, the story started to capture the nation's attention, due in no small part to the outspoken and colorful Martha Mitchell.

Martha and John Mitchell, c. 1973

Martha was already a major public figure as the Watergate story took off, for she was the wife of John Mitchell, former attorney general and the manager of Nixon's re-election campaign. In fact, Martha herself was one of the original founders of CREEP. During most of Nixon's first term she was a stalwart defender of the President. She had a high profile and her sharp tongue was frequently unleashed against the liberals and hippies whose criticism of her husband and the President led her to suggest they be "torn limb from limb." However, one of the men arrested for the break-in was a man named James McCord, a former CIA agent who had also worked for a time as a security guard for Martha and her daughter. Unlike many other observers, Martha realized almost at once that the Watergate break-in was a Nixon operation and with one of the chief architects of the operation and cover-up living under her same roof she had access to more information than most about what was going on. To her credit, she did what she could to set things right.

It wasn't easy. Following the arrest of the burglars, CREEP sent several thugs to detain her against her will in a California hotel. When one of them discovered Martha on the phone with the UPI's Helen Thomas, he grabbed the receiver out of Martha's hand and ripped the phone from the wall. Several others threw her onto the bed and held her down while she was forcibly sedated. Then the Nixon people put out the word:  Martha was crazy; she was an alcoholic; she was delusional. Yet Martha persisted, decrying the administration's illegal activities and calling on Nixon to resign.

Martha with Merv Griffin

Eventually, the various official investigations revealed that Martha's reports were anything but crazy. She and former White House counsel John Dean are now widely recognized as the true whistleblowers of Watergate. Tragically, Martha died of cancer less than two years after Nixon's resignation. At her sparsely attended funeral someone sent a large collection of flowers that spelled out the words "Martha Was Right." While her good sense and courage fail to receive the respect they are due, her name is now invoked as the name of a unique psychological condition. The Martha Mitchell effect describes a situation where someone has made claims so preposterous on their face that the reporter is diagnosed as delusional, only the claims are later determined to be accurate.

So why the long diatribe about Watergate in what's supposed to be a humble little Christmas music blog? I don't know, I've long been taken by Martha Mitchell's story as the unlikely hero of the Watergate scandal, and my hat's off to Captain Sensible who appears to have felt similarly some 33 years ago when he wrote and recorded "Martha the Mouth." Of course, more than a few observers are drawing parallels between the current administration and the Nixon White House. Both appear to be under fire, both appear to have engaged in treacherous and illegal activities, and both seem to have trouble telling the truth. Today, as then, we need a colorful and brutally honest character to step into the ring and tell it like it is. 



Hear an interesting take on Martha's story by the late comedian and social activist Dick Gregory.

Listen to "Martha," the first episode from the excellent podcast about Watergate called "Slow Burn"

Check out "Get Off that Phone, Martha," by Gene Burns

Listen to "The Ballad of Mrs. Martha Mitchell," by Gary Paris


Track 11
I'm Christmas Day, The Three Stooges (1955)

Back when I was growing up, it seemed like The Three Stooges were always on TV. They were particularly popular on the lower-budget UHF stations, where they had a certain allure for pre-adolescent boys (to whom Moe's swagger and violent tendencies were appealing) and older men (who likely appreciated the bygone era their black and white reels conjured up). I never liked the Stooges myself. Not these Stooges, at least. (I was partial to the ones who played with Iggy.) I recoiled instinctively every time the sadistic Moe belittled Larry, or poked his finger's in Curly's eyes. But I clearly recall pretending that I liked them in front of certain of my friends. It seemed like the cool thing to do -- better, certainly, than having them think of me as soft or effete. I suppose I felt a little of that same feeling this year when I opted to include their shabby little excerpt on this year's mix. I probably deserve a quick poke in the eye for that. And maybe the Hugh Hefner clip, as well. Ouch!

If you are a fan of the Three Stooges, you may enjoy this bit by Billy West, the comedian, voice actor and former radio personality:

Listen to "The Three Stooges Record the 12 Days of Christmas," by Billy West

Track 10
Melt Our Way Out, The Rosebuds (2012)
This is, without question, my favorite track on this year's CD. It comes from the 2012 album Christmas Tree Island, a wonderful collection of original holiday tunes by the indie rock band The Rosebuds. The group is based in Raleigh, North Carolina and consists of musicians Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp. They're a prolific duo with a unique and very tasty sound not to mention a fun sense of humor and what appears to be a strong commitment to basic Christmas sensibilities. I strongly recommend checking out Christmas Tree Island in its entirety, and the rest of their catalog, too, but the track I used and "Christmas in New York" are truly outstanding. Listen to them below and support the band with a purchase, if you can.

It's Christmas Time Again, Part 3

Today we look at the next three tunes on my 2017 holiday mix, titled It's Christmas Time Again! 

Track 9
Holiday Message from President and Mrs. Barack Obama (2016)
To hear a good many Republicans tell it, the Obama Family was on the front lines of the War Against Christmas throughout their entire tenure as the nation's First Family. Not only did the President and First Lady stubbornly refuse to use the word Christmas themselves, but they somehow outlawed its use by others as well. Of all the bilge peddled by the Right during the past decade, the fictional War on Christmas has got to be among the craziest lies of all. In truth, of course, the Obamas threw themselves into the Christmas scene each year and seemed to enjoy every minute of it. Track 9 is a brief excerpt from the President's eighth annual Christmas message in December 2016 (Listen HERE.). It sure doesn't sound like someone conducting a war against Christmas. And despite what you may have heard, the Obamas frequently wished people a "Merry Christmas." You'd have to be crazy or stupid to think otherwise.



Track 8
Let It Snow, Mark Jonathan Davis as Lt. Hikaru Sulu (1995)
Mark Jonathan Davis is a Los Angeles-based actor, writer, singer and radio producer who sometimes performs under the name Richard Cheese. Davis has released nearly 20 albums as Cheese over the past couple of years, mostly with his band, Lounge Against the Machine. In the late 1990s, Davis recorded a couple of holiday songs as Lt. Hikaru Sulu from Star Trek, a character previously made famous by George Takei. In each case, the appearance of the word "fire" in the lyrics leads Sulu to launch some kind of attack from the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. The first song to get the Sulu treatment is "Let it Snow," with another to follow as Track 15.



Track 7
Excuse My Christmas, by Jan Terri (2013)
If you've heard any of my previous holiday mixes you're probably familiar with some of my favorite featured artists — performers  like Johnny "Bowtie" Barstow, Red Sovine, and Wing, just to name a few. I've featured these folks most prominently because they're such original characters, and while their records may not be as wonderfully memorable as "White Christmas," their stuff is pretty damned memorable for other reasons. (Oops, my bad. Wing's also done her own unique version of "White Christmas," too.) Well, this year we welcome a new member to this inspirational group of artists, and her name is Jan Terri.

The track featured on this year's mix was the first single from Jan's 2011 album "The Wild Ones," and it's called "Excuse My Christmas":


 

Isn't that something? Jan's got quite a following on the internet, no doubt the result of the amazing collection of original material she's produced in a career that's spanned well over 20 years. She may not be the most glamorous entertainer in the business, and sometimes her lyrics do come across as rather pedestrian, but as Paul McCartney once famously observed, "What's wrong with that?"

One of Jan's most outspoken fans is a guy named Chris Canote, who's recently posted several videos with and about the singer. Frankly, I find Chris irritating as hell, but it's only due to his in-depth reporting that we know from Jan herself what "Excuse My Christmas" is really about.  Ready?  "I don't know." That's what she says. Well, when you really think about it, what else could she possibly say?



Finally, in order to give everyone a bit more perspective on Jan's career, I thought I should post what is perhaps her best known record — the 1991 release "Losing You." This is Jan Terri's "Born to Run," — her "I Want to Hold Your Hand."  Check it out:



Wow. I mean — WOW! Want to see more?




OK, here's just one more. I want to save some for later, after all. Why? Because Jan's recorded at least one additional Christmas song and I'm guessing I'm going to want to use it on a future compilation.

It's Christmas Time Again, Part 2

Track 6

Holiday Message from Ian Anderson
I found this short track during a random Google search for recorded celebrity holiday greetings several years ago, stuck it in a folder of assorted holiday tracks and stumbled on it when I was throwing this year's mix together. It's a greeting from Ian Anderson, perhaps best known as the front man for the British rock group Jethro Tull.



My first memory of Anderson was his appearance on the cover of Time magazine in early 1973 along with several other pop stars as part of a story on pop records. I devoured Time magazine in those days, grabbing it from our mailbox as soon as it arrived each week and reading every story on politics, national affairs and music at least two or three times -- in fact, to this day I can recall every cover from 1973 through around 1977, after which I started to become less fanatical. Not long after this cover Jethro Tull released their album War Child, which featured the hit "Bungle in the Jungle," my favorite track by the band.

I liked that Anderson played the flute. I played clarinet in our school's concert band and at this point I identified more with brass and woodwinds than I did guitars. Anderson has remained active in the 43 years since I first became aware of him, and I liked the way he set up this short greeting. He sounds as though he'd be a fun guy to hang out with.

Track 5
Bo Derek on My Mind, Matt Vincent (1980)
I've been holding on to this one for nearly 10 years, and each year I wonder if this will be the year I finally break down and include it. Well, 2017 was a year in which we broke down and did a whole lot of things we'd managed to avoid previously, so what's one more travesty, right?

This track falls into that very special category of  music called "song poems," which boasts a sizeable number of holiday-themed nightmares such as this:

I want Bo Derek for Christmas 'til I'm 63,
Figure after that, I'll be stiffer than a tree,
Is that too much to ask out of Santa for a hard-working man,
Trying to make a buck, any way he can.

This song was recorded by Matt Vincent based on the lyrics of an ordinary American like you or me. "Matt" was employed by a company that charged the poet $100 or so to turn their beautiful words into an actual record. And if you think this song's a little lame, check out a few more currently available thanks to WFMU's "Beware of the Blog." There's even a few more Matt Vincent gems for you to enjoy.

Back soon with more.

It's Christmas Time Again, Part 1

Well, it's time to kick things off for 2017 and take on the chief responsibility I set for this blog when I first launched it back in 2011 -- namely, to offer some background, comments and fun facts about the various tracks on each of my holiday CD mixes. We typically attack the tracks in clusters of two or three each day in reverse order each day, so that once the comments are done you can read them straight through in reverse chronological order. So without further ado, here's our look at the tracks included on my latest holiday mix, It's Christmas Time Again!

Track 4
Holiday Traditions at the Playboy Mansion
Hugh Hefner

As in previous years, a number of the tracks on this year's mix pay tribute to well-known celebrities who died during the past 12 months, and the first such person year is Hugh Hefner, the founder and publisher of Playboy magazine. Recognizing Hefner was a difficult decision, for while he championed the principles of sexual liberation and free expression, which I enthusiastically support, he and his magazine objectified women and promoted images and stereotypes that many women found deeply offensive. I ultimately chose to include a short excerpt from an interview in which Hef described some of the holiday traditions observed at the Playboy Mansion. It was obvious from his remarks that this was a guy who loved Christmas -- after all, it was one of times each year when he ate dinner sitting in a chair rather than propped up in bed. Kind of a nice tradition, don't you think?

Listen to Hugh Hefner describing holiday traditions at the Playboy Mansion

Track 3
Here I Come, Unknown Artist
I first ran across this creepy little number via the Internet Archive, which, among millions of other websites, songs and video clips stores recordings of a program called "Crap from the Past" that ran every Sunday night from March 1999 through October 2002 from midnight to 2:00 a.m. (so Monday morning, really) on KFAI-FM, 90.3 FM Minneapolis, 106.7 FM St. Paul, and KFAI.org. The show's host, Ron "Boogiemonster" Gerber, liked to call it "a pop music radio show for people who already know plenty about pop music," and I'd say that's as good a description as any. The December 17, 2001 show featured the third track on this year's CD, called "Here I Come." As Gerber explains, it came on a three-track record that also included a couple of spoken word stories. No artist was willing to claim credit for any of it, but it seems the record was made in Finland. 

Listen to the December 17, 2001 "Crap from the Past" Show

Track 2
Jing, Jing a Ling, by Honey and the Bees (1969)

Honey and the Bees

I'm a huge fan of '60s and '70s Motown, soul and R&B, and there's a whole lot of fine but forgotten "urban" Christmas tunes from that era, several of which, I'm pleased to say, I've featured on previous CDs. This one's really special, and it manages to kick this year's mix into a dynamite groove from almost the very start. (Of course, we don't stay there for long, but it was nice while it lasted.)

Honey and the Bees were a short-lived and underappreciated girl-group based primarily in Philadelphia and made up of Nadine Felder, Jean Davis, Gwendolyn Oliver and Cassandra "Ann" Wooten "Jing Jing a Ling' was released as a 45 in 1969 (b/w Auld Lang Syne), made it one of their first releases. That was followed by a nice but relatively unsuccessful album called Love in 1970. The group broke up sometime around 1972, but within a short time, Oliver and Wooten hooked up with Cheryl Mason-Jacks and Richie Rome to form The Ritchie Family, a disco group that scored with two decent hits, "Brazil," which made it to #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1975 and "The Best Disco in Town," which made it to #17 the following year. Wooten and Mason-Jacks later contributed backgrounds vocals to the John Lennon/Yoko Ono "Double Fantasy" album as well as several solo albums by Yoko Ono.

Listen to "Jing Jing a Ling," by Honey and the Bees

Track 1
Christmas in Heaven, by Monty Python (1983)



This year's mix starts off with a track from the 1983 movie "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life." I've never seen it myself, and I don't really have any interest in seeing it. I understand the guests at the giant Christmas party depicted when the song is performed are either dead or on their way to their miserable demise and that the song is meant to ridicule the modern Western materialist lifestyle most of us pursue and enjoy today. I heard the song earlier this year and immediately felt it could work as an intro song to an upcoming holiday CD, and when I decided to assemble a knock-off version of my regular mix this year, "Christmas in Heaven" just happened to be one of the first tracks I saw. I think it kind of works out in the lead position this year.

I'll be back with more tomorrow. It's another beautiful warm day in Los Angeles and I aim to enjoy a little bit of this beautiful weather while it's there for the taking.

Ho! Ho! Ho! It's 2017 and We're (Finally) Ready to Rock!

A warm season's greetings to you and yours -- or, better yet, as our esteemed former President and his fellow travelers frequently exclaimed during what must currently be described as the Golden Era of American Democracy:  "Merry Christmas!" It's great have you with us as we throw a couple of logs on the fire and begin to string up the festive holiday lights for another year. It's always nice to see the warm faces of good friends during the holidays, even as we remember those we've lost during this most discouraging of years.

I want to start with a heartfelt apology to anyone who's looked this way in vain for news about my latest holiday CD, as I'm at least several weeks late in opening up the store this year. The truth is that until last Sunday I wasn't planning to open up at all. I've been exceedingly busy the past couple of months and expect that to continue for the next couple of months or more, and I've been finding it difficult to scare up the old Christmas spirit of late. Moreover, for the first time ever I've been having trouble finding the kind of material I like to use in my annual compilations. The combination of these various factors led me to regretfully conclude that I wouldn't be able to create a Christmas mix this year.

Toward the end of the recent Thanksgiving weekend, however -- right around 2:00 on Sunday afternoon -- I was overcome by feelings of guilt and inspiration in roughly equal measure and found myself starting to poke around in my files to see whether there was anything there I might be able to use. Perhaps I could throw together an EP, I thought. Even a few tracks would be better than nothing.

Well, within an hour or so I started to feel some of the old magic returning, and before I knew it I'd assembled the rough outline of another full CD. While it usually takes me a month or more to assemble each annual mix, I actually created this year's mix in a single, albeit extremely late evening and I'm pleased to report that my 2017 mix, titled "It's Christmas Time Again" is now complete and ready to go!

Over the next several weeks I will try to follow the model I've used in previous seasons -- that is offering a few words about each of the tracks included on this year's CD. There are 34 tracks in all, so I'll be lucky to finish the project in time for Santa's arrival on Christmas Eve. But I'm going to try, even if I have to cheat a little bit and clean up a post or two after the fact.

I'll be on the road sporadically throughout these next several weeks -- tonight I'm in Exton, Pennsylvania, where it's drizzling and in the upper 40s. Today's news brought little cheer or solace as our nation's elected leader retweeted a series of anti-Muslim videos and continued to promote legislation that would slash the taxes of many of our wealthiest citizens at the expense of million of middle class and working Americans who are going to have trouble buying holiday gifts this year. Several more once-respected public figures have been exposed as sexual predators, and North Korea has successfully launched another intercontinental missile test. And to top it off, another beloved celebrity has died. Against that background, I'm mighty glad to have something nice to throw into the mix. There's an awful lot of good still out there. I'm hoping we can salvage something better from this year's holidays and begin to set things on a better and more uplifting course -- after all, whatever else is going on, It's Christmas Time Again!

Is There Really a Santa Claus, Part 15

Well, it's another Christmas Eve, and time now to share some random thoughts about the final two songs on my latest holiday mix, Is There Really a Santa Claus?  The mix is available on my holiday music website, which is called (imaginatively enough) Mark's Holiday Mix CDs. In previous years, I've left the mix up through New Year's Eve, and I'll certainly plan to do that again this year. In fact, I'll probably leave it up even longer for anyone who's interested. Keep in mind that my previous mixes are currently available on the Archive page of my website, with the first 10-12 minutes of each mix also available on the Samples page.*  For anyone who wants to have a downloadable copy of this year's complete mix, by the way, click on the album cover near the top right of the website's Latest page. OK, then, with all that out of the way, on to the final two tracks:

Track 39

Oh, Come, Oh, Come Emanuel, by Boyz II Men (2005)

Boyz II Men, circa 1991

I really fell for this song after hearing it performed by the Front Range Christian School Advanced Band, and it occurred to me that the version I've been holding onto by Boyz II Men for the past few years might be a good song with which to end this year's mix. I first heard of Boyz II Men back in the Spring of 1991 when they released their first single, "Motownphilly," which I loved (and still do). The members of the group met and started singing together at the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts. In 1989, they managed to snag the attention of Michael Bivens, the former New Edition member who'd moved on to co-found Bell Biv Devoe and was looking for new talent to promote. Impressed by their style as well as their musical abilities, Bivens agreed to manage the group, and worked with Dallas Austin to produce their first album, Cooleyhighharmony, which became a big hit and spawned three other hit singles in addition to "Motownphilly" — "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday," "Uhh Ahh," and "End of the Road." These three songs, each a slow ballad, came to define the group's principal style going forward. That style proved to be extremely successful, but it lacked the energy and kick that marked "MotownPhilly," and I quickly lost interest in the group, even as they became one of the most successful acts of the day.

These guys must like Christmas, as they've released two full albums of holiday songs. The first was the follow-up to Cooleyhighharmony, titled Christmas Interpretations. I can't think of another group offhand that released a holiday album as their sophomore release. "Oh, Come, Oh, Come Emanuel" appears on their second Christmas album, Winter/Reflections, which was apparently only released in Japan in 2005. Both of their holiday releases are good, although neither breaks any new ground.

I should note that Boyz II Men adopt a different form of the song's title than the Front Range Christian School Advance Band. Boyz II Men use more commas in their version and spell Emanuel with one "m" ("Oh, Come. Oh, Come Emanuel"). The Front Range version omits commas altogether and adds a second "m" ("Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel"). I have no idea which version is correct (if either is), so I decided to use each group's version in connection with its respective track.

Listen to the Oh Hellos' magnificent version of the song, which is presented as Mvmt. 1 of their Family Christmas Album (Rejoice! Rejoice!), below:




Track 38

The Christmas Song, by the Cast of "30 Rock," featuring Elaine Stritch (2008)

I've never been a big fan of show tunes or Broadway musicals; it's not that I especially dislike them — and there have been several (Rent, in particular) that I've truly enjoyed — it's just not been my scene. But I've always been keen on Elaine Stritch, who struck me as one hell of a dame. I first took notice of her maybe 25 years ago during one of the many pledge weeks for our local public television station, WGBH (Channel 2) in Boston. I loved Channel 2 growing up. One of the kids on our block (Tracy) was on the popular kids' show Zoom!, and the Channel 2 Auction in June was always a signal that summer had arrived. Anyway, during that one pledge week, the station was giving away a tribute to Stephen Sondheim and aired a clip of Stritch singing her signature song "Ladies Who Lunch" to promote the deal. It blew me away. She looked to be about 102 years old at the time, but her voice was amazingly strong and she sang with a level of emotion and feeling that simply impressed the hell out of me. That song was from Sondheim's 1970 show Company, in which Stritch played Joanne, a cynical, outspoken older woman who drank too much. From all accounts, she was well-suited for the part.

Raised in suburban Detroit, Stritch's parents were extremely comfortable and devoutly Catholic. Her uncle was the Archbishop of Chicago. She took her first drink at 14 and quickly developed a taste for the stuff, and, with it, a passion for performing. After graduating parochial school, she left for New York and began the customary long, hard slog toward stardom. For Stritch, however, things moved relatively quickly. Tapped as Ethel Merman's understudy in Call Me Madam, she assumed Merman's role in the touring company version of the show after first playing a key role in Pal Joey. In 1961, she was selected for a part in the Noel Coward musical Sail Away, and quickly stole the show. In fact, Coward was so impressed that he wrote the other female lead out of the play altogether and combined her part with Stritch's.

After playing Joanne in Company, Stritch moved to London, where she married John Bay, the heir to the Bay's English Muffins fortune. She appeared in films and on the British television show Two's Company during the 1970s, returning to the United States following Bay's death from cancer in 1982. Stritch's drinking became a noticeable impediment to her career after returning to New York, but she started working again regularly after acknowledging and seeking treatment for her alcoholism. In 2001, Stritch mounted a successful one-woman show Elaine Stritch: At Liberty, which won a Tony for Best Special Theatrical Event. In its review of the show, Newsweek offered that it

is in a class by itself, a biting, hilarious and even touching tour-de-force tour of Stritch's career and life. Almost every nook and cranny of "At Liberty" holds a surprise. Turns out she dated Marlon Brando, Gig Young and Ben Gazzara, though she dropped Ben when Rock Hudson showed an interest in her. "And we all know what a bum decision that turned out to be," she says. And then there were the shows. A British writer recently called Stritch "Broadway's last first lady", and when you see her performing her signature numbers from Company and Pal Joey and hear her tell tales of working with Merman, Coward, Gloria Swanson and the rest, it's hard to argue. Especially since she does it all dressed in a long white shirt and form-fitting black tights. It's both a metaphor for her soul-baring musical and a sartorial kiss-my-rear gesture to anyone who thinks there isn't some life left in the 76-year-old diva. "Somebody said to me the other day, 'Is this the last thing you're going to do?'," says Stritch. "In your dreams! I can't wait to get back into an Yves Saint Laurent costume that isn't mine – but [that] will be when the show is over." 

Marc Peyser, “A Stritch in Time,” Newsweek (February 11, 2002).

Stritch continued to act on stage for another decade after At Liberty — for example, succeeding Angela Lansbury in the revival of Sondheim's A Little Night Music. She won three Emmys for her television work during this period, most notably for her role as Colleen Donaghy, the mother of the character played by Alec Baldwin on the hit NBC series 30 Rock. She also performed cabaret at the Carlyle Hotel in New York, where she lived until relocating to Michigan in 2013 to live with family. She died on July 17, 2014 at the age of 89.

I wasn't able to find much in the way of Stritch performing Christmas-related material, but she did shoot two very funny Christmas episodes of 30 Rock and joined Jane Krakowski and Alec Baldwin for a sweet version of The Christmas Song, from which I've added Stritch's part. You should be able to hear the whole song HERE.

Fortunately for Stritch's fans, there is ample evidence of her talent readily available online and elsewhere. I've collected just a few samples, below, that you may enjoy. The first is a clip of Stritch performing the Sondheim classic "I'm Still Here" at the White House in 2010. Her diabetes was beginning to affect her memory by this point, and she seemed very embarrassed to have missed a couple of lines at one point, but I thought she covered pretty well and her presence throughout was just as charismatic as ever (that's Justice John Paul Stevens sitting to the President's left, who had just retired from the Supreme Court at the age of 91):

Here is a film version of Elaine Stritch: At Liberty, her terrific one-woman show, which I offer with a warning — start watching it and you may find it hard to break away:

 

Here's a classic look at Stritch's efforts at recording "Ladies Who Lunch" for the soundtrack of Company, which, after a frustrating series of attempts she finally nails:

Finally, I couldn't resist posting the following cartoon parody, which I trust was made with love and respect:




Well, that's it for this year's mix — and not a moment too soon. Santa has already taken to the skies to begin his long night of work, and I'm hoping he can find a way to sprinkle a little love, compassion and empathy over our heads this year in addition to the toys and gifts I know he has. Those qualities are in woefully short supply.

Is There Really a Santa Claus, Part 14

I started this blog in 2011 for the primary purpose of providing some further background information about the various tracks I include on my annual holiday mixes. My latest mix is called Is There Really a Santa Claus, and over the past several weeks I've been posting comments on its 39 tracks. We've now run through Tracks 1-35, which leaves only four more to consider. We'll do two of those today, both of which are among the nine tracks I selected in honor of nine talented individuals who passed away in 2014.

Track 37

Amazing Peace, by Maya Angelou (2005)

I've known of Maya Angelou as a respected poet, author and civil rights activist for 25 years or more, and throughout that period I've considered her to be a talented and accomplished woman who's lived an extraordinary life. But I have to admit that until today, when I read about her life for the purpose of writing this post, I had no idea just how incredible her life truly was. Born to a poor Missouri family in 1928, Angelou had a difficult and traumatic childhood. At the age of eight, she was brutally raped by her mother's boyfriend, and after she reported what had happened, the boyfriend was apparently killed by members of her family. The trauma of these events had a powerful effect on Angelou, who retreated inward and literally became mute for several years. It was during this period that she developed her love for poetry and literature, which were her principal companions.

At age 17, Angelou settled in the San Francisco area, took a job as a streetcar conductor and bore a child out of wedlock. She subsequently studied modern dance, and, beginning in 1954, began to dance professionally. In 1954 and 1955, she toured Europe with a company of Porgy And Bess, after which she recorded an album of calypso music and appeared in an off-Broadway musical review. In the late 1950s, Angelou began to focus more on her writing, joining the Harlem Writers Guild and networking with other writers. After organizing a successful fundraising event for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1960, she was appointed SCLC's northern coordinator. In 1961, she traveled to Ghana, where she worked on an English-language newspaper and as academic administrator. She became a good friend of both Malcolm X and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and helped to build the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Following King's murder, she wrote, produced an narrated a ten-part series on blues music and the African-American experience.

In 1969, Angelou published I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the first in a series of widely acclaimed autobiographical books she wrote. Throughout the 1970s and '80s, she continued to write, teach and lecture, receiving over 30 honorary degrees as a result of her increasing body of work. In 1993, Angelou received wide notice for her poem "On the Pulse of Morning," which she read at the Inauguration of President Bill Clinton.

The clip I selected for this year's mix features Angelou's reading of an excerpt from her poem "Amazing Peace" on NBC's Today Show with Katie Couric. She wrote the poem for the 2005 White House Tree Lighting ceremony, where she first read in publicly. The poem was later published as a short chapbook by Random House. Here is the poem itself, followed by a clip of her 2005 appearance at a White House holiday celebration (Dr. Angelou's reading begins shortly after the 2:30 mark).

Amazing Peace

Thunder rumbles in the mountain passes
And lightning rattles the eaves of our houses.
Flood waters await us in our avenues.

Snow falls upon snow, falls upon snow to avalanche
Over unprotected villages.
The sky slips low and grey and threatening.

We question ourselves.
What have we done to so affront nature?
We worry God.
Are you there? Are you there really?
Does the covenant you made with us still hold?

Into this climate of fear and apprehension, Christmas enters,
Streaming lights of joy, ringing bells of hope
And singing carols of forgiveness high up in the bright air.
The world is encouraged to come away from rancor,
Come the way of friendship.

It is the Glad Season.
Thunder ebbs to silence and lightning sleeps quietly in the corner.
Flood waters recede into memory.
Snow becomes a yielding cushion to aid us
As we make our way to higher ground.

Hope is born again in the faces of children
It rides on the shoulders of our aged as they walk into their sunsets.
Hope spreads around the earth. Brightening all things,
Even hate which crouches breeding in dark corridors.

In our joy, we think we hear a whisper.
At first it is too soft. Then only half heard.
We listen carefully as it gathers strength.
We hear a sweetness.
The word is Peace.
It is loud now. It is louder.
Louder than the explosion of bombs.

We tremble at the sound. We are thrilled by its presence.
It is what we have hungered for.
Not just the absence of war. But, true Peace.
A harmony of spirit, a comfort of courtesies.
Security for our beloveds and their beloveds.

We clap hands and welcome the Peace of Christmas.
We beckon this good season to wait a while with us.
We, Baptist and Buddhist, Methodist and Muslim, say come.
Peace.
Come and fill us and our world with your majesty.
We, the Jew and the Jainist, the Catholic and the Confucian,
Implore you, to stay a while with us.
So we may learn by your shimmering light
How to look beyond complexion and see community.

It is Christmas time, a halting of hate time.

On this platform of peace, we can create a language
To translate ourselves to ourselves and to each other.

At this Holy Instant, we celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ
Into the great religions of the world.
We jubilate the precious advent of trust.
We shout with glorious tongues at the coming of hope.
All the earth's tribes loosen their voices
To celebrate the promise of Peace.

We, Angels and Mortal's, Believers and Non-Believers,
Look heavenward and speak the word aloud.
Peace. We look at our world and speak the word aloud.
Peace. We look at each other, then into ourselves
And we say without shyness or apology or hesitation.

Peace, My Brother.
Peace, My Sister.
Peace, My Soul.

― Maya Angelou

Track 36
Snow, Snow, by Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger was a folk singer, songwriter and political activist whose progressive views and commitment to justice left a permanent impression on American society, largely by way of the succeeding generations of schoolchildren who learned and sang his songs as they came of age during the second half of the 20h century. We sang "If I Had a Hammer" and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" around the campfire at night at every summer camp I ever attended. In the fifth grade, I can remember my teacher, Miss Richards, gathering the class around a phonograph to listen to The Byrds sing another Seeger song, "Turn! Turn! Turn!" and using the lyrics as jumping off point for a discussion about the War in Vietnam. Seeger believed in the interconnectedness of things, and he rarely missed an opportunity to get people thinking and promote his world view even as he entertained them.

He was raised in a family of musicians and activists, and his father, who taught music at the college level, was especially interested in American folk music. Seeger traveled with his father and brothers through many parts of the South and the Plains states to perform and collect traditional folk songs. For a time, he worked with his father's friend Alan Lomax in the Library of Congress cataloging the large collection of field recordings that sought to capture the largely unwritten music of the American countryside. In 1941, Seeger began to perform with the Almanac Singers, a group of politically active folk singers that included Woody Guthrie and Cisco Houston. The Almanacs raised a few eyebrows with their position against American involvement in World War II, although they changed their position after Hitler broke his non-aggression pact with Stalin and Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Seeger joined the Communist Party around this same time, although he did not remain a member for long and he openly rejected communism as it was practiced in the Soviet Union.

After serving in World War II, Seeger and several of the other Almanac Singers formed a new group called The Weavers, who scored several big hits in the early 1950s including "Goodnight, Irene" and "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena." Although the Weavers tried to moderate their political activity in the face of growing public fear of the left, Seeger's history with the Communist Party resulted in his being called before the House Un-American Activities Committee, where he refused to answer questions based on the First Amendment. Held in contempt of Congress, Seeger was blacklisted and denied most opportunities to work, just as his music was really beginning to catch on.

In the mid-1960s, when folk music became all the rage and the paranoia of the McCarthy era had finally faded, interest in Seeger's music began to increase. There were more opportunities to work, and coverage of his career became more positive again. In fact, for the balance of his life, Seeger remained very active both politically and musically — right up until his death this past January, at the age of 94.

“He was a very gentle man and intensely optimistic,” British singer and activist Billy Bragg recently told the BBC. "He believed in humanity and the power of music to make a difference, not to change to the world."

The song I chose for this year's mix is a beautiful if less prominent number in the Seeger songbook called "Snow, Snow." It's a sad, wistful sort of song that could be interpreted as speaking about death, which, like a heavy snow, erases most of the defining characteristics and individual features of those it affects:

Snow, Snow

[Chorus (after each verse):]
Snow, snow, falling down;
Covering up my dirty old town.

Covers the garbage dump, covers the holes,
Covers the rich homes, and the poor souls,
Covers the station, covers the tracks,
Covers the footsteps of those who'll not be back.

Under the street lamp, there stands a girl,
Looks like she's not got a friend in this world.
Look at the big flakes come drifting down,
Twisting and turning, round and round.

Covers the mailbox, the farm and the plow.
Even barbed wire seems - beautiful now.
Covers the station, covers the tracks.
Covers the footsteps of those who'll not be back.

— Pete Seeger 

I'll be back tomorrow or the next day with the two remaining songs from this year's mix — a return appearance for a song that's already appeared somewhere among the first 37 tracks, albeit by another artist, and an excerpt from a Christmas classic sung on TV by a legendary woman of the stage.

Is There Really a Santa Claus, Part 13

Don't give up yet, friends, because we're now in the home stretch for sure. Counting the two tracks discussed in today's post, we've completed our look at 35 of the 39 tracks on my latest holiday mix, which leaves only four left to review. So let's get on with it!

Track 35
That's What I Want for Christmas, by Shirley Temple (1936)

I was slightly taken aback this past February when I learned that Shirley Temple Black had just died. Frankly, I was surprised she was still among us, as she’d been a well-known celebrity for far longer than nearly any of us can remember. She was fortunate to have lived a long life (85 years), but more importantly, she seems to have lived it to the fullest, from worldwide stardom as a young film actress to her distinguished diplomatic service more recently, including appointments as our nation’s ambassador to Ghana and, during its inspiring Velvet Revolution, Czechoslovakia.

Born in Santa Monica, California in 1928, Temple played her first film role when she was only three. Her mother apparently had dreams of making her daughter a star, and she worked to encourage Shirley's acting, singing and dancing talents. Temple's first roles came in a series of horrific exploitation films in which young children portrayed adults for humorous effect, but in 1933, Fox signed her to appear in Stand Up and Cheer, which was a big hit — and she was off. The nation was still deep in the grips of the Great Depression when Temple first became a star, and she quickly captured the hearts of millions of frightened and weary moviegoers who looked to her for a little relief from the grim news of the day. In the eight years from 1934-42, Temple made 27 films, most of which were box office smash hits and many of which are widely considered to be classics today.

By the 1940s, however, Temple's star had begun to lose at least some of its lustre, and she reduced her work schedule substantially to focus on making a family for herself. Her first marriage to John Agar produced a child but lasted only five years. Her second, to Charles Alden Black, a wealthy and distinguished war hero and business executive, lasted until his death in 2006.

In the late 1960s, Temple, known then as Shirley Temple Black, became increasingly active in politics. She ran for Congress as a Republican but was defeated in the primary by Pete McCloskey, a law professor and staunch opponent of American involvement in Vietnam. Gerald Ford appointed Black as the U.S. ambassador to Ghana in 1974, and under George H.W. Bush, she served as our nation's ambassador to Czechoslovakia. In that position, she played a key role in supporting the overthrow of Soviet control and provided support and assistance with the creation of the new Czech Republic.

"That's What I Want for Christmas" was featured in the 1936 film Stowaway, which also starred Robert Young, Alice Faye and Arthur Treacher.Temple plays a young schoolgirl who's orphaned in China and then becomes in inadvertent stowaway on a ship returning to the United States. You can watch the entire film below:



Finally, you can watch Shirley enjoying Christmas in the following collection of scenes from four different films: BrightEyes (1934), Stowaway (1936), Heidi (1937) and The Bluebird (1940):

Track 34
Sweeney Sisters Holiday Medley, Cast of Saturday Night Live, featuring Jan Hooks (1986)

I've been watching Saturday Night Live (SNL) for as far back as I can remember, so I've probably seen hundreds if not thousands of the show's iconic sketches over the years — good, bad and ugly. If I had to name my single favorite recurring SNL sketch ever, it would have to be the irrepressible if somewhat tacky big-haired lounge act known as the Sweeney Sisters, starring Nora Dunn and the late Jan Hooks as singers Liz and Candy Sweeney. The Sweeneys made their first appearance on SNL in October 1986, and they returned seven more times to charm us with their bubbly personalities, vapid smiles and charming medleys. I don't know what it was about those two, but I could watch them a hundred times and not grow tired of them.

According to Dunn,

[i]t was Jan Hooks who came up with the idea for the Sweeney Sisters. On the spot while we were shooting a commercial parody for Saturday Night Live. It came like a minor explosion, as most of her ideas did, and she delivered the concept and our names in a matter of seconds. Then she started belting out medleys of classic swing songs. There was no way I could keep up with her. She was a seasoned improvisor who never credited herself as a writer and at the heart of her matter she was a genuine actress.

Candy and Liz Sweeney in their milieu

A Georgia native, Hooks broke into show business as a member of the Los Angeles comedy troupe called The Groundlings. She first auditioned for SNL in 1985, but was passed over for the show. When the show tanked during its 1985-86 season, however, NBC brought back former producer Lorne Michaels who set about to rebuild the cast practically from scratch. Hooks was among the group of new additions Michaels recruited to help rebuild the show, including Dunn, Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Jon Lovitz and Dennis Miller. Many consider that group to be the strongest cast in the show's history, and Hooks certainly added some incredible firepower to the team. In addition to Candy Sweeney, Hooks also played such characters as Nancy Reagan, Sinéad O'Connor, Tammy Faye Bakker, Kitty Dukakis, and Diane Sawyer, among others. Hooks left SNL in 1991 to join the cast of Designing Women, and she appeared on NBC's Third Rock from the Sun and in a number of films.

Hooks was a wonderful comedic actress, and she always made me laugh. She'll be missed.

Watch the Famous Sweeney Sisters' Holiday Medley with William Shatner

Hear an Audio Version of the Sweeney Sisters' SNL Debut


Only four tracks left to go, so we'll be back soon with more. Hope your preparations for the big day are proceeding apace!