Holiday Greetings from Rep. Gerald R. Ford

I'm not sure we'll see many greetings of this sort coming out of Washington, D.C. this year. But, lest we forget, the 1950s weren't so great for everyone. We still had two different sets of drinking fountains in some parts of the country, and there were millions more who were relegated to lives completely outside of mainstream society because of their race, religion, national origin or sexual orientation. Still, you have to admire the man's optimism. (Courtesy of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library)

C'est Noel, Part 3 (Tracks 7-9)

My annual holiday music mix for 2013 is called C'est Noel! – and I've been posting a little background information on each of the 35 tracks it contains. We've already covered the first six tracks. Today, we look at three more:

 

Track 9
Batman and Robin Meet Santa Claus, by the Cast of Batman featuring Andy Devine (1966)

I grew up a long time ago, and while I try to keep up with certain aspects of popular culture, I'm the first to admit that there's lots I miss. When it comes to superheroes, for example, I'm still stuck in the '60s. I understand the franchise has expanded quite a bit since then, but mention Batman to me and I think primarily of the campy TV series that ran on ABC from 1966 through 1968. In the TV series, Adam West played Batman, Burt Ward played Robin, and the villains were played by a distinguished group that included Burgess Meredith (as The Penguin), Anne Baxter (as Zelda the Great), Art Carney (as The Archer) and Cliff Robertson (as Shame). And that's just the tip of the iceberg. The track I've included on C'est Noel! is from a 1966 episode featuring Andy Devine as Santa Claus. Here it is in video form:

Track 8
Holiday Greetings, by Adam West

Adam West in 2013

The second celebrity greeting on this year's mix is from Adam West, who, as noted above, played the role of Batman and his alter ego, millionaire Bruce Wayne, in the ABC series Batman. While the series only ran for about three years, West was severely typecast as a result of the show, and it became difficult for him to find significant work in other projects once the series was cancelled. West is now 85 years old, if you can believe that, and in recent years, he's done considerable voice-over work, including a role in which he portrays himself after having been elected Mayor of Quahog, Rhode Island on the animated series The Family Guy. (I'm still beside myself over the producers' decision to kill off the family dog last week. Bastards.)

Track 7
Holiday Jangle, by The Found Sound Orchestra (2009)
This is another mysterious track about which I have very little to offer. I believe The Found Sound Orchestra (or “FSO”) was formed in Australia in or around 2008. The group released several albums of mashups during the next couple of years, including Christmas Midgets, a nine-song collection of holiday music that was rumored to have resulted from a collaboration with American comedian David Cross of Arrested Development fame. I downloaded Christmas Midgets from the group’s website in January 2011 based on the following promotional copy that appeared there at the time:

Girl Talk not got enough Christmas joy for you? Crappy old flea ridden junk shop Christmas albums lying around for another year? Sick of Mariah Carey warbling through another Christmas[?] Then tell your family and friends about Christmas Midgets, the new Christmas album by The Found Sound Orchestra. Disco flipping, bed bugging and reorchestrating over 100 of the best, the worst and the downright wrong Christmas records ever made.

Recycling bits of Jona Lewie, Burt Bacharach, Nat King Cole, Julie London, Brenda Lee, Demis Rousos, Pariah Carey, The Sunset Band, Pacman and Ronan Keating’s butchering of ‘Fairytale of New York’, amongst many more, Christmas music reaches new highs and lows.

So, throw away your copy of Enya’s Christmas album, delete Boney M’s ’Christmas with Boney M’ album from your music folder and let ‘Christmas Midgets’ replace ‘Phil Spectors Christmas Gift’ album as the soundtrack to your December.

Unfortunately, the group's website is gone now, and all we’ve got left is whatever copies were captured for posterity by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. No matter. “Holiday Jangle” is still a great little tune, and some of the other tracks from the FSO’s premier holiday album can still be found on Soundcloud.

That's all for now. Back soon with more!

C'est Noel, Part 1 (Tracks 1-3)

As noted yesterday, my latest holiday mix – C'est Noel! – is now complete and ready for your inspection. It's currently posted on my holiday music website, from which anyone who's interested can stream or download it. I probably won't keep it up past Christmas, so if you want a copy, don't delay!

As in recent years, I'm planning to share some background and personal thoughts about many of the tracks on this year's mix by way of this blog. I'll probably cover two or three tracks at a time, starting with the first three tracks today and finishing up just before Christmas. I'll cover the tracks in reverse order within each post so that the final list will appear in true reverse order.

Ready? Let's begin!

Track 3
Holiday Greetings, by Bob Vila (c. 1987)
Each of my previous mixes has included at least a couple of short clips of various celebrities offering holiday greetings to their fans. The first of this year’s "greetings" clips comes from Bob Vila, who made a name for himself as the original host of This Old House, a successful home improvement show that first aired in 1979 on Boston's WGBH-TV and was later picked up by most PBS stations. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen the program myself, but I know I’ve seen quite a few of the commercials that Vila did for various businesses after he left the show in 1989. He’s apparently a very handy guy around the house. I marvel at people like that – like my younger brother, for example. This year, he completely gutted and rebuilt his family’s kitchen, in addition to working a demanding job, serving as president of a busy island summer community and vice-president of the quasi-public authority that provides ferry service to several islands in the area, keeping up two separate homes, and spending lots of quality time with his wife and their 11-year-old daughter. He’s an amazingly generous and talented guy, and popular with everyone he meets. Christmas at his home is always a treat, and I’m looking forward to being there and taking advantage of his generosity again this year.

Track 2
Mrs. Claus Ain't Got Nothin' On Me, by Little Jackie (2010)

Imani Coppola (left) and Adam Pallin of Little Jackie

I’ve only shopped at Target a couple of times, and I tend not to be influenced by television advertising – but while I don’t recall seeing any of Target's previous holiday ad campaigns, I'd like to think the one that featured this song by Little Jackie several years ago would have caught my attention if I'd seen it. I first ran across this song a couple of years ago as part of an album called The Christmas Gig, which Target made available as a free download in December 2010. It’s a great collection of mostly indie music that includes tunes from Coldplay, Pomplamoose and The Boy Least Likely To, among others – and, of course, this one, by the group Little Jackie.

Named after Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam's 1989 single "Little Jackie Wants to Be a Star," Little Jackie is actually a duo consisting of vocalist Imani Coppola and programmer/producer Adam Pallin. Coppola’s been around awhile, starting with her 1997 single “Legend of a Cowgirl,” which was a favorite on MTV and in the dance clubs. Signed by Columbia, she was all but overlooked for the next decade or so – producing a string of eclectic but unsuccessful albums and singing backup for Sandra Bernhard. She hooked up with Pallin to form Little Jackie in 2008. Their debut record The Stoop, released on S Curve Records in 2010, featured the song “The World Should Revolve Around Me,” which was a modest hit in Great Britain. Their most recent album, Made 4 TV, is available through Bandcamp. YouTube has pretty good selection of Little Jackie’s music available for those who wish to hear more. I’m especially pleased to have heard this awesome track, as it gets my latest mix going in fine style.  

Track 1
Prologue and Introduction, by Ronald Reagan (1954) and Bobby Sherman (1970)

As I’ve mentioned previously, the two most difficult slots to fill when putting a compilation together are the first and the last. The first track is important because you want to capture the listener’s interest and set the right tempo and tone for what’s to follow. The last track is equally important because it’s the one that will echo in the listener’s ears when the mix is done. I usually like to start each of my holiday mixes with a short track that’s funny, historically interesting or both, and then jump quickly to a strong up-tempo tune that will kick things off in high gear. It’s surprisingly difficult to find just the right opening tracks each year, but I think the two I’ve combined as this year’s opening number work pretty well together. (My website includes a "Samples" page that features clips of the first 10 minutes or so of most of my previous mixes in case you'd like to hear the opening numbers from years gone by.  

The first piece of this year’s lead-off track was taken from an early episode of the General Electric Theater, a popular TV show that aired Sunday evenings on CBS from February 1953 through May 1962. The program featured adaptations of various novels, short stories, plays, and films, which were originally presented without introduction. Beginning in September 1954, however, Ronald Reagan was hired to serve as host. The clip that starts off this year’s mix is from one of Mr. Reagan’s first appearances in that capacity – a special holiday episode from 1954 that featured music by Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians. My mix includes only about a minute from Mr. Reagan’s introduction; if you were watching the broadcast 59 years ago, you would have seen something like this:




The second piece of this year’s opening track is an unrelated tune recorded some 16 years after Fred Waring and his Orchestra were introduced by Mr. Reagan on CBS. It’s a song by former teen idol Bobby Sherman, and it’s the subject of some confusion because it appears under at least two different titles in the Bobby Sherman discography. Sherman’s first Christmas record was released in 1970 – a long-playing disc titled Christmas Album. Among its 11 tracks was a cut titled “Prologue,” which, inexplicably, appears as the seventh track on the record. It isn’t really a song so much as a comedy bit – apparently put together by Sherman and his Dad. I guess it was considered slightly edgy for its time, which may be why it was pulled on several later versions of Christmas Album in favor of the upbeat song that appears on my mix, "Goin’ Home (Sing a Song of Christmas Cheer).” On at least one of the Christmas Album re-releases, “Goin’ Home” is listed as “Prologue,” albeit with the new song’s corrected (and longer) duration. On the subsequently released The Very Best of Bobby Sherman, the song bears the name “Goin’ Home (Sing a Song of Christmas Cheer).” I’ve opted to skirt some of the confusion by lumping Ronnie and Bobby together in a single vintage mess that I’ve titled “Introduction and Prologue,” which probably only makes things worse. For the record, I edited out a portion of Sherman’s song for my mix – an especially annoying interlude of “Silent Night.” Of course, I also replaced Mr. Reagan’s mention of “Fred Waring” with the name “Bobby Sherman,” spoken not by the former President, but rather by an equally august spokesperson – Mr. Dick Clark, the late great host of American Bandstand.

Is anyone still with me?

The comedy version of “Prologue” from the Bobby Sherman Christmas Album is available HERE.

The full version of “Goin’ Home (Sing a Song of Christmas Cheer),” complete with the annoying Silent Night interlude, can be heard HERE.

Stay tuned for information on additional tracks, coming soon . . .
 

Here Comes Santa Claus, Part 10

Here’s some background on several more tracks from my latest holiday compilation, Here Comes Santa Claus:

Track 28

Holiday Greeting from Mark Wahlberg (c. 2010)

"Marky Mark" Wahlberg

This one’s another celebrity greeting – probably the shortest one I’ve used to date as the whole thing lasts no more than five seconds. As I noted in an earlier posting, there are lots of these recorded greetings floating around, and they serve a number of purposes on a compilation like this. I opted to go with a Mark Wahlberg greeting as a nod in the direction of two wonderful friends of the female persuasion, both of whom think this guy’s pretty terrific. Being from Boston, I know a thing or two about Mark Wahlberg. He’s a talented actor and film producer, of course, who formerly went by the name “Marky Mark” back when he was a rapper and underwear model. He’s the younger brother of Donnie Wahlberg, who was a member of New Kids on the Block, a Boston-based boy band that was popular in the 1980s. Before he hit it big himself, Mark was known more for his lengthy criminal record, which included a number of violent hate crimes against African American children and two elderly Vietnamese men. Happily, he seems to have changed his way of thinking about people with different backgrounds. Moreover, the sort of unthinking prejudice and hatred he formerly espoused is no longer accepted or overlooked in the increasingly diverse neighborhoods of Boston where he and I grew up. In a world where most of us are quick to point out all of the troubling developments around us, that’s a positive change that needs to be recognized.

Track 27

St. Nick Is Alright, by The Smalltown Poets (2011)

Track 27 is a pretty little tune by the Atlanta-based Christian rock group called The Smalltown Poets. Released in 1997, their self-titled debut album was nominated for a Grammy Award as Best Gospel Rock album, and their next three albums were also well received. The band went on hiatus in 2004, but reunited in 2011 to record their first Christmas album, Smalltown Poets Christmas, on which “St. Nick Is Alright” appears. It’s an upbeat tune that’s fun to sing along with, and it seems to give the Christian rock seal of approval to a key non-religious component of Christmas – namely, Santa Claus. I’m not sure whether this reunion will lead to further albums, but Smalltown Poets Christmas is a fine piece of work and worth reuniting for. Funny how the holidays tend to bring people together.

Track 26

Seasin’s Greetinks from Popeye the Sailor Man (1933)

I don’t know whether kids today know who Popeye is, but this mighty sailor was certainly a favorite when I was growing up. With his ditzy and almost emaciated girlfriend Olive Oyl by his side and that nasty villain Brutus usually in hot pursuit, Popeye helped at least two or three generations of American children feel good about eating their spinach and doing what’s right. This little clip is from the animated short by the same name, which you can enjoy below:

Track 25

Christmas Gift Ideas from The Norelco Santa (c. 1965)

The Christmas holiday season is the busiest and most lucrative time of year for manufacturing and retail businesses, and most rely on advertising to maximize their share of the seasonal market. People often complain about how early the holiday ad season begins as well as the sheer volume of holiday ads, but a number of Christmas commercials on radio and television have achieved the status of cultural touchstones and the best of them can conjure up some powerful memories of Christmases gone by. The Norelco Santa campaign for Norelco’s line of personal shavers was extremely successful during the 1960s and ‘70s. Norelco is the American brand name for electric shavers and other personal care products made by the Consumer Lifestyle division of the Philips corporation. (Norelco stands for "North American Philips [electrical] Company.")  Here’s the full version of the commercial from which I extracted Track 25:

The campaign was retired many years ago, but just last year, Norelco turned again to the Norelco Santa, albeit in a somewhat spruced-up format:

 

We’ve now looked at 28 of the 38 tracks on this year’s compilation, and we’ll continue with comments on the ten remaining tracks between now and December 25. How many days is that? Click on our old friend (below) to find out:

Here Comes Santa Claus, Part 6

My annual holiday mix for for 2012 is called Here Comes Santa Claus, and I'm currently sending it out to family and friends as my annual holiday greeting. Among other things, I started this blog to share background information and other thoughts about the material I choose to be on each year's CD, and this year's review is well underway. So far, we've looked at Tracks 1-14, and today the spotlight shines on Tracks 15 and 16.

Track 16

Holiday Greetings from Newt and Callista Gingrich (2011)

Newt and Callista Gingrich

I'm told that I can sometimes come across as a rather serious-minded kind of guy to people who don't really know me. Frankly, I find that extremely disturbing. Just kidding. Actually, it probably makes it easier for me to pull the legs of folks I've only recently met, because few people expect to be tricked by someone so somber and serious-minded – at least not right away. Besides, it's always fun to keep people guessing. I've had a number of people ask about particular songs from previous holiday CDs I've put together – for example, the songs by William Hung, Red Sovine and Johnny "Bowtie" Barstow. Are these songs I actually like, or did I include them as . . . well, you know – as a joke? I'm not sure I want to address that subject in full just yet. (If you think about if for a few seconds the answer ought to be pretty clear. I mean, I may come across as serious, but I don't think I come across as totally deaf!) Similarly, it shouldn't be too hard to figure out whether I included this very pleasant-sounding greeting from one of Washington's most influential power couples as a tribute to their selfless contributions to the nation, or . . . well, you know – as a joke. I've certainly never agreed with Mr. Gingrich about very much, although I do share his commitment to the space program. I can't say he's someone I respect an awful lot, either, although there were moments in this year's primary campaign when I was happy to watch him knock the others around a bit, especially Mitt Romney. Newt and his wife look as though they could be fun companions at dinner, although I'm not sure how much I'd enjoy the meal because I'd be nervous trying to figure out what they were trying to weasel out of me. I'd certainly find some reason to leave before they finished their dessert. She just plain scares me to death.

Track 15
Jingle Bells, The Blues Magoos (1967)

Originally from the Bronx, The Blues Magoos would probably have to be considered a "one hit wonder" kind of band. They've always seemed a little too substantial to me to qualify for that dubious distinction, but they only released two original studio albums and only really had one hit – (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet, which climbed as high as #5 on Billboard's Hot 100 in February 1967 back when "I'm a Believer" by The Monkees topped the charts. Still, they're considered by some to have been in the vanguard of the psychedelic rock movement, or at least that movement's East Coast contingent, and they have the distinction of opening for The Who and Herman's Hermits at the first real concert Bruce Springsteen ever attended. At their height, according to the great Lenny Kaye, the Magoos "used to come out on stage wearing Diana Dew-designed electric suits, which they could light at will as the tension grew." I'm not sure what sort of tension might have been involved in a 1967 New York psychedelic rock show, but light-up suits could have probably calmed the crowds at Altamont, had they only been invited. Anyway, this track was released as a single in 1967 by Mercury Records in time for the holiday season, with Santa Claus Is Coming To Town as the B-side. I almost used the B-side on this year's mix instead, but the group seems to have put more of themselves into their version of "Jingle Bells." And, who knows? There's always next year.

Here Comes Santa Claus, Part 2

Yesterday, I started posting a little background on the various tracks included on my latest holiday mix, Here Comes Santa Claus, and I'm hoping to continue with that until I've provided at least a little information about each of the 38 tracks on this year's CD. With that word of warning, let's press on!

Track 6 

Window Wonderland Stencils Kit Commercial, Gold Seal Glass Wax (c. 1963)
The sixth track on this year's CD is an edited version of a vintage TV commercial touting the use of Gold Seal Glass Wax with the company's holiday stencils kit to create decorative seasonal images on glass windows. Glass wax, which I vaguely remember, was a popular window cleaner in the 1950s and '60s. Many people disliked using spray or aerosol window cleaners such as Windex because they supposedly left streaks. Glass wax, by contrast, was applied to the glass with a sponge, and, once it had dried it could be easily rubbed off with a dry cloth leaving sparkling clear, streak-free windows. As this commercial explains, glass wax could also be applied with a stencil and left on the window in a distinctive pattern. Once painted on the window, it looked like etched glass or frost, and was easily removed after the holidays. I don't recall decorating our windows with this technique growing up, although I believe my cousins did. I vividly recall cleaning a whole mess of windows every spring, however: regular and storm windows at our home in Massachusetts, as well as the very old glass windows at our summer home in Maine, and at "the Studio" behind my grandmother's home on the Stroudwater River in Portland, Maine. Her home was previously owned by the impressionist painter Walter Griffin (1861-1935), to whom she was related by marriage, and "the Studio" was where he did a lot of his work. My cousins, my brother and I frequently slept there in the warmer months, and I lived there for two summers during college while working as a cook to earn money for school. That place had lots of windows, and over the years I'd guess we used pretty much every possible type of window cleaner on them.


Track 5
Three Blind Christmas Mice, The Bel-Airs (1962)

The Bel-Airs, c. 1961

I can't remember where I first ran across this bouncy little number, but I'm sure glad I did. It's by a group called The Bel-Airs, and it's a great example of the underappreciated surf rock genre that became popular in Southern California and certain other parts of the country in the early to mid-1960s. The Bel-Airs were among the earliest and most influential West Coast surf rock bands. Formed in 1960, they had their biggest hit the following year with an instrumental titled Mr. Moto, which was apparently based on the fictional Japanese secret agent created in the 1930s by author John Marquand. Three Blind Christmas Mice, also known as "The Three Blind Mice Make It to Santa's Village," was released in 1962 and appears to be the only holiday song The Bel Airs recorded. It's an instrumental mash-up of "Jingle Bells" and  the popular children's tune "Three Blind Mice," but it's the high-octane surf-rock beat that makes it great. Sadly, the surf rock scene pretty much fizzled out with the arrival of the British invasion, and by 1964 The Bel-Airs were gone. Happily, most of the members remained in music after the break-up. Guitarist Eddie Bertrand formed Eddie & the Showmen in 1964, while guitarist Paul Johnson joined Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys in 1970. Original Bel-Airs drummer Dick Dodd joined Bertrand in Eddie & the Showmen, and later joined the legendary Los Angeles garage band The Standells, playing drums and singing lead on their 1966 surf-style hit, Dirty Water, which is pretty much the national anthem of Boston rock. That's right, surf rock's always been big in Boston, and it doesn't come as easily to folks in Massachusetts as to residents of California. For proof, check out one of my favorite Boston rock classics, the Gremies' No Surfing in Dorchester Bay.  

Track 4
Holiday Greetings from the S.O.S. Band (c. 1987)

The S.O.S. Band

I've been using celebrity holiday greetings between songs ever since my very first holiday mix, although I use them less frequently with each successive mix.  They're an easy way to transition from one song to another, much as commercials were back in the days of Top 40 AM radio. It's hard to segue directly  from an uptempo song to something sad, for example, without some kind of bridge, and devices like the celebrity greeting allow you to make those transitions without a whole lot of thought. (Former American Top 40 host Casey Kasem addressed this topic in one of the most famous backstage rants to ever hit the internet.) Depending on who's involved, celebrity greetings can also add a certain cachet to a project, or at the very least a sense of recognition or familiarity. The ones I like best, however, are the ones from B-, C- or D-list celebrities -- the clips that leave you wondering "who the hell is this person and why do I care that he's wishing me a Merry Christmas?" Which brings us to the S.O.S. Band. Well – no, wait. That's not really fair to them. In fact, I really liked this band, back in the day. You may remember their first single, Take Your Time (Do It Right), which was a huge hit during the Summer of 1980. I was living in New York City that summer and had just discovered the club scene there, and I guess I'll always associate this song with a set of experiences and memories that have no place in an upstanding holiday music blog like this. If you want to know more about the S.O.S. Band, you can look them up on Google. I'm too busy right now enjoying the first rays of sunlight on a long-ago July morning, as I make my way up Eighth Avenue with the beat of the disco still thumping in my ears.

PS: Casey Kasem offers a snapshot of the top-selling records of that summer in the America's Top 10 broadcast that aired on August 17, 1980. The YouTube clip notes at 5:20 that "Take Your Time (Do It Right)" was the number three song in the country that week. What was #1? Olivia Newton-John's "Magic," God help us all. Incidentally, Newton-John and John Travolta recently released an album of holiday music that Travolta describes as "intimate," and "not [ ] too ostentatious or showy." Benefits from the album go to charity, which seems to be the record's one redeeming feature.

Stay tuned for more tomorrow.

Holiday Greetings from Sananda Maitreya

I've been a fan of this guy ever since his first album in 1987. Back then he was known as Terence Trent d'Arby, but he now goes by the name of Sananda Maitreya. Either way, he's one of the most underrated talents in modern music. His debut album, Introducing the Hard Line According to Terence Trent d'Arby, took the music world by storm, selling more than a million copies in its first three days of release and ultimately selling more than 14 million copies. He's released a number of astonishingly great albums since his debut, but the most recent ones have been strictly self-promoted and therefore haven't received the attention they deserve. Of course, as a truly independent artist, he's pretty much free to do as he likes and release what he wants, and there's an advantage to that. He currently lives in Italy with his beautiful wife and, I'm pretty sure, their new son. He's worth a listen for sure, and there's lots of free stuff and music for sale on his website, and on YouTube. Check him out.

Gee Whiz ... It's Christmas (Again!), Part 2

My 2011 holiday CD, Gee Whiz ... It's Christmas (Again!), is now being circulated, and in yesterday's post I started sharing some of my thoughts about the 43 individual tracks that appear on it. I plan to review a few tracks each day until done, and while I'm reviewing the tracks from first to last, each day's post will proceed in reverse order to yield a final list that runs from 43 to 1 without bouncing back a few spaces at the start of each new post.

Track 7
Wish List, by Neon Trees (2010)
Released in November 2010 as a free iTunes download, Wish List is perhaps my favorite track on this year’s CD. It’s certainly the best new holiday tune I’ve heard in the past several years. The underlying story’s a sad one. The singer’s at home alone on Christmas, pining for the girl who left him. But he’s ready to do whatever’s necessary to win her back, and the upbeat melody and hook-laden chorus leaves you confident that he’s going to succeed. Neon Trees was formed in 2005 in Provo, Utah, and its four primary members are all members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They have toured with and opened for The Killers, My Chemical Romance and Duran Duran, and in 2010 their single “Animal” topped Billboard magazine’s Alternative Rock chart and was eventually certified platinum by the RIAA.


Track 6
Christmas Lost and Found (Part 1), from Davey and Goliath (1960)

For many of us who grew up in the 1960s and ‘70s, Davey and Goliath was a Sunday morning staple. My family typically attended the earlier of our church’s two Sunday services, and I can remember lobbying my father to change that practice so we could watch this and other cartoons on TV before we had to get dressed-up for the day. Sponsored by the Lutheran Church, the series was produced by Art Clokey, who had enjoyed great success with a similar stop-motion animated series called Gumby. Watching Davey and Goliath today underscores just how much our culture has changed in the past 40 years. Its earnest and sometimes heavy-handed style holds up rather poorly, although I’m certain that my brother and I internalized many of its key values during our formative years. The nine clips that are featured in this year’s CD are excerpts from a special holiday episode of the show titled “Christmas Lost and Found,” which was first broadcast in December 1960. My initial intention was to include only the first excerpt, which begins with Davey’s ill-tempered declaration: “I hate Christmas.” Presented by itself, that excerpt is good for a laugh, as in a few short seconds it manages to undermine just about everything for which the show was known. As the overall CD took shape, however, I grew increasingly fond of the message this episode conveyed. I would have preferred to have summarized that message in fewer than nine clips, but it was difficult enough to trim as much as I did without losing the message altogether. In any case, I managed to include multiple instances of Goliath’s famous “Daaavey” soundbite. That always makes me smile.

Track 5

Christmas Day, by Detroit Junior (1960)

This R&B classic was on the draft track lists for two of my previous CDs, Winter Wonderland (2010) and I Just Can’t Wait for Christmas (2009), but it somehow failed to make the final cut in each instance. I’m not sure why. But I knew I’d use it sooner or later – it’s just too good to ignore. This was probably the biggest hit blues musician Detroit Junior ever had. It’s certainly his most enduring record. Born in 1931 in Arkansas, Emery Williams, Jr., developed his interest in music at a young age. By the early 1950s he had settled in Detroit, where he picked up his stage name and started performing with such skillful blues musicians as Eddie Boyd and John Lee Hooker. Junior relocated to Chicago in 1956, and worked and played there until his death in 2005. Despite his long career, Junior only released a handful of records, although you can still find several of his songs on YouTube, including Call My Job, Money Crazy and If I Hadn’t Been High. “Christmas Day” was included as the first track on Santa’s Funk and Soul Christmas Party, which was released in November 2011 on the Tramp Records label and is well worth a listen.

Track 4

Holiday Greetings from Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (1974)

Bruce Springsteen, Ed Sciaky, Janis Ian and Billy Joel in September 1974

Track 4 is a short promotional message recorded in late 1974 for Philadelphia radio station WMMR-FM, which, along with Boston’s WBCN, was among the most innovative and progressive rock stations in the country at the time. WMMR was also the home of the legendary Ed Sciaky, who was known for promoting talented new artists including Billy Joel, David Bowie and, of course, Bruce Springsteen himself. Thanks in large part to Sciaky, Springsteen was already hugely popular in Philadelphia when this message was recorded, despite the fact that his breakout album, Born to Run, would not be released until the following September. Few, if any, stations like WMMR are left today, a fact Springsteen lamented in his 2007 single “Radio Nowhere”.

I'm hoping to continue this series with further comments on many of the remaining tracks on this year's CD. There are 43 tracks altogether, so fix yourself some egg nog, grab a good seat by the fire, and get ready for a long ride.