I Wish It Was Christmas Today - Part 10

We're in the process of reviewing the 41 tracks on my 20th annual holiday mix, "I Wish It Was Christmas Today," and it's time now to look at the next couple of tracks:

Track 27
Rock 'n' Roll Santa, Jan Terri (1994) 

Jan Terri

I first posted about Jan Terri in 2017, when I included one of her songs in my "It's Christmas Time Again" mix. The song I used that year was "Excuse My Christmas," and it's a real piece of work. Like many of Jan's records, my initial reaction to it was severe cringe. But slowly it grew on me, as her songs sometimes do. My reaction to "Rock 'n' Roll Santa" was pretty much the same, though I'd say that of these two tunes, this year's selection is the better of the two.

A native of Chicago, Jan comes from a musical family. As a child, she reportedly played in a local jug band with her mother, while her father performed in various Chicago clubs wearing blackface as "Black Elvis." After finishing school, Jan worked a variety of jobs and tried to make it as a musician. Whatever extra money she earned was invested in studio time and equipment, and she fashioned several crude music videos to promote her songs. While working as a limousine driver, she became friendly with a local advertising executive, who gave one of her videos to Marilyn Manson, the controversial shock rock artist who hit it big in the mid-'90s with such songs as "The Dope Show." Manson was taken with Jan's work, noting that her simple, frumpish lyrics and brash, unpolished style combined to form something greater than the sum of their parts. The IMDb website echoes this theme in its write-up of Jan, whom it describes as an "[e]ndearingly bad amateur Italian-American singer/songwriter."

Short (5' 1"), plain, and dumpy, with a gratingly nasal off-key voice and a strangely engaging abrasive, yet earnest persona, Jan possesses a certain lovably ham-fisted charm that makes her essentially the latter-day equivalent to notorious ‘60s freak celebrity old lady singer Mrs. Miller.

Any wonder why I like her?

In any case, Manson arranged for Jan to open for several of his Chicago area shows, which led to an appearance on "The Daily Show" in 2000. Sadly, the publicity failed to deliver any offers of a record contract, but it did help her develop a modest cult following.  

It's not exactly clear when "Rock 'n' Roll Santa" was officially released. I've seen reports that it was originally included on her 2013 album "High Risk," though it doesn't appear on the latest version of that LP. I've also read that it was first released as a single in 2012, so that's the release date I'm going with. This tune also appears on her 2014 album "Holiday Songs," which includes "Excuse My Christmas" and songs about Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Halloween and April 15 — the day income taxes are due. 

So without further ado, here's this year's Jan Terri selection, presented by way of the video that accompanied her single release 12 years ago:

 

Jan performed the song live on the cable access show Chic-a-go-go in 1996, and fortunately for us, it was captured for posterity and posted on YouTube. Be sure to watch this one to the end as an exclusive interview with the artist herself follows the performance: 

You can read my first post about Jan Terri from 2017 HERE. Since I posted that first report, Jan's released a new album called "Songs for Hope," which came out two years ago. She's also got a couple of TikTok accounts under the names jan.terri and janterri1, although, sadly, they feature some rather blunt medical updates that are tough to hear. On a more positive note, I learned through one of Jan's  TikTok posts that she recently performed a show at Tone Deaf Records in Chicago. Clips are available on Jan's YouTube channel. Whatever critics think of her music, there's little doubt that Jan's a cool lady who loves life, so we're pleased to send along warm holiday wishes and hopes for a happy and healthier 2025.

Purchase "Songs for Hope" or One of Jan's Other Albums via the Bandcamp Music Site

Watch the documentary "Jan Terri:  No Rules" on the NightFlight+ Streaming Service

Listen to Jan Terri's Complete Discography

Watch Jan Terri's Complete Interview with Jim Norton and Sam Roberts

Order an Autographed Picture of Jan or Personalized Video or Phone Message

Track 28
Merry Christmas You Filthy Animal, Artist Unknown (from Home Alone 2) (1994)

I'm embarrassed to say that I can't share much information about this next track, which I ran across among a bunch of other short clips in a catch-all folder on my computer last month. I often save files there without any identifying information thinking I'll be able to retrace my steps later on. Well, that's what happened here, and now it's too late to remove the track from the mix. I'll update this post if I can identify who's responsible for the track at some time in the future, and I'm confident that at some point I will.

I can tell you that the clip is an excerpt from the popular 1992 film Home Alone 2, and that whoever created this beefed-up version of it did so two years later. Of course, the heart of the track is the line "Merry Christmas, you filthy animal," which the character played by Macaulay Culkin lifts off a TV movie as we can see in this clip from the film:

The maker of the track I've used reworked the quote in question so that it appears several times with some additional heft added to each repetition. Here's what you'll hear when you play Track 28 on my mix:

We've looked at 28 of the 41 tracks and have 13 more to review. See you back here again soon.

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.