Hey! You! Get Off of My Roof! - Part 3

I hope everyone's enjoyed a pleasant Thanksgiving weekend, but that's coming to a close today and it's time to start getting serious about the upcoming holidays. Only 27 shopping days left until Christmas!

Let's get back to our ongoing effort to provide a little bit of this and that concerning the 42 tracks on my latest holiday mix, Hey! You! Get Off of My Roof!

Track 8

Holiday Greetings, Malcolm-Jamal Warner

Malcolm-Jamal Warner

I'm not sure when this short holiday greeting was recorded, but I'm guessing it was sometime after the final episode of The Cosby Show aired on April 30, 1992. The first 20 or so years that followed the closing of this renowned series were pretty good ones for the cast and others associated with the show, as the respect they had earned opened countless doors in the entertainment industry. But after the show's principal was unmasked as a serial sexual abuser, the program lost some t of its luster. Among the consequences of Cosby's unforgiveable behavior was the devaluation of his hit program and the harm this caused to the many talented people who made the program successful. I can't be the only one who still sees Malcolm-Jamal Warner and thinks of Theo Huxtable, and wrong as it is this association is a little unsettling.

Happily, Warner's resume includes far more than his excellent work on The Cosby Show. Born in 1970, Warner was named for Malcolm X and jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal. Like his name, his career includes components that are both diverse and impressive. For one thing, he's had a variety of other great acting roles on TV. For example, he played Malcolm McGee on the hit UPN sitcom Malcolm & Eddie, and Dr. Alex Reed in the sitcom Reed Between the Lines on BET. He also served as executive producer for the PBS children’s series The Magic School Bus. He has appeared in numerous films and acted in and directed a variety of other television shows. Warner is also a respected performance poet and plays bass guitar.

I was pleased to run across his recorded holiday greeting and am glad to include it on my 2022 mix. 

Hear Malcolm-Jamal Warner Discuss His Life as a Black Actor in Hollywood

Track 7

Get Off of My Roof, Jerry and the Landslides (1965)

The title track of this year's mix is, of course, a novelty adaptation of the classic Rolling Stones song "Get Off of My Cloud," which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in November 1965. The song was featured on the group's album December's Children (And Everybody's), which was released the following month. The adaptation I've included on my mix is a holiday novelty record that was put together by Jerry Worsham, a Connecticut-based DJ who apparently intended to use it primarily to spice up his own show. According to Captain Wayne's Mad Music website, the Landslides were a group of Long Island musicians assembled by producer Ed Chalpin to record the music behind Worsham's lead vocals. According to the Mad Music site, Worsham laid down the lead vocal track by himself and never met the hired musicians who recorded the balance of the song. It doesn't appear that Jerry and the Landslides ever recorded a follow-up, or anything else for that matter, but luckily their holiday version of this 1965 hit was pressed and released by PPX Records so we can still enjoy it today.

Listen to the Rolling Stones' single "Get Off of My Cloud"

Listen to "Green Fire," the B-Side of "Get Off of My Roof" 

Track 6

I Want Eddie Fisher for Christmas, Betty Johnson (1954)

The oldest song on this year's mix was recorded 68 years ago by Betty Johnson, a 25-year-old North Carolina native who'd already been singing professionally for 16 years by the time she cut this record. Remarkably, she's still going strong today; in fact, her most recent album, a collaboration with two of her daughters and a granddaughter, was just released in 2018.

Johnson started singing with her parents and two brothers as The Johnson Family Singers in 1938. After winning a local talent competition, the group was signed by a popular AM radio station in Charlotte and before long Betty was given her own 15-minute show. As a teenager she was signed by Columbia Records but does not appear to have released any material for that label. In 1954, after releasing a children's album with country singer Eddie Arnold, Johnson recorded "I Want Eddie Fisher for Christmas," which was written by Joan Javits and Phil Springer, who previously wrote the hit "Santa Baby."

I suspect that many folks reading this today will be unfamiliar with the object of Betty's desire. Well, at the time this record was recorded, Eddie Fisher was among the country's biggest pop stars — earning fame as a singer, initially, and later starring in a number of hit movies. During the first half of the 1950s, 17 of Fisher's single records made Billboard's Top 10 with an additional 25 hitting the Top 40. Johnson was hardly the only woman to express an interest in the young Hollywood star. In 1955, Fisher married "America's sweetheart," actress Debbie Reynolds. Several years later Fisher divorced Reynolds and married actress Elizabeth Taylor.

Johnson remained active in show business for many years, juggling her recording and singing appearances with her family activities. She lived in New York City for a time and appeared on such programs as The Arthur Godfrey Show and The Tonight Show with Jack Parr.  

She continued to make records through the 1960s and beyond, although her biggest hits were released in the '50s, including "I Dreamed" from 1956; "Dream," released in 1958, and "You Can't Get to Heaven," from 1959.

Johnson was married three times and recently released "Four Shades of Gray," with her daughters and granddaughter.

Hear Betty Johnson sing "I Want Eddie Fisher for Christmas"

Visit Betty Johnson's Website

I'll be back in a day or two with more holiday music information. Be sure to enjoy all of your leftover holiday turkey!

Hey! You! Get Off of My Roof! - Part 2

Congratulations on surviving Black Friday! I make it a point to remain close to home and stay far away from any stores on the day after Thanksgiving, but I have a certain respect for the courage of those who brave the shopping centers. I also have a certain amount of concern for their questionable judgment! 

Time, now, for a quick look at the next two tracks on my latest holiday mix, Hey! You! Get Off of My Roof!

Track 5
Holiday Greetings, Lily Tomlin

One feature you'll find on literally every one of my previous mixes is various holiday greetings from one or more celebrities or public figures. They're usually extremely short — typically no longer than 10 or 15 seconds, but they're a good way to transition from one song to another and call attention to folks I respect or, in some cases, oddballs I want to single out. The first greeting of this year's mix is from one of my favorite performers of all time, the inimitable Lily Tomlin.

I first noticed Lily for her work in the late 1960s hit TV sketch comedy series Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, where she played a variety of offbeat characters including precocious child philosopher Edith Ann and a saucy telephone operator named Ernestine. I'm especially fond of Ernestine's conversations with the late Watergate whistleblower Martha Mitchell, one of my longtime heroes. (If you haven't seen the Watergate miniseries Gaslit that appeared on Starz TV this past summer it's well worth the price of a Starz subscription. Julia Roberts' brilliant portrayal of Mrs. Mitchell is just one of the stand-out performances in this top-flight project.)

In subsequent years, Lily was honored for her comedy recordings as well as her work on Broadway, on television and in the movies, including the hit film 9 to 5 and two of my favorite TV shows:  The West Wing and Grace and Frankie. Lily's currently 83 years old and shows no signs of slowing down. She's truly an American original.

NOTE: While I try to list the year in which each of the other tracks on the mix was recorded such information typically isn't available with respect to the various holiday greeting clips. 

Track 4
Santa's Got a Bag of Soul, Soul Saints Orchestra (1994)

The Poets of Rhythm

I first came across this funky number on the wonderful holiday compilation album In the Christmas Groove released in 2010 on the Strut label. This was also the source for the beautiful song "Black Christmas," by the Harlem Children's Chorus, one of my very favorite tracks on my 2012 compilation Here Comes Santa Claus!  However, this track was originally circulated as a limited release holiday giveaway by the Hotpie and Candy label in 1994 — in fact, only 250 copies were pressed in that initial run. The song is performed by the Soul Saints Orchestra, a side project by members of The Poets of Rhythm, a German funk band from Munich that released a couple of albums and a slew of singles and EPs on various labels starting in 1993. They remain active today.

This track helps to set the tone for the first portion of this year's mix as five of the first 16 songs are about Santa and his purported "new bag," which is hippie slang for a new look or state of mind. The remaining four of these gems will be discussed here over the next week or so, all of which were released during 1965-66 and echo the basic vibe of the James Brown classic "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag," a big hit from this same period. Groovy threads, Santa! 

Listen to "Santa's Got a Bag of Soul," by the Soul Saints Orchestra

 

SNL Critic Jebidiah Atkinson Reviews Holiday Classic Movies

One of our little holiday traditions has been to dig into the vaults of NBC's Saturday Night Live every Saturday from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day to find a vintage holiday-themed sketch we can all enjoy together. While this season's incarnation of the show seems to lack the popular appeal it formerly enjoyed, we've been through more than a couple of SNL rebuilding seasons, and, besides, we're looking for vintage sketches and after nearly 50 seasons on the air we're confident we can find some decent material. Our first clip this year is from Season 39 of SNL (2013) and features 1860s critic Jebidiah Atkinson (Taran Killam) reviewing several classic holiday movies:

 

My 17th Annual Holiday Mix Is Here: "Hey! You! Get Off of My Roof!"

I'm pleased to announce that my 17th and latest  holiday compilation titled Hey! You! Get Off of My Roof! is now available on my holiday music website — just in time for Black Friday and the start of the 2022 holiday season. This year's mix includes 42 tracks with just under 80 minutes of assorted seasonal tunes, comedy clips and holiday greetings. As in previous years, you'll find a grab-bag of styles and offerings of wildly different levels of quality. My goal is to cast a wide net each year and to include a little something for everyone.

The chief purpose of this blog is to provide a bit of background about the various tracks on each of my annual mixes, and we're going to do our best to do meet that obligation this year. My hope is to review the whole mess by Christmas Eve, and, as usual, we'll do this a few tracks at a time in reverse order. Let's start with some background on the first three tracks.

Track 3
Soul Christmas, Graham Parker and Nona Hendryx (1994)

I've been holding on to this terrific track for at least six or seven years now, knowing I'd eventually find just the right time and place to use it. This year, I did. Originally released on the largely overlooked 1994 EP Graham Parker's Christmas Cracker, "Soul Christmas" tells the story of a dull suburban holiday that turns into a genuine celebration after the man of the house invites a lively bunch of soul legends to join the party. Former Labelle vocalist Nona Hendryx joins Parker on lead vocals, and while some were surprised by this pairing of a sultry soul diva and a snarling British punk rocker it actually works rather well. In fact, each of these artists has recorded music in a variety of different styles so their collaboration on this song isn't so unusual as it might first appear.

Graham Parker

I've been a big fan of Parker's since college when his albums Squeezing Out Sparks (1979) and The Up Escalator (1980), both credited to Graham Parker and the Rumour, were never far from my turntable. I've been a fan of Nona Hendryx even longer, thanks to Labelle's fabulous 1974 album Nightbirds, which featured the smash hit "Lady Marmalade." Neither artist has received the recognition they deserve in my judgment, but I'm awfully glad they teamed up for this tune.

Listen to "Soul Christmas" by Graham Parker and Nona Hendryx

Track 2
Christmas Time Is Here, Cast of "Are You Being Served?" (1975)

The second track on this year's mix is taken from one of several holiday episodes of the British situation comedy "Are You Being Served?" (BBC, 1972-85). Created and produced by David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd, the series is set in a fictitious London department store called Grace Brothers and focuses mainly on the staff of the ladies' and gentlemen's clothing counters. Like many other shows of the period, AYBS features humor based on sexual innuendo, misunderstanding, bruised egos and, occasionally, physical comedy and slapstick. However, a key ingredient of the show's success was its frequent parody of the British class system. The stilted relationships among the staff was a favorite theme of the writers and no doubt a particular source of amusement for American fans like me.

I discovered the show back in the 1990s when it was picked up by WGBH-TV, our PBS affiliate in Boston. I'm guessing it came on before or after one of the PBS shows I regularly watched at the time: Washington Week, Wall Street Week or The McLaughlin Group. I didn't fancy the show right away; in fact, about the only thing I recall was the constantly changing color of Mrs. Slocombe's hair — pink one week, florescent green the next. I happened to catch it again a few years after moving to L.A., and for some reason I started to enjoy it. It's definitely a period piece, and an acquired taste. But each of the characters has their appeal and I enjoy the pomposity and moderately clever repartee. 

The series included three holiday-themed specials, which were broadcast shortly before Christmas in 1975, 1976 and 1979. Each of these episodes has a few funny moments and these holiday shows were apparently quite popular in the United Kingdom. The bit I've included as Track 2 this year features the musical number at the end of the episode titled "Christmas Crackers," (Season 3, Episode 9). Mr. Mash and the maintenance department have just turned the men's and ladies departments into a Christmas-themed grotto and the staff has been ordered to wear various novelty costumes including a prince (Mr. Humphries), an archer (Mrs. Slocombe) and a one-legged pirate (Mr. Lucas).

A clip of the entire episode follows. (Apologies for the quality. While quality clips of most episodes of the show are readily available on YouTube, the available videos of this particular episode seem to be of significantly lower quality.)

Watch Selected Episodes of the BBC Television Series "Are You Being Served?"

Watch the 1977 Feature Film Version of "Are You Being Served?"

  

Track 1
The Queen's Final Christmas Message, H.R.M. Queen Elizabeth II (2022)

The death of British monarch Queen Elizabeth II will likely be considered one of the biggest news stories of 2022. Frankly, I've always found the whole concept of royalty to be rather preposterous myself, so I was surprised to feel a genuine sense of loss upon the Queen's passing in September. Part of this, no doubt, is the result of the astonishing length of her reign — over 70 years! A sizeable majority of the world's people have never known another monarch to occupy the British throne. But another no less important factor is the grace and quiet determination she demonstrated throughout her service. This has been a period of unprecedented change in nearly every area of life and while there were occasional missteps to be sure, Queen Elizabeth II did a remarkable job of guiding her nation through some dangerous and fast-moving waters.

Among the many traditional duties the Queen enjoyed was the delivery of the annual Royal Christmas Message each December — a function launched by her grandfather, King George V in 1932. (An excerpt from that first royal address kicked off my third holiday mix, Let's Trim the Christmas Tree, from 2007.) This tradition was continued by her father, King George VI, during his reign, which included World War II and ended with his death in 1952. Queen Elizabeth a Christmas message in each of the 70 years she was on the throne. Taken together, they address an extraordinary range of issues and offer a summary of the country's progress and development during a period of unprecedented challenges and change.

The Queen's final Christmas message was delivered in December 2021 and lasted approximately five minutes. It included a tribute to her late husband, Prince Phillip, who had died that April at age 99. I have included only a brief excerpt from the Queen's remarks lasting approximately one minute. We assume that the Queen's successor, her son, King Charles III, will deliver his first Christmas message sometime in December. It will seem strange indeed to hear anyone but the late Queen perform this stately function.

Listen to Queen Elizabeth II's Final Christmas Message (in full) from December 2021 

Listen to Queen Elizabeth II's First Christmas Message from December 1952 

Watch a Summary of News Reports of the Death of Queen Elizabeth II

Learn About Nine Christmas Traditions That May Be Confusing to Many Americans

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm not sure how this day snuck up on us so quickly, but Thanksgiving's always been one of my favorite holidays and I hope each of you is enjoying yours. Tomorrow begins the annual march toward Christmas, and we'll be celebrating here with the unveiling of my latest holiday mix. Over the following month I'll be posting notes about each of the 42 tracks on this year's compilation. I suspect there will also be random thoughts about holiday music and the holidays in general — roughly the same as in previous years. I suggest you enjoy a wonderful dinner today, give heartfelt thanks and get a good night's sleep. I'll be back in the morning with some novel sounds of the holiday.