Last Christmas, Gangnam Style

WARNING:  The following video is not for the faint of heart.

Painful as this is, it was probably inevitable – one of my least favorite holiday songs ever, Wham's "Last Christmas" has been reworked "Gangnam style."

Help Support Jingle Bell Rocks, The Movie

Filmmaker and admitted Christmas music fanatic Mitchell Kezin has spent a good portion of the past few years working on his latest project, a film called Jingle Bell Rocks. It is, in his words, "a trippy, cinematic sleigh ride into the strange and sublime universe of alternative and underground Christmas music." Mitchell's been a Christmas music enthusiast ever since he discovered a copy of the all-but-forgotten Miles Davis classic Blue Xmas in the cut-out bin of a nearby used records store. That led him on a search for similarly off-beat and overlooked seasonal songs, and the more he discovered, the more curious he became about the meaning and background of each individual track. Jingle Bell Rocks aims to look behind the curtain at the collectors, critics, artists and producers of this very special type of music. It features interviews with a wide range of players, including Andy Cirzan, John Waters, Dr. Demento, Clarence Carter and more. The following preview helps give you a better idea of what the film is all about: 



As you might imagine, making such a film is not only an ambitious undertaking, but a costly one as well. Kezin is nearly done with filming, but he needs additional seed money to finish the production and pay the fees associated with using many of the key tracks. If you're in a position to consider providing even a small amount of financial support, please check out the filmmaker's fundraising campaign appeal. It's not every day you get a chance to get a piece of a major motion picture and help spread the holiday spirit at the same time!

Here Comes Santa Claus, Part 9

I’ve been providing a bit of background about each of the 38 tracks on my latest holiday mix, which is titled Here Comes Santa Claus. Here’s some information on two more tracks:

Track 24

Tag Along, by The Wilburn Brothers (1963)

Doyle and Teddy Wilburn were a popular country music act from Hardy, Arkansas, who performed and recorded together for more than 30 years – first as The Wilburn Children, and later as The Wilburn Brothers. They were discovered by country legend Roy Acuff, who arranged for them to perform at the Grand Ole Opry, but while their act was well-received, they were forced to stop performing after about six months due to federal child labor laws. Both brothers served in the U.S. Army in Korea, after which they signed with Decca Records and had a string of modest hits with such numbers as “Go Away with Me” and “Trouble’s Back in Town.” Tag Along was recorded in the early 1960s and released as a special holiday single several different times. It tells the story of Santa’s watchdog, Tag Along, who travels with Santa each Christmas Eve to guard the sleigh while Santa goes indoors with the presents. It’s apparently a prestigious assignment. Both Rin Tin Tin and Lassie sought the position unsuccessfully. But it’s no easy job, as the song makes clear. The Wilburn Brothers continued recording into the 1970s, by which time they were putting the bulk of their energies into talent management. They were instrumental in launching the careers of a number of popular country stars, including Loretta Lynn, and they also hosted their own syndicated TV variety show, The Wilburn Brothers Show, which ran from 1963 to 1974. Despite their successful careers as performers and businessmen, the two brothers will also be remembered as the singers who gave away their chance to record “Heartbreak Hotel” before Elvis Presley. In 1956, they decided against recording the song, which they described as “strange and almost morbid.” When you stop to consider that assessment for a moment, it’s pretty tough to argue the point.

Track 23

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, by Shakespeare Man (1993)

Kevin and Bean

Thirty years after the release of Tag Along, Kevin Ryder and Gene "Bean" Baxter, better known as Kevin and Bean, hosts of the morning show on KROQ-FM, released a lovely album called “A Family Christmas in Your Ass,” which is where I found Shakespeare Man’s rendition of Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Kevin and Bean have handled the morning duties for KROQ-FM since 1990, and their show is also syndicated in a number of other markets. The “Family Christmas” album is just one in a series of similar holiday releases that were sold to benefit local charities. It mimics their morning radio show in that it offers a mix of music and comedy bits designed to appeal to adolescents and those with adolescent sensibilities. But, hey, it’s for charity, and people like me deserve to be entertained, too, right? 

Here Comes Santa Claus, Part 8

Today, I've got a little background information about three more tracks from my latest holiday mix, Here Comes Santa Claus:

Track 22

Santa’s Big Red Car, by Bobby Farrell

I first came across this tune several years ago by way of the Ernie (Not Bert) blog, which is a favorite spot for collectors of offbeat and out-of-print music of all types. According to Ernie, he found the song among a bunch of used novelty records at a store in St. Petersburg, Florida. “I was hoping for a Beach Boys-Little Saint Nick-type thing,” he wrote, “but this is what I got.” I think it’s kind of a cute little song myself, although I haven’t been able to find out much about it, or about the man who recorded it. I’m reasonably sure that this wasn’t recorded by the “Bobby Farrell” who sang lead for the German/Jamaican group Boney M, whose disco hit Daddy Cool was a favorite of mine back in the day. There does seem to have been at least one additional Bobby Farrell who’s made records in the past – a guy who first recorded as “Little” Bobby Farrell beginning sometime in the 1950s before expanding his horizons to become active in various other areas of the music business. Here’s how the ReverbNation website describes this second (or first) Bobby Farrell:

Singer, Songwriter, Recording Artist, Band Leader, Broadcaster, Model, Actor, Record Producer, Booking Agent, Concert Tour Director & Producer, Music Publisher, Promoter, Licenser, Distributor, Production Studio Owner/Operator, Show Producer, Night Club Owner/Operator, Sound Engineer, Lighting Director, Artist &: Road Manager, Pressing Plant Foreman, Printer, Graphics Art Director, Disc Jockey, Radio Talk Master, Program/Music Director, and that's just a few of his Entertainment Credits! If it has to do with Recorded Music and Entertainment, Bobby Farrell has been there and made a success of each and every venture.

His honesty and integrity are exceeded only by his expertise. He founded BFM Enterprises at Dayton, Ohio, in 1959, and built it into one of the surviving Super Seven General Licensers that promote, manufacture and distribute records and motion pictures, videos, CDs and DVDs world wide! It should come as no surprise that his Vandor Motion Pictures, PhonoRecords and Music Publishing Group is the only one of that Super Seven that isn't in debt!

He also is a Master Metaphysician, an accomplished Novelist, Globe Trotter (he helped measure the earth [IGY July 1957-December 1958] with Team II 1959-1966), Inventor, Scalar Scientist, Political and Civil Rights Activist, and Firearms Handling Expert.

Now, while all this sounds a little over the top, I don’t have any reason to dispute any of it, and I’m not sure I would in any event in light of that last item on his resumé. I tend to avoid getting into it with firearms handling experts whenever possible.

Track 21

Rockin’ in a Christmas/New Year, by The Fools (1992)

The Fools

Growing up around Boston when I did, I remember The Fools as a popular novelty-type band that played some unusually good original material and appealed primarily to the area’s large college-age population. Their first hit record was a 1979 take-off on the Talking Heads’ song Psycho Killer called Psycho Chicken. The Fools were signed by EMI the following year, and their first major label single, “It’s a Night for Beautiful Girls,” was a minor hit in markets across the country. The band got additional exposure in the early 1980s as the opening band for both The Knack and Van Halen on their world tours, but they were never quite able to make the big jump to national prominence themselves. There are at least two different versions of Rockin’in a Christmas/New Year, the first of which was released in 1986 and features a completely different set of celebrity party guests than the 1992 version I’ve used in this year’s holiday mix. Frankly, I prefer the earlier version, as it's not only less violent but features cooler celebrities, including Bruce Springsteen and Prince. I used the later release, however, for reasons of sound quality. Both versions remain seasonal favorites on Boston-area radio stations to this day.

Track 20
Holiday Greetings from the Cast of "The Nanny" (1993)

I’ve never been a big fan of prime time network television, and I’m pretty sure I saw only one episode of The Nanny during its original six-season run on CBS. But several years after its network finale, the show was picked up in syndication by Lifetime Television, which started airing it at 7:00 am in place of The Golden Girls. Since I'd grown accustomed to having breakfast with Dorothy, Blanche, Rose and Sophia every morning, I left the TV on the same channel after the switch and slowly got used to The Nanny. It's a cute little show that had some mildly amusing moments, and while the story lines were mostly retreads, the characters were nice enough and they became comfortable breakfast companions who didn't mind me reading the news or cleaning the apartment while they were on. I like that in a breakfast date.

Here's the show's pilot episode, which pretty much tells the whole story:

Tomorrow: Rudolph and Tag Along, the guard dog you never knew Santa had.

Talented Newcomer Frank Ocean Scores Six Grammy Nominations

Frank Ocean

This post really has nothing to do with holiday music, but I was pleased to see the Recording Academy recognize"newcomer" Frank Ocean this week with six Grammy nominations, including Record of the Year (for Thinkin' 'Bout You), Album of the Year (for Channel Orange) and Best New Artist. For an organization that gets things wrong so often, this is welcome news indeed, as the 25-year-old Ocean is a phenomenal talent and Channel Orange, his first commercial release, is not only a smart and insightful collection of songs but it sounds as good as anything I've heard in ages. Ocean's been in the public eye for a couple of years now, which helps to explain why his first big label release debuted in the #2 position on the Billboard album chart. He's written songs for John Legend, Brandy, Beyoncé and Justin Bieber, among others; he’s collaborated with Kanye West and Jay-Z; and he's a key member of the Los Angeles-based hip hop collective OFWGKTA (a/k/a Odd Future). Before recording Channel Orange, Ocean made two lengthy mix tapes of his material available for free on the internet. I became a fan after listening to the second of these two mix tapes, nostalgia/ultra, which is a truly inspirational collection of tunes. That led me to catch his performance at last April's Coachella Music festival, where he opened his set in front of thousands of hip hop fans with an astonishingly good version of an obscure Bob Dylan tune from 1962 called Long Time Gone (not to be confused with the David Crosby classic by the same name). That one move convinced me that this guy was going to shake things up in a big way, which he did soon after, although not quite in the way I'd figured. Two weeks before the release of Channel Orange, Ocean pre-released the album's liner notes, in which he wrote publicly about his love for another man. It was a beautifully written and remarkably courageous piece, and it turned the hip-hop community on its ear. Within days, several titans of the community rallied to Ocean's side, and within weeks of that, it had become almost a non-event, which left Ocean free to live as he is and allowed his music to be judged on its own terms. Yes, it's been quite a year for Frank Ocean, who was recently named one of GQ's Men of the Year and now has six well-deserved Grammy nominations. He should be a shoe-in for Best New Artist, and I think he deserves Album of the Year honors, too. I only hope the Grammy voters get it right this year.

We now return to our regular holiday music programming. Thanks for indulging me.

POSTSCRIPT (12/15/12): The season of annual "best of" lists is upon us, and Frank Ocean's already racking up the gold (as it were). Both Spin and The Guardian have named Channel Orange their album of the year, and Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis of NPR's Sound Opinions each ranked Channel Orange at or near the top of their 2012 Best Albums list (Greg has it at #1, Jim at #3). You can listen to their insightful review of the album HERE. With any luck, Ocean will release some Christmas music in 2013 so we can write about him again.