Be a Santa, Part 2

Here's some more background on tracks from Be a Santa!, my holiday mix for 2021:

Track 6
Candy Cane Madness, The Factory, featuring Lowell George (1967)

        The Factory, featuring Lowell George (c. 1967)

Better known for his work in Little Feat and Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, Lowell George's first real band was called The Factory, which he co-founded in 1965 and funded by the sale of some of his grandfather's stock. George sang and played rhythm guitar for the band, which later grew to include future Little Feat drummer Richie Hayward. My one real-time memory of The Factory is their appearance on the 1960s sitcom F Troop, where they played a pop group called The Bedbugs. (F Troop was one of my favorite shows as a kid, and I can also remember when the soldiers teamed up with Wrangler Jane to form their own band and performed Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man.")

"Candy Cane Madness" is immediately recognizable as a product of the mid-1960s, and while it doesn't appear to have been much of a hit at the time, it's a great souvenir of the year that gave us the Summer of Love. The Factory disbanded within a couple of years of this song's recording, after which George went on to record with the Mothers of Invention before reportedly being asked to leave by Frank Zappa in 1969. He co-founded the group Little Feat shortly thereafter serving as principal vocalist, guitarist and songwriter until he disbanded the group shortly before his death ten years later.

Watch Lowell George and The Factory Guest Starring on F Troop

Track 5

Coal for Christmas, Ben Smith (2014)

Ben Smith

Singer/songwriter Ben Smith has been producing fine independent music for over 20 years including an impressive number of provocative holiday tunes. "Coal for Christmas" is the story of a young man who seems to be following a decidedly bad path with no illusion about the likely results:

It's wintertime, it's getting cold
there's only embers in the stove
and ma and pa conspire some design

I'm eight years old and uncontrolled
I'm too wild for the house to hold
I've never met a rule I can abide

Well, I'm getting coal for Christmas
each and every year
but I'm gonna save each square and say my prayers
gonna light them up and watch the show

By the time I'm nine, I've kicked the cat
I've cursed and swore behind their back
and sometimes I don't bother turning round

By the time I'm ten, I steal the keys
I'm as friendly as a swarm of bees
flying from a hole under the ground

Well, I'm getting coal for Christmas
each and every year
but I'm gonna save each square and say my prayers
gonna light them up and watch the show

Now I'm 16, and I'm all bent
A ne'er do well, a malcontent
ma and pa won't look me in the eye

Mama's wine and daddy's beer
That's what I call Christmas cheer
The blinking lights begin to multiply.

Well, I'm getting coal for Christmas
each and every year
but I'm gonna save each square and say my prayers
gonna light them up and watch the show

I understand that Smith's day job is teaching high school English, which makes a certain amount of sense, I guess. Chances are he's met at least a couple of ne'er do wells and malcontents in his classes over the years. Luckily he's had time to produce a bunch of good music, much of which can be ordered from the links below.

Visit and order music from Ben Smith's Bandcamp site

Check out Ben Smith's Tumblr site

Track 4

Christmas Song, Andy McCoy, featuring Ville Valo (2016)

Born in Finland in 1962 as Antti Hulkko, Andy McCoy is perhaps best known as the lead guitarist for the band Hanoi Rocks, a Finnish rock group that was also popular in the U.K. and Japan in the 1970s and '80s. Following that group's break-up in 1985, McCoy played with a series of other bands, released some solo recordings and worked with other musicians including Iggy Pop. I love this song, and thought it would fit in well on this year's mix.

Order Andy McCoy's "Christmas Song" from Amazon Music

I'll be back before long with background on some additional tracks.

A Look at Selected Tracks from My 2021 Mix, Be a Santa, Part 1

This blog was originally started to share some background about the various tracks on each of my annual holiday mixes. I've done a poor job of doing this in recent years, but this year I hope to provide at least some information about a number of this year's tracks. As in previous years, I'll be looking at the tracks a few at a time with each day's tracks in reverse order. No promises about posting thoughts on everything, but I'll do what I can. Let's start with some background on the first three items in the mix:

Track 3

Holiday Greetings from Gavin MacLeod (1986)

(L to R): Gavin MacLeod, Valerie Harper, Cloris Leachman, Betty White and Ed Asner

This was a rough year for folks like me who are fans of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, the classic CBS sitcom that won 29 Emmy awards during its seven-year run from 1970-77. As you'll recall, the show starred Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Richards, a 30-year-old single woman who takes a job in the WJM newsroom following the breakup of her engagement. It was pathbreaking hit as it was one of the first programs to feature an independent unmarried career woman in a leading role. Three of the show's principal actors, including Moore, left us before the start of this year, but 2021 claimed three additional stars:  Cloris Leachman, who played Mary's older friend Phyllis, died in January at age 94; Ed Asner, who played Mary's boss, Lou Grant, died in August at age 91; and Gavin MacLeod, who played Mary's coworker Murray Slaughter, died this past May at age 90. After the Mary Tyler Moore Show, MacLeod went on to star in The Love Boat, which ran from 1977-86, but I will always remember him as the sweet WJM news writer who sat next to Mary Richards for so many wonderful years.

Track 2

Wildest Christmas, The Rumbles LTD (1968)

The second track from this year's mix is a song by The Rumbles LTD, a band that got its start in the early 1960s as a high school "garage band" in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Remarkably, the group has been making music ever since, and while there have been a number of personnel changes over the years, the band is still around today. The group enjoyed its greatest success in the mid-1960s with a string of danceable rock releases that included the 1967 hit "Jezebel," which propelled them to regional success in many parts of the Midwest. "Wildest Christmas" is a cute little number about a home improvement project gone wrong. It was released on a double-sided 45 with The Rumbles version of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," done in the style of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Of the two, I like "Wildest Christmas" best.

Track 1

Be a Santa (from the Dean Martin Christmas Show) (1968)

I've never paid a whole lot of attention to the late Dean Martin until very recently. I knew he'd had a few hit records in the 1950s and '60s and used to do comedy with Jerry Lewis. I knew he was a member of the famous "Rat Pack" along with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr. and several others. What I remembered most about Martin is that he always seemed to be on TV when I was growing up. First, there were his weekly variety shows on NBC, which I believe were typically completed (rehearsals through taping) in a single day. Then there were the roasts, which struck me as smug, self-satisfied affairs featuring a bunch of folks I didn't recognize. Finally, there were the holiday specials, which I certainly recalled. In fact, included a promo for one of his Christmas specials on my 2011 holiday mix, Gee Whiz … It's Christmas. This fall, however, I stumbled across a video of the 1968 Dean Martin Christmas Show, and it somehow made a big impression on me. That's why I chose to start this year's mix off with the opening number from that TV special, "Be a Santa."

Dean Martin

The song is from the Broadway musical "Subways Are for Sleeping," which was produced by David Merrick and opened at the St. James Theater in late 1961. The original show, which featured Orson Bean and newcomer Valerie Harper, ran for less than a year and barely broke even, and "Be a Santa" has never really caught on as a seasonal favorite. But Martin makes it work with a delightful opening in which his make-up team turns him into Santa followed by a group of similarly clad performers dancing and singing with him. The Martin show inserts several weak comic bits into the song that I've removed, but the number as a whole works pretty well as the kick-off to the overall program.

The balance of the program is about what you'd expect. Dean and his "girls" (known professionally as The Golddiggers sing a variety of seasonal tunes (including "Marshmallow World," long identified with Martin and Sinatra) interspersed with a number of comedy bits featuring such folks as Bob Hope, Bob Newhart and Dom DeLuise. But what sets this show apart is the last ten minutes, in which some of the era's biggest stars show up to list some of the children's hospitals and orphanages that would be receiving holiday toys from Dino and the gang to brighten Christmas morning for the less fortunate children of the country. 

Dean Martin has enjoyed a reputation as the coolest of the cool cats, and from what I've learned of him in just the past couple of weeks I've developed a new-found respect for him both as an entertainer and a human being. I'm guessing his 1968 holiday special was probably just the sort of thing many Americans needed at the end of that traumatic and difficult year.

Check out the Complete 1968 Dean Martin Christmas Show

Watch Dean Martin Perform His 20 Funniest Duets

Original Lyrics to "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" Weren't So Merry and Bright

Written in 1943 by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is one of the most widely performed and popular holiday songs of all time. Originally recorded by Judy Garland, this sentimental favorite was written for the 1943 MGM musical Meet Me in St. Louis. While most folks are quite familiar with the tune, what many people don't know is that its lyrics have undergone a number of rather significant alterations over the years.

The story is effectively told as part of the series 12 Days of Christmas Songs published in 2015 by The Atlantic magazine. As contributor Sophie Gilbert explains, the song was originally written to reflect the times in which the movie was supposed to have taken place, namely 1903. The song was sung by Garland's character to her younger sister, who fears the repercussions of the family's anticipated move from St. Louis to New York following their father's transfer to the Big Apple.

The original lyrics begin as follows:

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
It may be your last
Next year we may all be living in the past
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Pop that champagne cork
Next year we may all be living in New York

In 1943, however, hundreds of thousands of American soldiers were in overseas fighting the Axis powers, and Garland worried that this grim message would be too painful for the soldiers and their families. Moreover, Garland worried, they didn't sound like the sort of message a concerned older sister would send to an already upset younger sibling. Thus, the lyrics were changed as follows:

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
Next year all our troubles will be out of sight
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the yuletide gay
Next year all our troubles will be miles away

There have been other changes, too, and they are well detailed in The Atlantic series, available by way of the links below. Despite the more upbeat lyrics, the melancholy feel of this song is still clearly discernable, which is doubtless one of the reasons for its enduring popularity.

Read Sophie Gilbert's Piece on "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"

Check out The Atlantic's 12 Days of Christmas Songs series 

Listen to the BBC Radio 4 "Soul Music" program's Story on "Have Yourself a Merry ..."

Chevy Chase Gives Us a Look at Christmas in the White House Under President Gerald Ford

As in previous years, I'm planning to dig back into the video archive each Saturday during this festive season to feature a classic holiday bit from NBC's Saturday Night Live. This year, let's start off with a sketch that aired on December 20, 1975, starring Chevy Chase portraying President Gerald Ford celebrating Christmas in the White House:

Do You Recognize the Stars in These Vintage Holiday Photos?

I'm a sucker for online trivia quizzes. I rarely do well because other than American history and 1970s culture I really don't know very much. But when I saw this MeTV quiz in my Twitter feed today I had to take it. I only got 6 out of 10 right. How well will you do?

Take the Quiz on the MeTV Website