I’m not familiar with this song, but curious-- would “threw it away” work better?
Where have you been living for the last 40 years 
? At least you must be the record winner of Whamageddon…
I’m Jewish. I don’t listen to Christmas music.
I know, and I’m also not Christian, but “Last Christmas” is as secular as a song can get, and it’s almost legendarily unavoidable in December.
I understood that it was just some guy from Massachusetts who’d moved to the South for some reason and missed certain wintertime activities. Specifically, taking girls out for a sleighride.
Actually, it has nothing to do with Christmas, but just about every song about winter got roped into being a Christmas song. Others like that are Baby, It’s Cold Outside; Frosty the Snowman; Let it Snow; Winter Wonderland; and even My Favorite Things, which isn’t even about winter.
Depending on what you listen to, of course.
It’s common for radio stations here in the U.S. to go to an “all-holiday” format during December, and most of them play a mix of “standards” and modern songs; “Last Christmas” is a staple in that format. Similarly, there are holiday music channels on satellite and streaming radio which will play it often.
But, if you don’t listen to that sort of radio format, unless you happen to catch it in a TV ad, or hear it over the sound system while shopping or dining out, it’s easy to not hear it. “Whamaggedon” seemed to have become a thing over the last few years, but I’ve not heard the song in either of the last two Christmas seasons. I listened to plenty of Christmas/holiday music, but on streaming SiriusXM holiday channels which are either (a) standards-only (i.e., lots from the '40s and '50s, but no modern acts doing non-standards), or (b) instrumental only (e.g., Mannheim Steamroller).
The Gospels don’t even say that there were three of them. All we know is that they were plural, and they gave three gifts.
From her point of view, them having sex implicitly established an exclusive and ongoing relationship between them, and that by having sex with someone else, he was betraying that relationship, i.e., “giving her heart away”.
From his point of view, of course, it was just a one-night stand, and didn’t place any further obligation on anyone.
Misunderstandings like this are why, if she liked it, she should have put a ring on it.
Is there a version of this song I’m not aware of? Because in the Wham! version, George Michael is a dude. Whether he slept with a dude or dudette canonically is anyone’s guess, but the jilted person in question was a man. It was the man who should have put a ring on it.
I’m just confused why the genders are mixed up in this discussion.
Maybe it’s not the Wham version, then, but I usually hear it as a woman singing.
Is it this version?
I just someone mistaking his voice for a girl’s voice should not be surprising.
Judging by the video he wasn’t out yet.
Correct. “Last Christmas” was released in 1984; Michael did not come out publicly until 1998.
All I know is he had the world’s best coming out song.
That is a jam.
Yep. I just read the German wiki article about the magi, and in some Christian churches, there are traditions that speak of up to 12 magi, giving them all individual names.
“The Holly and the Ivy”: Every verse starts out by mentioning, well, holly and ivy. And then it goes on to say something about holly. What does the ivy do? Why is it even in the song?
“Up on the housetop, reindeer paws”
Even as a kid, this bothered me. What kind of weird-ass reindeer have paws instead of hooves?
Re: the Geroge Michael song “Last Christmas,” I couldn’t figure out who he was going to give his heart to this year. He says he’ll give it to someone special but apparently doesn’t have a girlfriend yet, and it’s almost Christmas.
I saw a Professor of Rock video about the making of the video. Apparently, there was a whole lot of drinking going on, and at some point, the entire cast was running around nekkid in the snow. Andrew Ridgeway almost came to grief doing a naked hurtle over a stone wall. Everyone was hungover during the snowball fight.
Thank you! I was disappointed when I grew up and traveled and found people weren’t familiar with this. I looked forward to seeing this every year. Was it on Garfield Goose?
No, no, they make a snowman and pretend it’s Parson Brown. They pretend the Parson Brown snowman asks if they’re married. That’s how I’ve understood it.
In the 19th century, people often hung presents on the tree. The presents were smaller, of course. You couldn’t put an Easy Bake Oven on a tree branch. I remember asking about this when I read one of the Little House books, where the Christmas tree at church (I think) had presents hanging on it.
We sang, “Later on, we’ll perspire/and use Ban by the fire.”
The Ray Rayner show, I think, but it may well have aired on Garfield Goose, too.
How about “reindeer pause”?
Like maybe they were making a racket and then paused when Santa jumped out of his sleigh? Maybe?
There’s a line in there about finally finding someone but it’s petty deep. I never paid much attention to the lyrics at all until this thread. They aren’t great.
A face on a lover with a fire in his heart
A man under cover, but you tore me apart
Now I’ve found a real love. You’ll never fool me again
But I do like the song.
I watched both, so it might have been Ray Rayner. It seems to me I saw it after school, though. The other Christmas cartoon I loved was “Susie Snowflake.” I wonder which kids’ program featured that one?
Yes, I saw that, but toward the end of the song, he sings:
Maybe next year
I’ll give it to someone, I’ll give it to someone special
Which is it, George? This year? Next year?
I love the idea of a reindeer pause!
My recollection is that, whatever kids’ show WGN ran “Hardrock, Coco and Joe” on, also ran “Susie Snowflake” – I think that they alternated days during the run-up to Christmas.
When we were kids, my mom bought me the 45 of “Hardrock, Coco and Joe,” and the 45 of “Little Susie Snowflake” for my sister.