“Hallelujah” has been mentioned. My last radio gig was doing weekends for a station that did the all-Christmas flip every year. Pentatonix recorded “Hallelujah,” and it showed up in the Christmas rotation. I texted the Program Director and asked if anyone had listened to the words, because the song was totally inappropriate in the context. His response was that it was the #1 song, so what were we to do? I said, “Don’t play it.” And I skipped it every time it came up after that.
I also occasionally sat-in on the evening Love Songs and Dedications show. Guys would call in and want to dedicate the most inappropriate songs, like “I Will Always Love You,” to their wives on their anniversary. Trying to explain the message of the song was futile, so I just said what the hell, did their dedication and played it. One night a woman asked me to play “Mrs. Robinson,” and dedicate it her neighbor, Mrs. Robinson, who has just died. She had never seen “The Graduate.” She just liked the words about Jesus loving Mrs. Robinson. I refused.
And since it’s almost that time of year… My Favorite Things has nothing to do with Christmas, damn it! If you squint real hard you might see a winter connection, but even that is tenuous.
In another example of different context, in the original play, the song is sung by Maria with the Mother Abbess, not the thunderstorm scene with the children as in the movie. She’s singing to cheer herself up before being sent out of the abbey, not to calm down a bunch of scared kids.
Yup. That song, along with Wham!'s “Last Christmas” (about a lover who dumped the singer) and Dan Fogelberg’s “Same Auld Lang Syne” (about a brief reunion with a former lover on Christmas Eve) get played ad nauseum on stations that go to the “all-holiday” format, and they really have nothing to do with the holidays or “holiday spirit.” But, all three have managed to become part of the genre.
About 15 years ago I worked next door to an after-school/summer day camp facility that always had KidzBop or other similar music on the PA. These are basically current pop songs sung by children. One of songs in rotation was a kids cover of Modest Mouse’s “Float On”. Very weird to hear a prepubescent kid singing “I backed my car into a cop car the other day…” and singing about getting fired.
I suppose the “brown paper packages tied up with string” could possibly be Christmas presents. That was the only thing in that song I thought of that could possibly be interpreted as Christmas-y.
But while we’re on the subject, according to some sources “Jingle Bells” was intended to be a Thanksgiving song:
Also the Marines using the theme to The Micky Mouse Club as their marching cadence at the end of Apocalypse Now (Kubrick again).
It wasn’t clear to me that the Better Man’s Wife was abused. I took at she was in a loveless marriage (at least on her part). Like she loved him once when she was “bold and strong” and “waiting for the world to come along”. But it never did and now she feels trapped and the chore of having to pretend everything is “ok” is wearing on her. Ergo “can’t find a better man”. Which kind of seems sadder in a way.
I was going to mention Stuck in the Middle With You, but I looked at the lyrics and, aside from not specifically mentioning ear-cutting, they actually kind of fit with the scene and the overall film.
But you’re right. Tarantino does this frequently, juxtaposing catching upbeat songs over scenes of, or in preparation of, horrific violence. Guy Richie does this as well. Like Bullet Tooth Tony playing Lucky Star by Madonna in Snatch or the scene where Ray and his gang are chasing down a bunch of street punks to the tune of “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” by Wu-Tang Clan (but sung by children).
Buick used to have a commercial that used Aerosmith’s “Dream On.”
Sing with me, sing for the year
Sing for the laughter, sing for the tear
Sing with me, if it’s just for today
Maybe tomorrow, the good Lord will take you away
Conclusion: you’re old. Buy this damn Buick before your dirt nap.
But it was re-imagined in the movie, where it was really about The Bodyguard, and played with the identity of interests of a dedicated bodyguard and a obsessive killer.
It was used here for a health/alcoholism message. Every step you take (cans, bottles, friends, wife-abuse, family violence) some one is watching you (your kids, who admire you and want to grow up just like you). It was an interesting take, which I think also truthfully said something about obsessive jilted lovers.
For a more contrasting context: Welcome to the house of fun, which is about an embarrassed teenager trying to buy condoms, but was used to sell a cheap jewelry shop targeted at even younger girls. eewwww. I’ve tried to find a youtube copy of the add, but it’s disappeared
