I was half jewish, had a Jewish name, and in grammar school they had us sing carols once a year in the auditorium. Nobody ever asked me if I wanted to go. There couldn’t have been one other jew in the school. I always loved it and I have no real hard on for particular songs. Some are so campy you can’t hate them. (Sing I’ll be home for Christmas in a falsetto, right now…)
Drummer boy and sleigh ride had interesting melodies.
The only song we never sang and I never knew about til I was an adult, I can really do without though: O Holy Night.
Another one: “We Need a Little Christmas” from Auntie Mame. Yeesh. “We need a little Christmas right this very minute before we all become totally unwound, we’re miserable and desperate for a little fake seasonal cheer”. Yeah that’s festive.
It probably says a lot about me that my favourite pop Christmas song is “Please Come Home For Christmas” by The Eagles. What could be more festive than a song that kicks off with “My baby’s gone, I have no friends” in the first verse?
I do like that one, even though they’re both obviously phoning it in.
You think so? I mean, the whole schtick before they start singing is pretty awkward but I think their low key approach is spot on. And I agree about The Eagles song (though for some reason I thought it was a Henley solo).
Having warped my brain through years of reading Mad Magazine as a child, I habitually come up with parody lyrics for songs. I’m still working on all the verses of “Silent Night”, but here’s a sample:
Silent Night, Holy Cow
Son of Sam loves to fight
Radiation Beams from Outer Space
Shot at Dawn, a Screaming Disgrace
Jesus I’m bored at thy birth
Jesus I’m bored at thy birth
You have been listening to the wrong version of O Holy Night. Try it as a noise piece. This is my favorite of all Christmas music and I would love to slip in in the mix down at the mall just to see the reaction.
Aww, the Ray Conniff version is my favorite Christmas song!
It’s been 45 years, but all the parody, dirty lyrics we made up in grade school for Christmas songs are still in my head, and every season they spontaneously burst out.
Later on we’ll perspire, as we make out by the fire…
I prefer the original Allan Sherman:
…and a Japanese transistor radio.
(It’s a Nakashuma.) (And it comes in a leatherette case with holes in it, so you can listen right through the case.) (And it has a wire with a thing on one end that you can stick in your ear and a thing on the other end you can’t stick anywhere because it’s bent.)
A statue of a naked lady with a clock where her stomach ought… to… beeeeeeeeeeeee!
Only version of “12 Days” I can stand.
I hatehatehate “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” I know the woman is just playing hard to get and doesn’t actually want to leave, and it’s simply a victim of values dissonance, but it still sounds coercive and creepy to me.
Worked retail (grocery) for most of the 90’s, and being subjected to constant x-mas shit over the PA in Nov./Dec. became fucking soul-destroying.
Some were more hideous than others, but after getting lobotomized by Hey Santa by the Wilson sisters for the gajillionth time by the end of my shift I had to decompressurize, and before I even got home I’d have to go on random arson rampages and small carbombings just to blow off a little steam.
