A Merry Christmas and best of the season to you, dear partygoers!
Last year, friend of the show (and occasional unwitting musical contributor), David M. dropped by the rumpus room to play a selection of his favourite Christmas songs. Well, Covid put paid to any ideas in that direction so it fell to David, our resident Grinch, to pull together a Christmas mix of his own…
So, once again, please join us in the Yuletide rumpus room. We’ve trimmed the tree with bingle balls, who-floo fluff, and bizel blicks! Amidst the woo hoo boo bricks, dangling pantukas and that pile of panpunas by the beanbag chair, we’ve got a great selection of seasonal sides to make this holiday season go down easy!
So nog that egg and enjoy some holiday cheer!
- The Monkees – “What Would Santa Do?” – Christmas Party, 2018 – 11:47
- Carla Thomas – “Gee Whiz, It’s Christmas” – Atlantic single b-side – a-side “All I Want for Christmas Is You”, 1963 – 20:27
- Andy Williams – “Kay Thompson’s Jingle Bells” – The Williams Brothers Christmas Album, 1969 – 33:11
- Little Jimmy Thomas – “Deck the Halls (Fa La La La La)” –Official Records single b/w “Jimmy’s Christmas”, 1964 – 40:25
- Linda Laurie – “All Winter Long” – Andie Records single a-side “Stay with Me”, 1959 – 48:30
- Otis Redding – “Merry Christmas, Baby” – Atco single a-side “White Christmas”, 1968 – 56:14
- Low – “Just Like Christmas” – Christmas EP, 1999 – 1:04:32
- Miles Davis and Bob Dorough – “Blue Xmas” – Jingle Bell Jazz, 1962 – 1:11:47
- Claudine Longet – “I Don’t Intend to Spend Christmas Without You” – A&M single b/w “Snow”, 1967 – 1:21:56
- Sun 60 – “Mary Xmess” – Only, 1993 – 1:36:14
- The Christmas Spirit – “Christmas Is My Time of Year” – White Whale single b/w “Will You Still Believe in Me?”, 1968 – 1:42:02
- The Bellrays – “Santa Has a Big, Old Bag” – Merry Xmas, Love the Bellrays, 2008 – 1:49:36
- The Three Wise Men – “Thanks for Christmas” – Virgin Records single b/w “Countdown to Christmas Party Time”, 1983 – 1:55:47
- Burt Bacharach – “The Bell That Wouldn’t Jingle” – Something Festive, 1968 – 2:02:19
- Bobby Goldsboro – “Look Around You (It’s Christmas Time)” – United Artists single b/w “A Christmas Wish”, 1968 – 2:09:33
- James Brown – “Santa Claus, Go Straight to the Ghetto” – A Soulful Christmas, 1968 – 2:15:02
- Akim and the Teddy Vann Production Company – “Santa Claus Is a Black Man” – Santa Claus Is a Black Man, 1973 – 2:22:27
- Pete Jolly – “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” – Something Festive, 1968 – 2:31:32
- Rotary Connection – “Christmas Child” – Peace, 1968 – 2:38:14
- The Heavy Blinkers – “Chaplin’s Christmas” – The Heavy Blinkers, 2000 – 2:47:41
- Velle Scott – “Merry Christmas” – Santa’s Funk & Soul Christmas Party Vol. 3, 2015 – 2:53:14
- No Fun (David M.) – “Christmas Alone (Who’s the Turkey Now?)” – The Next Christmas Day (aka Blacknewchristmaskillerstarmanstar) from The Fezziwig Files: No Fun at Christmas 1975-2015, 2015 – 2:59:01
- Amy Helm feat. The Wood Brothers – “Christmas Must Be Tonight” – Recorded at Spotify Studios NYC, 2018 – 3:04:37
- Sufjan Stevens – “Sister Winter” – Songs for Christmas – Peace: Songs for Christmas, Vol. V, 2006 – 3:14:24
Here is that controversial Christmas-o-meter!
Thanks for listening.
If you’d like your own copy of this year’s holiday mix, you can download it here -> link.
Here is Linda Laurie appearing on To Tell the Truth in 1959. Check out a young Betty White!
Here is Margo Guryan’s very charming demo for the very charming “I Don’t Intend to Spend Christmas without You”:
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Happy New Year, Dave and Mary! Thanks for an interesting mix of holiday songs I’ve never heard before. I give it a 2 (light). I’d have given it a 1 (star) except for the overly-confusing CHRISTMAS-O-METER. The obvious rating scale should’ve been “1 to 12 Days of Christmas.” 1 Day being “I’d listen to it once but only when drunk on mulled wine.” And 12 Days being “I’m playing it on repeat until I’ve finished this entire box of chocolate truffles.”
I enjoyed Otis Redding’s “Merry Christmas, Baby.” I’ve only heard the Springsteen version before which was on the 1987 various artists’ album “A Very Special Christmas.” That winter I was working front-of-house for a theatre which used that cassette tape for preshow, intermission and post-show music…all…December…long. So now whenever one of those tracks, I get that NOT THIS AGAIN feeling – which is too bad. It’s not the fault of the songs that I got tired of hearing them.
Being old enough to know who Claudine Longet is, I thought “I Don’t Intend To Spend Christmas Without You” sounded threatening and stalkery! (Imagine Glenn Close as her character in Fatal Attraction singing it.) As far as women in sports scandals go, Longet is right up there with Tonya Harding. I remember SNL did a sketch about a ski competition where all the skiers kept getting “accidentally shot” by her. Thanks for including the Margo Guryan’s sweet and innocent-sounding demo to redeem the song for me.
At first I thought “Santa Claus is a Black Man” was a little annoying, but I warmed up to it. Events of the past year have shown how important positive representation is. A few weeks ago there was an incident in Little Rock, Arkansas, where a family put up a black Santa blow-up figure in their yard and got an anonymous letter saying “remove your negro Santa” claiming that Santa is white among other things. The nice thing was that other neighbors began putting out their own black Santas in solidarity.
I also liked the light jazzy feel of “It’s The Most Wonderful Time.” Like Mary, I’m not much into bebob…at least not at Christmas.
Although No Fun made it onto the mix, I thought you could use one more snowflake of Van-Con, so I’m recommending “Holy Winter” by local songwriter Hilary Grist off her 2012 album “It’s Officially Winter Now.” It’s probably a 4.5 (partway between Ho and tinsel) as it’s not Christmassy, but it is wintery. It has a kind of haunting feel to it.
https://hilarygrist.bandcamp.com/track/holy-winter
Spelling correction: bebop.
Oh, Lordy, the Christmas-o-meter… I almost cried with laughter!
Fab show, folks. Sufjan rules!
This was an exceptional podcast, I’ll explain why after this:
I guess I was a “fan” of Springsteen 35 years ago and Louise beat me to it when she wrote about his version of “Merry Christmas Baby.” That version by The Boss is the one I remember best and it’s the one I’ve left behind. Not really a fan of Bruce Springsteen any longer, this also includes his Christmas music, I guess I’ve left the Boss back in the 80’s where he belongs. This being said, I really enjoyed the Otis Redding version! You can’t go wrong with a classic like Otis…good stuff.
“The Bell that Wouldn’t Jingle” stayed in my head for days! But you know, Bacharach has that effect on me.
I have a very subtle holiday connection to Bobby Goldsboro. Back in 1991, I worked on a Christmas cartoon for Peeler Rose Productions in Dallas called “Snuffy The Elf Who Saved Christmas.” The cartoon stars Bobby Goldsboro as The Sandman who narrates and sings in the cartoon. It’s not the most memorable animated Christmas feature but I’m proud I worked on it and the guys who produced it, Dan Peeler and Charlie Rose, were really creative and proud of it too. My name is in the credits…just waaaay after Goldsboro’s name.
This podcast was so bittersweet to me and even though it dropped after Christmas, I still listened to it all…I’ll tell you why. I’m pretty sure I wrote to you before about this, maybe even last year, about how my late friend Sean and I used to make Christmas mix tapes for one another before the holidays. (I remember because I scanned his mix tape title card like you do) This was our gift to one another and I still have mine, the more crazier and obscure the Christmas song, the better. Sean always labeled his “Christmas in Sean’s Ears” because he was ALWAYS wearing headphones.
My dear friend has been gone now for four years but I still have these tapes he made for me years ago…and yes, I always listen to them during the holidays. I’m telling you this because Sean would have LOVED this podcast and he would have enjoyed these Christmas songs you’ve spent the time to bring to us, so I’m kind of listening to your podcast “In Sean’s Ears.” Your podcast reminded me of something very special from my past, from my friend.
So here’s what I’m going to do….I downloaded the files from the link and I’m going to hold onto them so I can enjoy them all during the Holiday Season later this year and the year after that…and so on. Thanks again for the “Christmas in Dave’s Ears”, please know how much it means to me and Sean, who’s probably also listening up there somewhere…
By the way, here’s the link to the Bobby Goldsboro Christmas cartoon, “Snuffy The Elf Who Saved Christmas.”
https://youtu.be/yy_oyQcmuSk