SOUNDTRACK: SPIKE JONES-Let’s Sing a Song of Christmas (1994).
I like Spike Jones’ comedy music. I feel like my dad was a fan. I know he knew a lot of Spike’s songs, whether or not he knew they were from Spike, I don;t know. So when I was looking for non-traditional Christmas music, I saw this and thought it would be a zany collection of songs.
Well, it is not. In fact I remember being really disappointed at the time because it’s pretty straightforward. Although now, some 14 years later, I listened to it again and realized it’s a lovely collection of Christmas music. There are some “funny” songs, but they’re more traditionally funny and not so zany.
This is a collection of twenty songs and my version has pretty much no information about the songs. But the recording is top-notch if you like mid-50s, big band, “very white” (my term) singers. The City Slickers and the City Slicker Juniors along with The Jud Conlon Singers take on all of these classics:
Jingle Bells Medley: Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town / The Christmas Song / Jingle Bells; Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer; Silent Night; Sleigh Ride; Snow Medley: The First Snow Fall / Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow; Deck The Halls Medley: Deck The Halls With Holly / Away In A Manger / It Came Upon A Midnight Clear / The First Noel; White Christmas Medley: Winter Wonderland / Silver Bells / White Christmas; Hark Medley: Hark, The Herald Angels Sing / O, Little Town Of Bethlehem / Joy To The World / O, Come All Ye Faithful; Christmas Alphabet Medley: Christmas Alphabet / Merry Christmas Polka / Christmas In America; Victor Young Medley: It’s Christmas Time / Sleep Well, Little Children and What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?
They also do a couple of songs with the Saint Victor’s Boys Choir: The Night Before Christmas Song and Christmas Cradle Song.
Interspersed with these songs are the ones featuring George Rock. Rock is the quintessential voice of “All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth.” You know the one where it’s clearly an adult, but somehow he sounds like a tiny kid. Well, that was George Rock. And Rock has a pretty fascinating history himself.
A large man, he attended Wesleyan University on a football scholarship, before turning pro as a musician at the age of 20. His first national exposure was in the Freddie Fisher’s Schnickelfritz Band. In 1944 he signed up with the Spike Jones Band.
It must have been fun to see the large guy singing like a little kid. This collection includes, “Two Front Teeth” as well as “My Birthday Comes On Christmas,” and “(I’m The) The Angel In The Christmas Play.” They also had a few songs sung by actual kids, The City Slicker Juniors. They perform “Nuttin’ For Christmas,” “Frosty the Snowman” and “Here Comes Santa Claus.”
None of these songs are particularly funny, but I think people laughed a lot easier back then. Nonetheless, if you’re not freaked out by the voice (or wondering why anyone would WANT to say “Sister Susie sitting on a thistle,” these songs should raise a smile.
This collection would work well on random with all the modern Christmas songs at your holiday festivity (as long as the volume is mixed loud enough).
Interestingly, I can’t find the cover of my CD version (only a cassette version of it). So I must have a less popular version that the one that’s above.
[READ: December 3, 2018] “Endless City”
Once again, I have ordered The Short Story Advent Calendar. This is my third time reading the Calendar (thanks S.). I never knew about the first one until it was long out of print (sigh). Here’s what they say this year
Fourth time’s the charm.
After a restful spring, rowdy summer, and pretty reasonable fall, we are officially back at it again with another deluxe box set of 24 individually bound short stories to get you into the yuletide spirit.
The fourth annual Short Story Advent Calendar might be our most ambitious yet, with a range of stories hailing from eight different countries and three different originating languages (don’t worry, we got the English versions). This year’s edition features a special diecut lid and textured case. We also set a new personal best for material that has never before appeared in print.
Want a copy? Order one here.
Like last year I’m pairing each story with a holiday disc from our personal collection.
This story comes from Mason’s The Lost Books of the Odyssey (apparently it was printed in the first, small-press edition, but not the second major-press edition, which seems weird).
So, this is, as the book title notes, a side story of Odysseus . What a weird, thankless project it seems to add to The Odyssey. (more…)