Tag: Bing Crosby

A box of Christmas Crackers.

As promised, here are the rest of my 2022 Christmas Songbook selections for your post-Christmas enjoyment. (C’mon, we can still enjoy these until Epiphany, right?) Minimal commentary, because we’re here for the music, right? So let’s get right into it!

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The Christmas Shoes – FM Static

I think I have exhaustively explained my extreme dislike for Newsong’s hit “The Christmas Shoes.” But as I stated on my “Terrible to Bearable” post back in 2018, FM Static’s version is less awful. So there you go. If you’re a fan of the original, maybe you’ll enjoy the remake. If you hate the original, maybe you’ll hate this less.

Joy to the World – The O.C. Supertones

I just heard this version recently, and man, I love me some Supertones. That’s all.

I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas – Gayla Peevey

It’s terrible, but I love singing along and cheesing it up as much as possible. So sue me. Bless that little girl’s Ethel-Merman-sounding heart.

I Hate Christmas Parties – Relient K

It’s an unbelievably emo Christmas song, and I kinda love it, even if I’m long past my “sad emo boy” phase.

Tennessee Christmas – Amy Grant

This song is forever linked to Christmas for me. I remember my parents playing the vinyl album (and later the cassette) of this record every year. The cover art of Amy in her patterned Christmas sweater with the snowy backdrop is as indelibly burned into my brain as Mariah Carey’s red snowsuit (though obviously for different reasons). Anyway, this is a great track and a Christmas classic.

White Christmas – Bing Crosby

I love this movie, thanks to my wife. And as such, I love this song. Here’s the big finish, and it’s gorgeous.

You Gotta Get Up – Rich Mullins

Any excuse to put Rich Mullins on a list, I’ll take it. This song is great, the album it comes from (A Liturgy, A Legacy, and a Ragamuffin Band) is one of my all-time favorite Christian albums, and the vibe just makes me smile.

I Celebrate the Day – Relient K

Okay, a lot of Relient K on this list, but their Christmas album (Let It Snow, Baby, Let it Reindeer) is pretty much in constant rotation at my house each year. And whatever their current trajectory, this song is worshipful and well done.

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Right, I believe that catches us up. So what now?

I’ll post maybe 1 or 2 more times this week, and then starting next week, my 2023 posting schedule will be probably something like Mondays and Fridays. Maybe I’ll try another posting-every-day streak again in the fall, but for now, let’s set our expectations a bit lower.

I have to say though, I’m proud of myself for posting over 100 times since September 1st. That’s a big deal for me. While I know that the quality of posts has certainly varied, the goal for me was just to publish as much as possible and stretch these neglected muscles. I’m glad to say I’ve started doing that. This month got a bit too busy to do that on a daily clip, but I’m still way ahead of where I was even a year ago in terms of post frequency.

Looking ahead, I’ll definitely be shifting to “less often, but better written” goal. I don’t want to just churn out junk and get random hits. For your sake, dear reader, and for mine, next year will be about going a bit deeper and giving you a better return for your time and attention. All the same, I hope you’ve enjoyed this year’s posts. I have enjoyed the challenge.

Check back Friday for a post about the books I’ve read this year (spoiler: not nearly as many as I would have liked).

Christmas Songbook Day 14*: “Little Drummer Boy”

Let’s start off with the baseline: on its own, when performed in a traditional, choral way, this song gets on my nerves.

The droning bass part of either “Drum, drum, drum, drum” or “pum, pum, pum, pum.” The dragging tempo. The tediousness of the lyric. I just don’t care for it in its basic/classic form.

That said, I don’t hate the idea of the song, so I’m down with versions that change things up. So, here are some of the versions I enjoy the most or have discovered recently that I dig:

Bowie and Bing’s Duet is classic TV and I don’t acknowledge the parody

The pre-song patter is sometimes considered cheesy and unnecessary, but it seems fitting for an era of musical/variety television, so it’s a nice time-capsule of that moment. And I legitimately love the weaving of the two melodies by two master vocalists. I’ll find myself suddenly humming the Bowie part as I’m going through my day. This clip is wholesome and I love it.

For King And Country, because of course

It’s a song about a drummer. It’s practically an international crime not to include these drum-centric songsters. The cinematic nature of the music video is also pretty rad.

Johnny Cash sets his own tempo, you hear me?

It’s so strange, but I still dig it. All the extraneous “pa-rum-pum-pums” are gone, the whole thing’s a little off-kilter, and the image of the little drummer boy opening his mouth to speak and Cash’s voice coming out is just bonkers, and I love it.

ETW – Drummer Boy (from Yo Ho Ho)

Okay, here’s the deal: I love this track for many reasons, but 3 come to mind immediately: 1) You have that nice harmony on the initial chorus, giving you a little Boyz II Men throwback vibe; 2) Once the beat drops, you can clearly hear some Run-DMC influence; and 3) there are a ton of samples from my favorite (and arguably, the best) Christmas movie of all time, It’s a Wonderful Life. While the title track of the album is a lot of fun, I think this one is actually the star at the top of the early-90’s CHH tree.