"Coming Down the Chimney Down" Brings Up My Lunch Up

Some of the greatest music in the world has been composed to celebrate Christmas.  Many people insist on ruining that music for the rest of us.

First, it's Christmas music not November/December music.  A radio station in nearby Greencastle started playing Christmas tunes all day long beginning November 1st!  I love fudge, but if I had to eat it non-stop for two months, I'd be more than a little queasy.  "Holly Jolly Christmas" makes me a little queasy as it is.

Second, some artists have the mistaken impression that they can improve Christmas classics by offering different, in some cases radically different stylings of old Christmas classics.  The worst seem to be those who turn songs into something heard at a bad jazz festival.  No one needs a scat version of "Oh Holy Night."  And as for that Manheim Steamroller bunch, they can take "Away in A Manger" and make it sound like the soundtrack for a movie about Patton storming through the Ardennes to rescue the 101st at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge.

Third, Elvis does the version of "Blue Christmas."  You don't.  No one in the store, especially not the poor clerks who have heard the Christmas soundtrack 8 hours a day, every day since Thanksgiving, want to hear you singing along.  Or humming.  Or whistling.

 . . . Oh no!  Even as I write this, the radio is playing that "Happy Holidays" song by Andy Williams that includes the lines "Hoopdee doo and dickory dock, don't forget to hang up your sock; 'cause just exactly at 12 o'clock, he'll be coming down the chimney down."  Excuse me as I have to go beat my head against the wall to make sure that line doesn't stay in it the rest of the day.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Comments

[Anna Kipps]

Yes.. working in the mall and hearing Clay Aiken, Josh Groban and Jessica Simpson sing these horrid renditions on a loop is sometimes really maddening. Santa Baby is the worst song ever! Not a huge fan of "I saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause" either. But then they're all worse when being heard sung over and over again. The classics are always best.. especially when performed by their original composers.

[Austin]

Okay, I have to admit that I like "Santa Baby"; the original by Eartha Kitt (I think). The details aside, I think that we definitely agree on the general principles of Christmas music, Anna!

[Walt]

I dunno, if I was in the 101st, I'd probably find the Manheim Steamroller soundtrack for the movie pretty fetching.