In 1847 Placide, a French wine merchant and an amateur poet was asked to write a Christmas poem by a local parish priest. Shortly afterward Cappeau traveled to Paris on a business trip and about halfway through his journey, he had the inspiration for the poem Minuit, Chretiens (“Midnight Christians”). When Cappeau arrived in Paris, he took it to the composer Adolphe Adam, a friend of a friend. Adam, who specialized in light opera, is best remembered today for the ballet Giselle. He wrote the tune in a few days and the hymn was played for the first time at midnight mass that Christmas Eve back in his home town of Roquemaure. The carol was frowned upon by church authorities, who denounced it for lack of musical taste and “total absence of the spirit of religion.” Many churchmen felt that Adam, a composer of light operatic works and ballets, was an inappropriate composer of a religious song. However within a few years, the carol was being translated into other languages and in 1855, an American Unitarian clergyman John Sullivan Dwight, the editor of Dwight’s Journal of Music, translated it into English, calling it “O Holy Night.”
This carol has the distinction of being the first song ever to be played live on a radio broadcast. On December 24, 1906, a Canadian inventor, Reginald Fessenden, broadcast one of the first-ever AM radio programs, and the first-ever to feature entertainment and music for a general audience, from his Brant Rock, Massachusetts station. After playing Handel’s “Largo” on an Ediphone phonograph, he proceeded to play “O Holy Night” on his violin, singing the last verse as he played. He finished the broadcast by reading various passages from the Gospel of Luke, before wishing his listeners a Merry Christmas.
From Songfacts
In a 2006 poll of over 37,000 listeners, the British classical music radio station Classic FM voted this carol as the UK’s Christmas favorite.
In the first ever Official Carols Chart by the Official Charts Company in December 2009, it was revealed this is the most downloaded carol in the UK. Runner up was “Silent Night”, followed by “Once In Royal David’s City” in third place. Official Charts Company MD Martin Talbot commented: “The fact that ‘O Holy Night’ has beaten more familiar carols such as ‘Silent Night’ and ‘Away In A Manger’ is something of a surprise, although its success is driven by the fact that popular mainstream singers such as Celine Dion, Aled Jones and Katherine Jenkins have recorded new versions over recent years.”
The carol entered the UK singles chart for the first time in 2012 with a version by the children of Ladywell Primary School in Motherwell, Scotland. Proceeds from their single went to meningitis charities and it was recorded in memory of a 6-year-old classmate who died from the illness.
I have found that many people add and subtract lyrics…here are three different versions.
O Holy Night
O holy night, the stars are brightly shining It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth Long lay the world in sin and error pining Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn Fall on your knees; oh, hear the angel voices O night divine, O night when Christ was born
O night divine O night O night divine Night divine
This song is actually Hynde’s tribute to guitarist and founding band member James Honeyman-Scott, who died of a drug overdose in 1982 at the age of 25.
“2000 Miles” was released as a single in December of 1983 and appeared as the 10th track of The Pretenders’ Learning to Crawl album. The single was popular in the UK, where it peaked at #15 on the UK Singles Chart. Learning to Crawl peaked at #5 in the Billboard 200 albums chart.
In 2014, while finishing up her album Stockholm, Hynde collaborated with Bjorn Yttling on an updated version of “2000 Miles. It was released as a Christmas single in the UK that December.
2000 Miles
He’s gone two thousand miles It’s very far The snow is falling down Gets colder day by day I miss you The children will sing He’ll be back at Christmas timeIn these frozen and silent nights Sometimes in a dream you appear Outside under the purple sky Diamonds in the snow sparkle Our hearts were singing It felt like Christmas timeTwo thousand miles Is very far through the snow I’ll think of you Wherever you go
He’s gone two thousand miles It’s very far The snow is falling down Gets colder day by day I miss you
I can hear people singing It must be Christmas time I hear people singing It must be Christmas time
The cartoon was released in 1966 and has been shown every year since. This one along with Rudolph, Charlie Brown, and a few more were a part of Christmas. These specials would prime you for the big day.
One cool thing about the cartoon was that Boris Karloff was the narrator. Thurl Ravenscroft (voice of Tony the Tiger) sang the great song “You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch. ”
The citizens of Whoville looked and acted like the others of Dr. Suess’s universe. They were all getting ready for Christmas while a certain someone…or thing looked down from Mt. Crumpit. The Grinch has hated Christmas for years and sees the Whovillians getting ready for Christmas and is determined once and for all to put an end to it.
He dresses up as Santa Clause and makes his poor dog Max act as a reindeer to swoop down and steal Christmas. The Grinch sleds down the hill almost killing Max and they soon reach Whoville. He is busted by one kid…Cindy Lou Who, who asks him questions as the Grinch took her family tree. He lies to her and sends her to bed.
In the morning after he has everything including “The Roast Beast,” he listens for the sorrow to begin.
You need to watch the rest or rewatch…
A live-action remake came out in 2000 but I still like this one the best. You cannot replicate Boris Karloff.
The Budget – Coming in at over $300,000, or $2.2 million in today’s dollars, the special’s budget was unheard of at the time for a 26-minute cartoon adaptation. For comparison’s sake, A Charlie Brown Christmas’s budget was reported as $96,000, or roughly $722,000 today (and this was after production had gone $20,000 over the original budget).
You’re a mean one Mr. Grinch The famous voice actor and singer, best known for providing the voice of Kellogg’s Tony the Tiger, wasn’t recognized for his work in How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Because of this, most viewers wrongly assumed that the narrator of the special, Boris Karloff, also sang the piece in question. Upset by this oversight, Geisel personally apologized to Ravenscroft and vowed to make amends. Geisel went on to pen a letter, urging all the major columnists that he knew to help him rectify the mistake by issuing a notice of correction in their publications.
Mr Grinch
You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch You really are a heel You’re as cuddly as a cactus You’re as charming as an eel Mr. Grinch You’re a bad banana with a greasy black peel You’re a monster, Mr. Grinch Your heart’s an empty hole Your brain is full of spiders You’ve got garlic in your soul, Mr Grinch I wouldn’t touch you with a Thirty-nine and a half foot pole
You’re a vile one, Mr. Grinch You have termites in your smile You have all the tender sweetness of a seasick crocodile Mr Grinch Given the choice between the two of you I’d take the seasick crocodile
You’re a foul one, Mr. Grinch You’re a nasty wasty skunk Your heart is full of unwashed socks Your soul is full of gunk Mr Grinch
The three best words that best describe you Are as follows, and I quote” Stink Stank Stunk
You’re a rotter Mr Grinch You’re the king of sinful sots Your heart’s a dead tomato splotched with moldy purple spots Mr Grinch
Your soul is an appalling dump heap Overflowing with the most disgraceful Assortment of deplorable rubbish imaginable Mangled up in tangled up knots
You nauseate me, Mr Grinch With a nauseous super nos You’re a crooked jerky jockey and You drive a crooked horse Mr Grinch
You’re a three-decker sauerkraut And toadstool sandwich With arsenic sauce
I always have wondered where certain pop culture items have gone. Where is the “M” hanging on the wall in Mary Tyler Moore Show (she actually kept that), Fonzie’s leather jacket (Smithsonian), the original model of the Starship Enterprise (Again Smithsonian), the… well you get the point.
I like collecting seventies items. The Partridge Family bus would be one of the ultimate things to collect. It would be nice to find it somewhere on an old farm…but it is most likely lost to time. There are two known explanations for what happened to it.
One story is… it was last seen behind “Lucy’s Tacos” in LA in 1987. It supposedly was in the back parking lot. Then it was towed away to a junkyard into history.
But… I still have hope! Some have said the bus at Lucy’s Taco was a replica of the original because the make and model of the bus didn’t jive with the one on the show. There was only one bus…they changed the interior a bit during the later seasons but just one bus was used.
Others say it was painted white and used in a short-lived tv series called Apple’s Way in 1974. Most likely it’s gone to pop culture heaven…You never know though…somewhere it could still be out there.
What would I do with it? Tour America in the bus picking up fellow bloggers on the way? Dig up Tiger Beat magazines and look for Susan Dey? I have no clue…The closest I’ll ever get to it is this.
I know what I was doing on November 30, 1977. I was watching Merrie Olde Christmas special as a kid. I didn’t appreciate the weirdness of the combination of Bing Crosby and David Bowie at the time. Something that the seventies did well and sometimes bad…was to intersect generations on variety shows. This one was a good combination.
This special had guest stars Twiggy, David Bowie, Ron Moody, Stanley Baxter, and The Trinity Boys Choir. It was the duet with Bing Crosby and David Bowie that has been remembered. I remember watching this knowing that Bing Crosby had died the month earlier. The duet was taped on September 11, 1977, and Crosby died on October 14, 1977.
David Bowie’s mother was a huge Bing Crosby fan and Bing Crosby’s children were big David Bowie fans…so the two agreed to sing together. It was questionable at first if it would work out.
Mary Crosby: “The doors opened and David walked in with his wife,” she recalled. “They were both wearing full-length mink coats, they have matching full makeup and their hair was bright red. We were thinking, ‘Oh my god.'” Nathaniel Crosby, Bing’s son, added: “It almost didn’t happen. I think the producers told him to take the lipstick off and take the earring out. It was just incredible to see the contrast.”
Another possible hitch happened with Bowie. He didn’t like The Little Drummer Boy and refused to sing it. The writers then wrote a revised version of the song that he liked. They wrote a counterpart section for Bowie to sing. Crosby liked the challenge of his part. The rest is history and one of the most unusual pairings you will ever see…
One funny part is Bowie’s idea of “older fellas” at the time is John Lennon and Harry Nilsson.
The Little Drummer Boy (Peace On Earth)
Come they told me pa-rum-pum-pum-pum A newborn king to see pa-rum-pum-pum-pum Our finest gifts we bring pa-rum-pum-pum-pum Rum-pum-pum-pum, rum-pum-pum-pum
[Verse 2: Bowie and Crosby] Peace on Earth can it be? Come they told me pa-rum-pum-pum-pum Years from now, perhaps we’ll see? A newborn king to see pa-rum-pum-pum-pum See the day of glory Our finest gift we bring pa-rum-pum-pum-pum See the day, when men of good will To lay before the king pa-rum-pum-pum-pum Live in peace, live in peace again Rum-pum-pum-pum, Rum-pum-pum-pum Peace on Earth So to honour him pa-rum-pum-pum-pum Can it be When we come
[Bridge: Bowie and Crosby in unison] Every child must be made aware Every child must be made to care Care enough for his fellow man To give all the love that he can
[Verse 4: Bowie and Crosby] I pray my wish will come true Little baby pa-rum-pum-pum-pum For my child and your child too I stood beside him there pa-rum-pum-pum-pum He’ll see the day of glory I played my drum for him pa-rum-pum-pum-pum See the day when men of good will I played my best for him pa-rum-pum-pum-pum Live in peace, live in peace again Rum-pum-pum-pum, rum-pum-pum-pum Peace on Earth Me and my drum Can it be
This is a reblog from last year but… history hasn’t changed. This is fast becoming my favorite rock Christmas song second only to John Lennon’s Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
This is one that I haven’t heard as much but if you live in the UK you probably have heard it MANY times. This is a great Christmas song that was released in 1973 and ever since it re-enters the charts every December in the UK. The song never hit in America but it went to #1 in the UK Charts. I first heard it on a Doctor Who episode in the mid-2000s and have liked it ever since.
This went straight in at #1 in the UK, selling over 300,000 copies on the day of its release, making it at the time the fastest ever selling record in Britain. It eventually became Slade’s best-ever selling single in the UK, selling over a million copies.
In the UK this has become a standard, and it is usually reissued in its original form each Christmas. On several occasions, the song has re-entered the Top 40.
UK copyright collection society and performance rights organization PRS For Music estimated in 2009 that 42 percent of the earth’s population has heard this tune.
The song was written by Noddy Holder and Jim Lea of Slade. It was produced by Chas Chandler formerly of the Animals.
From Songfacts.
This was based on a psychedelic song, “My Rocking Chair,” which Noddy Holder wrote in 1967. In 1973 the Slade vocalist decided to convert it into a Christmas song after a night out drinking at a local pub. He and the band’s bass player and co-writer Jimmy Lea camped out at Noddy’s mother’s house and got down to changing the lyrics to make them more Christmassy. Jimmy Lea incorporated into the verse parts of another song which he was then writing and Noddy re-wrote the words incorporating different aspects of the Christmas holiday season as they came to mind.
When Noddy Holder wrote the line “Look to the future now, it’s only just begun,” he had in mind the strikes that were blighting Britain at the time. He told the Daily Mail On Sunday November 10, 2007: “We’d decided to write a Christmas song and I wanted to make it reflect a British family Christmas. Economically, the country was up the creek. The miners had been on strike, along with the gravediggers, the bakers and almost everybody else. I think people wanted something to cheer them up – and so did I. That’s why I came up with the line.”
The harmonium used on this is the same one that John Lennon used on his Mind Games album, which was being recorded at the studio next door.
This was recorded at the Record Plant studios in New York while the band were on a tour of the States in the summer of 1973. When they recorded the vocals, they sang the chorus on the stairs in order to achieve the echo that they required. Guitarist Jimmy Lea recalled to Uncut magazine in 2012: “All these Americans were walking past in their suits thinking we were off our rockers singing about Christmas in the summer.”
Producer Chas Chandler opened the song with a howl recorded during some of Noddy Holder’s vocal exercises.
A few months before Slade recorded this song, drummer Don Powell was badly injured in a car crash. Though his physical recovery was quick, the mental scars took longer to heal. Noddy Holder explained to The Daily Mail December 18, 2009: “The doctors told us to get him playing drums again as soon as possible to boost his confidence. But he was suffering from short-term memory loss – he could remember our old songs, but not the new ones. So, instead of recording live, we built up Merry Xmas Everybody layer by layer. That gave it a more poignant, restrained sound. It was something new for us. But the fates were with us and it became our biggest hit.”
Noddy Holder explained to Q magazine January 2013 how the song was originally inspired by The Beatles: “I wrote the original verse with the lyrics, ‘Buy me a rocking chair, I’ll watch the world go by. Bring me a mirror, I’ll look you in the eye,’ in 1967 in the aftermath of The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper,” he said. I was being psychedelic. Dave (Hill) wrote another part to the song but it didn’t work so we put it away. Then in 1973 he remembered my verse one day when we were trying to write a Christmas single. We changed the words to, ‘Are you hanging up your stocking on the wall?’ and the rest fell into place.”
Noddy Holder’s earliest childhood memory served as inspiration for one of the song’s lines. He recalled to the Mail On Sunday’s Live magazine: “As a lad we used to knock sleds with old orange boxes and go tobogganing down this big old quarry in the snow at Christmas. It was the inspiration for the line ‘are you hoping that the snow will start to fall.'”
I want that hat he starts off with… in this video…very subtle.
Merry Christmas Everybody
Are you hanging up a stocking on your wall? It’s the time that every Santa has a ball Does he ride a red nosed reindeer? Does a ‘ton up’ on his sleigh Do the fairies keep him sober for a day?
Chorus: So here it is merry Christmas Everybody’s having fun Look to the future now It’s only just begun
Are you waiting for the family to arrive? Are you sure you got the room to spare inside? Does your granny always tell ya that the old are the best? Then she’s up and rock ‘n’ rollin’ with the rest
Chorus: So here it is merry Christmas Everybody’s having fun Look to the future now It’s only just begun
What will your daddy do When he sees your Mama kissin’ Santa Claus? Ah ah
Are you hanging up a stocking on your wall? Are you hoping that the snow will start to fall? Do you ride on down the hillside in a buggy you have made? When you land upon your head then you’ve been slayed
Chorus (4x) So here it is merry Christmas Everybody’s having fun Look to the future now It’s only just begun
Two FBI agents assigned to investigate cases for which there may be only paranormal explanations. Hailed by critics, the show was one of the network’s top-rated shows.
The show was heavily influenced by Kolchak, Twilight Zone, and Twin Peaks.
The X-Files was a show I didn’t miss in the 1990s. It was a superbly written science fiction show along with likable characters…Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. The series combined drama, science fiction, comedy, and an ongoing storyline. You could say the X-Files help define the 90s.
This episode won two Emmy Awards: Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series (Peter Boyle), and Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series.
The X-Files – Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose
The Characters: Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, Clyde Bruckman, The Puppet (as Stu Charno), Detective Cline, Detective Havez, Tarot Dealer, Madame Zelmas, Clerk
The Stupendous Yappi, Young Husband, and Photographer
The writers got the name “Clyde Bruckman” from a comedy writer that wrote for Buster Keaton in the 20s. He later fell on hard times and committed suicide in 1955.
Scully and Mulder are called into the investigation of a series of murders where the victims were all psychics of some sort. A tea leaf reader, tarot card reader and palm reader are all the apparent victims of a serial killer. The local police have brought in a well-known TV psychic that Mulder finds laughable. He does come across Clyde Bruckman, an insurance salesman who may be a genuine psychic. While Scully is appropriately skeptical, Mulder realizes that Bruckman can only see one thing – how people will die.
Clyde Bruckman is a grumpy old man with psychic powers that show him how someone will die assists the agents with the hunt for a crazed killer who targets psychics. He also cryptically reveals to Mulder and Scully their own ultimate fates
My favorite Christmas song hands down. Yea I’m biased because I am a Beatles fan but this one is great. John’s voice goes so well with this song. The song peaked at #2 in the UK charts in 1971….the song did peak at #42 in the Billboard 100 in 2019.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono wrote this in their New York City hotel room and recorded it during the evening of October 28 and into the morning of the 29th, 1971 at the Record Plant in New York. It was released in the US for Christmas but didn’t chart. The next year, it was released in the UK, where it did much better, charting at #2. Eventually, the song became a Christmas classic in America, but it took a while.
I think of High School when I hear this song. Our school had a Christmas poster contest and a buddy and I made a poster as a joke and wrote “So this is Christmas and what have you done another year over, and a new one just begun” and won first prize…with an assist from John.
From Songfacts.
John and Yoko spent a lot of time in the late ’60s and early ’70s working to promote peace. In 1969, they put up billboards in major cities around the world that said, “War is over! (If you want it).” Two years later this slogan became the basis for this song when Lennon decided to make a Christmas record with an anti-war message. John also claimed another inspiration for writing the song: he said he was “sick of ‘White Christmas.'”
The children’s voices are the Harlem Community Choir, who were brought in to sing on this track. They are credited on the single along with Yoko and The Plastic Ono Band.
Lennon and Ono produced this with the help of Phil Spector. Spector had worked on some of the later Beatles songs and also produced Lennon’s “Instant Karma.” It was not Spector’s first foray into Christmas music: he and his famous session stars (including a 17-year-old Cher) spent six weeks in the summer of 1963 putting together A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector, featuring artists like The Ronettes and Darlene Love. Unfortunately, the album was released on November 22, 1963, which was the same day US president John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The album sold poorly as America was focused on news of the killing.
This was originally released on clear green vinyl with Yoko Ono’s “Listen, The Snow Is Falling” as the B-side.
At the beginning of the song, two whispers can be heard. Yoko whispers: “Happy Christmas, Kyoko” (Kyoko Chan Cox is Yoko’s daughter with Anthony Cox) and John whispers: “Happy Christmas, Julian” (John’s son with Cynthia). >>
This being a Phil Spector production, four guitarists were brought in to play acoustic guitars: Hugh McCracken (who had recently played on the Paul McCartney album Ram), Chris Osbourne, Stu Scharf and Teddy Irwin. According to Richard Williams, who was reporting on the session for Uncut, when Lennon taught them the song, he asked them to “pretend it’s Christmas.” When one of the guitarists said he was Jewish, John told him, “Well, pretend it’s your birthday then.”
As for the other personnel, Jim Keltner played drums and sleigh bells, Nicky Hopkins played chimes and glockenspiel. Keltner and Hopkins were part of Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band, and a third member, Klaus Voorman, was supposed to play bass on this track, but got stuck on a flight from Germany. One of the guitarists brought in for the session covered the bass – which one nobody seems to remember.
John Lennon was shot and killed less than three weeks before Christmas in 1980. The song was re-released in the UK on December 20 of that year, reaching #2 (held off the top spot by “There’s No One Quite Like Grandma” by St. Winifred’s School Choir). It made the UK Top 40 again in 1981 (#28), 2003 (#32) and 2007 (#40). Also in 2003, a version sung by the finalists of the singing competition Pop Idol reached #5.
The Fray were the first to chart with this song in America, reaching #50 in 2006; Sarah McLachlan’s version went to #107 that same year. Other artists to cover it include The Alarm, The Cranes, The December People, and Melissa Etheridge (in a medley with “Give Peace a Chance”).
The Australian artist Delta Goodrem also covered it in 2003, taking it to #1 in her native country as a double-A-side single with “Predictable.”
Though now a Christmas standard, Lennon originally penned this as a protest song about the Vietnam War, and the idea “that we’re just as responsible as the man who pushes the button. As long as people imagine that somebody’s doing it to them and that they have no control, then they have no control.”
This didn’t appear on an album until 1975, when it was included on Lennon’s Shaved Fish singles compilation. Most Christmas songs are compiled with other songs of the season, but Shaved Fish listeners got to hear it year round.
Happy Xmas (War is Over)
(Happy Christmas Kyoko) (Happy Christmas Julian)
So this is Christmas And what have you done Another year over And a new one just begun And so this is Christmas I hope you have fun The near and the dear one The old and the young
A very Merry Christmas And a happy new year Let’s hope it’s a good one Without any fear
And so this is Christmas For weak and for strong For rich and the poor ones The world is so wrong And so happy Christmas For black and for white For yellow and red ones Let’s stop all the fight
A very Merry Christmas And a happy new year Let’s hope it’s a good one Without any fear
And so this is Christmas And what have we done Another year over A new one just begun And so happy Christmas We hope you have fun The near and the dear one The old and the young
A very Merry Christmas And a happy new year Let’s hope it’s a good one Without any fear War is over, if you want it War is over now
This is a very good pop song. A folk singer named John Stewart wrote this song. Stewart was a member of The Kingston Trio from 1961 to 1967, and he wrote this shortly after leaving the group and teaming up with John Denver.
It had been turned down by We Five and Spanky and Our Gang, and even Davy Jones was not sure about recording the song. The song peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #1 in New Zealand, #5 in the UK, and #1 in Canada in 1967. Davy Jones said it was his favorite Monkees song.
It was on the album The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees released in 1968. The album peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100 in 1968.
This was the Monkees’ last #1 single. It was soon knocked out of the #1 spot by The Beatles “Hello Goodbye.”
From Songfacts
In 1968, Stewart became the official musician of the Democratic party, which involved traveling with Senator Robert Kennedy during his Presidential campaign. In 1979 he had a Top 5 US hit with “Gold.”
John Stewart died on January 19, 2008 from a massive stroke. In a letter posted on the Kingston Trio site, Stewart’s close friend Tom Delisle wrote: “John Stewart leaves a compilation of musical excellence unparalleled in his time. He recorded over 45 solo albums following his seven years in the Kingston Trio, 1961-67. He worked all the way up to the time of his death, having recently completed his latest as-yet untitled album. It is estimated that he wrote more than 600 unique and highly personal songs, many of them constituting a modern musical history of his beloved America.”
The song was covered by Anne Murray in 1979. Her version reached #3 on the US Country chart and #12 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The song returned to the Hot 100 for a third time in 1986 when a re-tooled version by the reunited Monkees peaked at #79.
A version by Olivia Newton-John appears in the 2011 movie A Few Best Men, in which she also has a role.
To appease their record label, the Monkees had to make one small change to Stewart’s lyrics. The group’s drummer Micky Dolenz explained: “As we sing it, there’s a line, ‘Now, you know how happy I can be.’ John wrote, ‘Now, you know how funky I can be.’ But the music department said, ‘The Monkees are not singing the word ‘funky.” [Laughs] Funky meant oily, and greasy, and sexy – and they weren’t going to have us say it.”
Daydream Believer
7-A What number is this to? 7-A Okay, don’t get excited man, it’s ’cause I’m short, I know
Oh, I could hide ‘neath the wings Of the bluebird as she sings The six-o’clock alarm would never ring But six rings and I rise Wipe the sleep out of my eyes The shaving razor’s cold and it stings
Cheer up sleepy Jean Oh, what can it mean to a Daydream believer and a Homecoming queen?
You once thought of me As a white knight on his steed Now you know how happy I can be Oh, our good time starts and ends Without all I want to spend But how much, baby, do we really need?
Cheer up sleepy Jean Oh, what can it mean to a Daydream believer and a Homecoming queen?
Cheer up sleepy Jean Oh, what can it mean to a Daydream believer and a Homecoming queen?
Cheer up sleepy Jean Oh, what can it mean to a Daydream believer and a Homecoming queen?
Cheer up sleepy Jean Oh, what can it mean to a Daydream believer and a Homecoming queen?
Here is a rocker by the Ramones to make your Christmas wonderful…and don’t fight!
This song was released in 1989 and was on the album Brain Drain. The album peaked at #41 in the Billboard 100 and #75 in the UK in 1989.
It is the last Ramones release to feature bassist/lyricist/vocalist Dee Dee Ramone, the first to feature Marky Ramone since his initial firing from the band after 1983’s Subterranean Jungle and the band’s last studio album on Sire Records.
I’ll revisit power-pop next year.
Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight Tonight)
Merry Christmas, I don’t want to fight tonight with
Merry Christmas, I don’t want to fight tonight Merry Christmas, I don’t want to fight tonight Merry Christmas, I don’t want to fight tonight with you
Where is Santa at his sleigh? Tell me why is it always this way? Where is Rudolph? Where is Blitzen, baby? Merry Christmas, merry merry merry Christmas
All the children are tucked in their beds Sugar-plum fairies dancing in their heads Snowball fighting, it’s so exciting baby
I love you and you love me And that’s the way it’s got to be I loved you from the start ‘Cause Christmas ain’t the time for breaking each other’s heart
Where is Santa at his sleigh? Tell me why is it always this way? Where is Rudolph? Where is Blitzen, baby? Merry Christmas, merry merry merry Christmas
All the children are tucked in their beds Sugar-plum fairies dancing in their heads Snowball fighting, it’s so exciting baby
Ay yeah yeah yeah
I love you and you love me And that’s the way it’s got to be I knew it from the start ‘Cause Christmas ain’t the time for breaking each other’s heart
Merry Christmas, I don’t want to fight tonight with Merry Christmas, I don’t want to fight tonight with Merry Christmas, I don’t want to fight tonight with you
“Frosty the Snowman,” debuted in 1969. It was by Rankin/Bass Productions, the same company that produced many holiday specials. Most of us had favorite Christmas specials we would watch. Mine was Rudolph, A Charlie Brown Christmas, The Grinch, and this one…Frosty The Snowman.
Narrated by the legend Jimmy Durante, the special involves a magic hat that transforms a snowman, Frosty, into a living being. The magician who owned the hat wants it back now that he knows it contained actual magic, so the kids had to get together and find a way to bring Frosty to the North Pole to keep him from melting. However, once there, Frosty sacrifices himself to warm up the little girl, Karen, who took him to the North Pole. He melts, but Santa Claus explains that Frosty is made out of special Christmas snow and thus can never truly melt. Frosty then comes back to life and everyone has a Merry Christmas.
The song was written in 1950 by Walter “Jack” Rollins and Steve Nelson. They wrote it for Gene Autry, especially, after Autry had such a huge hit with “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” the previous year. It was later recorded by Jimmy Durante as we hear in this wonderful cartoon.
This wasn’t the only animation of Frosty…
In 1954, United Productions of America (UPA) brought Frosty to life in a short cartoon that is little more than an animated music video for a jazzy version of the song. It introduced the characters mentioned in the lyrics visually, from Frosty himself to the traffic cop. The three-minute, black-and-white piece quickly became a holiday tradition in various markets, particularly in Chicago, where it’s been broadcast annually on WGN since 1955.
I would never bet against Bob doing anything. When one of my friends told me at the time that Dylan released a Christmas album…I thought he was kidding. Nope…and I liked it when I heard it.
“Must Be Santa” was written by Hal Moore and Bill Fredericks. The song was first released in 1960 by Mitch Miller. In 2009, Bob Dylan covered Brave Combo’s arrangement as part of his holiday album, Christmas in the Heart.
All of the profits from this album went towards Feeding America, Crisis and the World Food Program. In 2009, Dylan told Bill Flanagan that he had intended to make a Christmas record for sometime: “Yeah, every so often it has crossed my mind. The idea was first brought to me by Walter Yetnikoff, back when he was President of Columbia Records.”
Bob Dylan: “This version comes from a band called Brave Combo. Somebody sent their record to us for our radio show [Theme Time Radio Hour]. They’re a regional band out of Texas that takes regular songs and changes the way you think about them. You oughta hear their version of ‘Hey Jude.'”
From Songfacts
This song is reportedly based on a German drinking game, with the lyrics taking on a ‘call and answer’ structure: “Who’s got a beard/That’s long and white?/Santa’s got a beard/That’s long and white.” Dylan’s version intersperses the names of former US presidents into the list of Santa’s reindeers: “Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen/Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon/Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen/Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton.”
The official video for this was directed by Nash Edgerto and features Dylan singing in a gray wig in the midst of a rather raucous Christmas house party.
Even though Dylan is Jewish, he told Flanagan he never felt left out at Christmastime: “…it’s so worldwide and everybody can relate to it in their own kind of way.” Dylan added his ideal Christmas dinner would consist of “Mashed potatoes and gravy, roast turkey and collard greens, turnip greens, biscuit dressing, corn bread and cranberry sauce.”
Bob Dylan – Must Be Santa
Who’s got a beard that’s long and white? Santa’s got a beard that’s long and white Who comes around on a special night? Santa comes around on a special night
Special Night, beard that’s white
Must be Santa Must be Santa Must be Santa, Santa Claus
Who wears boots and a suit of red? Santa wears boots and a suit of red
Who wears a long cap on his head? Santa wears a long cap on his head
Cap on head, suit that’s red Special night, beard that’s white
Must be Santa Must be Santa Must be Santa, Santa Claus
Who’s got a big red cherry nose? Santa’s got a big red cherry nose
Who laughs this way: “HO HO HO”? Santa laughs this way: “HO HO HO”
HO HO HO, cherry nose Cap on head, suit that’s red Special night, beard that’s white
Must be Santa Must be Santa Must be Santa, Santa Claus
Who very soon will come our way? Santa very soon will come our way
Eight little reindeer pull his sleigh? Santa’s little reindeer pull his sleigh
Reindeer sleigh, come our way HO HO HO, cherry nose Cap on head, suit that’s red Special night, beard that’s white
Must be Santa Must be Santa Must be Santa, Santa Claus
Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton
Reindeer sleigh, come our way HO HO HO, cherry nose Cap on head, suit that’s red Special night, beard that’s white
Must be Santa Must be Santa Must be Santa, Santa Claus Must be Santa Must be Santa Must be Santa, Santa Claus
My favorite song off of John and Yoko’s album Double Fantasy released in 1980. Three singles off of the album made it to the top ten. (Just Like) Starting Over, Woman, and Watching The Wheels which peaked at #10 on the Billboard 100.
This song was John describing his absence from the music scene since 1975. As always he was straightforward and honest. People could not believe he gave up a career to stay at home with his family. Nowadays no one would blink an eye with waiting 5 years for an album. His last album Rock ‘n’ Roll (old rock and roll covers) was released in 1975.
I found this on The Beatles Bible…Engineer Tony Davilio… “Jack” is Jack Douglas the producer
Jack heard this guy named Matthew Cunningham playing dulcimer on the street and he was good. This guy was a real hippie with stringy long hair. He was a typical street musician. They brought him in to play dulcimer on Watching The Wheels. He came in looking pretty spaced out. When you play the dulcimer you sit in that Indian position on the floor. Jack told me, ‘Tony, go out there and make sure he’s in tune.’ So I went over to the piano and plucked out some notes and he kept shaking his head and said, ‘That sounds sour, that’s not in tune,’ but it was. So he’s sitting there playing along with the track and the tape stops. John was standing up in the control room and said something to him over the talkback. Matt squinted his eyes, looking at him, and said, ‘What’s your name?’ And John gets back on the talkback and says ‘My name’s John.’ This guy’s just staring at him and goes, ‘Hi, John.’ And then John says, ‘Hi, Matt’ and then I see them all laughing in there because this guy didn’t know who he was. Apparently, he was the only person in the country who wouldn’t know John Lennon.
From Songfacts
John Lennon wrote this ode to inactivity to explain what he had been up to in the last six years. Until Double Fantasy, his last album was Walls And Bridges, which was released in 1974. He was no longer interested in fame, and dedicated himself to family: his wife Yoko and young son Sean (John became the world’s most famous househusband, baking bread and feeding Sean).
The song makes a statement that taking it easy and spending time with loved ones is anything but crazy. Working way too hard in an attempt to be a productive as possible, on the other hand, can be quite unfulfilling in the end.
The mindset Lennon describes in this song is a stark contrast to his 1973-’74 self, when he embarked on his “lost weekend,” leaving Yoko and engaging in self-destructive behavior. He returned to Yoko in 1975, sinking into domestic life.
Explaining the message of this song after Lennon’s death, Yoko said: “Let’s have that inner space to dream, the dream power.”
Watching The Wheels
People say I’m crazy Doing what I’m doing Well, they give me all kinds of warnings To save me from ruin When I say that I’m okay, well they look at me kinda strange “Surely, you’re not happy now, you no longer play the game”
People say I’m lazy Dreaming my life away Well they give me all kinds of advice Designed to enlighten me When I tell them that I’m doing fine watching shadows on the wall “Don’t you miss the big time boy, you’re no longer on the ball?”
I’m just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round I really love to watch them roll No longer riding on the merry-go-round I just had to let it go
Ah, people ask me questions Lost in confusion Well, I tell them there’s no problem Only solutions Well, they shake their heads and they look at me, as if I’ve lost my mind I tell them there’s no hurry, I’m just sitting here doing time
I’m just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round I really love to watch them roll No longer riding on the merry-go-round
I just had to let it go I just had to let it go I just had to let it go
I really liked this song when it was released in 1997. Unfortunately what it’s remembered for is the royalties and credit that The Verve lost. Lead singer Richard Ashcroft wrote the lyrics but the credits also included Jagger and Richards. Allen Klein owned the publishing rights on all of the Stones songs until 1969.
The song peaked at #12 in the Billboard 100 and #2 in the UK in 1997. The trouble started when the Verve wanted to use a sample, an instrumental version of the Rolling Stones song “The Last Time” that had appeared on an album by the Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra. It sounded nothing like The Last Time and was written by the arranger.
According to the book Allen Klein: The Man Who Bailed Out the Beatles, Made the Stones, and Transformed Rock & Roll, it states that The Verve’s manager offered Klein 15% of the publishing to obtain the rights for the sample. Klein turned him down flat, and when he realized that the Verve were sitting on a hit record they couldn’t release without a deal, he insisted on 100% of the publishing. The Verve gave in, since they really had no choice. Richard Ashcroft, who wrote the lyric, was given a flat fee of $1,000 and had to sign away his rights. “I was put under duress to sign away one of the greatest songs of all time.”
The end result was Klein make an enormous profit on the song every time it was purchased or used in a TV show, movie or commercial. Jagger and Richard still owned a percentage and their name was placed on the song. Jagger and Richards had both a payday and a Grammy nomination for Song of the Year which they had nothing to do with.
But there is a good ending. In 2019 Mick Jagger and Keith Richards signed over all their publishing for Bitter Sweet Symphony, which was the right thing for them to do. Jody Klein (Klein’s son) was part of the process.
Richard Ashcroft said this right after this happened:
It gives me great pleasure to announce as of last month Mick Jagger and Keith Richards agreed to give me their share of the song Bitter Sweet Symphony. This remarkable and life affirming turn of events was made possible by a kind and magnanimous gesture from Mick and Keith, who have also agreed that they are happy for the writing credit to exclude their names and all their royalties derived from the song they will now pass to me.
I would like to thank the main players in this, my management Steve Kutner and John Kennedy, the Stones manager Joyce Smyth and Jody Klein (for actually taking the call) lastly a huge unreserved heartfelt thanks and respect to Mick and Keith.
From Songfacts
At this point in his career, Ashcroft had learned that money and happiness were not synonymous. “People have been sold a lottery dream in life that money solves everyone’s problems,” he said in a Songfacts interview. “Suddenly you’re looking at people and you’re thinking: ‘I know they need X but if I give X then that relationship that should have died years ago is going to carry on and spoil.’ It opens up a myriad of things that you would never normally be thinking about, responsibilities on a new level.”
The famous orchestral riff incorporates a sample from an obscure instrumental version of the 1965 Rolling Stones song “The Last Time” by Stones producer Andrew Loog Oldham, who included it on a 1966 album called The Rolling Stones Songbook (credited to The Andrew Oldham Orchestra). The Verve got permission to use the six-second sample from Decca Records, which owned the Oldham recording, but they also needed permission from the publisher of “The Last Time,” something they didn’t realize until after the album was completed.
So, with Urban Hymns ready to go and “Bitter Sweet Symphony” slated as the first single, Verve manager Jazz Summers tried to secure those rights, which belonged to Allen Klein’s company ABKCO. The Rolling Stones signed a very lopsided contract with Klein, who was their manager, early in their career, and had to make huge concessions in order to get out of it. Part of the deal gave Klein the publishing rights to all of the Stones’ songs they recorded through 1969.
“Try to make ends meet, you’re a slave to money, then you die”
Ashcroft’s father, Frank, was an office clerk, a dissatisfying job that earned him enough to get by. He died suddenly of a brain hemorrhage in 1982 when Richard was 11 and his sisters, Victoria and Laura, were very young.
“He worked nine to five and got nowhere,” Ashcroft told Select. “I immediately realized that wasn’t the life for me.”
The sample used in this song is one of many layers that make up the track. The opening section of the song isn’t a sample – it was arranged by Wil Malone – although it was based on those notes.
Nike used this in commercials as part of their 1998 “I Can” campaign, showing everyday athletes practicing with determination. The Verve were dead set against using their songs in commercials, but they didn’t control the publishing rights to this song: Allen Klein’s ABKCO company did. When ABKCO authorized the song, it gave Nike the right to re-record it with other musicians, so The Verve agreed to let their original recording be used so that wouldn’t happen.
Lyrically, the song stands in stark opposition to the sneaker-selling corporate monolith, but Nike used just the instrumental portion, which was in high demand, as Coca-Cola, Budweiser, and other big companies were vying to use it.
The Verve were reportedly paid $175,000, with ABKCO receiving much more. The group donated the money to the Red Cross Land Mine Appeal.
After the ad started running, the Urban Hymns album got a nice sales bump in America, giving the band lots of additional exposure in that country.
In Europe, the song was used under similar circumstances around the same time in ads for the car company Vauxhall.
This was the only American hit for The Verve, but they were far more popular in their native UK, where their next single, “The Drugs Don’t Work,” went to #1. The band broke up in 1999 and reformed in 2007, releasing the album Forth in 2008. Their previous albums were:
A Northern Soul – Released in 1995, it has a darker side. A Storm In Heaven – Released in 1993, a psychedelic rocker. No Come Down – A collection of the B-sides from A Storm in Heaven, released in 1994.
After Urban Hymns, their lead singer, Richard Ashcroft, launched a successful solo career.
Did you catch the play on words in the title?: Bitter Suite Symphony.
The video shows Ashcroft bumping into people as he walks down Hoxton Street, a crowded shopping area in London. It was inspired by the video for Massive Attack’s 1991 song “Unfinished Sympathy,” which was showed the singer walking down a street in a similar manner. The clip was directed by Walter Stern, who also did Massive Attack’s “Teardrop” promo.
Had The Verve retained publishing rights to this song, there’s a good chance it never would have become a hit in America. That’s because they wouldn’t have allowed it to be used in the Nike commercial, which is what introduced the song there.
The Verve tried to break into the American market in 1992 when they staged a publicity stunt, playing their song “A Man Called Sun” for a few hours from the back of a flatbed truck driving around New York City. But they couldn’t break through in America and put little effort into promoting Urban Hymns there.
When Nike started airing the commercial (it debuted during the NFC Championship game between the San Francisco 49ers and Green Bay Packers on January 11, 1998), radio stations added “Bitter Sweet Symphony” to their playlists, and MTV put the video in rotation. But the song wasn’t released as a single in America until March 10, when it had already peaked in popularity. It debuted at #13 on the Hot 100, peaked at #12 a week later and gradually climbed down the chart over the next 18 weeks.
Because this sampled the song from The Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards got composer credits along with Richard Ashcroft. Upset that he lost the royalties, Ashcroft said this was “The best song Jagger and Richards have written in 20 years.”
This is featured at the pivotal end scene in the 1999 movie Cruel Intentions, where after Sebastian (Ryan Phillippe) dies, his stepsister Kathryn (Sarah Michelle Gellar) gets her comeuppance. It is meant to portray Sebastian’s ups and downs in life: Kathryn’s cruel antics that nearly destroyed him and the beautiful girl (Reese Witherspoon) who showed him how to love and redeemed his life.
According to producer Neal Moritz, the song cost nearly a million dollars to clear, about 10% of their budget. When they found out the cost, they tried many other songs in its place, but none had the same impact.
We have yet to find an explanation why, but the Seattle Seahawks football team has been using this as their theme song since the mid-’00s. The song is certainly not a typical sports anthem, and has nothing to do with Seattle – a city with a rich musical history and many homegrown songs that seem more appropriate.
The Seahawks play the song when coming on to the field, so it could be heard at the three Super Bowls the team made: a loss to the Steelers in 2006, a win against the Broncos in 2014, and a loss to the Patriots in 2015 (the Pats came out to “Crazy Train”).
Details of the legal tussle surrounding this song aren’t clear-cut, as there was no court case to get it on record. It appears that David Whitaker, who did the string arrangement on the orchestral version of “The Last Time” that was sampled, got nothing. Andrew Loog Oldham, who produced that version, got in on the action after “Bitter Sweet Symphony” was released, and it’s unclear if he got a settlement.
As for the publishing rights to the “The Last Time,” those were administrated by ABKCO, but Allen Klein apparently was not the sole owner. According to an article in Mojo magazine, Klein got 9/24ths of the publishing, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards split 9/24ths, and 3/24ths went to Westminster Publishing, who were the Stones publishers early on. The takeaway here is that Jagger and Richards profited from the deal in a big way, which explains why they never had much to say about the lawsuit.
Another wrinkle: “The Last Time” is very similar to a 1955 song by The Staple Singers called “This May Be The Last Time,” but The Stones claimed it as their own.
In a statement released on May 23, 2019, Richard Ashcroft announced that Jagger and Richards had given him back “Bitter Sweet Symphony” royalties and The Stones duo also had their writing credits removed. The announcement coincided with Ashcroft receiving the Outstanding Contribution To British Music prize at the Ivor Novello Awards. Ashcroft says he can finally enjoy the song when he hears it played at football matches.
Bitter Sweet Symphony
Cause it’s a bittersweet symphony this life Trying to make ends meet, you’re a slave to the money then you die. I’ll take you down the only road I’ve ever been down You know the one that takes you to the places where all the veins meet, yeah. No change, I can’t change, I can’t change, I can’t change, but I’m here in my mold, I am here in my mold. But I’m a million different people from one day to the next I can’t change my mold, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
Well I never pray, But tonight I’m on my knees, yeah. I need to hear some sounds that recognize the pain in me, yeah. I let the melody shine, let it cleanse my mind, I feel free now. But the airwaves are clean and there’s nobody singing to me now.
No change, I can’t change, I can’t change, I can’t change, But I’m here in my mold, I am here in my mold. And I’m a million different people from one day to the next I can’t change my mold, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
(Well have you ever been down?) (I can’t change, I can’t change)
Cause it’s a bittersweet symphony this life. Trying to make ends meet, trying to find some money then you die. I’ll take you down the only road I’ve ever been down You know the one that takes you to the places where all the veins meet, yeah. No change, I can’t change, I can’t change, I can’t change, but I’m here in my mold, I am here in my mold. But I’m a million different people from one day to the next I can’t change my mold, no, no, no, no, no, no, no I can’t change my mold, no, no, no, no, no, no, no I can’t change my mold, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
It justs sex and violence melody and silence It justs sex and violence melody and silence (I’ll take you down the only road I’ve ever been down) It’s just sex and violence melody and silence It’s just sex and violence melody and silence It’s just sex and violence melody and silence (I’ll take you down the only road I’ve ever been down) (It’s just sex and violence melody and silence)Been down (Ever been down) (Ever been down) (Ever been down) (Ever been down) (Ever been down)
This is an epic song That was on the Who’s concept album Quadrophenia. The album peaked at #2 in 1973 in the Billboard Album Charts.
This may be Roger Daltrey’s best vocal performance in the Who’s long career. Pete has said he wanted a quiet song but when Roger sang it…it was more of a scream…Pete liked what Roger did and thought it fit the story better.
“Love, Reign o’er Me,” date back to 1972. It was originally intended to be part of the unreleased autobiographical album, Rock Is Dead—Long Live Rock! This later evolved into Quadrophenia.
The song peaked at #76 in the Billboard 100 and #31 in Canada in 1973.
From Songfacts
This is the last track on The Who’s rock opera Quadrophenia. The main character Jimmy suffers from a four-way split personality, with each personality reflecting a member of The Who. This is Pete Townshend’s theme. The personality is described as “A beggar, a hypocrite, love reign over me.”
At the end of the story, Jimmy steals a boat and takes it to a rock out on the sea. What happens out on the rock is described in this song.
Townshend was a follower of the spiritualist Meher Baba. Meher Baba’s teachings were incorporated into some of Townshend’s songs, including this one.
Townshend (from the Quadrophenia liner notes): “(Love, Reign O’er Me) refers to Meher Baba’s one-time comment that rain was a blessing from God; that thunder was God’s Voice. It’s another plea to drown, only this time in the rain. Jimmy goes through a suicide crisis. He surrenders to the inevitable, and you know, you know, when it’s over and he goes back to town he’ll be going through the same s–t, being in the same terrible family situation and so on, but he’s moved up a level. He’s weak still, but there’s a strength in that weakness. He’s in danger of maturing.”
In 2007, Adam Sandler starred in a dramatic film titled after this song, named Reign Over Me. Sandler played a widowed dentist who can only relate to old rock music since losing his family in the September 11th terrorist attacks. The soundtrack of the film featured a cover version of this song by the band Pearl Jam. Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder is a huge Who fan, and has covered many Who songs in the past.
Love Reign O’er Me
Only love Can make it rain The way the beach is kissed by the sea. Only love Can make it rain Like the sweat of lovers’ Laying in the fields.
Only love Can bring the rain That makes you yearn to the sky. Only love Can bring the rain That falls like tears from on high.
Love reign o’er me. On the dry and dusty road The nights we spend apart alone I need to get back home to cool cool rain. I can’t sleep and I lay and I think The nights are hot and black as ink Oh God, I need a drink of cool cool rain.
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