Here’s one of those categories that gives you a peek into my methodoise la démence. I have a couple songs that are dedicated to the great songsters of novelty Christmas music. These are so meta-quirky that i’ve already included some in my previous posts. But as a micro-sub-genre these are not easy to find… ‘Let’s Sing Merry Christmas to Gene Autry!’–as a song? As if! But i’ve tracked down (at great expense to my psyche) nearly a monthful, both stalker-weird and ironic-iconic fan pieces for or about. Also, look for famous folk beside chanteuses and chanteurs to be celebrated celebs in Christmas songs. Finally, fictional characters get seasons greetings, too (I’m looking at you R2D2). They’ll help pad out the month.
And certainly there is some fun to be had with ‘What if Eminem Did Jingle Bells?’ and the like. But i’ll save those pastiches for another month.
[Sorry–i simply must avoid the political spectrum. Governmental Christmas parodies are shockingly short-lived even if momentarily hilarious (thank you, Capitol Steps, but ‘Happy Holidays, Sarah Palin’ is so over).]
Thus, here is a rerun from a year and a half ago: Betty Johnson with “I Want Eddie Fisher for Christmas.”
Fisher wasn’t just the guy that dumped Debbie Reynolds to become Mr. Elizabeth Taylor V. He wasn’t just Princess Leia’s dad. He was a scream-worthy teen idol between Sinatra and Elvis (and landed a couple cool carols in the ’50s). His only big chart hit was “Sunrise, Sunset” in 1960, after which he supposedly became hideously deformed and disappeared from public view.
One more time–Spike Jones and his Orchestra go all out with Linda Strangis and a cool spoken intro for his “I Want Eddie Fisher for Christmas.” It’s awkward and adorable: you know what that means.