Year-round Yuletide oddities
Go to sleep Xmas Eve… for God!
Mache uptempos “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep” as a grateful prayer for the gifts You bring to me. Nice, but that’s like tipping before the meal. Or it’s not about Christmas, i guess.
Pat Boone adds childhood nostalgia in his “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep,” but his easy listening pits Santa Claus vs. Sandman. So it IS about Christmas.
Libera takes the act to church with the choir performing “When at Night I Go to Sleep.” I have slept there, too.
Too creepy to be a lullaby, Jav Douglass (and friends)’s “Oh, Baby, Don’t Cry” is the go-to-sleep Xmas song you didn’t ask for, but now can’t live without. Inspirational pop harmony.
Too tragic to be a lullaby, The Soldiers send orders to go to sleep in their R+B-adjacent “A Soldier’s Christmas Letter.”
If we all go to sleep, He’ll be quicker now intones the modulator in Slimes Souls’ “Santa’s Factory.” Well, i have it on good authority that’s what’s said. Who can tell? Fidgety pop.
Randall Paskemin uses comedy in “The Rezville Christmas Show” to introduce the Weasels singing “Santa’s Near (Go to Sleep)” for some strange reason i can’t see. It’s all very pop and fresh.
“Go To Sleep Under The Xmas Tree” from Retrospec is also not musical as much as it is a DJing of disparate media bites with unrealized purpose. Weee!
sylviaonthehighway belts out a pop ballad about Santa holding sleep hostage in the first 50 seconds of the epic “I Met Santa.” The remaining ten minutes are silence. It’s a metaphor for life! Go to sleep!
“It’s Finally Christmas Time” by El Domiii is practicing English, but with all the customs in place. Much is made of Santa getting to watch–but not you! Go to bed! Lounge pop.
The Wiggles recommend going to bed and making a wish when “Here Come the Reindeer.” Rock and roll -ish, but what’s the deal with checking out Santa’s belt buckle??
BLUE ALERT! “Go the Fuck to Sleep (Christmas Is Coming)” is Wolf Blitzer (the band)’s attempt to cash in on Adam Mansbach’s runaway bestseller. But the gentle lullaby pop doesn’t threaten just with Santa, but also with Jesus coming to your house. Saw those logs and no one will go to hell.
“Christmasland” by The Tvsjudgejoebrown Band is a bed time journey of experimental design. As a song, it’s a great psychological profile in discourage. I mean, huh?
“Santa’s Night Out” is Fabby Claus getting all excited about who’s coming tonight. This syncopated pop (rap lite) begins with going to bed. Weird, tho.
The Little Black Books (Mark Lindquist, Jim Hagstrom and Bob Olson) lower the boom with Minnesota rock in the awesome “Go to Bed (Santa’s Comin’).”
What do you need before you’ll go to sleep? A story?!
Sawyer Brown realizes on this night of all nights: No bedtime stories — just questions instead. “Where Christmas Goes” is quiet country, almost lulling.
An actual bedtime story from Low-Maintenance Perennials, “Bob Costas and the Magical Christmas Egg (A Bedtime Story)” fills time whilst the wee ones settle down. But this post punk experimental theater has a shocking twist ending.
The Christmas bedtime stories old people tell is just one more thing in the busy “Ornaments” from Christopher Kenny (feat. Valerie Aurelia). Choppy pop.
“Christmas Magic” is the symphonic nasal pop from Adlith Mondejar in which the bedtime stories are all The Christmas Story. A carousel ride of parental emotions. (Black Friday at Target??)
What time is it, kids?! Time for lying inert and unconscious, Buffalo Bob!
Charley Pride borrows some zydeco to jazz up the country in “Santa and the Kids.” If Santa sees you peeking, he’ll just go away! Git them long johns ta bed!
Stevie Wonder’s “Bedtime for Toys” addresses tin soldiers, cotton dollies, even a Mickey Mouse. The inimitable warbler souls out about getting down, getting fast asleep. Listen up, children.
The Dan Collins Band slurringly checks the clock for “Bedtime on Christmas Eve,” a soft pop lullaby of growing impatience.
Is going to bed (Xmas Eve) just one more chore?
Joel of The Mik Maks childsongs his list preparing for night-night, but can’t seem to withstand the Zzzs “Before for Santa Comes.” Narcolepsy dis!
Candles, tree, food… it’s all gotta be done–before bedtime! Last minute carrib-rock from The Real Thing in the form of “Christmas Time.”
The groovy Candy Strypers wash out on all the chores when they “Forgot the Christmas Tree.” But they do remember to go to bed. Fab retro pop from 2023.
Who goes to bed Xmas Eve? You do! Yes, you do, you good boy(s and girls)!
From Pete the Elf comes an obscure 1967 45 from Bill Lamb(?) entitled “Go to Sleep, Little Lambs.” This pedagogical rant puts kids in their place (bed).
Perry Como seems too old to be anything but creepy when he sotto voces the details of children’s bedtimes for “Christmas Eve.” A la la la of an easy listening journey.
Remember? Rob Lord’s “Bag of Coal” only goes to the kids who aren’t good. But our protagonist’s eyelids are getting heavy, so he’ll be okay and NOT get clothes. Pretty indie.
Rita Faye Wilson (as brought to us by John Waters) childishly exhorts us to behold “Sleigh Bells, Reindeer, and Snow.” But you better be good or you won’t see him. Under the covers may not afford much view, but that’s the bluegrass pop deal here.
Speaking of counting, sheep. In Illustrations of Political Economy by Harriet Martineau (1832), the monotony of endless counting is said to occupy the mind, or at least divert the insomniac worrier from fret and allow fatigue to run its course. Since you can’t count sheep backwards (unless wolves are EATING them) like you should for your anesthesiologist, we’ll play this cultural idiom for trying to drowse.
1954’s Peggy King plays the ingenue in “Counting Sheep” this time for Christmas. Big band pop.
The Starshine Singers do the actual numbers in their “Counting Sheep” this time for the Baby King (who is not B.B. King). Kidsong with a sense of humor!
“Counting Sheep” from David Wood’s musical ‘ROCK NATIVITY’ doo wops the crooked crew to lying low. You know, in the fields.
Bing Crosby blesses us with a… song (occasionally included in Xmas albums cuz it’s from a holiday movie) that switcheroos the idea so you’ll “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep.” Same ends, but i only got about three, personally. Big band pop.