Category: eezee lisseneen

Elvis joins the Army just in time for Ike to invade The Caribbean and The Middle East. Mao and Kruschev are talking…but that Pasternak book Dr. Zhivago makes them Reds seem nice enough.

So, we’re rocking the world, am i right?

Well, Exhibit A: “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee (Teresa Brewer does a perfunctory pass at it as well) seems to indicate so.

And The Stanley Brothers take country to the rock with “Christmas Time is Near.”

Big band maestro Hugo Winterhaller jazzes up ‘Merry Christmas’ with some Samba ferality in his “Christmas Cha Cha.” This ain’t your grampa’s dance music!

But then there’s radio/TV hostess Ruth Lyons. She had been introducing big bands and hosting her own shows (like Petticoat Partyline and The 50/50) while she’s been songwrighting. But the wax she drops this year, including “Let’s Light the Christmas Tree,” “Hey Nonny Nonny,”  and “Christmas is Getting Mighty Close” sounds pretty old fashioned.

Oh yeah, and who’s still selling Christmas music in 1958? Bing Crosby. Yeah, i know! Check out his polka-like daddy-kins vocalism “Just What I Wanted for Christmas.” Yeah, he wants the thought (that’s what counts), but he really wants you shopping. He does, you know.

1954: the Hydrogen bomb is tested and beats the atomic bomb squared. Joseph McCarthy is finally and fully censured. The Lord of the Flies and The Lord of the Rings get published. Both Ed Sullivan (Toast of the Town) and Steve Allen (The Tonight Show) get televised.

And Bill Haley and the Comets drop ‘Rock Around the Clock.’

It’s a new age.

Even the total squares of (British) pop like Alma Cogan are getting jazzy with the likes of “Christmas Cards.” It’s Glen Miller-ish, but portends girlish rock breakouts like Cathy Carr and Dodie Stevens.

The churchified country of Eddy Arnold in “Christmas Can’t Be Far Away” smacks of soulful singing like what Elvis will do. Not just gospel, but hopeful.

All that progress… despite the honky tonk whining of Sonny James in “Christmas in My Hometown.” In a couple years this Chet Atkins discovery would crossover to #1 on the pop charts (with ‘Young Love’), but for now his hillbilly dread dirge will help keep country in the outhouse.

“Christmas Bells” reveals that those who should have been breakouts, like Patti (1950’s ‘Tennessee Waltz’) Page, continued to get stuck in Lawrence Welk-y tame, lame, same ol’ same ol’. That’s a beat you can sleep to.

Arthur Godfrey’s pet sirens, The McGuire Sisters, never became the Andrew Sisters, who were pretty hip. Their “Give Me Your Heart for Christmas” hearkens backward to the ’40s pretty hard.

’54’s official Christmas Seals song “The Spirit of Christmas” by Kitty Kallen is pretty tired and by the numbers as well. I feel like it’s got subliminal tryptophan in the lyrics.

Worst of all this year, Rosemary Clooney drawls out syrup for young and uncool alike with “Let’s Give a Present to Santa Claus.” She was there, man, with 1951’s ‘Come on-a My House,’ but in ’54 she’s backsliding making the movie ‘White Christmas’ with Bing and Danny Kaye. Bored now. Want to rock.

 

Who even cares what’s going on in the world?! Stalin dies, but USSR has the bomb. Hillary (+ Norgay) tops Mt. Everest, but we ‘don’t win’ the Korean War. Hemingway wins a Pulitzer Prize. Gah!

What matter is this is the year of “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” by Gail Peevey. And “Christmas Dragnet” by Stan Freberg. And “‘Zat You, Santa Claus?” by Louis Armstrong. And “Santa Baby” by Ertha Kitt. Wowza. The novelties of ’53 are standards of today.

The new holiday pop songs by big stars that should have become standards are largely forgettable. And so is singer Joni James. Signed to MGM pretty much right out of high school she hit big with ‘Why Don’t You Believe Me?’ in 1952 (no later hit would make it to #1). In 1953 she made the top ten with ‘My Love, My Love.’ Her Christmas entry “Christmas and You” b/w “Nina Non (A Christmas Lullaby)” only snailed up to #27. But, hey, it’s in French!

Peggy Lee spent the 1940s with the Benny Goodman band, even married one of the players. But her 1953 wad of corn “It’s Christmas Time Again” is not a hit. You’ve gotta wait until 1960 when a later Advent album of hers has terrific original numbers.

Rosemary Clooney already got some play for 1951’s ‘Suzy Snowflake.’ And her ’50s kiddie songs  (like ‘Punky Punkin’ and ‘Eggbert the Easter Rabbit’) do seem child-unfriendly scary in the worst way. Later this decade she’ll explode with adult fare such as ‘Come On-a My House’ and ‘Mambo Italiano.’ 1953’s condescending smarm is “Happy Christmas, Little Friend.” That’s what Scarface’s mama sang to him, no?

Dean Martin’s been recording since ’46. Here in ’53 he hits big with ‘That’s Amore.’ But he’s still saddled with Jerry Lewis in movies and onstage.  His “The Christmas Blues” this year captures the slick persona that will help his solo career later in the decade. This fusion of pop and blues (what some will label lounge music) sung with his crooning yodel will help rock and rollers yet to come to learn how to evoke girlish screeches of glee. (Sorry about the newer version.)

The traditional songs get strong play this year (Rosemary Clooney and Gene Autry sing ‘The Night Before Christmas’ rather than recite it–finally). But Christmas is taking on a whole new feel: romance. Sure some of that jazz and doo wop has been insinuating sex for a while, but we have got to get a genre going. Frank Loesser’s ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’ started something in 1949 (everyone from Ricardo Montalbano to Bob Hope to [my favorite] Homer & Jethro [with June Carter] recorded it that year).

Love godlet Eddie Fisher alternately belts and croons JUST FOR YOU with “You’re All I Want for Christmas.” Flipside “Christmas Day” is smooove as well, but it seems to be more about Mommy than amore.

Stern looking Jo Stafford (‘You Belong to Me’) and Mr. Rhythm Frankie Laine (‘High Noon [Do Not Forsake Me]’) collaborated on this fun and flirty swing duo “Christmas Roses.” Did it start a new gift-giving craze? Dunno, but it’s sounding like rock ‘n’ roll is around the corner.

LA DJs Kevin and Bean don’t exactly turn me on, but they occasionally sniff out a good piece of parody.

Their 1998 compilation Santa’s Swinging’ Sack came out the year Ol’ Blue Eyes passed on. Ergo, ‘Ralph Sinatra’ singing “Christmas When You”re Dead.” Yeah, i laughed. And i’m glad. (No imagery here: that seems about right.)

American folk-singer and humorist, Loudon Snowden Wainwright III (that ‘Dead Skunk (In the Middle of the Road)’ guy) delivers on the 2nd Amendment and our God-given right to kill just like in the video games with a sweet Nat King Cole kinda tune. Remember, ammo means I Love You in Latin.