Year-round Yuletide oddities
From Murray Head’s Chess album came a single which topped the charts in many countries, including South Africa, West Germany, Switzerland and Australia… peaked at no. 3 in both Canada and the United States… no. 12 in Head’s native United Kingdom.
Look out public–here’s ApologetiX’s “One Night in Betlehem.”
Foreigner’s song entered the U.S. pop charts and reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, holding that spot for the entire month of September… hit #1 on the Billboard Rock Tracks chart also for four weeks… the most successful single from the 4 album on album-oriented rock radio… the album has since been certified multi-platinum by the RIAA, for selling over six million copies in the U.S. alone… the song was Foreigner’s second-best-selling single… reached #1 in Canada… #20 in Sweden… in Australia #24… in the UK #54.
A nod to Jesus’ mama with ApologetiX’s “Virgin.” Mmm hmm.
Tommy Tutone’s surprise hit peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart… #16 on the Billboard Top Tracks chart… mostly known for not being a 555 phone number (and causing nuisance for those with the number).
In a Christmas miracle, Tommy Tutone recorded his own holiday parody.
The Eagles’ the most famous recording by the band has a famously long guitar coda… voted the best guitar solo of all time by readers of Guitarist in 1998… awarded the Grammy Award for Record of the Year… topped the Hot 100 singles chart for one week in May 1977… the band’s fourth song to reach No. 1 on that chart… peaked at number 10 on the Easy Listening chart… Billboard ranked it number 19 on its 1977 Pop Singles year-end chart… three months after its first release, the single was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA),… 2009, the song was further certified Platinum (Digital Sales Award) by the RIAA for sales of one million digital downloads… has since sold over 3 million downloads.
“Hotel Can’t Afford Ya” by ApologetiX seems to be an excuse to hit that guitar solo. Fun.
John Lennon’s introspective wandering was released on the Imagine album in 1971… not released as a single until November 1985, five years after Lennon’s murder, and (four-and-a-half years after Roxy Music’s cover hit number one)… the single reached number 65 in the UK charts… in the United States, the single reached number 80 on the Billboard Hot 100… also peaked at number 22 on the Hot Adult Contemporary chart.
Let’s give Duncan G and Brian the benefit of doubt here taking an odd hit and making it high concept about a regular guy apologizing to St. Nick for his bad roof conditions in their “Careless Guy.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_miZ7f-dNbQ
Neil Diamond’s super smash was completely titled ‘Sweet Caroline (Good Times Never Seemed so Good).’ It hit #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart… eventually went platinum… hit #3 on the US, Easy Listening chart… might’ve been about JFK’s kid… still gets play in Fenway Park, many Irish football games, and cricket.
Joel Kopischke sings a Christmas song about singing Christmas song singing (i’ve got to devote a month to that) in “Sweet Caroling.”
This Paul Simon song is a bugbear for vinyl collectors. Originally released in the Paul Simon Songbook only in the UK, it was later tacked onto The Leaves That are Green with Garfunkle. Station samples were pressed in red with mono on on side and stereo on the other. The single charted to #3 in the Billboard Hot 100. It was my high school girlfriend’s signature song.
The following parody is not exactly holiday themed, but it is seasonal. And Simon and Garfunkle bits are hard to come by. So there. “Polar Bear Anthem” chronicles the wacky antics of those who jump into sub-zero December waters. Thanks, Balderdash & Humbug!
From Sonny and Cher’s debut studio album Look at Us, their single spent three weeks at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States where it sold more than 1 million copies and was certified Gold… also reached number 1 in the United Kingdom and Canada. Kitsch pop music got a big shot in the arm here and has never recovered.
Joel Kopischke goes to town with “I Got Yule Babe” sampling all manner of reindeer games. Have fun!
Here in the mysterious world of novelty music awkward fusions and joke bands are a rare and wonderful thing. No one usually gets them and they die a cover death at airport lounges. But Jack Black has nurtured his Tenacious D duo ‘mock rock’ with Kyle Glass for decades. He loves the metal music as much as the tongue in the cheek. So his funny musical career works.
La Parola Persa is an Italian group of no little energy who has devoted webspace to ‘begging Jack’ to musically notice them. Their holiday tribute “Merry Christmas, Jack Black” goes off the rails early, however, and hyperactively salutes more than a hundred stars (of the movie/music type). What a masked ride! (Caveat: The second half of the video is encore.)
Justin Drew Bieber went platinum when he was 15. That’s the power of youtube, bitches. Which also unleashed the trolls. Justin’s had several world records, including most ‘Hated” video of all time. His style pusher Usher may get the blame for his streetwise wannabe missteps, but he’s just a boy in a ‘Truman Show’ world of microscopic focus. And he can sing pretty well, which doesn’t get the attention any more.
Brittani Taylor has an appropriately awkward fan song “JUSTIN BIEBER CHRISTMAS!” based on ‘Hippopotamus.’ I kinda like it 