Category: pop music

Music matures before our eyes here. Music for under-thirties all begins to sound like rock.

Switching up honky tonk country with a twist of the blues, Chuck Berry has been blasting out the hits since ‘Maybellene’ in 1955. This year with “Merry Christmas Baby” Berry plays it cool. Cool as a rock.

Switching up doo wop with a percussive beat, The Montereys wail in an unreleased single from near this time (?) “Santa Claus Gained More Weight.” Are you not rocked?

Switching DOWN the gospel with tubular bells and a touch of sass, Georgia Harris and The Lyrics propose “Let’s Exchange Hearts for Xmas.” Rockety rock, McRockerson.

The only trend in rock we have to watch out for is the white sport coat crowd, the follow-authority fellas and ladies who think The Four Aces are just swell. These types rock out to the tunes ‘Love is a Many Splendored thing’ and ‘Three Coins in the Fountain.’ I guess the boys can’t help how white they are. Bear in mind they started the ‘Fifties with an odd number (‘There’s a Christmas Tree in Heaven’), and now continue the blah band sound (‘bland’) of “The Christmas Tree.” Fairy land, kids!

 

Elvis releases his first single (‘That’s All right’) this year. Let’s see what the new generation is listening to for the holidays…

Betty Johnson cashes in on the pop parade with “I Want Eddie Fisher for Christmas.” Oddly this tepid waltz does not seem to be the class of music Eddie Fisher would want to be a part of. Linda Strangis leads Spike Jones and His City Slickers with another (jazzier) rendition.

The height of doo wop for the holidays becomes “White Christmas” by The Drifters. This today has become a standard and sadly has become mired in controversy over who created the wonderful blackening of Der Bingle. Let’s just say Cool.

Swinging and hep, the Davis Sisters deliver “The Christmas Boogie.” Adapting boys’ doo wop with their own amazing gospel, these sisters testify to the rock. Wild!

Ramping up that doo wop, Oscar McLollie and the Honey Jumpers wail out “Dig that Crazy Santa Claus.”

Getting down and dirty, Jimmy Butler marries honky tonk and blues in a preview of Jerry Lee Lewis with “Trim Your Tree.” Cover the children’s ears.

The Crew Cuts were Canadian Catholic choir boys barely out of school when discovered and put on the radio. This year they get away with insipid harmonies like “Twinkletoes” (next year is ‘Sh-Boom’). But you can tell they have promise with “Dance, Mr Snowman, Dance.” Cue the screaming girls.

Now that we’re afraid of the home invader who judges your worth, let’s beg “Don’t Kill Me, Santa.” Or better yet, let’s have The Oh Wells do it for us.

Let their millennial pop (love that trombone!) carry you to a land of paranoid sugar plums dancing in your head. Perhaps they’re no Seafood Mama, but they’ve got a great club presence.

Slamming guitar and heavenly harmonies from Ebeneezer Pop and the Scrooges gives us retro British Invasion style jingle. It also suffers from pontifically illustrated videography. “Santa Claus was Dead” may haunt you with its musical skill, but i doubt it’ll trouble your immortal soul.

These Vancouver (B.C.) partiers know how to entertain. And even better, how to connect Christmas, for J.C.’s sake, to yellow snow. I can’t find much about them apart from their Youtube channel, so good luck tracking down their albums.

But please shake it twice, zip it carefully, and listen up to The Ded Beats’ “Peesing in the Snow.”