Year-round Yuletide oddities
The power of Christmas compels you… to quit your naughty ways! In defense of the bad some reindeer do:
“Lesser Known Reindeer” rocks the metal out of some of the accomplishments of our grateful eight, but there’s some trouble according to Revenge of the Egg People. Be wary.
More familiarly, Michael Stipe carols out the ‘Olive the Reindeer’ rocker “We’re Not So Bad.” What say ye, jury?
How much do we love Santa’s reindeer?!
Jonathan Groff as Sven from ‘Frozen’ has his musical moment in the ‘duet’ “Reindeers are Better Than People.” Folk musing.
Erica Fleischmanns kid assembly song “Reindeer on the Roof” associates the beastly herd with glorious treasure. Hooray! Clatter!
Leelu gets ’60s folk hand-holdy with the anticipatory “I’ve Got Reindeer on My Roof.” We’ve been waiting so long!
Just as kum ba yah, those Hawaiian melody mavens The Brothers Cazimero make magic of “8 Tiny Reindeer.” Despite the brand name dropping, this is imagination-pricking.
Kid song gone too far is The Yule Logs letting their freak flag fly as each in turns sings “I Walked with a Reindeer” Last Night over and over again. Sweet mindless repetitive rock is the true tribute.
Hang on a sec, or a coupla secs anyway–we all on the same page when it comes to reindeer? Y’know, Rangifer tarandus? Sure you’ve got the cartoons in your head, or you’ve seen the European pants-wetting children’s petting zoo antics… but ARE they caribou? DO both males and females have antlers? WOULD they eat children? Time for some fundamentals.
Sam Jones takes us on a journey of folk rock mythos (it’s not just what you see; it’s what you believe) covering the pretty little lies in “Tell Us Tales About a Reindeer.” Enchanting.
Animal Facts (Nick Naylor) has a splendid myth-busting pop rock recitation humbly entitled “Reindeer.” Tell me you knew all this already; didn’t think so! (Now you do.)
When The Hot Buttered Elves take on an icon, watch out. “Steve the Reindeer” is a punk-pop-cowboy rock mashup about a carousing party animal. Whew.
Rock’n’pop from 1964 has Gary Ferrier cashing in on Beatlemania with the dearest of them all “Ringo Deer.” Clap along now.
The gentle “Mike the Reindeer” from In Love gives us a nice break from hardline comedy. Beautiful music. (Soul rock.)
Daniel Dennis takes on nerds with “Bob the 10th Reindeer.” This outlier has all the misfortunes the outcast kids got: headgear, chess club membership, toupee (??!)… So we gotta embrace Santa’s accountant, right?
A 1939 Montgomery Wards holiday booklet retold the ugly duckling story one more time, with a weird-o ousted hoofer having the one mutation to save the day. Whether handicapped, non-white, non-binary children took ‘Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ to heart way back then–the songs and shows co-opted this outlier concept so all mainstreamers can see themselves as special. Hooray.
If you began listening to every cover of the Johnny Marks song (over 420 on Secondhandsongs.com–so i figure over a thousand, easy) you might be done by Christmas. So, don’t do that. And IDONOTCARE if it was sung better by Burl or Gene or Ella or Dean….
However, some songs reference Rudy in novel ways–including several we’ve sampled on the blog before.
One of my favorite parodies is Jars of Clay’s Nirvana’s “Smells Like Rudolph.” Swell smell!
Also prized parody, “Here Comes Rudolph” is The ’60s Invasion’s Rolling Stones’ take on the 1967 stop-motion special.
NOT a parody of The Crystals nor Chuck Berry, “Da Doo Run Run Rudolph” is a gentle folk rock froth from The Not Fur Longs. Love song stickiness. (Title’s just a hook, no actual Rudolph here, for those who care.)
Yes, the middle reindeer inspire us beyond Vixenation.
“Vixen” as rapped by KentheMan is nasty as it gets BLUE ALERT. This might just be a sex worker.
So, let’s get/to real music with a real rocking number from The Droogettes. “Vixen” is grrl rock recalling the ’80s vinyl-dressed post-punk insouciance. Eyes closed for a small BLUE ALERT.
Hey! I said, Hey! Sometimes, the interjection is just an excuse to slip in the weird. Even about Xmas.
“Hey-Ho, Let the Holly Jolly in” is the BLUE ALERT finale of ‘Another F*cking Christmas Play: A F*cking Musical’ in which the original cast rouse themselves from their cranky torpor and celebrate the holiday. Who Ray?
Amy Rutherford and Amy Stewart from their A Very Special Christmas Time with Amy and Amy rock the show tune poorly (on purpose, come on) with “Hey, C’mon! Merry Christmas!” Whew, out of breath time.
Filksinging from Green Matthews makes medieval merry of “Hey for Christmas!” Is it weird to want these auld soules to shake their bums?!
Patrick Sawers has bypassed Big Assembly by writing his own recital number for the grade schoolers as “Hey Ho It’s Christmas.” Better than most of that cornball crap, ya ask me.
Holiday time = drunk time, according to TheHeyHos. Gnarly rock (almost punk, but not quite) in “Hey Ho It’s Christmas.” Need a little hair of the Yule log there.
More nearly punk is the ‘billy “Hey! Hey! Buy! Buy! (It’s Christmas Time)” from Bathwater Babies. Boy, they’re mad. But they’ll tell you when the song is through.
Getting self-aware weird, Captain Tudmoke belabors rhymes with “Hey Everybody, It’s Christmas Time.” Can you spot the recurring theme?
Kyle Dunnigan (feat. Craig) goes the South Park route with “Hey Everybody It’s Christmas!” Celebrity voices poorly imitated, you know the BLUE ALERT drill.
King of weird for our current purposes is the petite comedy/rock from Mad Monkey: “Hey! Ho! Merry Christmas!” Get it? The ambiguity of the English language, man, i’m telling you.