Year-round Yuletide oddities
The Miracles’ big hit was their first number 1 on the Billboard R&B singles chart… eight weeks at the top… also hit No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100… also reached No. 1 on the Cash Box magazine Top 100 pop chart… the first million-selling record for the Miracles and for the Motown Record Corporation… a 2006 Grammy Hall of Fame inductee.
The Mistletones get easy mileage out of awkward lingerie gift getting by guys in their “Shop Around.” Oh my!
Professor Gall has a Tom Waits ol’ time with “Whiskey Was the Medicine (To Get Me Through Another Christmas Eve Night).”
FuMP delivers unto us Pony Death Ride’s “(It’s a) Tom Waits Christmas.” Just what I wanted!
Porn Orchard does a fun routine honoring these dolorous genre-breakers with “Christmas Sucks.” Some sites argue over whether these are impersonations. Come on.
Vanessa Bell Armstrong funks up the soul for a wonderful testament to the time and place of the birth of the Light of the World, despite the over-tympanification. “The Inn Keeper” is a song to feel deep down into your faith organs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JV3HtXyriwU
Some are confused by the odd tradition of the mistletoe. For them a quick primer from That Guy with the Glasses: “Merry Zodmas: Mistletoe.” Aliens make our culture so approachable, y’know?
If you want to just FEEL it–appropriate for the subject at hand–Luther Vandross grooves cool with “The Mistletoe Jam.” That’s putting me in the mood.
And then, if you want to fall helplessly into the dreamy state of osculability, where your lips are their own masters, then ladies and gentlemen unprick your ears succumb to Isaac Hayes “The Mistletoe and Me.”
The Vietnam War brought out Americans’ outspoken freedom of speech, Americans’ ruthless passion for ideals, Americans’ noncompromising polarization, and Americans’ (eventual) potential for limitless brotherhood and devotion to one another as a people.
During the struggle, our songs reflected our nation’s soul, especially honorin’ The Holiday.
The Soul Searchers’ “Christmas in Vietnam” is soulful soul, poignant piety, and brotherhood. Yeah, that means sad.
Pvt. Charles Bowens & The Gentlemen from Tigerland also add soul to “Christmas in Vietnam.” It’s got a bit more motown drive to it, though.
Dumb ol’ country hick singing from Jack Cardwell makes “Christmas in Vietnam” ironically morose. Keep the Kleenex (and a thank-you note) nearby. The Sullivan Family add a high-stepping beat to their version of this tune.
Hey you–i’m talking to you: there’s a Gee Dee reason for this war even over Christmas. If you need an update, hearken to Rusty Wellington explaining dominos to you in “No Christmas Tree in Vietnam.” Country condescension.
Derrik Roberts adds sfx and girl backups to “There Won’t Be Any Snow (Christmas in the Jungle).” It’s spoken word jazz that falls flat (despite the ‘twist’ ending).
This is a fair sampling, but should you want to follow the expert trail, subscribe to The Vietnam War Song Project. It’s not just Christmas over there.
Let’s get back to music. Johnny and Jon harmonize so soulfully you’ll believe you’re outflanked during their “Christmas in Vietnam.” This is a gospelization of doo wop that may be leading us up that hard road to hip hop. (Viet Cong! Viet Cong!)
A lovely little soul number that has been getting terribly retreaded is “My Grown Up Christmas List.” This is about love for Xmas, and we’ll address all those songs that ask for that next up. But this sappy sweet song gets its own note from me, especially by Natalie Cole (and David Foster) ten years ago from videotape (with kanji translation).
Listen at your own peril to Barbara Streisand (torch song), Aretha Franklin (arpeggio exercise), Kelly Clarkson (Broadway showstopper), Clay Aiken (falsetto), Amy Gant (smokey country), or Michael Buble (soft jazz) driving this sentimental journey into a brick wall.
John Kirby is silly karaoke style (‘Coming to Town’) tattling “Santa’s Got the Best Weed in Town,” Props for witty if one -note lyrical jokes.
“Nuclear Rabbit gets it with Santa Claus is Selling Crack.” This hard rocking garage monster sound exceeds psychedelia but stops short of metal, thank goodness.
Revisiting Martin Mull (backed up this time with the Sondra Baskin Glee Club) finds us some fantastico fol-de-rol “Santafly” tipping the boogie beanie to ‘Super Fly’ one of our more colorful cinematic drug dealers.
Even though Christmas has become an amalgamation of many cultural celebrations, the anglo-white version gets the widest play. But true Christians welcome all comers to the fold. So let’s go black (we might never come back) with Akim and Teddy Vann’s 1973 “Santa Claus is a Black Man.” Get adorable, get funky.
On a community stage with a slowly warming audience, GloZell leads guilty white West Coast Singers in a rousing (tinny recording of) “Black Christmas.” Now we see what black means to faith, hope, charity, and novelty Christmas songs.
More audible and just as reactionary, The Harlem Children’s Chorus sing “Black Christmas.” They do make a point, they just don’t make a beautiful song. Richard Wolfe has a more honest version that testifies.
Add more funk and pour in the soul and Rose Graham delivers “Black Christmas” so that you can not avoid her raw pain. Don Smith makes the same song more personal, and a little more disco.
Motown, mo’ music! The Emotions sing “Black Christmas” with angelic harmonies and soft-pedaled race relations. Just how soulful white people want to buy it.
“Give Love on Christmas Day” debuted on a Jackson 5 album around 1970. The cut was no ‘Up on the Housetop,’ but it has endured. In fact, 5’s Motown sound has inspired many a group to gospel heights. So this song has many aspiring children.
New Edition capture that Jackson 5 mellow richness in a near perfect echo to the original.
The Temptations go stratospherically falsetto with their version. Piercing.
SWV sing it like children, not beautiful adult women.
More recently, Johnny Gill has gone solo with the song. All the need for love, quintuple the soul.
The same year Ledisi leaned hard into the R+B of the song and gave us another present (just this side of disco).
And then Yolanda Adams did it. She’s done better. Hers is more pop than soul.
Slightly to the East are further interpretations (KathNiel, Sarah Geronimo, Danny Espanto), and oh about another dozen or so folks of all colors–everyone with an impressive vocal range wants to nail this slider.
But, let’s get back to basics with the original: Jackson 5’s “Give Love on Christmas Day.” (No directions on how to wrap it.)
Duets sound less desperate as love songs, don’t they?
United Nations Messenger of Peace Stevie Wonder is known for ‘Superstition,’ ‘You are the Sunshine of My Life,’ and ‘I Just Called to Say I Love You.’ Blind Mr. Morris nee Judkins has been changing how music has been made for decades.
’90s serial back up singer Kimberly Brewer has been paired most successfully with Wonder.
Their number here (“I Love You More”) is from an old TV Christmas special. It barely mentions the holidays, even says he loves here more than Jesus (i think). But love makes us lose track of the seasons… right?