Cracking some Christmas chestnuts
From White Christmas to Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer, we've heard them a million times. But here are some tidbits you may not know.
By GINA VIVINETTO
Published December 7, 2004
We're knee-deep into the holiday season. Are you bugging out from the music? The less Scroogey among us actually enjoy hearing The Christmas Song eleventy billion times a day while strolling through the malls searching for a tie for Uncle Albert.
More finicky music lovers relish nontraditional holiday tunes. Rebellious baby boomers dig John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 1971 peace anthem, Merry Xmas (War Is Over). My generation, the 30-something set, grooves to Run-DMC's Christmas in Hollis. Our ears also prick up whenever the chimes of Band Aid's 1984 Do They Know It's Christmas? start a'clanging.
Or maybe we're just recalling the hideous Duran Duran and Bono mullets. (You too, Mr. George Michael.) Put a Santa hat on it, fellas! And we've got video for proof.
Jovial folks of every persuasion sing along to the modern holiday staple Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.
Did you know that iconoclastic tune is one of the most successful selling, uh, carols of all time?
Bing Crosby's 1942 recording of White Christmas is in the Guiness Book of World Records as the biggest-selling Christmas song, with more than 100-million copies sold around the world.
There are charming stories behind both songs.
Irving Berlin wrote White Christmas. The composer called it "the best song anybody ever wrote." (You reckon Santa put something extra in little Irving's stocking for modesty? Doubt it.) It was sung in the Crosby/ Fred Astaire classic Holiday Inn and again in the remake, White Christmas, with Crosby and Danny Kaye. The tune won the Oscar for best song in 1942.
Dr. Elmo Shropshire is the guy you can thank for Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. He didn't write it, but he was brave enough to sing the feisty tune about the old lady who imbibed too much eggnog, wandered off for her medication and was trampled by Santa's reindeer.
Randy Brooks, the song's composer, saw Shropshire, a veterinarian who moonlighted in a Lake Tahoe lounge act in the late 1970s with his wife, perform their originals, such as You Done Sprayed the Love Bug With DDT. Brooks offered the song to Shropshire, and the rest is history.
Actually, that's not the weirdest story behind a Christmas song. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town was written in a bar. Haven Gillespie wrote it on the back of an envelope as he was getting plowed back in 1932. Modest beginnings for a tune eventually recorded by Crosby, the Andrews Sisters and Perry Como, selling more than 70-million copies.
Even stranger: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was originally nothing but a marketing gimmick. And his name wasn't even Rudolph. The story was part of a 1939 promotional giveaway for Chicago's Montgomery Ward department store, an illustrated booklet about a misfit reindeer whose name at first was Rollo, then Reginald. Finally, the ad exec in charge of the story listened to the advice of his 4-year-old daughter, who fancied the name Rudolph.
In 1947, songwriter Johnny Marks penned the famous lyrics. He couldn't find a publisher or a singer daring enough to record it. Marks created his own publishing company (St. Nicholas), and after being turned down by Crosby, Dinah Shore and Como, he landed "the Singing Cowboy" Gene Autry. The tune sold 2-million copies in its first year, and Rudolph is now a Christmas image we all recognize.
Now that the kooky origins of several holiday favorites have been revealed, you might be interested in some of this year's more unorthodox musical releases. Among them:
A JOHN WATERS CHRISTMAS (NEWLINE) Warning: You should probably be a fan of the independent film pioneer to enjoy this disc "curated" by him. If you didn't laugh out loud at Hairspray, Serial Mom or Cry Baby, stay away.
"Have a merry, rotten, scary, sexy, biracial, ludicrous, happy little Christmas," Waters wishes by sticker on the disc's front, which features the director-in-tux sitting by his tree. With irreverent holiday tunes Santa Claus Is a Black Man by AKIM & the Teddy Vann Production Company and a kicky Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer by Tiny Tim, the disc is perfect for the most outrageous of holiday soirees.
BARENAKED LADIES, BARENAKED FOR THE HOLIDAYS (DESPERATION RECORDS) Fans of this quirky Canadian combo will relish the cleverness and craft behind bossa nova versions of holiday classics, a duet with fellow Canadian Sarah McLachlan, and a handful of Hanukkah tunes. The Barenaked guys love nothing if not a good joke, and they serve up 20 songs, including six originals, with as much chops as chutzpah.
BIG BAD VOODOO DADDY, EVERYTHING YOU WANT FOR CHRISTMAS (VANGUARD) Have a hep yuletide with the Voodoo Daddy crew on Rockabilly Christmas, which has lead singer Scotty Morris proclaiming Santa "a real cool cat with shades and his old red hat." These modern-day swingers use horns, rollicking percussion, upright bass and plenty of oomph to kick it up on classics (Jingle Bells) and cool covers such as Mr. Heatmiser from the 1974 television claymation special The Year Without Santa Claus.
MAYBE THIS CHRISTMAS TREE (NETTWERK) What can you say about an alt-rock holiday album that begins with faux-cult band the Polyphonic Spree covering John and Yoko, includes a sincere Christian band (Jars of Clay), an up-and-coming Florida band (Copeland), indie rock mainstays ( Death Cab for Cutie, the Raveonettes, Pedro the Lion) and an artist dangerously close to the mainstream, even-if-she-only-had-that-one-hit-but-she'll-forever-have-street-cred-because-she's-down-with-the- Zappas (Lisa Loeb)?
It rocks!
And because we need to crank up the schmaltz factor at Christmastime:
JESSICA SIMPSON, REJOYCE THE CHRISTMAS ALBUM (COLUMBIA) This is for the four of you on the planet who still need to be with Jessica 24 hours a day - because the reality series, concerts, albums and variety show have not sated you. YOU HAVE TO SPEND YOUR HOLIDAY WITH JESSICA, TOO.
Here's Rejoyce, titled in memory of Simpson's beloved Nana Joyce. The disc includes her renditions of classics such as Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow; I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus and duets - with both bubbly hubby Nick Lachey (Baby, It's Cold Outside), and little lip-synchin' sis Ashlee Simpson (The Little Drummer Boy).
You want schmaltz? A friend recently called Simpson "this generation's Joey Heatherton," and it's so apropos. Too bad we can't see Simpson's over-the-top delivery - that doe-eyed, sentimental earnestness - when we enjoy Rejoyce. Thankfully, her recent holiday special on television showed that special magic.
Simpson is as schmaltzy as they come, a special American gem. Timeless, or is that anachronistic?
Here's hoping we see Simpson in a John Waters flick in a decade.
Happy holidays!
- Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report.
- Gina Vivinetto can be reached at 727 893-8565 or gina@sptimes.com