I've heard lots of versions of Santa Baby, White Christmas, The Christmas Song, Winter Wonderland and Let it Snow this year. However, there are still a few Christmas songs that have yet, unlike those distant relatives, to have overstayed their welcome. Here are a few in no particular order:
Baby It's Cold Outside. The classic song of seduction although the suggestion that a drink may have been spiked (Say, what's in this drink?) may have made it no longer politically correct. A lot of radio stations banned it. Love this version by Ella and Louis Jordan.
Be Careful it's my Heart. (It's not my watch you're holding it's my heart - heart, watch, ticker, get it?) Isn't exactly a Xmas song but it was featured in the film Holiday Inn which was the song where White Christmas was first heard. In the clip Bing sings and Fred dances and, seemingly, wins Marjorie Reynolds' ticker.
Love You Didn't do Right by me. This great number was in the film titled White Christmas and Rosemary Clooney puts it over well. There's also a seasonal-ish reference in the lyric: You sent me a Joe who had winter and snow in his heart - nice one Irving. Over the years Alice Grace has included Love You Didn't do Right by me in her repertoire.
Some Sunday Morning. Recorded in 1945 as a duet by Helen Forrest and Dick Haymes it turned up again five years later, as George Watt once pointed out to me, as Frosty the Snowman where Ella takes the vocal. Surprisingly no legal action was taken between the two sets of composers: M.K. Jerome, Ray Heindorf & Ted Koehler (Some Sunday Morning) and Steve Nelson & Jack Rollins (Frosty the Snowman).
What Are You Doing New Year's Eve? A beautiful song with a title that clocks in either 7 days too late or 358 days too soon. Great workout by Postmodern Jukebox. Composer Frank Loesser hated it being only sung in December defeating the whole idea behind the lyric.
Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. Another gem from PMG covering a song by Elmo and Patsy. The wonderful line: Now we're all so proud of grandpa, he's taking it so well, watching football, drinking beer and playing cards with Uncle Mel.
I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas. More festive fun from PMG. Just love them!
Last Christmas. The version by Wham! has topped the Christmas charts for the past two years but PMJ have reimagined it as it might have sounded if the Andrews Sisters had topped the 'Happy Cat Hit Parade' with it.
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. It's one of the better ones and it's what we at BSH wish all of our readers with a little help from Norah Jones and Laufey. Lance
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