SCENE SCRIBE
By Michael Swanger scenescribe@mchsi.com
Christmas time is here. Be a good cheer? Or bah hum bug?
If you’ve ever had that guilty feeling about liking or disliking Christmas music — good or bad — you’re not alone. It’s a past we’ve all shared, filled with the sounds of Andy Williams, Burl Ives, Bing Crosby, or heaven forbid, Elmo & Patsy and Mannheim Steamroller.
Just to prove it, I polled a few local music industry folks about their five favorite and least favorite seasonal songs. The response was so overwhelming that we couldn’t include them all here. Go online to www.dmcityview.com to read additional comments from Matt Sepanic, Thunderbird Kingsley, Scott Stilwell, Frank Strong, Rob Lumbard, Serena James, Dale Stark, Austin Semerad and Roxi Copland.
Andy Fleming, Brother Trucker
Favorites
“Merry Christmas Baby” — Otis Redding
“Gee Whiz It’s Christmas” — Carla Thomas. “An underrated classic.”
“Christmas Time is Coming” — Buck Owens (performed by Marah). “From one of the best Christmas albums in the history of roots-rock, ‘A Christmas Kind of Town.’”
“’Zat You, Santa Claus?” — Louis Armstrong. “Satchmo’s voice is the SOUND of Christmas for both of my daughters.”
“They Call Me Backdoor Santa” — Clarence Carter. “It’s naughty like only the Stax/Volt sound can be.”
Least favorites
“It’s a matter of taste. One man’s vomit is another man’s supper. But if I never hear Kenny G again, I’d be OK.”
Nate Niceswanger, Zzz Records owner
Favorites
“A Message From the King” — Bob Rivers. “The immortal Elvis eats his way through a Christmas message from the great beyond. Juvenile, but great.”
“Christmas in Hollis” — Run-DMC. “One of the funkiest Christmas tracks ever.”
“Hanukkah Rocks” — Gefilte Joe & the Fish. “Long before Adam Sandler sang about it.”
“Do They Know It’s Christmas” — Band Aid
“2000 Miles” — The Pretenders. “Haunting and melancholy, this is one holiday song that can be played year-round.”
Least favorite
“Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer” — Elmo & Patsy
“The Chipmunk Song”
“Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” — Bruce Springsteen
“8 Days of Christmas” — Destiny’s Child. “This 2001 ode to a Mercedes, belly rings and more should have given us an idea of just how awful pop music would be for the next decade.”
Any song on any Mannheim Steamroller Christmas album — “And you’re not safe, either, Trans-Siberian Orchestra!”
Ron Sorenson, KFMG station manager and music director
Favorites
“I Believe in Father Christmas” — Greg Lake
“Father Christmas” — The Kinks. “A punkish send-up of Christmas songs and Christmas spirit.”
“A Spaceman Came Traveling” — Chris DeBurgh. “He depicts the Christmas story as an extraterrestrial visitation.”
“Baby It’s Cold Outside” — James Taylor, Natalie Cole, Dave Grusin
“Silver Bells” — Sonia Dada
Least favorites
“Jingle Bells” — the barking dogs
“Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” — Elmo and Patsy
“Jingle Bells” — Barbara Streisand
“All I Want for Christmas is You” — Mariah Carey
“The Christmas Chipmunk Song” — The Chipmunks
Spencer Fenimore, Mindrite
Favorites
“Little Drummer Boy” — “Good melody and it’s fun to say ‘rum pum pum pum.’”
“White Christmas” — “Puts a positive spin on a negative thing like snow.”
“Deck the Halls” — “I don’t know what motivated someone to get so jolly about decorating.”
“Theme song to National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”
“12 Days of Christmas” — “It’s the best one to parody and add your own profane lyrics.”
Least favorites
“Noel” — “Because I have no idea who the hell Noel or Emmanuel is.”
“Silent Night” — “I get an uneasy feeling about the calm-before-the-storm aspect of this song.”
“Santa Got Ran Over By a Reindeer” — “This reminds me of my cheesy grandmother and her cheesy friends. They thought this was the biggest gut buster since the Smothers Brothers. This makes me feel like the Grinch.”
“Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”
“Silver Bells”
Max Kenkel, Hold For Swank
Favorites
“I Will Be Hating You for Christmas” — Everclear. “A catchy punk song and I can’t say I haven’t felt this way sometimes.”
“I Won’t Be Home for Christmas” — Blink 182. “I don’t know why, I just like Blink 182 and this song.”
“Holiday Skeezin’” — Hold For Swank. “I like our own music. So what?”
“White Christmas” — “It’s old timey and awesome.”
“O’ Holy Night”
Least favorites
“Little Drummer Boy” and “Joy to the World” (tie)
Matt Sepanic, Sound Farm Studios owner
Favorites
“White Christmas” — Bing Crosby. “It captures the feeling of Christmas and reminds me of being a kid sitting under the tree waiting for Santa.”
“Silent Night”
“Auld Lang Syne”
“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” — Judy Garland
“Let it Snow, Let it Snow” — Frank Sinatra. “This is like getting off work before having Christmas Day off. Let it snow and let’s get it on.”
Least favorite
Any song processed by Mannheim Steamroller — “This is how I imagine robots would like their Christmas music.”
Any song processed by Mannheim Steamroller and played on Deliah — “As if the music isn’t bad enough, you have to listen to Deliah’s annoyingly perky voice for the intro.”
“Wonderful Christmas” — Paul McCartney. “Oh, Paul, stop. Please.”
Thunderbird Kingsley, blues musician
Favorites
“Silver Bells” — Bing Crosby. “This song reminds me of when I was a little kid standing in the slush on the sidewalk in front of Marshall Fields in Chicago looking through the windows at the annual Christmas displays. The world is full of magic when you’re young.”
Anything else by Bing Crosby
“Feels Like Christmas” — Al Green
“There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays” — Perry Como
“’Zat You, Santa Claus?” — Louis Armstrong
Least favorite
“Wonderful Christmastime” — Paul McCartney. “The bouncy and relentless synthesizer riff that defines this song is so bad that I actually puke into my mouth a little bit the first time I hear it each year.”
Scott Stilwell, musician and promoter
“My favorites are a blend of traditional and new songs. The ones I don’t like have little to do with the season, and well, they’re just awful.”
Favorites
“The Christmas Songs” — Nat King Cole
“Christmastime is Here” — Charlie Brown Christmas
“Come Darkness, Come Light” — Mary Chapin Carpenter
“Lo How a Rose e’er Blooming”
“Silent Night”
Least favorites
“12 Days of Christmas”
“Jingle Bell Rock”
“Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”
“Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer”
“So, this is Christmas” — John Lennon
Frank Strong, musician and promoter
Favorites
“Blue Christmas” — “Elvis does a super job on it, but if you’ve not heard Elmer Fudd’s version you’ve really missed out on the holiday spirit.”
“Frosty the Snowman” — “It’s got a good beat and it’s hard to dance to.”
“Jingle Bell Rock”
“Joy to the World”
“I Saw Momma Kissing Santa Claus”
Least favorites
“Oh Christmas Tree”
“Jingle Bells” — “Sounds good only when played in a jazz style.”
Serena James, Des Moines Music Commission
Favorites
“The Christmas Song” — Nat King Cole. “No one sings this like he did.”
“Winter Wonderland” — Kenny Neal and Syreeta Neal
“5 Pound Box of Money”
“Christmas on the Bayou” — Lonnie Brooks
“Santa’s Second Line” — New Birth Brass Band
Least favorites
“Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer” — “By far, No. 1.”
“Jingle Bells” — barking dogs
“I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”
“Santa Baby”
“Jingle Bell Rock”
Dale Stark, Civic Center of Greater Des Moines
Favorites
“Do They Know It’s Christmas?”
“Baby It’s Cold Outside”
“I’ll Be Home for Christmas”
“Hey Santa” — “Who doesn’t love a good Wendy and Carnie Wilson song?”
“Silver Bells”
Least favorites
“The Christmas Song”
“The 12 Days of Christmas” — “That’s just too much work with all the counting and really, I have a cat so that partridge in a pear tree would never survive.”
“Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”
Austin Semerad, DMMC Concert Corps organizer
Favorites
“Happy Xmas (War is Over)” — John Lennon
“Christmas Time (Is Here Again)”
“Blue Christmas” — “I prefer the Bright Eyes version to the Elvis version.”
“The Happiest Christmas Tree”
Any song from Sufjan Stevens’ “Songs for Christmas” — “He can turn anything into a good folk rock tune.”
Least favorites
“Jingle Bells”
“Silent Night”
“Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem”
“Away in a Manger”
“Deck the Halls”
Roxi Copland, jazz musician
Favorites
“All I Want for Christmas”
“Carol of the Bells”
“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”
“Silent Night”
“I’ll be Home for Christmas” — “Probably my favorite because I’m usually doing shows over the holidays and don’t get a chance to go home for Christmas. Listening to it lets me pretend that I’ll make it back just in time.”
Least favorite
“Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” — “I had a music teacher in grade school who brought out the same tunes every year. You try liking a song once you’ve heard it sung out of tune by 50 kids at least 50 times.”
“Jingle Bells”
“Jingle Bell Rock”
“Holly Jolly Christmas”
“Frosty the Snowman”
Rob Lumbard, singer-guitarist
Favorites
“Sleigh Ride”
“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”
“The Christmas Song” — Mel Torme
“Walking in a Winter Wonderland”
“Fairytale of New York” — “By far my favorite. I used to drink too much. I know what it’s like to wake up in a drunk tank and to spend the holiday in jail.”
Least favorites
“Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer”
“Jingle Bells” — the barking dogs
“Jingle Bell Rock”
“Let it Snow”
“Frosty the Snowman”
