5 December 2012 - A Christmas Wrapping Special

Perhaps the greatest Christmas carol ever written and recorded was released in 1981 by The Waitresses.  A tale of missed romance and mellow celebration, with a twist ending, this song brought a different slant on the season.  The title is a sly reference to the new "rapping" music style that the band was demonstrating in the song.

Sadly, they didn't actually make a video for this song.  But at least one nice family was kind enough to set their lights to the tune.



This song has been often covered. Here, The Donnas deliver the song with a much harder edge, while still retaining a lot of the original charm. We've featured The Donnas in the past on Totally Covered.  They're a lot of fun, and that shows on this song.



Not everyone should be doing a cover of this song, though.  Here's one by Carly Shay Miranda Cosgrove.  Someone born in 1993 should not be singing the line "most of '81 passed along those lines." Nevertheless, even though it is a lot poppier than the others, it's a respectable version.


Did you know that the cast of Glee did this song, too?  I'm kind of sad that I know that.



Save Ferris did a slightly different take on the song.  They rewrote it completely, and sang it from a Jewish point of view. There are some fun Hanukkah reference in this version.  See if you can catch 'em all!



I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but this is one of my favorite covers of this song.  The Spice Girls - really just Sporty and Baby Spice doing a duet - did a cover with slightly changed lyrics.  I admire the fact that they knew their audience well enough to know that cranberries are not a UK staple and they were in 1998, not 1981.  Again, this is a very poppy version, but it works, partly because of the lyric changes, and partly because their best vocalists were on it.  I reiterate the statement that I made on January 21st of this year - there are four talented women in this group (OK, three plus one marginally), plus Victoria.

4 December 2012 - A Fine Frenzy - Wish You Well

OK, I know that this is a video blog site, but sadly I couldn't even find a live video of the lovely Alison Sudol (AKA A Fine Frenzy) playing Wish You Well. The song is simply too sweet not to post so just imagine someone walking in snow covered woods in quiet contemplation. Or monsters. BIG ASS SCARY FREAKIN' MONSTERS!!!

Whoa. Where did that come from? Anyway, A Fine Frenzy's Oh Blue Christmas is one of the finest Christmas cds I've bought in the past few years. So enjoy this song and then head on over to YouTube and watch some of her other videos -- Come On Come Out off her 2007 debut One Cell in the Sea is a personal favorite of mine.

3 December 2012 - The Pretenders - 2000 Miles / The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - 2000 Miles

It's one of the sappiest songs The Pretenders ever did.  It's also a Christmas song....ish. It's been called "good enough to NOT be a Christmas song" because it is a song that doesn't need the holiday to make it relevant.

And Chrissie Hynde hated it.  Which is why it was only a B-side in the United States - to "Middle of the Road".  In the UK, however, it was released as a single in its own right, reaching #15 there.  And now, it's a Christmas staple.  It's a slower-paced, mournful song, written not for long-lost lovers, as it seems, but for James Honeyman-Scott, the band's original guitarist who had recently passed away, a victim of cocaine intolerance.

 

This song has been frequently covered.  One recent cover I thought you'd enjoy is one done by Boston staples The Mighty Mighty Bosstones.  This video contains a lot of rare footage and home movies by the band, adding to the song's legacy as a mournful look back at Christmastime.



I wanted to give you frequent readers of this blog a gift.  So, here is an uncredited (in the title of this post, anyway) third version of this song, by KT Tunstall.  She is the one who made the earlier declaration that this song was "good enough to not be a Christmas song".  And her version is absolutely beautiful, and faithful to the original.

30 November 2012 - Karmin - Sleigh Ride

I think, by this point, I have sufficiently declared myself a fan of Karmin. You might want to take a look at this, this, this, and of course this for evidence of that.

So, when I found out that they did a Christmas song..... and released it two days ago (after I did my last post on this blog!), I had to seek it out and share it with you.   It is certainly an off-kilter, interesting arrangement of a song that I think we've already featured three times.   Between the change-of-tempo horns and the Nebraskan white girl hip hop that we love so much, this is an interesting and fun arrangement that has quickly become one of my favorite Christmas songs.



By the way, this song is available for FREE download, from Coach.... the people that bring you very expensive but very good purses.  Go here to get it, and also find out what Amy and Nick are getting each other for Christmas.  

29 November 2012 - Los Straitjackets - Here Comes Santa Claus

Nothing screams the holidays more than four dudes wearing lucha masks and playing some seriously righteous rockabilly. So of course I had to witness the Los Straitjackets Christmas Pageant with The World Famous Pontani Sisters in 2005. It was a rockin' good time daddy-o. I ended up buying two copies of their Tis The Season For Los Straitjackets Christmas CD. One for me and one to give away as a Christmas present.

28 November 2012 - Luscious Jackson - Let It Snow

Today is the day that I, once again, set my ringtone for the holiday season.  This is my ringtone, straight from a Gap commercial.

Here is Luscious Jackson, performing their fantastic "Let It Snow", interpolating a little play on Gary Numan's "Cars".  This was performed live on Jay Leno's Tonight Show.  It's not the same without Carson.



They did release a real live video for this song.   It's cute, but it doesn't include "Sleds", which is pretty amazing.  Still, here it is.  It's a cute video - Jill Cunniff and Gabby Glaser make sure we know they aren't REALLY in snow thanks to their wardrobe - and a good version of the song.



Of course, this song was first performed as part of a Gap Christmas ad campaign, where Gap took artists they used through the year in their hip commercials and had them reinterpret Christmas tunes (This is Luscious Jackson's original commercial).  It is THIS version that is my ringtone, and has been for many Decembers.  30 seconds is enough to realize genius on this song.

27 November 2012 - KT Tunstall - Sleigh Ride

In case y'all haven't figured it out, Wicked Guilty Pleasures is celebrating the holidays for the next month. I for one support this plan (well, seeing that it was kind of my idea it's hard not to get behind it). Like Tony, I can't wait for Thanksgiving so I can bust out my Christmas music collection. The first song I listened to Thanksgiving night was KT Tunstall's cool version of Sleigh Bells. Here's an live acoustic version.



And now here's the awesome version from The Hotel Cafe Presents Winter Songs album (I imagine I'll be posting a few more from this record as the month goes on). Just try not dancing around the room like a happy fool when you hear this one. I dare ya!