10 Songs is a weekly list of ten songs that happen to be on my mind at the moment. The lists are usually dominated by songs played on the previous Sunday night's edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. The idea was inspired by Don Valentine of the essential blog I Don't Hear A Single.
This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1108: The 23rd Annual THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO Christmas Show
ANGELA LANSBURY: We Need A Little Christmas
I grew up in a home filled with music. My parents loved music, my sister and brothers loved music, and I saw no reason to rebel against that. Of course I love music; how could I not?
My siblings provided a portal to some of the then-contemporary sounds of the 1960s, from Gene Pitney and Ricky Nelson to the Beach Boys and the Dave Clark Five, and more. My Dad favored what he called pre-Pearl Harbor music. My Mom loved Dixieland, swing, Frank Sinatra, and Antonio Carlos Jobim, among many others. And, of course, Mom loved Broadway.
That love was passed on to me. Original Broadway Cast LPs of everything from Carnival to Gypsy to West Side Story (though I preferred the movie soundtrack of the latter) were as much a part of my vinyl upbringing as Beatles '65 and my T-Bones 45. I heard it all. I absorbed it all. An appreciation of music--on any level--is one of the great gifts we can give our children. It's something my wife Brenda and I were able to bestow upon our daughter Meghan. It doesn't matter that Meghan's taste sometimes diverges from ours, just as my devotion to rock 'n' roll diverged from a lot of what my Mom liked. That's okay. We dig what we dig. As long as we dig something, the beat goes on.
The beat needs to go on.
My love of Broadway did endure, and it is actually an interest I'm able to share with Brenda and Meghan. It's an interest first developed by my Mom. By Mom's Broadway records. By Mom dragging me to see local productions of Anything Goes and Dames At Sea and my cousin Maryann in The Unsinkable Molly Brown. By Mom providing access to a world of wonder, and providing it incidentally. It wasn't planned. It just was.
The original 1966 Broadway Cast LP of Mame was but one of the many stage musical records spinning on the family record player when I was growing up. Working with Dana to put together a Christmas radio show the week after my Mom died, one of the songs from Mame lit up its own shining star in my head. You know which song.
THE MONKEES: Riu Chiu
The recent loss of Michael Nesmith adds to the melancholy sting of this holiday season. As noted previously, we will attempt a proper tribute to Nesmith when we return to regular programming in January.
The Monkees' originally-unreleased track "Riu Chiu" is a TIRnRR Christmas show perennial, and it almost certainly would have made this year's playlist even if we weren't mourning Michael's passing. Here's what I wrote about the track a few years ago:
"Well, ya just need to have this, ya curmudgeonly ol' Scrooge. Recorded live and a cappella by this obviously talentless, beneath-contempt manufactured boy band for their crass 'n' commercial weekly TV series...oh, I can't even maintain the faux cluelessness. Further evidence of the Monkees' sheer, casual greatness. The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame is also getting coal this year. (As a bonus, also seek out 'Christmas Is My Time Of Year,' the 1976 Christmas track by Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones & Peter Tork.)"
For further gushing on behalf of "Riu Chiu," I direct you to a video I made of me...gushing on behalf of "Riu Chiu."
JUSTINE'S BLACK THREADS: Angels We Have Heard On High
This ace reading of "Angels We Have Heard On High" by Justine's Black Threads is but one of a stuffed stockingfull o' treats to be found on Home Fires Burning, a new five-song compilation courtesy of the good folks at Red On Red Records. We played its Berk/Lehane track "An Irishman For Christmas" on last year's Christmas show, and its other three tracks--"Reindeer Twist" by Stupidity featuring Keith Streng, "All Eight Nights" by Linnea's Garden, and "Coat Of Snow" by Cold Expectations--are likewise fine examples of setting the season to music.
ELVIS PRESLEY: Santa Claus Is Back In Town
Because, in the words of an old saying I made up just in time for this week's show, you can't have Christmas without the King.
THE MONTGOMERY CLIFFS: Christmas Lights
I really need to go back and revisit the Montgomery Cliffs' catalog o' pep one of these days. If memory serves (and it occasionally does), their debut album Andiamo! was one of my favorite records of 1997. Two tracks from the group's 1999 EP Christmas Stocking Stuffer have been TIRnRR Christmas show fave raves: their punky take on "O Come All Ye Faithful" and their original tune "Christmas Lights." The chorus of "Christmas Lights" finds the singer lamenting, "She still believes in Santa Claus/She don't believe in me." Dude, I've gotta presume you had that coming. See, this is why Father Christmas keeps deeming you naughty every year.
IRENE PEÑA: Will You Turn Up (For Christmas)
Dana and I have become big, big fans of America's Sweetheart Irene Pena. I would be hard pressed to pick just one track as my go-to Peña tune. "Must've Been Good?" "One More Night?" "Not From Around Here?" "Nothing To Do With You?" Her covers of Fountains Of Wayne's "It Must Be Summer" and "The Summer Place?" Yes. Yes to all of those choices, with more YESes at the ready to use at will. And yes also to "Will You Turn Up (For Christmas)," Irene's contribution to the 2020 compilation Big Stir Singles--The Yuletide Wave.
THE WAITRESSES: Christmas Wrapping
I never cared much for the Waitresses' signature tune "I Know What Boys Like," a snarky li'l nyaa-nyaa! of a song that migrated from Dr. Demento's Funny Five to some measure of wider notoriety at the left of the dial. But man, I loved their 1981 track "Christmas Wrapping," which still stands among my all-time favorite rockin' pop Christmas songs. It's just perfect, balancing an ornery inclination to be too cool for Yule with a secret willingness to believe in Christmas magic bringing its tale to a very happy ending. The song's five minute-plus running time is sometimes a challenge to fit into our Christmas shows, but we got it done this year. Christmas magic!
MARVIN GAYE: Purple Snowflakes
"Purple snowflakes?" I have no idea what it means, and I was today years old when I learned that Marvin Gaye's first released version of the song was as a 1965 non-holiday single called "Pretty Little Baby." But I know I like it, and I know Dana wants to play it every year on the Christmas show. A worthy goal! And this year, Marvin Gaye's "Purple Snowflakes" led naturally into...
LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS: Listen, The Snow Is Falling
Timing. Librarians With Hickeys' wonderful cover of Yoko Ono's "Listen, The Snow Is Falling" reached us right around the time I began to comprehend that Mom wouldn't be around for much longer.
I have always sought refuge in my music. This song's contemplative feel has suited my fragile mood, a comfort and a catharsis. Snow falls. I can hear it. I can feel it. And it will be all right.
THE BEATLES: Christmas messages 1963-1969
Yeah, we got a ringer. A bell ringer! This isn't a song, nor is it really a collection of songs, but it is the Beatles, cuttin' up at Christmas as only the Fab Four could. When Dana and I prepared to do our first-ever Christmas show at the end of 1999, we agreed that we wanted to play each 'n' every one of the Beatles' annual Christmas messages. We both loved these things, but it seemed that no Christmas radio show would ever play them, at least not all of them.
At the time, we had no idea of whether or not This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio could last long enough to ever do a second annual Christmas show, let alone a 23rd. So we put everything we had into that first one, including all those engaging larf-anna-harf Beatles bits about plenty of jam jars baby, WonderLust for your trousers, and matches CANDLES! matches CANDLES! matches CANDLES! They're all melody, aren't they? We played 'em all again each year after that, skipping only 2007 (when the station was off the air for several months).
We will continue to play these, all of them, every year at this time. Christmas time is here again. Everywhere it's Christmas, and we're off to join the cheer. If we're lucky enough to keep playing, we'll play them all again next year.
If the fates allow. And if the beat goes on. Happy Christmas, Beatle people.
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This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.
The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:
Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio: CD or download
I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.
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