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Christmas Music revisited – again

From time to time, I tend to write about Christmas music on this site, mainly because I enjoy the stuff (in moderation) and because it's an interesting phenomenon. While music trends tend to go all over the place, with styles constantly changing and tastes bouncing to whatever the latest song in rotation is, Christmas music remains unchanged. Every year, currentish artists release Christmas albums (usually somewhat established - new releases this year from James Taylor, Sarah McLachlan, Bette Midler, Wynonna, and Rachael Ray... WHA?) that are usually well received but break no new ground (Ray's is a joke, obviously. The album has her name on it but is a collection of songs by other artists that were selected by Rachael, I guess. Her site kind of sucks.) Newer artists put out more "current" Christmas music, usually either changing regular Christmas music into their particular style or occasionally putting out an attempt at a new song, usually keeping it vague enough as to not really mention Christmas or even "holiday" that much so that the song can stay in rotation more than one month of the year.

The thing with Christmas music though is that people will always gravitate towards the older and more familiar versions of those traditional songs. It's probably related to the connection most people have with music and memory - the best memories most people have of Christmas is childhood, so the preferred music is going to be music that is usually at least twenty years old. However, it's almost always going to go back further than that, since the childhood memories are going to resonate with those adults who will play (and request) that music around the Christmas season, resulting in their children hearing it (and as a result associating it with the holiday), repeating the process. Other songs will creep in, but chances are in 2040 someone is still going to be playing Bing Crosby's version of White Christmas, nearly 100 years after its initial release.

Me? As a native Long Islander I was raised with not only the Christmas music of my parents (who didn't really have a huge collection) but with the Yule Log, pumping out true traditional Christmas music from classical artists who weren't always identifiable, I was raised with a more traditional feel to my Christmas music. There was a good deal of instrumental music in there as well, and for the average kid who wanted to hear "Jingle Bells" and the Chipmunks, it was an adjustment that we got used to. I guess when newer artists remake Christmas music, it just comes off like an imitation of the original, and why would you want an imitation when you can get the real thing?

There are exceptions, though. Mariah Carey seemed to make an effort when she released her Christmas album in 1994. Mariah, being this whole pop darling who was still respected for her voice and vocal range while still remaining uberhot (pre-divorce and pre-slutification), decided to release a Christmas album as many of her adult contemporary peers have done (and will continue to do). Mariah co-wrote a few songs to mix in with the traditional hits, and the album was marketed exceptionally well. Sony, at the time of the albums release, gave three promotional singles to radio stations, each one catering to the particular format of the station - the catchy "All I Want For Christmas Is You" to pop/top 40 stations, the ballad "Miss You Most (At Christmas Time)" was sent to R&B and Adult Contemporary stations, and "Jesus Born On This Day" was sent to Christian stations - all at least co-written by Carey. Additionally, a cover of the traditional "Joy To The World" (albeit with unnecessary segue to Three Dog Night) was also promoted, getting four songs off the album into the radio rotation across almost every genre. The exposure worked, and now Merry Christmas is considered the most successful Christmas album of all time. While "Miss You Most (At Christmas Time)" still gets played here and there, "All I Want For Christmas Is You" stays in heavy Christmas rotation and will continue to make Mariah (and her estate) money for a long time.

And then there's Andy Williams.

Outside of the realm of Christmas music, I know of and have heard even less of Andy Williams. I know that he was a popular singer of his time (the 60s) and I just kind of lumped him in with the Tony Bennett/Paul Anka/Perry Como group that I'm pretty indifferent about. A few years back though, I realized that Andy sung my favorite version of "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year", a song that just kind of screamed Christmas (I would later learn that it was essentially his song, first released on his Christmas album in 1963). Johnny Mathis's version is heard about as often, but the way Andy sings it somehow combines a innocent Christmas song with the swagger of an Irish drinking song. Listen to it - you could sway back and forth listening to it, easily drinking a pint of Guinness instead of your egg nog. It just has that band accompaniment that pounds the song home, getting more and more overbearing (in a good way) that forces you - I say FORCES you damn it! - to note that yes, it is in fact the most wonderful time of the year. This was a good thing, and I thought it would be the Andy Williams contribution to my ultimate Christmas music album.

Not so fast, my friend. (Too much NCAA 2007 lately. Hi Lee Corso!)

A few years ago, someone decided to try other tracks on Andy's Christmas album and the "Happy Holidays/The Holiday Season" melody started to get rotation. "Happy Holidays" was originally written by Irving Berlin for the movie Holiday Inn (known better for another Berlin tune sung by Bing Crosby, White Christmas) and "The Holiday Season" was written by Kay Thompson, who toured with Andy and his brothers before Andy's mainstream recording success (Kay would also write the Eloise books, based on the adventures of young Liza Minnelli - who knew?) Holidays is pretty straightforward, but Season has a swarminess (a good one, not a dirty one) that swings like a song from that era can, and would sound complete stupid in a contemporary song now.

Williams starts off with the "Happy Holidays" chorus, a basic repetitive gesture that isn't out of the ordinary. Then Williams goes into the "Holiday Season" part, jumping like six octaves to say Santa Claus (San-TEH Claus, is com-ING down..) before noting that Santa's going to be "coming down the chimney down".

He'll be coming... down... the chimney... down. Because the second time you say down, it just gets stressed all the much more. To back this up, his background singers repeat the line, just to make sure you understood.

We then get to the bridge, where Andy explains what Santa's (or San-TEH Claus, I should say) bringing us, doing so in the rarely used A/ABC/CB four line rhyme scheme:

He'll have a big fat pack upon his back
And lots of goodies for you and me
So leave a peppermint stick for old St. Nick
Hanging on the Christmas tree

Always a good reminder to bribe Santa. I thought you were supposed to leave the guy cookies, but apparently he'll eat your ornaments if you're not careful.

It's the next verse that drew me in. Kay Thompson at this point either had some of Judy Garland's cocktail or had a stroke as she was righting lyrics because Andy just sounds like he's making up words to fill out the song. Williams skillfully makes "whoop-de-doo" and "dickory-dock" into lines for the verse, segueing that into a warning/reminder to "hang up your sock" because Sant... er, San-TEH Claus shows up at exactly midnight. EXACTLY. 12 o' clock (see? more rhyming) he will be coming down the chimney... down. Again with the double down (Andy must have liked him some blackjack) which is again backed up by his background singers who repeat the double down. Frankly, I can't imagine how Andy can sing the song using the "ock" rhyme scheme without going all Eazy-E on us. I know I have difficulty, and my dear wife did it the other day to my feigned shock and amusement.

After the double down x2, those same background singers bring us back the "Happy Holidays" song, to which Andy belts out a Happy HOLIDAYS twice, each time with increasing force until even the most jaded Jehovah's Witness would crumble and buy a wreath. If there was ever a singer who forced you to do what he was singing, it was Andy Williams. Lucky he used his power for good instead of evil - the man could have been a more powerful Hitler.

But I still love the song. And my wife makes me sing along whenever either of the Andy Williams tunes comes on the radio, but only if I sing it like Andy. Bad, vengeful, Führeresque Andy.