This week we cover two songs that force us to contemplate fear and desire, love and hatred – “‘Zat You, Santa Claus?” by Louis Armstrong and “All I Want For Christmas Is You” as performed by Burnaby’s own Michael Bublé. Our anonymous requester presents us with a puzzle – one song is beloved and one is despised. Which is which? Can we be sure? Can RJ get over their anti-Bublé bias long enough to figure it out? Find out!
Thanks again to our anonymous requester!
Buckle up for a car-centric episode of HARK! By request, we listen to “Driving Home for Christmas” by Chris Rea and “Home for the Holidays” as performed by The Carpenters. We also dunk on a bunch of American states, PROBABLY unfairly, so uh, sorry.
Thank you to lettinggosthehardestpart for the request!
It’s Alexander Hamilton’s birthday this week? And there are (at least) two Hanukkah-themed a capella Hamilton medleys available at a professional recording quality? Barack Obama endorsed one of them? So anyway, this week we’re talking about “Hasmonean: A Hamilton Hanukkah” by The Maccabeats and “A Hamilton Chanukah” by Six13.
The twelve days of Christmas continue and in this episode, we celebrate Epiphany with two versions of “We Three Kings”! Pink Martini’s rendition offers a smooth, fun take on this somber carol, while Patti Smith’s version is completely grave.
For our final episode of the year, we’re covering two 2017 songs by artists best known for their childhood work – in a sequel of sorts to one of our favorite episodes of HARK ever, we’re talking about “Finally It’s Christmas” by Hanson and “Christmas Memories” by Billy Gilman!
Happy holidays everyone! It’s that time of year – time for a milestone episode in which Ian & RJ surprise each other with picks aiming for the top and bottom of the list! RJ’s pick for the top offers a message of possibility in uncertain times, while Ian’s pick for the bottom submits some extremely specious advice about dance partners.
Here’s the article that RJ mentioned about ranking versions of “This Christmas”!
Happy Hanukkah! This week we celebrate with two modern versions of a traditional Hanukkah song – “Hanukkah Oh Hanukkah” as performed by The Barenaked Ladies and Erran Baron Cohen.
We recorded this episode from our hotel in Seattle, where we attended Podcon this past weekend!
We know not everyone is as keen on the holiday season as we are, and this episode goes out to them. This week we review two melancholy Christmas tunes – “Nothing Left to Do (Let’s Make This Christmas Blue)” by The Both and “Things We Don’t Need Anymore” by Jenny Owen Youngs.
Thanks to the anonymous listener who requested these songs!
We take on two puppet-related requests this week and end up hitting the extremes of our list. “The Christmas Wish” by Kermit the Frog, arguably the greatest puppet of all time, delights us — while “Christmas Tree” by Dustin the Turkey, an all-around troublesome audio-visual experience, dumbfounds us.
Philip Lopez’s amazing playlist of every song we’ve ever ranked is here!
You can support HARK on Patreon!
Black Friday. Cyber Monday. Dragon Tuesday. Join us as we celebrate with songs worthy of this fabled holiday. We stare into the face of our own mortality with Dragon Tuesday founder John Darnielle’s rendition of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and harken to an epic tale of bravery and righteousness with Gods of Fire’s “The Quest For the Latke Oil”.