Inspired by an anonymous request, we listen to two songs featuring the UK edition of Santa Claus: Father Christmas. While paired for their shared nomenclature, these tracks (“I Believe in Father Christmas” by Greg Lake and “Father Christmas” by The Kinks) ended up sharing a bit more.
This week we get to some more requests from the Southern Hemisphere! Our listeners from Australia have tasked us with listening to two songs about Santa’s less popular animal companions, “Six White Boomers” by notable terrible person Rolf Harris and “Fabian” by Tripod. Thank you to Moopot and our anonymous listener (who may or may not be a monotreme) for the requests!
It’s hot here in the Northern Hemisphere, so we decide to cool off with music devoted to winter rather than any one holiday. Specifically, we listen to two takes on “Winter Wonderland”, which we have gone 130 episodes without encountering! Both versions of this familiar song manage to catch us by surprise – the first recorded performance by Richard Himber and his Ritz-Carlton Hotel Orchestra, and a more recent rendition by Earth Wind & Fire.
This week, we’re celebrating a very special birthday for a very special podcast boy. Ian is turning three decades old this week! And so is A Very Special Christmas, the 1987 holiday charity album that along with debuting “Christmas in Hollis”, featured the two songs that Ian inexplicably chose for this week’s episode. We listen to “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” by John Cougar Mellencamp and “Santa Baby” by Madonna because… well, it’s birthday boy’s choice.
This week, a listener request asks us to consider updated versions of two much-beloved Christmas tunes with well-documented problems – “Fairytale of New York” as performed by KT Tunstall and “Baby It’s Cold Outside” as performed by Postmodern Jukebox. Thank you to Liam for the request!
This week we cover a listener request that lets us treat ourselves to some delightful jazz and captivating blues – and reveals, perhaps, how little we know about jazz and blues. Thank you to Paul for requesting “Christmas Night in Harlem” by Louis Armstrong and “Santa” by Lightnin’ Hopkins!
Ian and RJ are back, and they are melting! This week we struggle through two novelty songs in which children make outlandish, and perhaps disturbing, demands – “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” by Gayla Peevey and “All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth” by Spike Jones and His City Slickers.
This week, our list grows to 250 songs, and we partake in our tradition of surprising each other with songs aimed at the top and the bottom of the list. Ian’s pick for the top causes tears of joy to flow and hearts to swell with love, while RJ’s pick for the bottom is all about hatred.
We did it, y’all. We made it half-way through 2017. Next Christmas is only 200 days away! To celebrate, we’re looking back at the best and worst holiday albums of 2016. The charming “I’m Your Santa” by Chance the Rapper and Jeremih is our pick for best, and the incomprehensible “Drivin’ the Pig (Manejando el Cerdo)” by the incomparable Jimmy Buffett is, well, you know.
We’re celebrating National Doughnut Day with two songs celebrating doughnuts – specifically, sufganiyot, jelly doughnuts eaten at Hanukkah time! “Sufganiot” by A.K.A. Pella is a love song to this fried food while “A Land Called Sufganiyot” by Mama Doni Band is more of a sci-fi/horror journey.