You know one of the things I love most about this blog? All that great stuff I learn from YOU! *clap clap*
First, for everyone including myself longing for a good Spanish-language replacement song for Feliz Navidad, my dear friend Lyn writes:
This Sunday (December 18), my co-host on “Los Vientos del Pueblo” is featuring alternative Christmas songs from Latin America and Spain. I won’t be there this week but he has found many, many more to replace “Feliz Navidad.” Anyone who’s interested can listen to the program online, livestreamed, at http://www.wrpi.org from 2-6 pm Eastern Time on Sunday, December 18. That would be 11 am-3 pm your time. The Christmas song segment will run in the last half of the program; the first half is a tribute to Spanish/Catalan singer/songwriter Joan Manuel Serrat.
So, MYWTMousers, get ready for some awesome Christmas music on Sunday!
I have also learned a great deal about Adam Sandler’s Chanukah song. For starters, my friend noted that Neil Diamond did a cover of the song, and suggested my dislike of the song might be Adam Sandler himself, not the actual song. Well I’m pleased to say that I looked up the Neil Diamond version, and…it is eleventy billion times better than the original. Which shouldn’t be surprising to me, because I just dislike Adam Sandler in general. So much like Madonna’s version of Santa Baby, my dislike of this song may very well be limited to Sandler’s original version.
Here’s Neil:
Although a note on Madonna’s Santa Baby, another reader let me know that Michael Buble did a version called Santa Buddy. Not really being a Buble fan, I had to go look it up and oh my god, I will never be able to unhear that. Michael Buble may have just supplanted Maddona in Worst Version, and that was a pretty high bar, ladies and gentlemice. A pretty high bar.
I guess we’ll have to wait until next year to see.
Anyway, friend Lyn also points out:
In its various versions, it still remains the favorite song of my seventh graders who take pride in the naming of the Jewish celebrities. Adam Sandler is a major reason why my students today (and for the past ten years) say that among their peers being Jewish is considered “cool.”
So seriously–I can’t too harshly diss any song that makes seventh graders feel proud of their heritage, because seventh grade SUCKS and if that’s a positive message, then yay! And apologies to any seventh grade Jews I may have offended.
I’m going to guess they don’t prefer the Neil Diamond version.
But I still hate Adam Sandler.
Lyn also pointed out that Sandler has updated the song since the original. I was able to find Parts 2 and 3.
Part 2:
Part 3, and I love the kid’s choir in this one:
And on a side note, it’s crazy the kind of stuff you find on Youtube.
Anyway, I’ll admit I giggled at some parts of 2 and 3.
Curse you, sharp-eyed readers!!! Life was so much easier when I just hated one song!
And here we are at #5. I know it’s not Chanukah yet, but I thought I’d throw this one in here right now.
Yes, it’s Chanukah Song by Adam Sandler.
Seriously, I don’t know how it happened, but this became the popular anthem of Chanukah for non-Jews. Like, it’s the only Chanukah song we non-Jews know, aside from Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel.
And it’s awful.
If you haven’t heard it, please don’t click on the above link. Actually, don’t click on the above link anyway. I don’t even know why I put it there. I guess I felt obligated to include the actual song somewhere.
Basically what it is, is Adam Sandler (who is Jewish) lists names of celebrities who are also Jewish and thus celebrating Chanukah. With the clever and catchy refrain, “Put on your yarmulke, it’s time for Chanukah.” It’s full of funny and up-to-date jokes, like a line about OJ Simpson (not a Jew, and also it’s not the 1990s anymore). And also Adam Sandler is a comedian, not a singer, so his singing is like Bob Dylan except that Bob Dylan was actually, like, talented and could sing in his own special way. So basically nothing like Bob Dylan. And not only is Adam Sandler a bad singer, he’s also a bad comedian. It’s the worst of all worlds.
I actually vastly prefer this fun cover by the Maccabeats, and wish it could become the official Chanukah song. Plus it’s a cool video.
So it looks like I touched a few nerves with my last bad Christmas song pick! Well, it takes all types, they say ;).
New Orleans Square, also known as the area I basically haven’t covered yet, is really cool at night at Christmas. You may remember this shot from Where In Disneyland?:
Looking up
The “where” is above the Cristal D’Orleans shop. This shop is another crystal shop, not to be confused with the Crystal Arts shop on Main Street. Which is kind of like, how many crystal shops does one amusement park need? And I really hope that people buying these items have the sense to not take them on rides or something.
You know it's French because it's not spelled "Crystal" and there's the d' in the name.
The doorway actually looks really cool at night
I'm kind of impressed with this picture
The Cristal d’Orleans carried much of the same glass stuff as the Crystal Palace, but it seemed to me like there were fewer figurines.
Also, over on the Crystal Palace post I complained about how the window said “glass cutters” and that there wasn’t any glass cutting going on. And a sharp-eyed reader said, “Dude, wait! There is glass etching in New Orleans Square, so stop dissing the Crystal Palace!” (paraphrased).
Sure enough, here it is.
The little lamp illuminates the class etching table
So if you want to get your name on one of these…
stylish drinking vessels
…you can.
There’s also a very wide assortment of the Beauty and the Beast rose thing
You know, from the movie
Although the petals do not fall from the glass roses.
I have to wonder if those are less popular than they were when the movie first opened.
And my Standard Research Methodology also revealed that the Cristal d’Orleans is actually owned by Arribas Glass. Go figure!
In a rare double-header, two Christmas songs come in to represent #6. Neither are good songs, but the final nail in their collective coffin is the ear-shattering aspect. These two songs make me want to shove my fingers in my ears, which is dangerous because I listen to radio Christmas music when I’m driving. But here they are:
#6 The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late) -and- I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas (by Gayla Peevey)
Ear protection is advised…
Alllllvvvvviiiiinnnnn!!!!!
Now first let me fully disclose that I was an Alvin and the Chipmunks fan as a youth. Not the current Alvin with his weird computer-generated body and hip-hop songs, but the original. I thought the song was funny. The constant “Me, I want a hula hoop” was giggle worthy. Now I’m like GIVE THE KID A DAMNED HULA HOOP! HOW MUCH CAN THEY POSSIBLY BE? LIKE $20 AT WAL-MART???
Now much in the same way that the Singing Dogs changed recording history, so did the chipmunks. In fact, the chipmunks won three grammy awards in 1958: Best Comedy Performance (remember, they were probably still recovering from the Singing Dogs), Best Children’s Recording, which definitively showed how valued children’s recordings were in 1958. And also a Best Engineered Record, which I think is one of those awards you give away the day before so you don’t gum up the telecast with boring thank-yous and such, or at least make an attempt.
Anyway, unlike the Singing Dog, it did not have an actual renaissance. It has simply been a stowaway on other more legitimate Christmas albums and then then those get played, the Chipmunks come too. And the amount of effort it would take to remove this song from our collective lexicon is not greater than the inertia of the people with the power to do it. And so we are stuck with a plane that loops the loop.
AND THE STUPID HULA HOOP!
And to fully disclose, I have to admit that I have a son named Theodore, and an internet friend of mine has a son named Simon, and if we ever find an Alvin there will be cause to meet up in joyous celebration. But we will still not be playing that song.
And as for the hippopotamuses…
People often fondly look back on the 50s era as a time of wonderful music. What they don’t realize is that the same time era was producing the Singing Dogs, the Chipmunks, and something found in the Jungle Cruise.
This is sad.
I really don’t have a lot to say about Hippopotamus other than that the ear-screeching quality makes me wonder if I tilt my head, will blood come running out of my ear? The song does get better in the middle, if you still have any kind of hearing quality left, but the screeching starts up at the end. There are few songs that make me immediately shut the radio off, and this is one of them.
However, if you have a sardonic, quirky sense of humor like I do, you might want to review the plight of the animatronic hippos of Disneyland.
My Year With The Mouse 