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Groovin’ to the Seasonal Sounds

By King Harris

This is just about my favorite time of year; and no, not because of an overstuffed turkey; not because of Black Friday or Cyber Monday; not necessarily because of the sudden and warming appearance of colored lights and white icicles decorating all the homes in our neighborhood, although I have to admit that Eric and Linsey across the street do the best job of welcoming in the Yuletide spirit during Thanksgiving like clockwork.

This is my favorite time of year because of the sounds of Christmas, most notably the music that accompanies it, whether it’s coming from overhead speakers in stores or from pop radio, which relinquishes its normal programming in favor of the music of the season.

Being the rock ‘n’ roller that I was and still am, I couldn’t wait to hear all the new versions, even older ones, of Christmas delights appearing on Top-40 radio. In my family, my parents and older sister favored the classics like Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” and Nat King Coles’ “The Christmas Song,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” by Gene Autry, and “Let it Snow” by Vaughan Monroe, which doesn’t mention Christmas but who cares, it fits.

But it was always the classic Christmas sounds of orchestra leader Percy Faith that permeated our home. As for me, I was oriented more towards rock ‘n’ roll and rhythm & blues and what artists in these genres generated.

In the early 1950s, I just about jumped out of my skin when I first the doo-wop group, The Drifter’s jump blues version of “White Christmas.” I suppose the composer Irving Berlin would have had a similar reaction were he alive to experience it.

Other R & B groups and artists like Chuck Berry (“Run Rudolph Run”) all turned out Christmas hits in their own recognizable styles.

In the late ‘50s, country and novelty entered the scene with enduring seasonal favorites: Brenda Lee with “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” Bobby Helms singing “Jingle Bell Rock,” and of course Elvis whose passion for yule tide rock and spiritualism was quite evident on his Christmas album.

Perhaps the oddest seasonal offering around this time was cut by David Seville (Ross Bagdasarian) who created Alvin, Theodore, and Simon unleashing upon the world “The Chipmunk Song,” which featured sped up recording tape to create high-pitched vocals, something he’d practiced in a novelty called “The Witch Doctor” a few months earlier. I always felt one needed to hear “The Chipmunk Song” only once.

If I had my pick of any era it would be the early ‘60s, which featured December offerings by The Four Seasons, The Beach Boys, and of course Phil Spector. All produced albums and singles in their own styles (the Four Seasons with “Santa Clause is Comin’ to Town,” Brian Wilson with “Little Saint Nick” and “The Man with All the Toys,” and Phil “Wall of Sound” Spector with the outrageous album “A Christmas Gift for You,” featuring his talented stable of artists including the Ronettes, the Crystals, Bob B. Sox, and my favorite, Darlene Love, who practically tears down the wall of sound with her “Christmas Baby Please Come Home,” arguably the best Phil Spector record ever produced.

No Christmas effort compares to the magnificence of Spector and his wrecking crew of musicians. Later works by Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, and Paul McCartney all stepped into the Spirit of winter wonderland during the ‘70s.

As Andy Williams once crooned, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year…”

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