Roger O Green

More Hot 100 Xmas Hits, 1955-2004

Nuttin’

Here are some more Hot 100 Xmas hits. These ones are far less familiar to me. Some of the songs I know, but by different artists.

Please Come Home For Christmas – The Eagles, #18 in 1978. I prefer the Charles Brown version that came out in 1960 and topped the Christmas charts in 1972.

The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire) – Christina Aguilera, #18 in 1999

Santo Natale (Merry Christmas) – David Whitfield with Stanley Black and his orchestra, #19 in 1955. I am used to unfamiliarity with the newer songs, but I don’t know this one either.

Nuttin for Xmas – Joe Ward, orchestra conducted by Dave Terry, #20 in 1955. What is it about 1955 that allowed three versions of this song to reach the Top 30? And no consistency in the spelling of the title.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer – The Chipmunks, #20 in 1960

Pre- and post-Twist

Jingle Bell Rock – Bobby Rydell and Chubby Checker, #21 in 1961. This is the period between when The Twist by Chubby Checker was #1 in 1960 and The Twist by Chubby Checker was #1 in 1962 and namechecked some of Checker’s other songs.

(I’m Gettin) Nuttin’ for Christmas – Ricky Zahnd and The Blue Jeaners, with the Tony Mottola Orchestra, #21 in 1955

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town – The 4 Seasons, arranged and conducted by Sid Bass, #23 in 1962. It’s your standard Bob Crewe production for the group. I wrote a whole blog post about naughty and nice in April 2019.

Baby’s First Christmas – Connie Francis, orchestra and chorus conducted by Don Costa, #26 in 1961

If We Make It Through December – Merle Haggard, #28 in 1973, written by the artist. This is a downbeat and not particularly Christmasy track, which may be why I like it. The New York Times reported: “This one might be a Christmas song because it appears on a Christmas album (‘Merle Haggard’s Christmas Present’; please note the cover art), but Merle Haggard only decided to cut that album after the success of this stand-alone single — the biggest pop crossover hit of his entire career. There’s mention of gifts under the tree (or rather, a lack thereof), but the true subject of this melancholy tune is the plight of the down-and-out working man, meaning it is, first and foremost, a Merle Haggard song.”

A bonus from fillyjonk which you of a certain vintage will likely recall: Attention Kmart Shoppers – 8 hours of vintage department store Christmas music (Customusic tapes)

The Kennedy Center Honors 2023

Billy Crystal; Renée Fleming; Barry Gibb; Queen Latifah; Dionne Warwick.

The Kennedy Center Honors 2023 was presented on Sunday, December 3. It will air on CBS-TV and stream on Paramount+ on Wednesday, December 27, at 9 pm ET/PT. Honorees for lifetime artistic achievements: actor and comedian Billy Crystal; acclaimed soprano Renée Fleming; British singer-songwriter-producer and member of the Bee Gees, Barry Gibb; rapper, singer, and actress Queen Latifah; and singer Dionne Warwick.

I first became aware of Billy Crystal when he portrayed Jodie Dallas on the sitcom Soap. Surprisingly, he appeared on Saturday Night Live in the 1984-1985 season, a show that generally which usually embraced less well-known performers.

Afterward, he appeared in several movies I saw: The Princess Bride (1987), When Harry Met Sally… (1989), City Slickers (1991), Mr. Saturday Night (1992), Analyze This (1997), and voicing a couple of the Monsters, Inc. movies.

Crystal has hosted the Academy Awards nine times and the Grammy Awards thrice, earning five Emmys for his work as host, writer, and producer on both shows. Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, and Crystal co-hosted “Comic Relief’s televised fundraising events on HBO, raising $75 million to help supply medical aid to the homeless…

“In 2022, Crystal returned to Broadway with Mr. Saturday Night, a musical adaptation of the 1992…film… The show received… five Tony® nominations, including Best Musical; Best Leading Actor in a Musical for Crystal; and Best Book of a Musical, which was written by Crystal, Lowell Ganz, and Babaloo Mandel; and one Grammy® nomination for Best Musical Theatre Album which featured eight songs sung by Crystal.”

He is also an avid New York Yankees fan and has been a talking head for documentaries about Roger Maris (61*), Yogi Berra, and others.

Soprano

I’ve seen Renée Fleming so often that I struggle to summarize it. I went to her Wikipedia page.

Fleming was featured in the PBS Great Performances New Year’s Eve telecast on Dec. 31, 2020. I saw that. At the 2018 Kennedy Center Honors awards ceremony broadcast on CBS, Fleming sang a jazz aria composed by honoree Wayne Shorter – check. On July 4, 2018, Fleming sang in the PBS telecast A Capitol Fourth from the West Lawn of the US Capitol, performing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and, during the fireworks display, “America the Beautiful” – yes.

She sang “You’ll Never Know” on the soundtrack of the film The Shape of Water. In the 2017 film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Fleming’s Decca recording of “The Last Rose of Summer” is heard in the opening scene and in the middle of the movie. I saw both of those movies.

And those are just the ones since 2016. She is a ubiquitous presence in my viewing of the arts.

BeeGees

I was enough of a fan of the brothers Gibb – Barry Gibb and his younger twin brothers Robin and Maurice – to know they were born in England but moved to Australia. They had some regional hits Down Under, such as Spicks and Specks, before they made it big with New York Mining Disaster 1941 (#14 in 1967), I’ve Got To Get A Message To You (#8 in 1968), Lonely Days (#3 in 1971), How Can You Mend A Broken Heart (#1 for four weeks in 1971), and several others before hitting a fallow patch.

They discovered a new sound in 1975 with Jive Talkin’ (#1 for two weeks), my admitted favorite BeeGees song, before the group exploded with the soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever, with the brothers writing not only their songs but others such as Yvonne Elliman’s If I Can’t Have You.

“Gibb was also unafraid to give away songs most performers wouldn’t dare part with, be it Frankie Valli’s “Grease” or younger brother Andy’s “I Just Want To Be Your Everything.” Both were solo compositions, and both became U.S. number ones. The hits continued in the ‘80s and ‘90s, as well as entire albums of platinum-coated, Gibb-crafted songs for the likes of Barbra Streisand (‘Woman In Love’), Dionne Warwick (‘Heartbreaker’), Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton (‘Islands In The Stream’), and Diana Ross(‘Chain Reaction’).”

I highly recommend the 2021 documentary The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart. It touches on the brothers’ success, including little brother Andy, and how painful it is for Barry that all three of his younger brothers have passed away.

The former Dana Owens

I’ll admit that I have no Queen Latifah albums, though I recognize her musical importance. I had heard Ladies First (feat. Monie Love). She won a Grammy for U.N.I.T.Y.

But I did see her in the movies Jungle Fever, and especially Chicago, where she played the prison matron Mama Morton and sang When You’re Good To Mama.

I’ve occasionally caught her on the TV action series The Equalizer, mainly because it was on after 60 Minutes.

The Bacharach/David interpreter

Dionne Warwick was the pre-eminent interpreter of the songs of Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

Though some grumbled that she wasn’t singing the songs that black people were “supposed” to sing, she had some success on the RB charts in the 1960s. These are just a few.

Don’t Make Me Over, #5 RB, #21 pop in 1963

Anyone Who Had A Heart, #2 AC (adult contemporary), #6 RB, #8 pop in 1964

Walk On By, #1 RB for three weeks, #6 pop, #7 AC in 1964

Message To Michael, #5 RB, #8 pop, #12 AC in 1966

One of my favorite songs of hers was the pairing with the Spinners, Then Came You, #1 pop, #2 RB, #3 AC in 1974

Her biggest song was That’s What Friends Are For with Elton John, Gladys Knight, and Stevie Wonder, #1 for two weeks AC, #1 for three weeks RB, and #1 for four weeks pop in 1986.

I only realized this year that she and the late Gladys Crowder were born on the same day.

Movie review: The Holdovers

Directed by Alexander Payne

It’s almost winter break at a prestigious boys’ prep school in 1970. Most of the kids are going home, but five are the holdovers, unable to get away for the break. Thus, the name of the film.

A faculty member has to tend to them. One is assigned but gets out of the gig. The task then devolves to the demanding teacher of ancient civilizations, Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti), who almost no one likes.

Then, the five teens are offered a way out, but only four can take advantage, leaving the bright but troubled Angus Tully (Dominick Sessa) stuck with Paul and the cook Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), deep in her own issues.

I liked this movie a lot: the characters, all broken in some manner, often change unexpectedly. One of the telling aspects is that I had seen the trailer for the movie a half dozen times. Those scenes, as shown in the movie, are actually funnier. Yet, there is serious character development.

The dialogue by David Heminson is delightful, especially Paul’s: “I find the world a bitter and complicated place – and it seems to feel the same way about me.”

Da’Vine Joy Randolph is the breakout star here. Vanity Fair, in noting the 25 best performances of 2023, says, “In Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers, Randolph proves her ability to settle in for a character-driven story that’s stripped of distraction and focused solely on her skills as an actor. As Mary, a school cafeteria administrator… Randolph captures maternal pain while never allowing the grief to feel clichéd. Whenever she’s onscreen, you can’t take your eyes off her layered, nuanced performance in this moving dramedy. “

Well-received

Several reviews use the sentence, “Paul Giamatti gives his best performance since Sideways,” the 2004 film that Payne also directed. The new movie received 96% positive reviews from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, while 91% of the audience concurred.

I suppose The Holdovers might become, in its weird way, a holiday classic, especially for anyone, in the words of one critic, “who has known the oppressive weight of Christmas loneliness.”

One critic complained, “It’s impossible not to notice how many scenes limp along, how many have nothing to do with the previous one, and how many fizzle out.” I didn’t think that was happening. I sensed that the story gave the viewer the idea that the relationship, especially between Paul and Angus, had gone as far as possible, but then, another layer would be revealed.

My wife and I saw The Holdovers at our Landmark Theatre, Spectrum 8, on December 2 in one of the larger theaters that was about half full.

Hot 100 Christmas Songs, 1955-2004

Ross Bagdasarian

These are the top 10 Hot 100 Christmas Songs in the rock and roll era, starting in 1955. While there was a particular Christmas chart from 1963 to 1972 and again from 1983 to 1985, the songs here charted on the pop charts.

Many of these will be quite familiar to you, though I’ll admit to being totally unaware of the NKOTB track, the only one I don’t own in a physical form.

The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late) – The Chipmunks, #1 for four weeks in 1958. My family owned the single. I particularly liked it because I thought l did a passable imitation of the rodents. Ross Bagdasarian also had a #1 hit in 1958 with Witch Doctor as David Seville.

Jingle Bell Rock – Bobby Helms, #6 in 1957. Background vocalists were the Anita Kerr Singers. The electric guitar was by Hank Garland.

Nuttin’ for Christmas – Barry Gordon with the Art Mooney orchestra, #6 in 1955. I never heard this until I heard it on a compilation CD. Fingernails on a blackboard.

This One’s For The Children – New Kids On The Block, #7 in 1989

White Christmas – Bing Crosby, #7 in 1955. This is the 1947 version, which supplanted the 1942 version.

Mary’s Boy Child – Harry Belafonte, #12 in 1956. The remarkable Jester Hairston, who had a fascinating life as a composer and actor, wrote the song.

The Little Drummer Boy – the Harry Simeone Chorale, #13 in 1958. We owned this single growing up, too. There was a 1965 remake of this song, which takes the ending much slower; I prefer the original.

Also Paul Young

Do They Know It’s Christmas? – Band Aid, #13 in 1984. It features members of Kool & the Gang, U2, The Boomtown Rats, Genesis, Ultravox, Bananarama, Culture Club, Heaven 17, Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran, Wham!, Status Quo, The Police, The Style Council and others

Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree – Brenda Lee, #14 in 1960, and #1 in 2023!

Pretty Paper – Roy Orbison, #15 in 1963. I never heard this until I bought Orbison’s Greatest Hits CD collection.

People born in December 1953

The fourth of My Three Sons

Here are some people born in December 1953. this is the final installment of people born in 1953. I won’t do this for 1954 because I was born in 1953. One person I’ll skip because I will mention them separately.

Tom Hulce (5th): he played Pinto Kroger in Animal House (1978). He was also the wayward son, Larry, of Gil (Steve Martin) and Karen (Mary Steenburgen) Buckman in Parenthood (1989). But he is best known as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Amadeus (1984), for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Oscar as Best Actor, losing out to his co-star F. Murray Abraham, who played Mozart’s rival Antonio Salieri. These are the only three films I’ve seen featuring Hulce, all at the cinema.

I never really related to the humor of Sam Kinison (8th). But I understood it better after I read about his growing up. His father was a Pentecostal preacher. “At the age of three years, Kinison was hit by a truck, which left him with brain damage… His parents divorced when Kinison was 11, after which his brother Bill went to live with his father while Kinison stayed with the rest of the family, against his protestations.” For a brief time, Sam was also a fire and brimstone preacher. He was killed in an automobile accident with an intoxicated driver on April 10, 1992.

Being…himself?

I’ve seen John Malkovich (9th) in a few movies (Places in the Heart (1984), Dangerous Liaisons (1988)), his Emmy-winning performance in Death of a Salesman (1985), and a couple of hosting gigs on Saturday Night Live. My favorite has to be the bizarre movie Being John Malkovich (1999).

Bess Armstrong (11th) was in the movies The Four Seasons (1981) and Nothing in Common (1986); the TV shows On Our Own (1977) and My So-Called Life (1995). I’ve seen her in all these plus three episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and other television appearances.

Bill Pullman (17th) is an upstate New York kid born in Hornell and attending SUNY Oneonta. While I’ve seen him in several movies, including A League of Their Own (1992) and Sleepless in Seattle (1997), I’ve never watched either Liebestraum (1991, filmed in Binghamton, NY) or Independence Day (1996).

Barry Livingston (17th): I am so seeped in the history of the TV show My Three Sons, I remember this. “In 1963, he joined the cast of the ABC [then CBS] sitcom My Three Sons as next-door neighbor Ernie Thompson. His older brother, Stanley Livingston, was already a series regular as Chip Douglas. After Tim Considine left the series two years later, Livingston joined the cast permanently (his character was adopted into the family, keeping the show’s title intact) and remained with the series until its end in 1972.” He’s still a working actor, and I’ve even seen him in films such as The Social Network (2010) and Argo (2012).

Echoes of Joy

Betty Wright (21st): I mostly know her for one song, Clean Up Woman, but she had more hits and a complicated personal life. She grew up singing with the Echoes of Joy, a gospel group, from age two(!) to 11. Betty “died from cancer, on May 10, 2020, at her home in Miami, aged 66.”

Meredith Vieira (30th): I first noticed her on CBS News. “Vieira joined 60 Minutes in 1989, following the birth of her first child. Don Hewitt, executive producer of 60 Minutes, allowed her to work part-time for two seasons so she could care for her child. After that, it was arranged that she would work full-time. But after two years, she became pregnant again and asked to continue the part-time arrangement. Hewitt declined her request, firing her, and deciding instead to hire someone who would work full-time.” I didn’t often watch The View (1997-2006), the syndicated Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (2002-2013), or Today (2006-2011), but I’d see her occasionally, covering the Olympics, appearing on 30 Rock, et al.