To bring you the ultimate Christmas Episode, we need a fantastic quartet. Shear Terror and JonnyPistolShot join The Real Brian and Captain Influence to dig their fingers into the holiday spirit. No better way to wrap up 2018 and usher in the holiday season than to have these guys have a fun conversation about all our favorite things! So, do as Shear Terror suggests and: “Put on Onesie and give up on life for the winter.” (My onesie resembles a pizza.) Make yourself some hot cocoa, turn on the Christmas tree lights, and wrap some gifts while you listen!
Christmas means a lot of things to a lot of people. To some, it may mean nothing. But whether you observe Christmas or not, the world as a whole is bombarded by the same thing during the month of December... MUZIK. Yes, that's right. Can't walk into the grocery store this time of year without hearing Jingle Bell Rock. It's so strange to me how, in spite of the brilliant musicians and artists that grace each generation, no one can come up with more classics than we already have. Not unlike the conversation we had last week about instant classic Christmas movies!
Check this list out. It's not a comprehensive list, more an overview, but looking between 1942 and 2018... here are the most popular Christmas songs and their release dates. We've got Bing Crosby, Gene Autry, Elvis Presley, The Jackson Five, Mariah Carey represented here.
With a more extensive study I might be able to provide a more objective analysis of Christmas songs, but in my search for the most beloved Christmas-time songs it seems that as the decades pass, there are larger gaps between hits. I left out Wham!'s 1985 hit "Last Christmas" and Donny Hathaway's "This Christmas" from 1971. And then I didn't even touch on songs like "O Holy Night", which actually was written in 1847, or "Silent Night" from way back in 1818!
Did you know "Christmastime Is Here" was written for A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1965? And "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" was written in 1934? The more I look, the more I find. And yet, I still don't see anything as incredible as the songs on my list above written in the last 2 decades. There are good ones, ones that make you go, "Oh, yeah! I forgot about that one..." But nothing that is hoisted to the same caliber as White Christmas.
I mean, look at this list from the last decade:
I tried to include more, but I've literally never heard some of the Christmas singles released in the U.S. over the past 20 years. If you're interested, check out this wiki page.
What do you think this means? There's nothing new under the sun? Personally, I feel like modern music is more concerned with producing hits than producing quality music, so new singles sprout up and do well for a season... then become lost in the obscurity of the internet. Hmm.
It has been a pleasure and a privilege to write companion blogs for The Real Brian Show. We're 143 episodes in to an adventure that is only just beginning. Though my time writing blogs on a consistent basis is coming to an end, you aren't getting rid of me so easily. I'll be back to co-host with Brian and Tony, and hopefully a lot of other amazing guests! Thanks for reading and I'm sure we'll meet again.
It's not goodbye, it's see you soon!