Well, ho ho ho.
Another Christmas/Holiday season (take your pick) is upon us once
again. Since Christmas is so close, our
quiz this week is about classic Christmas songs. There’s really not much more to say. These songs all made Billboard Magazine’s
Christmas chart. Some even made it to Billboards’ Hot 100 (and since it’s the
holiday season, the questions are not really very hard). Grab yourself a glass of eggnog, curl up by
the firplace and have at it.
QUESTIONS
1. “Chestnuts roasting on
an open fire…”. Those classic Christmas
lyrics are from “The Christmas Song”, written in 1944 and has been recorded by
the likes of Nat ‘King’ Cole, Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, Rod
Stewart, Barbra Streisand, James Taylor, Frank Sinatra, The Partridge Family,
Carpenters, Tony Bennett, Diana Ross, Herb Alpert and James Brown. Bob Wells was one of the two writers of the
song. The other is a singer whose
nickname is ‘The Velvet Fog’. This
singer became an obsession for the character of Judge Harry Stone on TV’s
“Night Court”. Judge Stone kept a photo
of this singer on his desk and the singer appeared on the show many times
throughout its TV run (1986-1992). Can
you name this singer/songwriter?
2. “Rudolph, the red-nosed
reindeer, had a very shiny nose. And if
you ever saw it, you would even say it glowed”.
Those lyrics come from the Christmas classic “Rudolph, The Red Nosed
Reindeer”. Many performers have recorded
“Rudolph” but the first (and possibly the most famous) version was recorded by
a singing cowboy star. But which
one? Was it: a. Roy Rogers
b. Gene Autry c. Tex Ritter
3. “So this is Christmas
and what have you done? Another year over
and a new one just begun.” The lyrics to
this Christmas song was written and recorded by a former member of The Beatles,
but which one? Was it: a. George Harrison b. Paul McCartney c. John Lennon
4. The singer’s real name
is Ross Bagdasarian, but that’s not the name he used on the record label for
his 1958 Billboard Magazine Hot 100 # 1 single.
There are only 4 singers on the record and all four are Bagdasarian,
better known under his show buiz name David Seville. Three of the voices were sped up to sound
like, well, chipmunks. What is the name
of this million selling # 1 Christmas hit?
Is it: a. Alvin’s Harmonica b. The Chipmunk Song c. The Chanukah Song
5. Bing Crosby’s version of “White Christmas” is
the most successful Christmas single of all time, having sold over 50 million
copies (although the 2009 Guinness Book of World Records says over 100 million
copies have been sold, but that would include vinyl albums, cassettes and CD’s
and I assume now, downloads). It was originally
written by composer Irving Berlin for what Academy Award winning motion
picture? Was it: a. The Road to Morocco b. White Christmas c. Holiday Inn.
ANSWERS
1. That would be Mel Torme. The hero of Harry Anderson’s character on the
TV series “Night Court”, Torme co- wrote “The Christmas Song” in the middle of
a blistering summer. Torme is credited
with writing or co-writing over 250 songs, many of which have become jazz
standards. Herb Alpert’s instrumental
version with the Tijuana Brass took “The Christmas Song” to # 1 on Billboards
Christmas chart in 1968.
2. Gene Autry is that
singing cowboy. His version of “Rudolph,
the Red Nosed sold 2 and a half million copies its first year (1949) and went
on to sell 25 million copies in total. Rudolph
had his start as a colouring book for the U.S. department store chain
Montgomery Ward in 1939. Robert May
created Rudolph and it was his brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, who wrote the
song.
3. The song is “Happy Christmas (War is Over)”
and was co-written by former Beatle John Lennon and wife Yoko Ono. It was recorded at the Record Plant in New
York City in late October 1971 and released (in the U.S.) on December 1st
that year on green 45 rpm vinyl singles.
On the label, it’s listed as John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band with the
Harlem Community Choir. Phil Spector
(the legendary record producer now serving a life sentence for murder) produced
the original recording session. Most
radio stations usually cut this part out, but at the beginning (before the
singing), Yoko whispers “”Happy Christmas Kyoko” to her daughter and John
whispers “Happy Christmas Julian” to his son (second son Sean wouldn’t be born
for 4 more years). In 1974, George
Harrison wrote and recorded “Ding Dong, Ding Dong” (actually more for New Years
than Christmas). Paul McCartney’s annual
musical contribution to the Yuletide season is 1979’s “Wonderful Christmastime”
and in 1999, Ringo Starr recorded an entire album of Christmas songs entitled
“I Wanna Be Santa Claus”
4. It’s b. The Chipmunk Song. Ross Bagdasarian, using the name David
Seville, had experimented with a sped up voice on his previous 1958 # 1 hit,
“Witch Doctor”. For “The Chipmunk Song”,
he created The Chipmunks – Alvin, Simon and Theodore, all named for executives
at his record label, Liberty in Los Angeles.
Alvin was named for Al Bennett (then President of Liberty), Simon for Si
Waronker (a co-founder of Liberty records) and Theodore for engineer Ted Keep. The voices were created by playing the
musical background at half speed while Ross Bagdasarian/David Seville sang the
three parts (separately of course) at normal speed. When the music was played back at its normal
speed, the voices sounded like chipmunks.
“The Chipmunk Song” sold 4 million copies in the first seven weeks of release
and remained in the # 1 spot for 4 weeks (Dec 22nd and December 29th,
1958 as well as January 5th and January 12th, 1959). The following year, at the very first Grammy Awards, “The Chipmunk Song” took home 3
statues for ‘Best Recording For Children’, ‘Best Comedy Performance’ and ‘Best
Engineered Record – Non Classical’. Ross
Bagdasarian aka David Seville passed away in 1972, but The Chipmunks have continued
under the direction of son Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. and his wife Janis Karman.
5. It’s c. Holiday Inn, a
1942 Paramount Picture that starred Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. The movie “White Christmas” came along 12
years later and starred Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney (George’s
aunt). “The Road To Morocco” was released
the same year as “Holiday Inn” in 1942 and starred the comedy duo of Bing
Crosby and Bob Hope, who then went on to film several more ‘The Road To’
pictures.
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