Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

It's as if jazz singer Etta Jones has been scrubbed from the collective memory, confused with and overshadowed by the more famous Etta James or another singer named Etta Jones, who's slightly older and performed with The Dandridge Sisters, one of whom was Dorothy Dandridge who went on to have successful movie career including being the first African American woman to get an Oscar nomination, and to further muddle the Etta Joneses, IMDB.com conflates* Jones-the-lead-singer's biographical info with Jones-the-trio-member's (date of birth, husband, date and cause of death).

The jazz singer who fronted jazz combos, Jones put out an amazing Christmas record which includes this 8-minute stroll through "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" featuring tasty solos by members of the band… it swings.

*at this writing

"Wonderful Christmastime"

In "Wonderful Christmastime" by Dweezil Zappa, freaky guitar bits interrupt this otherwise standard contemporary standard, written by Paul McCartney in '79. The scion of Frank Zappa his known for his name and guitar mastery. His father was best known for a few novelty songs (despite his massive and eclectic catalogue), the wintry lines from one of which has been made into a Christmas tree ornament.

 

"Oh Holy Night"

via  NeilZaza.com

That Neil Zaza has toured as a representative of an amplifier company shouldn't hurt his credibility as a musician, and it hasn't hurt his chops on electric guitar in evidence here on his metalhead-friendly version of "Oh Holy Night" from the generally superb "A Night At The Palace," which is a 2 CD set from his regular Christmas concert at the Palace Theater in Cleveland with the Cleveland Rock Orchestra.

"(Farewell) Jingle Bells"

Dave Brubeck (December 6, 1920 – December 5, 2012)

via Wikipedia

"(Farewell) Jingle Bells" comes from his "A Dave Brubeck Christmas" which is as much a title as a description.

"(Everybody's Waitin' For) The Man With The Bag"

This under-exploited song has a YouTube video of audio with a slideshow of Santa clip art, but here's the song pulled ino the 21st century "(Everybody's Waitin' For) The Man With The Bag" (Thunderball Mix) from the superlative "Merry Mixmas: Christmas Classics Remix" which takes some standards and houses them up, deftly ... more jeweler's mallet than sledge hammer.

Recorded by big band vocalist Kay Starr in 1950,  we can be pretty sure it's not a drug song; eventhough a generation later, similar allusions in mainstream songs leave little doubt as to what they're taking about: The Velvet Underground's "Waiting for the Man," and the George Baker Selection's "Little Green Bag"

... But for some, with these lyrics, a case could be made:

Old Mr. Kringle is soon gonna jingle
The bells that'll tingle all your troubles away
Everybody's waiting for the man with the bag
'Cause Christmas is coming again
He's got a sleigh full, it's not gonna stay full
Stuff that he's droppin' every stop of the way
Everybody's waiting for the man with the bag
'Cause Christmas is coming again

He'll be here
With the answer to the prayers that
You made through the year
You'll get yours
If you've done everything you should extra special good
He'll make this December the one you'll remember
The best and the merriest you ever did have
Everybody's waitin' for the man with the bag
'Cause Christmas is coming again

"Santa Claus Is Back In Town"

via SNCMusic.com

The a capella dectet, Straight No Chaser, seasons much of their music with irony and "Santa Claus Is Back In Town" is no exception. Undoubtedly, that helps to avoid the cliche of yet another vocal ensemble doing holiday songs and also may be due to a certain kind of college frat humor -- this band was born at Indiana University.

Here, they merge elvish with Elvis ... which of course relies on some Elvis cliches. But it's clever, even if it wears out its welcome after a while.

More irony: Taking their name from Thelonius Monk's stellar tune, and despite doing nothing but remakes, they haven't recorded a remake of that one.

"Que Verdes Son" ("The First Noel")

"Que Verdes Son" is a mashup of tradition and reinvention of a holiday standard from the surf/latino-billy rebooted remakes from behind Mexican wrestlers' masks and out of Nashville, Los Straitjackets on their cool  Yuletide Beat Christmas record.

"I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"

Since retailers have determined it's Christmas time, let's jump right in with the late-too-early Amy Winehouse (which proved to be a Dickensian name -- and what could be more Christmas than that?)

"Do You Hear What I Hear?"

via Roches.com

For openers, this eponymous post highlights a favorite Christmas album: The Roches' We Three Kings selection of "Do You Hear What I Hear?"

at Spotify.com