Sunday, December 24, 2023

Weekly Mail Christmas Eve Special 2023

 

   December 23, 2023 
outside the I ❤️ NY Gift Shop on 48th Street


Thank you all for tuning in.

So like I said, we are just going to wing it this year and hope it all comes out good. Right now, I'm not sure. 

We will start with our 2023 Christmas song top 10. We will count them down from 10 this year...

10) Blue Christmas- Elvis/Porky Pig. I love the King's version obviously. But the Porky version is hysterical. Thought Elvis might leave the building this year, but he holds on for another year. 




9) 2000 Miles- The Pretenders- Long time readers and especially my two co-editors (Razor) Ray and The Ace may be surprised I'm including this one, being that I've held a now 20-year grudge against Chrissie Hynde, but I heard this on Q104 earlier in the month, then my sister-in-law Megan played a few days later. If you are thinking of someone you wish you could spend Christmas with, especially if its someone you lost this year, it's a good song to listen to as you remember them. 



8) Christmas in New York-Shilelagh Law- Another song about remembering people we lost; namely those we lost on 9/11. But also a great way to honor all that makes NYC still the greatest city in the world. 



7) O Come O Come Emanuel- Joan Baez- I used to have a music editor here at WM, she is now the drummer for a local group called the Mom Band up in Westchester County. The first time I did this list back in 2002, she pointed out to me that I didn't have any religious songs on the list. So from there on in, I've made sure to have at least one or two. I saw them interview Baez, the now 80 year old folk icon on CBS Sunday Morning over the summer and she still looks amazing. Here, she sounds amazing as well. A Gallagher family favorite. 



6) Christmas in Hollis- Run DMC- I'm sure if I scour YouTube I can find someone who sang a song about Christmas in Woodside or Rockaway. I'm sure someone has come into Donovan's and performed near the fireplace, and there are lots of songs about Rockaway (besides the Ramones classic). For now though, this song is the closest one I have to repping my two hometowns. Word up!



5) Wonderful Christmastime-Wings- We lost Denny Laine a couple weeks ago. Paul's happy ditty stays right where it did last year. Typical of 70's McCartney, sweet, simple and fun. Gotta have a couple of those too.


4) Oh, Holy Night- Josh Groban- And here's our second Jesus song to keep The Big Guy happy. O Come O Come Emmanuel is about waiting for the birth of Christ,  this song is about the night He arrives. The pastor at my dad's church did a great version of this, but since his version was never committed to a record, (at least as far as I know) we'll stick with the amazing Josh Groban's version. 



3) Happy Christmas (War is Over) Plastic Ono Band-  All these years later, this powerful John Lennon song still resonates. One that I will never get tired of.  though for this first time, it not the 2nd on the Weekly Mail Christmas song list.




Hmmmmm


Before we get to the top 2, let's look at some Honorable mentions...

Silent Night/7 O'Clock News- Simon and Garfunkel. This has been a staple on the list, but I felt if I put it on this list, it would make it a bit too heavy. There's enough heartbreak in the world. Still it's a great concept. 




Holiday Party-Dan and Shay- Tara is the big country music fan in the family, so whenever the networks have their Country Christmas Specials (and all of them do in one form or another) we tune in. Last year, Dan and Shay performed this at the Grand Ole Opry. Very catchy and easy going. May crack the top 10 next year.



Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer-Elmo and Patsy  This was a staple for years, the first real good Christmas Novelty Song. Now it's a bit dated and out played but will always be a WM fave. 




Mele Kalikimaka-Bing Crosby- I know this song has been around since the 50's, but the first time I heard it was during the reboot they did of Hawaii Five-0, (the Alex O'Loughlin/Scott Caan version). I always say I'd like to spend one Christmas in my life some place where it's warm. Failing that, I'll just put this song on and make pretend.



OK now let's see where our last two songs land...



2) Do They Know it's Christmastime-Band Aid- My favorite Christmas song since it came out 39 years ago, and the list topper for the last 22 years has slipped to 2nd place. Don't get me wrong, I still love it. I still get the goosebumps when I hear it, it's still one of the best collections of talent on one song. (USA for Africa's We Are the World is right there too). My feelings for this song haven't changed.






Here's what has changed... 

C.j. Sullivan
Great one, Wild Bill! I got 16 right! Fairytale of NY is THE greatest Christmas song ever! Your list was pretty damn good! MerryChristmas to you and The Fam
Bill Gallagher
C.j. Sullivan aw thanks CJ! That was fun to do. 16 out of 20 is really good Merry Christmas to you and yours.



We lost CJ in September and one of the first things I thought of when I got the news was how he said that...

1) Fairytale of New York

was THE greatest Christmas song ever. 


A couple of months later, Shane MacGowan, the man who co-wrote and co-sang Fairytale, died at 65. 

Here is how his funeral at St Mary of the Rosary in Tipperary ended.. 'Fairytale of New York' played at Shane MacGowan's funeral (youtube.com)



That did it man. We had a new number one.

Look at the folks dancing in the aisles of the church. Think about the priest who had to hear them sing "Merry Christmas yer ass, I pray God it's our last". But mostly think about how this song makes you  feel about Christmas. Whether you live in NY or not, if you're in a relationship or not, we all have our struggles. Christmas is one week away from the New Year and none of us get to Christmas unscathed. But with all that, we still get to Christmas and celebrate, some way, somehow. 

I saw that sendoff for MacGowan in Ireland, I thought about what CJ wrote, and I had to make it the new number one.  

Kirsty MacColl the female lead on the song, was killed in a boating accident in Mexico a week before Christmas in 2000. 

TRIVIA QUESTION- Shane MacGowan was the second person we lost this year who was a part of the Who was Born on Christmas Day trivia contest we had on last year's Christmas Eve Special. Who was the other one?  Answer below.

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Last week, Mariah Carey's brain numbing song (which will never be on any of my lists) All I Want for Christmas is You, once again made it to Number One on the Billboard Charts. It's the 5th year in a row that it has gotten to the top of the charts in December. 

But for three glorious weeks, it sat in the number two spot, behind Brenda Lee's Rocking Around the Christmas Tree. Can you imagine? 

This set a whole slew of Billboard chart records. The longest time between a song's release till it got to number 1 (65 years-holy $h-t!), the oldest artist to have a number one Brenda Lee turned 79 during her reign at the top of the charts, shattering the previous record held by 52 year old Cher and her 1999 hit Believe. It also broke the record for longest periods between number ones for an artist. 63 years and one month (also held by Cher- 27 years between Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves and Believe) Lee was also 13 when she recorded Rocking around the Christmas Tree. One of the youngest to chart and THE oldest to hit number one. Amazing. 

Now, I can explain 8th grade algebra better than I can explain how the charts work, (Spoiler alert- I can't explain 8th grade algebra- something I was reminded of when my son was in 8th grade a couple years ago). 

Here is an explanation from Chris Molanphy of Slate.com

To explain how this happened, I need to briefly recap the chart arcana I explained when Mariah Carey scored her belated ho-ho-holiday topper in 2019. Before the digital era, Christmas music was a bad fit for the charts. These songs are played very intensively for only four to six weeks per year. That window wasn’t long enough for the old physical-goods system to reflect just how popular seasonal hits are. Again, at its original peak, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” only charted four weeks, peaking at No. 14. That was pretty typical for a holiday song in those days; ...... Right through the end of the 20th century, holiday music charted poorly. In 1984–85, Band-Aid’s charity megasingle “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” only reached No. 13 in America, and Wham’s now-cherished “Last Christmas” didn’t chart at all**.

In the case of Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” several changes in Billboard methodology made its coronation possible: the advent of the digital download in the mid-’00s, which made any song purchasable and hence fair game for the charts; the elimination, in the early ’10s, of Billboard rules preventing “catalog” or “gold” music—old hits—from returning to the charts (thus, whether it’s “Dreams,” “Running Up That Hill,” or “A Holly Jolly Christmas,” if an old song amasses big enough numbers, it can chart again); and, most important, the launch of streaming music. It turns out that counting every time somebody plays a song—not just the moment somebody purchases a song, or the estimated radio audience for a song—gives a whole new sense of a hit’s magnitude. Streaming finally gave Billboard the fine-tuned metrics, at scale, it needed to track holiday songs properly. As more Americans switched from buying to streaming their music—and playing themed Spotify playlists, which juice the stats for perennial favorites—Christmas songs not only did better on the charts; for one month per year, they utterly dominated. Every December since the late ’10s, the Hot 100 has become swamped with Christmas music, shoving current hits by Taylor Swift, Drake, and the Weeknd temporarily out of the way to make room for Bobby Helms, Burl Ives, Andy Williams, Brenda Lee, Wham, and Mariah Carey.




So it seems like the reason that all these older songs are getting back into the charts is that streaming has become one of the main measuring sticks of where a song places on the chart. As much as I can't stand it, I understand how AIWFCIY makes it every year. Every office holiday party, every get together by friends and family, someone will inevitably play it. 

But how RATCT made it this year is a bit more of a mystery, like why THIS year?  

From the same Slate article

This season, in honor of “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’s” 65th anniversary (a flimsy but fair pretext), Team Brenda pulled out all the stops, booking her on TV, shooting a brand-new music video, even getting her on TikTok. The video, especially, is a hoot: In a very modest home festooned with a red curtain and a perfectly ordinary tree, the 78-year-old Lee greets and cooks a holiday feast with guests (country-music eminences Tanya Tucker and Trisha Yearwood) while lip-syncing her own teenage vocals. 

Brenda's management team was smart enough to manipulate the system. Kudos to them. 

Of course, all good things must end, and as we said, Mariah is once again sitting atop the chart. Next year maybe one our songs will get the royal treatment. Band Aid's classic will turn 40 next year, so maybe that will push it to the cream of the crop. (Maybe it will get back to the top of our list too)
But that's for next year. For now, a toast to the legendary Brenda Lee. 

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REMEMBER CHRIST OUR SAVIOUR WAS BORN ON CHRISTMAS DAY

Yes, but this next section is not about that, quite the opposite actually. This year we're going to take a look at a few Non-Christmas things that happen to have taken place on December 25th. 



1776- George Washington crosses the Delaware River- Up until this point, things hadn't been going well for us in the Revolutionary War. The Continental Army had suffered several crushing defeats. Morale was down and desertions were up. General Washington's decision to lead 2500 men across the icy Delaware River, from what is now Bucks County in Pennsylvania to Mercer County NJ, and the subsequent victory in the Battle of Trenton is considered one of the great upset victories in our nation's military history. And it was because General Washington decided to cross the Delaware while the Brits (and Germans that were helping them) decided to take the night off. 


1956- Gordie Howe scores a hat trick and also has three assists in an 8-1 rout of the Rangers at the Olympia in Detroit. The 6 point game is the most Mr. Hockey would ever score in one game. Though he had an actual hat trick that day, there is no indication that Gordie had a Gordie Howe hat trick that day (A goal, an assist and a fight) Also scoring a goal in that game.. future Islander hall of fame head coach Al Arbour. 


1957-This is sort of Christmas related, so maybe it shouldn't count, but apparently on this day, 17 year old Richard Starkey of Dingle, Liverpool awoke to find a drum kit underneath his Christmas tree. The rest as they say is history. There is no indication that 16 year old Pete Best found coal in his stocking that day, but he may as well have. 

1962- To Kill a Mockingbird is released in theaters. Nowadays Christmas movie releases are commonplace, but based on my limited research, this appears to be one of the first. 

1967-More Beatles stuff- Paul McCartney proposes to then girlfriend Jane Asher, breaking the heart of my mom and several of her friends.  The two would break up 6 months later, Asher announcing it on national TV in England. Paul would marry Linda Eastman in March of 1969. 

1968-Apollo 8 orbits the moon and broadcasts back to Earth. In a year where a lot of stuff went wrong, this must have given America something to feel good about. 


1971- This one blows my mind. Back in the good old days, when the NFL Playoffs started before Valentine's Day, a playoff game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins in Kansas City went 7 minutes and 40 seconds into a second overtime, with the Fish finally winning it on Garo Yepremian's 37 yard field goal. The amazing thing about this is that 52 years and hundreds of games later, the 82:40 is still the longest game in history. I realize that regular season games can end in ties, and the OT rules have changed, but still you would think somewhere along the line one of these games would have gone longer. Nope. As of 2023, this record still stands. 

1974- A 25 year old man decides to pay President Ford a visit by driving a car through the White House gates, resulting in a four hour standoff. Ford and his family were not in DC at the time, but according to the next day's NYT article the car got to within 10 feet of the north portico. The man eventually took out a white handkerchief and waved it, announcing his surrender. 



1985- The Miracle on 33rd Street- down 25 points late in the 3rd quarter to the defending Eastern Conference champion Celtics at Madison Square Garden, the Knicks, who were awful that year, storm back to win in double overtime 113-104. The Celtics would go on to win the NBA title that year. The Knicks would lose almost 60 games. But for one shining moment on Christmas....

1989- Japanese scientists achieve a temperature of -271.8 C, the coldest temp ever recorded, breaking the previous mark, recorded at Green Bay's Lambeau Field on December 31, 1967 during the Cowboys-Packers playoff game known as the Ice Bowl. 


1991- Mikhail Gorbachev, who survived at attempted coup earlier that year, announces on Russian TV that he is resigning President of the Soviet Union. By the following week, the Soviet Union had collapsed. 

1997- Jerry Seinfeld announces that the current season of his hit show will be the last. Why he chose Christmas to make that announcement? You be the judge. 

And speaking of Seinfeld, (and I'm probably going to get in a lot of trouble for saying this) you know what? I think I'm over Festivus. It was funny the first 20 years or so, but now I think its run its course. Feel free to discuss. 


OK folks, how did we do? I really hope you enjoyed this. Let me know what you think. 

I had another video lined up to end this year's special, I'll explain why I had to scrap it in the New Year if you're interested. Also, I can explain my issue with Chrissie Hynde. Tonight's not the night for either of those discussions.

Instead, here is Ralphie asking Santa for  the Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two Hundred Shot range Model Air Rifle. Because who doesn't love THAT movie?




Merry Christmas





Trivia Answer: Jimmy Buffett. 

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