7 posts tagged “xmas”
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That very next day, well that's today. In honor of the day after Christmas, Cover Lover presents: "Last Christmas"!
Wham!'s "Last Christmas" song is possibly one of the best Christmas pop song. Released in 1984, it dominated the charts and is still very popular even today (especially in Japan and Southeast Asia). Re-issues after re-issues, song is one of the best-selling single in UK chart history.
All that success lead the music publisher Dick James Music, to sue George Michael for plagiarism for the song "Can't Smile Without You". If you listen to the song by The Carpenters from their 1976 album, A Kind of Hush, it does bear a heavy resemblance - and eventually the matter was settled out of court.
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Anyway, here are some more covers:
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CRAZY FROG
www.jamba.de If you've never heard of Crazy Frog, it sounds to me that they just remix music by other people and through the brilliant marketing of an animated frog. Thankfully the craze never made it over to the States, and if it does, I'll bet you that Americans will complain about the Frog's penis. If you were wondering about the woman singing on Crazy Frog's housey "Last Christmas", it is by singer Nicole Bolley. |
ASHLEY TISDALE
ashleytisdale.com ♥ ashleymusic.com In 2006, Tisdale decided to release her studio recording of "Last Christmas" for Warner Brothers Music. The song was eventually released only as a one-track radio promo, and only available as a digital download. However, if physical CD is your thing, you'll find the song as a B-Side on her He Said She Said EP. If you get a chance to listen to the sort-of-whiney version of "Last Christmas", it doesn't really add much to the song. It's definitely more modern and pop. |
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I'M SO LOOK YOU
myspace.com ♥ imsolookyou.blogspot.com Anyway, she recently remixed "Last Christmas", adding a little jingle bells, "Joy to the World", violas, synth, and techno beats to the original song. The vocals are modified enough that you might not recognize that it's George Michaels. She'll be DJing in the Nagoya area, check it out:
12/31/08 club buddha & R-base cafe "年越しパーティー☆" 01/10/09 GOLDEN CHILD CAFE 01/14/09 SARU 01/24/09 club EDITS "藤澤志保 Release Tour" 01/29/09 domina "HEIDI" 02/01/09 club EDITS "TRASH" 03/13/09 club buddha "LOVE LIFE MUSIC!!!" |
HILARY DUFF
hilaryduff.com ♥ myspace.com The title is a fictional street, as originally referenced in the 1947 song "Here Comes Santa Claus" and probably inspired the poppy "Santa Claus Lane" song on the album. No surprise, but I don't think Duff wrote any of the songs on the album, they were either written for her or established songs. Some of the covers I did recognize is Paul McCarthy's "" and Wham's "Last Christmas". Incidentally, the "chicawah" sound effects on "Last Christmas" made Duff's version very cheesy. The quirky effects are also applied to other songs on her album. Someone should've stopped the mixer/producer from over doing it. |
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BILLIE
billie-piper.net (unofficial) Unlike her teen pop contemporaries, she's not of the Disney music school. However, they're all pretty much interchangeable, aren't they? She dabbled in music, but have only managed to released two albums (strangely securing a "Greatest Hits" album based on the two previous studio albums) and seems to have taken more into acting. Currently, she's better known for playing Rose Tyler next to the Doctor in the television series Doctor Who (2005 to 2006), where she's won numerous awards for "Best Actress" to GQ's "Woman of the Year". |
DAM VINH HUNG
damvinhhung.ws ♥ myspace.com Anyway, the cover song is sung entirely in Vietnamese and contain the opening dialogue. I'm probably mis-translating it, but he said something to the extent of:
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Links:
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I’ll Stay
‘Til After Christmas
Various Artists
Things that warm the insides:
- Love- Puppies
and kitties
- Whiskey
- Heartburn
- Giving
The holidays truly are a time to give, even when you have very little to offer. Don’t worry, ‘giving’ doesn’t have to mean writing out a check; you can give back by simply being a nicer person; or maybe you’re a chronic litterer and have decided to stop throwing your shit in the street. Good for you! This Christmas, set the whiskey aside and think about someone other than yourself. Times may be tough, money may be tight, Spam may be plentiful, but there’s always the possibility that everything could get worse. Remember that when you’re feeling blue.
We here at We Heart Music support giving (and not littering). And so it’s my pleasure to share with you, our philanthropic readers, a digital-only Christmas compilation from the elves at Force Field PR. Here’s the good news: all proceeds benefit Amnesty International. Here’s the better news: the music is actually good. It helps that Force Field bigwig, Daniel Gill and his wife have plenty of capable musician friends, otherwise this could have been a very sad gift (nothing is gloomier than terrible indie music).
Although cheerful this album is not. You won’t find any chestnuts roasting or drummers drumming; every song, even the classics, sound a little world weary and brooding. This is not to say that Gill and co. have compiled “Christmas: a Break-up Mix”; I’d feel encouraged to call it “Christmas: The Reality”—not entirely melodramatic, but certainly aware that for some, the holidays are a trying state of lapsed merriment, low funds, and estranged/strange relatives (yet, there’s always the hope of better things to come).
Au Revoir Simone opens the album with a soft, dreamy cover of Vince Guaraldi’s “Christmastime is Here” (from A Charlie Brown Christmas for all you classic holiday film heathens); other notable tracks include Le Loup’s sparse interpretation of “Shenandoah,” freaky Animal Collective devotees Au doing a freaky, nearly unintelligible “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” Blitzen Trapper’s yuletide ode to Steve McQueen, high school girls, Donkey Kong (just listen), and Man of Arms’ pertinent, if not cynical, “It’s Christmastime and Everything’s Wrong.”
Full track listing
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1. Au Revoir Simone - Christmastime is Here 2. Le Loup - Shenandoah 3. Figurine - The Holidays Behind Us 4. Sally Shapiro - Anorak Christmas (Piano mix) 5. Arthur & Yu - My White Elephant 6. My Brightest Diamond - Nature Boy 7. Parenthetical Girls - Festive Friends (Forever) 8. No Kids - Another Winter in a Summer Town | 9. Radar Bros. - Baby Jesus 10. Blitzen Trapper - Christmas is Coming Soon 11. Man of Arms - It's Christmastime and Everything's Wrong 12. Au - I'll Be Home for Christmas 13. The Papercuts - Go Tell it on the Mountain 14. Bosque Brown - Silent Night 15. Turk Dietrich of Belong - Blue Christmas |
The album is available for purchase on iTunes. For more information, please visit Myspace.
"I Don't Intend to Spend Christmas Without You" is possibly my favorite Christmas song, written by Margo Guryan for Claudine Longet. Longet have always loved Christmas, marrying singer Andy Williams on Christmas Day (December 25th, 1961) and naming two of their children Noëlle and Christian.
Their
marriage didn't last long, they separated in 1969 (officially divorced
in 1975). By this time, she was seeing Olympic skier Vladimir "Spider"
Sabich, who was fatally shot in 1976 by Longet.
In the trials, she claimed it was an accident, for which she was acquitted for felony manslaughter.
The irony she had made a recording of Cher's "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)". It was later asked that she removed her song from public circulation.
Margo Guryan wrote "I Don't Intend to Spend Christmas Without You" and as you can hear in her demo recording, it's slightly different (and I think superior to Longet's recording, even though she's lacking that French accent).
Guryan never toured or actively promoted her debut album Take a Picture (1968), so it failed to make much impact in the music charts. She retired and ended up being a music teacher and songwriter for other artists.
Here's an excerpt of an interview regarding her writings for Claudine Longet:
Excerpts from an August 23, 2001 phone conversation with Margo Guryan
Q: Tell me about writing songs for Claudine Longet.
A: Claudine Longet is the only artist that I ever wrote a tailor-made song for. With all my other songs, people ask me if I wrote them for different artists. I never did. I just wrote what I felt like writing. But Tommy LiPuma called David [Rosner, her husband/publisher] one day, and said "Can Margo write a song for Claudine? A Christmas song. No snow, no mistletoe, no presents under the tree. No mention of any of that stuff." So David asked me, and I wrote "I Don't Intend to Spend Christmas Without You." As I was finishing the demo, there was a guy from UPS or some air-freight company standing in the studio, waiting for it. I was putting on a last vocal, and then they had to go out and make an acetate of it. They flew it to California, and she recorded it. Later, the group Saint Étienne heard it on Claudine's record, and they recorded it a year ago last Christmas for their fan club. It wasn't released commercially, but it was like the Christmas card they sent out to their fan club. And I've got a copy of that.Q: What did you think of Claudine's versions of "Think of Rain" and "I Don't Intend to Spend Christmas Without You"?
A: Well, obviously, I was very pleased that she did both of them. I was less than pleased with the Christmas song, because she didn't get the time right. But that may not have been her fault as much as the producer's. But ehh, I'd have to go through it, send you a lead sheet and show you where.It's not worth it. Just say I loved it.
- From home.earthlink.net/~elbroome
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St Etienne needs no introduction (in fact, Maggie did a wonderful article on them previously), they recorded "I Don't Intend to Spend Christmas Without You" (based on the Longet version) and was made available to their fan club in 1998.
St Etienne must really love Christmas too, every couple of years they put out a Christmas EP for their fans. If you were interested in collecting them here are all their Christmas releases:
[1995] Xmas '95 (3-track CD single)
[1998] Xmas '98 (2-track CD single)
[2003] Xmas 2003 (3-track CD single initially given away free at Xmas '03 gigs then given out free to fanclub members in 2004)
[2006] Merry Xmas 2006 from Saint Etienne (2-track CD single given
away free at the Saint Etienne Xmas Party Turntable Cafe on 21 December
2006)
Bonus: As I previously mentioned Longet being married to Andy Williams, he's quite the Christmas man himself! After giving up his The Andy Williams Show in 1971, he agreed to do Christmas specials in 1976. Throughout the years, he's released over eight Christmas albums, and I'm including a song from the re-issued The Andy Williams Christmas Album (1963).
This recording would've been pretty much around the time that he was married to Longet.
12/25/2007 13:20:15
vu
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Tour
20 Jan Mac Arts - Birmingham, UK 25 Jan London Roundhouse - London, UK 27 Jan The Cabaret Voltaire - Edinburgh 28 Jan Night & Day - Manchester, UK 29 Jan Brudenell Social Club - Leeds, UK 30 Jan Bodega - Nottingham, UK 01 Feb Soundhaus - Northampton 03 Feb The Cellars - Portsmouth 04 Feb Phoenix - Exeter, UK 05 Feb Louisiana - Bristol, UK Albums
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In keeping with this tradition of releasing Christmas music, Jacob put a wonderful tune called 'Feeling Like Christmas (Again)' on his myspace as a free download. As a special treat, I have included it in this post (Apologies for my lame attempt at album art) but it is definitely worth heading over to his myspace page and grabbing a copy for yourself.
December 23, 2007 21:00
Ryan
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jacobgolden.com
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Comedy Top 7 on W♥M in 2007! This is a special two-for-one Comedy and Christmas post, meaning funny-man Weird Al Yankovic is not only hilarious, but he's written a few original Christmas songs: "Christmas at Ground Zero" and "The Night Santa Went Crazy".
"Christmas at Ground Zero" is basically Christmas carol, whose title parodies Fishbone's "Party At Ground Zero". The second is a pretty dark song about how Santa went postal and killed everyone. Apparently there is an "Extra Gory" version on the single for Amish Paradise.
So, I was actually on his official website and he seems kind of bitter/funny. He received permission to recorded a parody "You're Beautiful" from James Blunt, but his record label, Atlantic Records, refused permission. So what does Weird Al do? He gives away the song:
But if you're so inclined, you can just download it for FREE! Go ahead, we won't tell anybody! Right-click (option-click for Mac) here, here, here, here, here, here, here, or here or here, not to mention here, or even here!
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12/23/2007 00:05:50
vu
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www.weheartmusic.com
With only a few days left for the Christmas holiday, I'm compiling some Christmas songs for you. There's so many holiday songs that I might do a part two and three, so watch this space.
First off, I've edited together a few video sessions and we're going to call it a Holiday Buyer's Guide or interesting music boxsets and stuff I thought was cool. They weren't necessary released this year (and in fact, I'm pretty sure you couldn't buy some of these items). Anyway, check out the video. The format will change after this, so it'll be the last of this longer format.
So, let's start with some Christmas songs:
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Twelve Girls Band - Last Christmas
These girls can sure play, but they obviously cannot count, as Twelve Girls Band actually consists of 13 women (see for yourself, count them on the cover!). Apparently they were formed by Wang "father of Chinese rock music" Xiao-Jing through a contest in 2001 and assembled twelve girls, each representing Chinese mythology of twelve hairpins. Looking at their overwhelming discography, it would seem that they released quite a few live albums (usually with a DVD). Anyway, their Christmas-themed album, Twelve Girls of Christmas (2005), was released as Merry Christmas To You in Japan. All the familar Christmas songs are done with traditional Chinese instruments, such as the Mandolin and the Gao-Hu (Fiddle), but they are wonderfuly interpretted. Check out this version of "Last Christmas". Wham! never sounded better, right? |
Enya - Adeste, Fideles
If you haven't heard of Enya, then I'm afraid you haven't been in any elevators in the past decade. She bursted onto the charts in the late 80s with that "sail away" song (it's actually called "Orinoco Flow" but who can remember that?) She's recently resurfaced again in the popular Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings series, and once again secures herself as the queen of New Age music. This song, "Adeste, Fideles" originally does not appear on Amarantine (2005). After a year, the record company decided to boost its sale by re-releasing the album as Amarantine Special Christmas Edition with a bonus second disc. The second disc is an all Christmas EP, originally released in the states as Sounds of the Season, and in Canada as the Christmas Secrets EP. |
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They Might be Giants - Santa's Beard
I first heard of this rocking song off their sophomore album, Lincoln (1988), and it's about a jealous husband. The song is about how every year his buddy puts on a red suit and hangs out with his family. Then he would spot his wife wearing his beard and kissing him, etc. Although the song is old, it resurfaced on Then: The Earlier Years (1997) and again in a special Christmas EP called They Might Be Giants in Holidayland (2001). Technically this isn't a very traditional Christmas song, but whenever I think of Christmas songs - this is the one that comes to my mind first and foremost because it's so fun and different. |
The Beach Boys - Little Saint Nick
I can't overlook the fact that this winterly Christmas song is suddenly transformed to a fun Summer Beach party (with Gidget). It's not one of my favorite Christmas tunes, probably because it's basically the same song as their previous hit "Little Deuce Coupe". So this song is from their only Christmas album, The Beach Boys' Christmas Album, released in 1964. It topped out at number 6, although the single "Little Saint Nick" faired a little better at #3 on the charts (although this singles version is different than the album version). |
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Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers - Christmas Without You
I'll be honest with you: I love Country music. I grew up with pop music and one of the songs that I loved when I was a kid was "Island in the Stream", performed by Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton. This was a single from Kenny Roger's album, Eyes That See in the Dark (1983). These two only released one album together, Once Upon a Christmas (1984), with two singles from this album: "Christmas Without You" and "The Greatest Gift of All". Their last duet was "Love Is Strange" (1990), which I've never heard. |
The Dandy Warhols - The Little Drummer Boy
According to allmusic, this is one of the Dandy Warhols' first EP release (if not the earliest). Strangely the single/EP is not listed on their wikipedia page. The popular Christmas song tells the story of a young boy who was so poor, he couldn't afford a gift for the baby Jesus. So instead, he wrote and played the drums in tribute as the baby smiles... I guess, not really much to add to this, except that the Dandy Warhols song was also included on XFM's Cool Cool Christmas Album (2000). I think this album sold very well when it was released and contains a wonderful version of "Feliz Navidad" by El Vez and "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" by Belle & Sebastian. |
12/19/2007 21:01:09
vu
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Weezer Album Discography
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Rivers Cuomo that famous singer of Weezer has a new CD out tomorrow (Dec 18th) called Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo. There's about five songs on the album that was meant for Songs from the Black Hole, that infamous album that was meant to follow their self-titled debut album.
I'm still unsure why those songs were dropped, they were quite good. I've included "Superfriend" that was meant for Black Hole. It contains the usual Rivers theme of love and "bestest friend". There's definitely the same feel as songs from Pinkerton (which is my all-time favorite Weezer album, by the way).
The other songs off this album were demo version meant for Blue album, including "Buddy Holly". It's interesting to hear that rough cut (as bad as the sound quality), before it was finally made it to the studio version.
"I Was Made For You" is easily the best song. The lyrics are themes we've seen on other Weezer songs, that is the only weakness to this song. The song I was thinking of is "El Scorcho", where the main chorus is: "I think I'd be good for you/And you'd be good for me" (I know there are a ton of songs that has those lyrics of "I was made for you, you were made for me", but this was the closest Weezer lyrics).
If you're a casual Weezer fan, I wouldn't recommend this CD to you. You're better off getting the blue album or Pinkerton (this album takes a few listen to before you really appreciate it). If you're already a Weezer fan, definitely get Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo.
As a special bonus, since it is so close to the Christmas Holiday, I'm also including "Christmas Song" which was a Radio Promo. The b-side to this EP is "Christmas Celebration", which originally appeared on the single to Photograph.
Also, check out I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams, the only Weezer song that's actually not sung by Rivers Cuomo. This song was meant for Songs from the Black Hole.
12/17/2007 23:32:44
vu
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www.weezer.com
