Jack Klugman dies at 90; star of TV's 'The Odd Couple,' 'Quincy'

Jack Klugman dies at 90; star of TV's 'The Odd Couple,' 'Quincy'

Charles Durning dies at 89

Charles Durning dies at 89; Tony winner also got Oscar, Emmy nods

BEST VERSIONS OF "SLEIGH RIDE"

I am not a big fan of Christmas music. The problem for me is repetition or just plain awfulness. There are some songs that should be exclusive to the person that introduced it. The perfect example of this is "Happy Xmas (The War Is Over)" by John Lennon. There have been several bad cover versions in the past few years. The original is the best.

There are those novelties that we once heard only on Dr. Demento or once a year. Now thanks to radio's obsession with "wall-to-wall" Christmas music (to mask mass layoffs by the corporate radio outlets), these songs get beat to death. Yes, I am thinking of both "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" and "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer."

I have come to the conclusion that "Sleigh Ride" is a perfect song that you can not ruin, especially if you do it as an instrumental. Let me give you my nominations for the top five versions of "Sleigh Ride."

1. Arthur Fiddler & the Boston Pops with Leroy Anderson (The Original)
2. The Ventures ("Walk Don't Run" style)
3. Herb Alpert & The Tiajuana Brass
4. Al Caiola
5. Lex Baxter with Ferrante & Teichner   

DESDINOVA'S CHRISTMAS PLAYLIST

Here are some of my suggestions for a cool Christmas playlist for your Ipod. Enjoy. No disco, but I love that LP cover.

• "Mistletoe & Wine" Cliff Richard
• "Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy" David Bowie and Bing Crosby
• "Frosty the Snowman" The Beach Boys
• "Chipmunk Song/Christmas Boogie" The Chipmunks with Canned Heat (Best fuzztone guitar riff in a Christmas song)
•  "Feliz Navidad" Jose Feliciano
• "Happy Xmas (The War Is Over)" John Lennon and Yoko Ono
• "Silent Night" The Temptations
• "Happy Holidays/Holiday Season" Andy Williams
• "I Believe In Father Christmas" Emerson, Lake & Palmer
• "Jingle Bells" The Hollyridge Strings
• "Rockin Around the Christmas Tree" Brenda Lee
• "The Christmas Song"  Jethro Tull
• "Run Rudolph Run" Chuck Berry
• "What Child Is This" The Moody Blues
• "Father Christmas" The Kinks
• "White Christmas" Bing Crosby
• "All I Want For Christmas Is You" Mariah Carey
• "Blue Christmas" Elvis Presely
• "Santa Claus is Coming To Town" Jackson 5 (I also like the Bruce Springstein version)
• "Christmas Light" Coldplay
• "Deck The Halls" Mannheim Steamroller
• "Here Comes Santa Claus" Billy Idol
• "I'll Be Home For Christmas" Tony Bennett with Count Baise (THE ONLY GOOD VERSION OF THIS DEPRESSING SONG! "Take me home, Count!")
• "Jingle Bell Rock" Hall & Oats
• "Do You Hear What I Hear" Carrie Underwood
• "Christmas Time Is Here" Ray Parker Junior
• "Silver Bells" The Supremes
• "Calypso Noel" Johnny Mathis
• "Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer" Dean Martin
• "God Rest You Merry Gentlemen" Mitch Miller
• "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" Perry Como
• "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)" Nat King Cole

I tried to pick a few that I enjoy and are not the usual choices. You may notice the absence of "Sleigh Ride." It is not because I don't like it, it is because there are too many good versions. So I plan a follow up post on my favorite versions of "Sleigh Ride."

Iron Butterfly bassist died of natural causes

St. Louis native Lee Dorman is second from the right.

Iron Butterfly bassist died of natural causes - KansasCity.com

On the old blog, I once said that when I took over America and became emperor, I was going to change the national anthem from the "Star Spangle Banner" to "In A Gadda Da Vida."  You would be surprised how many people thought this would be a cool idea. Of course, I had about two people said they didn't want "In A Gadda Da Vida" nor did they want me to be emperor. Probably some of those stupid KSGF listeners.

Snow Foolin': A Screen Song (1949) "Jingle Bells" Lyrics Sing-A-Long Vi...

CHRISTMAS MOVIE CONNECTIONS

This is a kind of free form, stream of consciousness post that may lead to a sequel, but I've tried to think of as many of these as possible. I began noticing that several things in the popular Christmas films were connected. Sometimes on purpose and sometimes on accident. If anyone thinks of one I left off, post a comment and I'll check it out.

Lionel Barrymore was originally to play Ebeneezer Scrooge in the movie version of A Christmas Carol, but suffered an injury. He played the role on radio every year. Because he was so good at playing Scrooge, Frank Capra chose him to play Old Man Potter in It's a Wonderful Life.




In this scene from Santa Claus Conquers The Martians, the kids defeat the bad guy, Voldar, using toys (provided by Ideal Toys). MST3K and others have pointed out the violent and dangerous nature of some of the toys used. The film was made in 1964. A year after that film came out a movement by parents to have toy company stop selling war oriented toys. It was around this time that New York radio personality Jean Shepard, talked to a "concerned woman" in a coffee shop about the "Ban War Toys" movement. It brought back a memory from his childhood of wanting a Red Ryder BB gun and being told by several adults "You'll shoot your eye out." That story was included in his book, In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash. It became the basis for the movie A Christmas Story.

A Christmas Story was directed by Bob Clark, who also directed a horror film called Black Christmas in 1974 (Above). Peter Billingsley, who played Ralphie in A Christmas Story, plays an elf named Ming-Ming in Elf.

Obviously, Holiday Inn and White Christmas have both Bing Crosby and "White Christmas" in common, but what does White Christmas and It's a Wonderful Life have in common? If you said Alfalfa, you're right. Former Our Gang/Little Rascals star Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer played Mary's date at the dance in It's a Wonderful Life (His big moment is opening the gym floor to plunge George and Mary into the swimming pool in an act of jealousy). In White Christmas, he is only shown in a photo (below) as Vera-Ellen's brother "Freckle Face" Benny Haynes.

Also the gag involving the photo is similar to the one in another Christmas film, Home Alone. Kevin finds a photo of his bully, big brother Butch's girlfriend (above), which cause Kevin to say, "WOOF!" (below) It is actually a photo of a boy in drag. Director John Hughes felt that using a photo of a "real girl" would be cruel.

The 1934 film version of Victor Herbert's Babes In Toyland, starring Laurel and Hardy, there are several joking references to Walt Disney, including a Mickey Mouse clone (Below) and Three Little Pigs (accompanied by "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" in the background).

 In the 1961 Disney version of Babes in Toyland, Barnaby's henchmen are Laurel and Hardy clones (Above).

Character actor Dick Elliot plays the Judge in Christmas in Connecticut. In It's a Wonderful Life, he is the neighbor, who yells at George Bailey, "WHY DON'T YA KISS HER?" when he is escorting Mary home.