It’s a Christmas miracle! No David Lee Roth Hanukkah album, but the great mashup king Bill McClintock gave us the Jose Feliciano/Van Halen mix we didn’t know we needed. https://youtu.be/fDPk8cOc-x8
As the unofficial archivist of your Best Of collections and curator of our marital memory annex, I must point out that A Christmas Duel came out in 2008 and was included on your Best of 2008 CD (CDs! Remember those?). I'm so delighted for you that you got to re-experience the joy of discovery with this song. Happy Hanukkah!
Hilarious and thought-provoking, all at the same time, as usual, Steve! As a lifelong member of the Goy Scouts, I nevertheless have had a solid kinship with Jewish folk, to wit: The family across the street from us in Houston (they were the Mertzes to my folks' Ricardos) were Jewish, and taught my bro and me many Yiddish phrases and customs.
Plus, I went to Bellaire Hi in SW Houston in the early '70s, and in that day, that part of town enjoyed a rather large Jewish population (we were even members of the tony Meyerland Country Club!). In fact, Bellaire Hi was so Jewish-leaning, the students themselves nicked the school, "Bethlehem on the Bayou" and "Hebrew High"!!
Plus, I've been to my share of Bar-mitzvahs and Seder dinners, and, as youth minister, took my Lutheran youth group to several Seders and temples for new worship experiences!
You missed Barry Manilow, one of our fave Jewish songsmiths, who has pressed 3 Christmas albums! In fact, rumor has it that he recorded a demo that was part Hanukkah song/part eulogy hymn for an elderly gent who had recently passed. What? You've never heard of "God Rest Ye, Gerry Mendleman"?
And, if that weren't enough (and at this point, it certainly should be!), for years I've sung the wonderfully creative Holiday carol, "Away in a Manger," that managed to successfully merge the secular Santa-Christmas with the Christian Holiday with this line: ".....The little Lord Jesus, a heap on the sleigh."
I can't wait to spend more time with your post, listening to the music as I do. Thanks again, Steve, for your unique POV, and treading--I'm guessing--into cool Holiday territory few would or could, do! Happy Hanukkah, Festivus, and Christmas to you and fambly, Steve!✡🎄💖💥😁👍
As did we, 5 incredibly creative and funny high-schoolers (and me, their youth minister in my early 30s) in the late '80s, L.A.-county Lutheran church youth group.....as we all sat in our pew during a Christmas service, that astounding spoonerism came out of the mouth of high-schooler, Joe Popp, who has been working in Disney Studio's video department for at least the 3 decades since!
We were in stifled hysterics the rest of the service, obviously laughing even more noticeably because A) it was so hilarious and B) stifled laughter just can't be.....stifled, especially in quiet places like church (looking at you, Mary Richards, in the "Chuckles the Clown Dies" episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show")!
All those kids in my youth group were, at once, impossibly creative, and genuinely funny, all in different and their own personal ways. I always told them, "If I won a million $$$ in the lottery, we should all pool together, and form a comedy consortium, producing comedy in print, film, TV, and wherever!" Of course, I'd have to have waited til they were no longer minors......details!
The "Away in the Manger," I must admit (and happily take credit for), was my contribution to the spoonerism canon of the good Rev. Wm. Spooner, may he pest in rower. Did that one come the same Christmas service as Joe's, I couldn't tell you. If so, we all must've gone home with aching stomachs from all that stifled laughter!!
By the way, we always managed to sit on the same church bench during services.....the same one always occupied by a certain woodland creature who'd trundle in just in time every Sunday. You would, too.......who really wants a skunk to sit in his own pew?🦨🤣
Thanks Brad! Ha- I can’t believe I left out Barry Manilow, who does complete the Jewish easy-listening triptych. For apparently controlling the music and television industries, we Jews have done a terrible job of religious indoctrination!:)
Barry will get you for that! In fact, he may just put on his traffic enforcement hat, pull out his pad, and write you up!📝He did, after all, sing "I Cite the Wrongs," did he not?👀 I'll be here all night........try the shrimp.
Barry got me for it a couple decades ago when I tried to sing "I Write the Songs" at Karaoke while very drunk. Let's just all agree, there's a reason he's Barry and we are not. I learned my lesson and returned to more feasible songs like "I Love Rock n' Roll" by Joan Jett.
It’s a Christmas miracle! No David Lee Roth Hanukkah album, but the great mashup king Bill McClintock gave us the Jose Feliciano/Van Halen mix we didn’t know we needed. https://youtu.be/fDPk8cOc-x8
As the unofficial archivist of your Best Of collections and curator of our marital memory annex, I must point out that A Christmas Duel came out in 2008 and was included on your Best of 2008 CD (CDs! Remember those?). I'm so delighted for you that you got to re-experience the joy of discovery with this song. Happy Hanukkah!
Hysterical!! Thanks! 👏🏽👏🏽
Thanks for reading! And I hope your holiday party was all that and a bag of merriment!
Hilarious and thought-provoking, all at the same time, as usual, Steve! As a lifelong member of the Goy Scouts, I nevertheless have had a solid kinship with Jewish folk, to wit: The family across the street from us in Houston (they were the Mertzes to my folks' Ricardos) were Jewish, and taught my bro and me many Yiddish phrases and customs.
Plus, I went to Bellaire Hi in SW Houston in the early '70s, and in that day, that part of town enjoyed a rather large Jewish population (we were even members of the tony Meyerland Country Club!). In fact, Bellaire Hi was so Jewish-leaning, the students themselves nicked the school, "Bethlehem on the Bayou" and "Hebrew High"!!
Plus, I've been to my share of Bar-mitzvahs and Seder dinners, and, as youth minister, took my Lutheran youth group to several Seders and temples for new worship experiences!
You missed Barry Manilow, one of our fave Jewish songsmiths, who has pressed 3 Christmas albums! In fact, rumor has it that he recorded a demo that was part Hanukkah song/part eulogy hymn for an elderly gent who had recently passed. What? You've never heard of "God Rest Ye, Gerry Mendleman"?
And, if that weren't enough (and at this point, it certainly should be!), for years I've sung the wonderfully creative Holiday carol, "Away in a Manger," that managed to successfully merge the secular Santa-Christmas with the Christian Holiday with this line: ".....The little Lord Jesus, a heap on the sleigh."
I can't wait to spend more time with your post, listening to the music as I do. Thanks again, Steve, for your unique POV, and treading--I'm guessing--into cool Holiday territory few would or could, do! Happy Hanukkah, Festivus, and Christmas to you and fambly, Steve!✡🎄💖💥😁👍
And I let out an audible guffaw at “God Rest Ye Gerry Mendleman.”
As did we, 5 incredibly creative and funny high-schoolers (and me, their youth minister in my early 30s) in the late '80s, L.A.-county Lutheran church youth group.....as we all sat in our pew during a Christmas service, that astounding spoonerism came out of the mouth of high-schooler, Joe Popp, who has been working in Disney Studio's video department for at least the 3 decades since!
We were in stifled hysterics the rest of the service, obviously laughing even more noticeably because A) it was so hilarious and B) stifled laughter just can't be.....stifled, especially in quiet places like church (looking at you, Mary Richards, in the "Chuckles the Clown Dies" episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show")!
All those kids in my youth group were, at once, impossibly creative, and genuinely funny, all in different and their own personal ways. I always told them, "If I won a million $$$ in the lottery, we should all pool together, and form a comedy consortium, producing comedy in print, film, TV, and wherever!" Of course, I'd have to have waited til they were no longer minors......details!
The "Away in the Manger," I must admit (and happily take credit for), was my contribution to the spoonerism canon of the good Rev. Wm. Spooner, may he pest in rower. Did that one come the same Christmas service as Joe's, I couldn't tell you. If so, we all must've gone home with aching stomachs from all that stifled laughter!!
By the way, we always managed to sit on the same church bench during services.....the same one always occupied by a certain woodland creature who'd trundle in just in time every Sunday. You would, too.......who really wants a skunk to sit in his own pew?🦨🤣
Thanks Brad! Ha- I can’t believe I left out Barry Manilow, who does complete the Jewish easy-listening triptych. For apparently controlling the music and television industries, we Jews have done a terrible job of religious indoctrination!:)
Barry will get you for that! In fact, he may just put on his traffic enforcement hat, pull out his pad, and write you up!📝He did, after all, sing "I Cite the Wrongs," did he not?👀 I'll be here all night........try the shrimp.
Barry got me for it a couple decades ago when I tried to sing "I Write the Songs" at Karaoke while very drunk. Let's just all agree, there's a reason he's Barry and we are not. I learned my lesson and returned to more feasible songs like "I Love Rock n' Roll" by Joan Jett.