I was going to mess with an ancient Christmas song involving eating pig heads\u2014surely you\u2019ve heard of \u201cThe Boar\u2019s Head Carol\u201d\u2014but that may have to wait for another day, ideally after everybody\u2019s already had Christmas dinner. <\/p>\n
No, this morning I want to write about something I learned just yesterday, about another Christmas song that Carol and I both like. We\u2019ve never heard it on the radio, and we wouldn\u2019t know about it at all if it weren\u2019t on our very favorite Christmas CD: Christmas Portrait<\/em> by the Carpenters (1978). The song is the medley \u201cIt\u2019s Christmas Time\/Sleep Well, Little Children.\u201d It\u2019s on none of our other numerous Christmas CDs, and my assumption has long been that Karen and Richard wrote it themselves, as it\u2019s a little bit whimsical and in spots a little bit goofy.<\/p>\n I got curious yesterday and looked it up. The song was actually written by four men: Alan Bergman, Al Stillman, Victor Young, and Leon Klatzkin. It\u2019s not new; in fact, it was first recorded in 1953. And when I read who first recorded it, I laughed out loud. It was Spike Jones!<\/em><\/p>\n Ok, I suspect young people will wonder who that is, and why his name made me laugh. Short form: Spike Jones (1911-1965)<\/a> was the Weird Al Yankovic of the 1940s and 1950s. He took popular songs of other artists and recorded them in his own satirical style, with manic voices, gunshots, whistles, cowbells, hiccups, and other \u201cspecial effects\u201d. I came upon Spike Jones and His City Slickers when I was quite young; probably five or at most six. In that era my folks had a creaky old record player and a cabinet full of 78RPM records, including a few by Spike. His best known spoof song is probably \u201cCocktails for Two.\u201d<\/a> Note that the linked YouTube item is not a video of Spike and his band performing the song. It\u2019s a sort of primordial music video, with Spike playing a bartender with many of the sound effects done by tipsy men at the bar. I\u2019m sure sophisticates will roll their eyes, but when I was six I thought the song was hilarious.<\/p>\n