JUKEBOX: Have Yourself a Retro Little Christmas
Obviously, Christmas music is a huge part of the season; flip through the FM dial and I guarantee you’ll hear many of your standby stations converted to holiday tunes, a phenomenon that never fails to annoy me, especially when it’s the one good, college station that still plays deep “oldies” tracks on the weekend. I digress. Here are a handful of my favorite Christmas tunes, some rare, some not-so-rare, but all of them are special to me, and representative in their own ways of whatever “retro” means.
1) “Mr. Scrooge,” The Orchids (1964)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzZViZiSIy8
A girl group that rivaled chicks like the Ronettes, Crystals, and Shirelles in Britain, the Orchids never really found footing abroad, but appeared all over television and even in movies in their native UK. In fact, “Mr. Scrooge was featured in the 1964 pop flick Just For You. The lyrics urge generosity during the holidays, but in such a way that you probably won’t mind dropping a few extra pennies in the kettle.
2) “Snoopy’s Christmas,” The Royal Guardsmen (1967)
Most people associate the Royal Guardsmen with Snoopy; after all, their two biggest hits were inspired by the Peanuts pooch’s love of commandeering his dog house like a WWI flying ace. Although the original “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron” went to #2 on the Billboard charts, it was surprisingly out-charted by “Snoopy’s Christmas,” which hit #1 — on the “Best Bets for Christmas” chart. Okay, so it wasn’t technically a smash hit, but it was the sequel in a long string of subsequent “Snoopy” tunes by the Royal Guardsmen, including “Snoopy vs. Osama” in 2006.
3) “Teen Age Party / Cool Cool Christmas,” Bobbie and Boobie (1958)
Nope, not a typo. The Fifties were a simpler time, weren’t they? The A-side of this rare single is a Little Richard-esque piano stomper from Bobby Nunn of the Coasters and written by Bruce Morgan, a notorious part of LA’s surf-Latin scene who also had a hand in some early Beach Boys recordings. Flip the record over and you’ll find “Cool, Cool Christmas,” a continuation of “Teen Age Party” both in style and the fact that I’m pretty sure the party never ended, just transformed for the holidays.
4) “Rain, Sleet, Snow,” Paul Revere and the Raiders (1967)
Did you know Paul Revere and the Raiders made a Christmas album? Most of it’s pretty shoddy, to be honest. It sounds like some studio exec left the doors unlocked and the boys broke in after a little too much egg nog. The most put-together track of the bunch is also its most psychedelically mind-blowing. “Rain, Sleet, Snow” is a reverb-filled trip which might seem a bit out of place in the band’s R&B-influenced catalog, but kudos to them for trying to hip up the weather.
5) “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” Judy Garland (1944)
Though it falls just slightly before our scope here, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is a song I just couldn’t leave out, mainly because it’s one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite films. Composed specially for Meet Me in St. Louis in 1944, the songwriters originally included a few darker verses about death and, relative to the film (in which a family is essentially pissed the patriarch is uprooting them to New York right before St. Louis’ 1904 World’s Fair), moving. Judy Garland couldn’t fathom singing the lyrics to an already heartbroken Margaret O’Brien in one of the movie’s most emotional scenes, so they were removed. You have to wonder, had the song included, “Have yourself a merry little Christmas / it may be your last” if it would still be as beloved as it still is today.
There are many more of my favorite holiday tunes in the Spotify playlist below, and many more that didn’t make it on. Next year, I suppose!
What are your favorite retro Christmas classics? Leave them in the comments!
