Caroling Into Obscurity

[vovat]

There are a lot of Christmas and winter holiday standards we all know, but I'm sure we've also heard plenty of really obscure ones. Music books tend to have a lot of these in them, including:

• Thirty-Two Feet and Eight Little Tails - A song about Santa's reindeer that was in both one of my mom's piano books and one of bethje's clarinet books. I know basically how it goes, but I've never heard it on the radio or anything.
  
• When Santa Claus Gets Your Letter - I actually HAVE heard this one, as it was on a record I had as a kid. Still pretty obscure, though, I would imagine.
  
• Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Me - Sweet Christmas, what a horrible title! I remember seeing this in Beth's clarinet book and laughing over the title, and then I actually heard it at work in December 2006. The tune doesn't sound anything like "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," but it is ABOUT a star. The version I heard had an R&B sound to it, but I'm not sure whether that's how it was originally conceived.
  
• Christmas on the Moon - My mom liked to play this one on the piano, presumably just because of how weird it was. It was about some guy wanting to spend Christmas on the Moon (duh) with his girlfriend.
  
• The Christmas Candy Calendar - Another piano book entry that my mom liked to play due to its oddness. The structure was much like "The Twelve Days of Christmas," but it measured the time until Christmas in pink peppermints. The main repeated line was, "Then you and I will bake a pumpkin pie and pick a purple tie for Uncle Lou."
  
• Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella - I might well have actually heard this, but I couldn't tell you what it sounds like.
  

Another popular source of obscure Christmas songs is elementary school, a regular cesspool of ridiculous songs that you'll probably never hear elsewhere, and which might possibly have been written by the music teachers themselves in their infinite malaise. In first grade, we sang "The Santa Express," and our second grade song included the lines, "Christmas time is coming, drummers will be drumming, pipers will play." I also remember singing something to the tune of "Jingle Bells" that mocked Santa's weight problem. (Good lesson to teach kids, huh? :P) And while I was never in the chorus, I remember a fair number of songs that they did at choral concerts. Many of them were comical songs that really weren't all that funny to anyone but certain elementary school choral directors, like "The Last Shopping Day Until Christmas," and a song that referred to Nintendo as "the TV game that makes a funny noise." Gee, you can't tell THAT was written by someone who revels in their own old-fogeyism, could you?

If you have any favorites among obscure Christmas songs, feel free to comment. But I'd like to end this entry with a comment on a song I know pretty well, but have never really understood, "I Saw Three Ships." Since when does the Christmas story have a nautical theme? Jesus had several adventures on the Sea of Galilee, but that was when he was an adult. And St. Nicholas was the patron saint of sailors, but he doesn't come into that particular song. So help me out here, okay?

Oh, and happy birthday to lozenger8! It's summer where she is now, which must be nice.

Comments

[suegypt.livejournal.com]

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Twinkle Twinkle Little Me - Sweet Christmas, what a horrible title!

I vaguely remember Christmas on the Moon, and i love Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella.

I Saw Three Ships, is hearkening to a time when the only good things came by ship, the stuff you need to live (presents for Christmas?), and, by the way, your men who have been at sea (with Mr. Me) and come back when it's too cold.

I have to say I like the song What's This? from Nightmare Before Christmas

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Okay, I guess that makes sense for "I Saw Three Ships." It's off the hook now. {g}

I have to say I like the song What's This? from Nightmare Before Christmas

Even though they play it in every other movie trailer these days?

[suegypt.livejournal.com]

I guess i don't see movie trailers... sorry if it's not obscure to you.

By the way, I have an old record of my parents that they used to play (The Enchanted Woods, Dennis Farnon), lotsa wintertime stuff like Winter Wonderland, etc. and it has this rolling slow blues with a spooky, twinkly flute sound over these low melancholy clarinets and stuff. It's called Snowfall, and if i could find a way to share, i would.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I guess i don't see movie trailers... sorry if it's not obscure to you.

I suppose it's obscure enough. :P

[kevenn.livejournal.com]

My friend, independant singer and musician, Casey Stratton, sings "Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella" in his Christmas Collection. It's quite a good song!

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Ooo, I love Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella! I don't know the rest, though I've heard OF When Santa Claus Gets Your Letter. I'm pretty sure it's in one of our piano books-- but my dad (nor I) never attempted to play it, so I have no idea how it actually goes.

My favorite obscure carols are all the obscure songs on the Muppets' A Christmas Together album-- I listen to that album so much that I forget no one else knows those songs, and then get "Eh" when the radio actually plays a song from that album but it's always something like "the 12 days of Christmas" or "We wish you a merry christmas" which I SUPPOSE are the ones people THINK they want to hear but they hardly do the album justice....

[suegypt.livejournal.com]

Sorry, it's me again. I thought of another obscure Christmas song. Star of Wonder, by the Roches. I know you're a secular guy, and this is one of those "wondering about the true meaning" type songs, but it's really gorgeous. Only sisters can harmonize like that. Oh, and it's a cappella, so you won't be hearing it in the grocery store...

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I've heard some songs by the Roches, but not that particular one, as far as I can remember.

[suegypt.livejournal.com]

enjoy

[arfies.livejournal.com]

Unlike the rest of those songs that sound like cashing-in modern stuff, "Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella" is actually an old French carol. I enjoy it. Sometimes there's no comma in between the two names. Is it one girl or two?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I realize that "Bring a Torch" doesn't exactly fall into the same category as "When Santa Claus Gets Your Letter" or "The Last Shopping Day Until Christmas," but I included it on the list because it's one I've heard of many times, but can't place a tune with it. As for whether it's one girl or two, I couldn't say. Are Jeanette and Isabella actual historical or legendary figures?

[suegypt.livejournal.com]

here is info

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Thanks! There was a lot of interesting stuff at that page. I still have to wonder exactly who Jeanette and Isabella are, since their names don't sound like those of anyone who would have been living in Roman-era Israel.

[suegypt.livejournal.com]

I think most Christmas carols strive to acclimate the event to whatever time is appropriate (olden times, but not too olden)

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

You've actually managed to find a group of Christmas songs I've never heard, and that's going some ...

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, I don't know how many of them would be familiar to ANYONE who didn't grow up in the same school district I did.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

There are regional variations and local songs, I'm sure, but still -- I always considered myself something of an obscure Christmas song maven. Maybe not so much!

[suegypt.livejournal.com]

I forgot to mention the Pogo Christmas Carol, which would appear in the newspapers, sung to the tune of Deckthe Halls. It started Deck us all with Boston Charlie Walla, walla wash and Kallamazoo. Nora's freezin on the trolley, swaller dollar cauliflower alligarru."

Or some such. My daddy would sing it with gusto on occasion, being a pogo kinda guy.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I've never read Pogo, but isn't it also where the song "Lines Upon a Tranquil Brow" originated?

[suegypt.livejournal.com]

Yes, indeed, and Linnell appears to be afficiando.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I think he's said the idea in "Ana Ng" of shooting a pistol through a globe also came from there.