Sing a chorus or two

Sing a chorus or two February 11, 2012

It’s snowing here in Chester County, and happily, since I’m not a delusional conspiracy theorist inventing elaborate tales of a diabolical plot by scientists, journalists and wildlife, I’m not compelled to embarrass myself with stale, defiantly ignorant jokes about global warming.

We’re just a little more than half-way through winter, so let me share some seasonal music that we almost never listen to in the winter months of January, February or March.

These are winter songs, not Christmas songs — they never mention that holiday. Yet somehow they all got sucked up into the holiday season. We sing “Over the ground lies a mantle of white” in the rainy grey autumn of Black Friday, and then we stuff these songs back into the attic when the season they were written for is just four days old.

Here’s Diana Krall singing “Jingle Bells“:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFHE0NxBJu4

And a few more for the February playlist:

The Ronettes, “Sleigh Ride
Eurythmics: “Winter Wonderland
Jimmy Durante, “Frosty the Snowman
Glee cast, “Baby It’s Cold Outside
Frank Sinatra, “Let It Snow
Darlene Love, “A Marshmallow World
Billy Idol, “Jingle Bell Rock

I’m not saying these are all great songs. Jimmy Durante makes “Frosty” tolerable, but the version I’m waiting for is from Nick Cave. I think he’d know what to do with a lyric like, “Frosty the Snowman / knew the sun was hot that day …”

“Marshmallow World” and “Jingle Bell Rock” are disposable pop songs that would be long-forgotten if they hadn’t gotten attached to Chrismas. (I don’t know if Bill Nighy saw that Billy Idol video before filming Love Actually, but he definitely tapped into the same sneering self-mockery that Idol doesn’t bother to conceal there for producing shameless holiday dreck.)

But the rest of that list is pretty good stuff — the kind of songs that could help us get through the winter if we had the sense to keep singing them after taking down the tree.

 

 


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