On the Beatles Channel on Sirius XM, Randy and Tal Bachman, of all Father and son pairs in the world, have a weekly program in which they talk about Beatles related tracks. They discussed “Wonderful Christmas Time” this week and pointed out some things I never noticed. The ability of Paul to get the hook in people’s ears so quickly impressed them, but even more is the complete slipperiness of time signature in the bridge. Listen again and see if you can count it out. It’s avant-garde and catchy at the same time.
Good call, Nicholas, on If We Make It through December; it's definitely a Christmas song to my mind! But the cuts Charles and I chose here were just Xmas songs we like, not necessarily our picks for the greatest ever or the best from a particular artist or anything like that. (OTOH, if you want more on Merle's If We Make It through December, it's one of the entries in my and Bill Friskics-Warren's 2003 book Heartaches by the Number: Country Music's 500 Greatest Singles. And I talk about the song quite a bit in two spots of my 2022 book The Running Kind: Listening to Merle Haggard.) --David
On the Beatles Channel on Sirius XM, Randy and Tal Bachman, of all Father and son pairs in the world, have a weekly program in which they talk about Beatles related tracks. They discussed “Wonderful Christmas Time” this week and pointed out some things I never noticed. The ability of Paul to get the hook in people’s ears so quickly impressed them, but even more is the complete slipperiness of time signature in the bridge. Listen again and see if you can count it out. It’s avant-garde and catchy at the same time.
This one ought to be a lot better known than what it is…
https://open.spotify.com/track/3vCmUtuwKkDx2OQ5vvpxSI?si=ez_Mh8iUQBuEiqic6VmAog
Oh that's fantastic! Thanks for mentioning it.
The McCartney Xmas song is one of the only holiday songs I like. I am always relieved when it comes on the radio this time of year...
I'm surprised Merle's "If We Make It Through December" didn't make the cut... Although it's not quite Christmas-y compared to "White Christmas"
Good call, Nicholas, on If We Make It through December; it's definitely a Christmas song to my mind! But the cuts Charles and I chose here were just Xmas songs we like, not necessarily our picks for the greatest ever or the best from a particular artist or anything like that. (OTOH, if you want more on Merle's If We Make It through December, it's one of the entries in my and Bill Friskics-Warren's 2003 book Heartaches by the Number: Country Music's 500 Greatest Singles. And I talk about the song quite a bit in two spots of my 2022 book The Running Kind: Listening to Merle Haggard.) --David