|
About This Author
I am SoCalScribe. This is my InkSpot.
|
Blogocentric Formulations
Logocentric (adj). Regarding words and language as a fundamental expression of an external reality (especially applied as a negative term to traditional Western thought by postmodernist critics).
Sometimes I just write whatever I feel like. Other times I respond to prompts, many taken from the following places:
 "The Soundtrackers Group" 
"Blogging Circle of Friends "
"Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise"
"JAFBG"
"Take up Your Cross"
Thanks for stopping by! 
Previous ... - 1- 2 ... Next
December 31, 2014 at 12:03pm December 31, 2014 at 12:03pm
| |
Back in my "2013 Reading List" blog post, I said that hitting my goal of averaging a book a week was my "white whale," and I'm happy to report that this is the year Moby Dick has been spotted and conquered! I finished exactly fifty-two books this year (fifty-six if you ask Goodreads, because it considers each novella in METAtropolis a separate book while I consider the collected edition one book), in addition to a bunch of other reading and listening. I doubt I'll listen to or read anything to completion today, so here's the final list for my 2014. I've taken a cue from Tornado Dodger  and coded some of these for your reference:
 = one of my favorites of the year
 = other highly recommended reads
FICTION
Age of Innocence, The by Edith Warton
Between Two Thorns by Emma Newman
Blue Monday by Nicci French
Confederacy of Dunces, A by John Kennedy Toole
Deadlocked by A.R. Wise
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
Flood by Andrew Vachss
Godwulf Manuscript, The (Spenser Book 1) by Robert B. Parker
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Heroes, The by Joe Abercrombie
Informationist, The by Taylor Stevens
Juliette Society, The by Sasha Grey
Looking for Alaska by John Green
Low Town by Daniel Polansky
Martian Chronicles, The by Ray Bradbury
METAtropolis by Jay Lake, et al
Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
Naked in Death by J.D. Robb
Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
Promise of Blood, The by Brian McClellan
Quick Bite, A by Lynsay Sands
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
Secret Lives of Married Women, The by Elissa Wald
Seven Days of Service by Hatsuda 
Short Stories by C.S. Lewis
Spirit Thief, The by Rachel Aaron
Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson
Storm Front by Jim Butcher
Until Proven Guilty by J.A. Jance
Vicious by V.E. Schwab
Warded Man, The by Peter V. Brett
Way of Kings, The by Brandon Sanderson
GENTLEMEN BASTARDS SEQUENCE:
Lies of Locke Lamora, The by Scott Lynch
Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch
Republic of Thieves, The by Scott Lynch
KINGKILLER CHRONICLE:
Name of the Wind, The by Patrick Rothfuss
Wise Man's Fear, The by Patrick Rothfuss
HUNGER GAMES TRILOGY:
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
NONFICTION
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High by Kerry Patterson
Game Frame: Using Games as a Strategy for Success by Aaron Dignan
How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams
Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box by The Arbinger Institute
Madboy: Beyond Mad Men: Tales from the Mad, Mad World of Advertising by Richard Kirshenbaum
Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner
Nerdist Way: How to Reach the Next Level (In Real Life), The by Chris Hardwick
Penguin and the Leviathan: How Cooperation Triumphs over Self-Interest, The by Yochai Benkler
Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company, The by David A. Price
Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying... by Emily Bazelon
When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor... And Ourselves by Brian Fikkert
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel
COMICS
Action Comics #1-8, #23.3
Atomic Robo #1
Batgirl #1-6
Batman #608-619
Batman #1
Batman and Robin #1
Batman Black & White #1
Batman: The Dark Knight #1-9, #23.2
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: The Long Halloween
Batman/Supergirl #1
Bedlam #0-8
Birds of Prey #1
Catwoman #1-12
Chaos #1-5
Chastity #1-3
Danger Girl: May Day #1
Danger Girl: Revolver #1-4
Danger Girl: The Chase #1
Danger Girl: Trinity #1
Deathstroke #1
Detective Comics #23.1-23.2
Evil Ernie #1-6
Final Crisis #1
G.I. Joe #1
Hawken #1
Infinity #0-1
Infinity Gauntlet #1-6
Justice League #1-6
Justice League of America #1
Locke & Key #1
New Mutants #1-3
Nightwing #1-7
Planetary #1
Purgatori #1
Red Hood Outlaws #1
Red Ten #6
Rising Stars #1
Sensation Comics #1
Sex Criminals #1-7
Suicide Squad #1-7
Superman: War of the Supermen #1
Teen Titans #1
Terminal Alice #1
The Killer #1
Thunderhead Underground #1
Transformers: All Hail Megatron #1
Uncanny X-Force #1-4
Uncanny X-Men #138-143, #244
Voodoo #1
Wanted #1
X-Force #1-25
X-Men #1-4
X-Men: Legacy #208-218, #231-234
X-Necrosha #1
PODCASTS
Chicks Who Script (22 episodes)
Freakonomics Radio (21 episodes)
Grammar Girl (66 episodes)
Hollywood Bound & Down (2 episodes)
Nerdist (12 episodes)
Nerdist Writer's Panel (15 episodes)
The Q&A (1 podcasts)
Scriptnotes (57 episodes)
Serial (12 episodes)
Slate Political Gabfest (19 episodes)
TED Radio Hour (12 podcasts)
Unofficial WdC Podcast (2 episodes)
Writing Excuses (119 episodes)
SCREENPLAYS
0 Produced Movies & TV Pilots
11 Unproduced Scripts
TOTALS: 52 books, 202 comic books, 360 podcasts, and 11 screenplays.
Sex Criminals and Catwoman were easy picks for my favorite comics of the year. The former was such a weird and creative concept; basically this girl discovers that when she has an orgasm, time freezes for a while... and then she meets a guy who has the same condition, and together they battle the loneliness of living in a frozen world for hours at a time (not to mention pulling all the pranks they can on people who are none the wiser when the time stream resumes). And the New 52 version of Catwoman was a great interpretation of the character.
For nonfiction, Crucial Conversations and Zero to One were the big winners in my book; the first included advice and information for having difficult conversations that I still reflect on and use even months later, and the second was chock full of great business insights from one of the most successful entrepreneurs of the tech sector. I highly recommend Crucial Conversations for absolutely anyone - it covers difficult discussions everywhere from asking for a raise at work to criticizing a spouse to resolving a heated argument. It's one of the few "self-help" books that I can honestly say are actually meaningful and helpful. And any prospective entrepreneur looking to start their own business should read Zero to One for some great insights by a very successful tech guy.
And it was an embarrassment of riches when it comes to fiction reading this year. Steelheart was right up my alley in terms of being a creative and unique take on superpowers, and I think Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicle is going to end up being one of the best fantasy series in the past fifteen years... but I'm withholding judgment until the final (in progress) book comes out in a year or so. In the meantime, I'm giving my favorite fiction of the year pick to Scott Lynch's Gentlemen Bastards series. Even though that's unfinished too, he has multiple books left to write, so I feel justified in picking it since I'm not waiting on the imminent release of the final installment of a limited series. Lynch's books hit pretty much every touchstone for me... a little bit of fantasy, a little bit of crime, a great mix of humor and action, lots of unexpected twists and turns... they were really great reads for anyone who enjoys fantasy or crime novels... and especially those who like both.
My "other highly recommended" selections were just books that really struck a nerve either as I read them or after... works that I think really set the bar high and achieved it or were just so damned entertaining that I found myself still thinking about them or considering going back to reread them after I was done. Many of the ones I didn't call out specifically were also very good, but as I said earlier it was a year with an embarrassment of riches in terms of good material to read and I had to draw a (subjective) line somewhere.
Overall, while I'm very happy that I finally met my book-a-week reading goal, I'm a little disappointed that I read so few screenplays. Even though this was the year where I got my first screenplay produced and did a lot of production rewrites on that project, it was a year where I didn't focus too much on screenwriting as a whole. It was nice to have a little break and focus on novels and comics, but I need to get back to focusing on screenwriting in the new year. I'd also like to read more WdC novels in 2015. I'm sure I'll read plenty of already-published stuff (it's kind of hard to find novels in progress on audio for the commute  ), but I'd really like to spend my at-home and on-plane reading time checking out prospective novels and offering feedback to those who are looking to get published.
So for 2015, I'm not going to give myself any hard and fast goals in terms of reading a set number of books or scripts or whatever... instead I'm just going to see where my reading muse takes me and try to make an effort to read some new stuff, help some writers out with feedback, broaden my horizons, and refocus on the kinds of works that I'm really looking to succeed at myself in the coming years. 
|
December 21, 2014 at 2:50am December 21, 2014 at 2:50am
| |
** Image ID #2014892 Unavailable **
"Christmas Is All Around"
by Billy Mack
"God Only Knows"
by The Beach Boys
"Prime Minister's Love Theme"
by Craig Armstrong
"All I Want for Christmas Is You"
by Olivia Olson
For the last entry of the competition, I'm cheating a little and choosing four songs that are all linked together (and loosely related to Christmas) because they're from the soundtrack to the same Christmas movie: Love Actually.
The first song I'm including is "Christmas Is All Around" by Billy Mack (played by Bill Nighy), which is a remake of the The Troggs' classic "Love Is All Around" that Nighy's character is trying to use to secure the #1 position on the UK Singles Chart. He's rather unenthusiastic about the whole proposition, from repeatedly forgetting the word should be "Christmas" instead of "love" to telling a DJ on-air that he wants people to "buy [his] festering turd of a record" that "[crassly tries] to squeeze an extra syllable into the fourth line." I'm not sure it's a Christmas classic in the real world quite as much as it ends up being in the movie, but it's a fun Christmas song that I wanted to include on my list:
The second song I'm including is "God Only Knows" by The Beach Boys which actually isn't even a Christmas song at all. The song was #25 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list, and listed by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of its 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. The reason it's sometimes thought of as a Christmas song these days is because it was prominently featured in the movie over the ending scene at the airport (and included on the soundtrack), so that - combined with the fact that "God" is prominently referenced in the lyrics - has led many to believe that it's a holiday song when, in actuality, it isn't. But still, it's a great song in a wonderful Christmas movie:
The third song is the "Prime Minister's Love Theme" composed by Craig Armstrong for the film. Even if you haven't seen Love Actually itself, there's a good chance that you'll recognize it as the score is widely used in other films and particularly in trailers and TV spots. Most notably, it's been used in the theatrical trailers for The Aviator and Pride & Prejudice (2005), as well as the TV trailer for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It's such an uplifting track and probably my single favorite film score composition outside of Clint Mansell's "Lux Aeterna. " I dare you to not be uplifted by this score!
And finally, just because it's a Christmas challenge and I know lizco252 is such a fan, I figured the most fitting way to end this Soundtrackers challenge is with the hit song that made such a dominant appearance on so many lists this year. This version is actually performed in the movie by the ten-year-old Olivia Olson, so Beth's ears need not bleed from listening to She Who Shall Not Be Named. The film's director Richard Curtis actually mentioned on the DVD commentary that Olson did such a flawless cover of the song that they had to train her to sing the song differently (worse) so that the audience wouldn't think she was just lip syncing to the original version. Anyway, here it is... my final song of the challenge:
Even though only half the song's in this last entry are technically holiday songs, the whole movie Love Actually is such a great holiday film. Yes, there are plenty of haters out there and it's by no means a perfect film, but it's got such a great message about love making the world go round and being the thing that connects all of us that I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a more appropriate sentiment during the holiday season.
Happy Holidays, everyone! 
|
December 19, 2014 at 5:53pm December 19, 2014 at 5:53pm
| |
** Image ID #2014892 Unavailable **
"2000 Miles"
by The Pretenders
Even though it was originally recorded in 1983, I'm choosing to include a live version of this song that was recorded in 1995 because I love the addition of the classical stringed instruments to the melody. Like so many songs on my list, this is an original rather than a cover of a popular song that's been around for decades. It was originally thought to be about the distance between two long-distance lovers who miss one another during the holidays, Chrissie Hynde has actually said that the song was written for James Honeyman-Scott, the original guitar player for The Pretenders, who died the year before this song was recorded.
Over the years, the song has been covered by some pretty influential musicians, including Coldplay, KT Tunstall, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Natalie Imbruglia, and Chrissie Hynde herself as a remake just a few weeks ago.
|
December 19, 2014 at 4:01pm December 19, 2014 at 4:01pm
| |
** Image ID #2014892 Unavailable **
"Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee"
by David Stillson
This is actually one of my favorite holiday songs, even though it's not really specifically about the holidays at all. They just happen to play it a lot in churches this time of year, and it's one I look forward to every year. I actually like the upbeat rock version my church plays, but I couldn't find a video or a recording to include for this challenge, so I'm instead including a version by a very talented musician that has the same general tempo to the song and remarkably plays all the instruments and does the vocals entirely by himself.
One of the reasons it's so hard to find a good (IMO) version of this song is because a lot of people perform a version that's very slow. It's actually based on a hymn, so I think there's a tendency for people to take the song seriously and make it contemplative... which in my opinion is a mistake because it's supposed to be an uplifting song that's joyful and exciting. I think the pop/rock versions of the song do a better job of capturing the essence of the song than a traditional choir or breathy vocalist.
If this song sounds familiar, it's because the chords are based on Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" which is one of the most famous classical compositions ever (it's the final movement of Beethoven's final Symphony No. 9). And the lyrics are taken from " The Hymn of Joy
Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee,
God of glory, Lord of love;
hearts unfold like flow'rs before Thee,
Opening to the Sun above,
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness;
drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness,
fill us with the light of day!
All Thy works with joy surround Thee,
earth and heav'n reflect Thy rays,
stars and angels sing around Thee,
center of unbroken praise:
Field and forest, vale and mountain,
Flow'ry meadow, flashing sea,
chanting bird and flowing fountain,
call us to rejoice in Thee.
Thou art giving and forgiving,
ever blessing, ever blest,
well-spring of the joy of living,
ocean-depth of happy rest!
Thou the Father, Christ our Brother,—
all who live in love are Thine:
Teach us how to love each other,
lift us to the Joy Divine.
Mortals join the mighty chorus,
which the morning stars began;
Father-love is reigning o'er us,
brother-love binds man to man.
Ever singing, march we onward,
victors in the midst of strife;
joyful music lifts us sunward
in the triumph song of life. |
We sing in jubilation, adoration, to our joyful king
You are spinning, you are singing, zealous love over all your children.
I know it's not strictly a holiday song, but if there's a song out there that can get me into the Christmas spirit in the blink of an eye, it's this one. Or Mariah Carey.  Casting Crowns also does a decent version of this song although they replace "Three" with "You" to give it a more modern sound. And a band called Go Fish did a pretty decent version but substitutes a lot of the lyrics for simpler ones because they wrote the song to reach an audience of younger children. Personally, I prefer the versions that are a little closer to the original hymn so van Dyke's contribution isn't totally mangled... but any rock/pop/upbeat version of this song is an improvement over the stuffy slow hymn.
|
December 19, 2014 at 2:46pm December 19, 2014 at 2:46pm
| |
** Image ID #2014892 Unavailable **
"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree"
by Chicago
I know Brenda Lee's original is a classic, but this is one of those upbeat holiday songs that I really enjoy listening to cover versions of because everyone likes to lend their own little twist to it. Over the years, this song has been covered by Bill Haley & His Comets, The Partridge Family, Alvin & The Chipmunks with Patti Loveless, Hanson, Cyndi Lauper, Alabama, Green Day, Jessica Simpson with Rosie O'Donnell, LeAnn Rimes, no fewer than three Disney Channel and/or Nickelodeon child stars, and my other two personal favorites (beyond Brenda Lee's original): {xlink:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLP5806ZpUUthis one by Darlene Love and Ronnie Spector (the latter is famous as the backup vocals in the Eddie Money classic "Take Me Home Tonight"), and the one from {xlink:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gCd23Jrc0M}She & Him (actress Zooey Deschanel's duo).
Surprising given the maturity of her voice, the original was actually recorded by Brenda Lee when she was only thirteen.  An instrumental version of the song appeared in the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer TV special from 1964, and it was also featured prominently during a scene in the 90's hit holiday film, Home Alone. According to a December 2011 Nielsen SoundScan estimate, the original (not including all the covers) is the fourth all-time best-selling Christmas holiday single in history, owing largely to the fact that even with so many covers, Brenda Lee's version is still prominently played on radio stations and listed on musical charts each year.
The video version of this song also features cameos from Joe Mantegna and Kyle Mooney. Although you only see Joe briefly at the beginning of the video linked below, there's actually a much longer video production of the song with a lead-in that I didn't link because I wanted to get right to the sweet, sweet sounds of aging musicians rocking out. 
|
December 16, 2014 at 8:26pm December 16, 2014 at 8:26pm
| |
** Image ID #2014892 Unavailable **
"Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas"
by Daniel Jang
I know I've mentioned Daniel Jang on my newsfeed before, but I don't think I've actually blogged about him. Daniel is an immensely talented violinist (and pianist and guitarist) who has become a modest YouTube hit thanks to his composing of covers to popular songs. I highly recommend checking out everything on his YouTube channel , but if you're looking for specific recommendations, I highly suggest checking out the following covers:
"Royals" by Lorde
"Payphone" by Maroon 5
And my personal favorite:
"Find You/Spectrum/Clarity/Stay the Night" mash-up by Zedd
But since it's Christmas, I figured I'd feature his cover of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" since it's not only one of my favorite holiday songs, but it's also the only holiday song he's done to date.
The song was first performed by Judy Garland in the 1944 musical Meet Me in St. Louis, and later made even more famous when Frank Sinatra recorded a cover with slightly altered lyrics. In 2004 it was voted #76 on AFI's list of the 100 most popular and influential songs in the past 100 years of cinema. The song went through many iterations, mostly at the request of Garland and co-star Tom Drake who felt the original lyrics were too depressing. Some of the original lyrics included:
Have yourself a merry little Christmas; it may be your last
Next year we all may be living in the past
which the songwriters (Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane) conceded to change to:
Have yourself a merry little Christmas; let your heart be light
Next year all our troubles will be out of sight
The song has been recorded by many famous artists aside from Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra, some of whom include Christina Aguilera, Jackie Gleason, Connie Francis, Ella Fitzgerald, Michael Bolton, Neil Diamond, Rosemary Clooney, The Jackson 5, Rod Stewart, Sarah McLachlan, Luther Vandross, Bette Midler, The Carpenters, Twisted Sister, and John Denver accompanied by The Muppets.
|
December 14, 2014 at 11:43pm December 14, 2014 at 11:43pm
| |
** Image ID #2014892 Unavailable **
"All I Want For Christmas (Is You)"
by Mariah Carey
Okay, lizco252, you asked for it. This is such an amazing holiday song that I didn't think I could do it justice all by myself, so I recruited a few friends to help me recognize the brilliance of Mariah Carey's holiday opus, "All I Want For Christmas (Is You)." Also, make sure you check out yesterday's blog entry because I also talked briefly about this song in "Seems like everyone but me is in love" !
I'd like to give a special shout-out to everyone who helped me with today's special effort, for which I've asked 80s pop-rock sensation The Bangles to work on a proposed cover version of their classic:
I'm, uh, still waiting to hear back from their manager... 
This song has been covered a number of times over the years, most notably by Shania Twain, Lady Antebellum, Michael Buble, Miley Cyrus, Cee Lo Green, Miranda Cosgrove, and Olivia Olson in the movie Love Actually. As of 2013, the single is reported to have earned in excess of $50 million in royalties, and Carey herself has actually done two covers of her own song... for her second Christmas album in 2010, then again as a duet with Justin Bieber for his 2011 holiday album. Okay, maybe the Bieber thing is taking this song a little too far... I mean, I love it a lot, but the world can only take so much...
In all seriousness, though, this is one of my favorite holiday songs. It's incredibly upbeat and I tap my toes to it (and sing along, assuming I'm alone in the car) whenever it comes on. It's one of those songs for me that always instantly cheers me up and gets me in the holiday spirit, which is why I've rightfully included it on my playlist this year.
|
December 14, 2014 at 11:42pm December 14, 2014 at 11:42pm
| |
** Image ID #2014892 Unavailable **
"My Only Wish This Year"
by Britney Spears
Okay, maybe I'm going a little too far with this "original Christmas songs" idea if I'm pulling from the Britney Spears holiday album! I really do like this song though; I think it's a good mix of happy and sad... and it's not easy to do kind of a sad Christmas song. This single was originally released on the Platinum Christmas album, which was released in 2000 and has a bunch of artists that I grew up with, such as Britney, 'NSync, Christina Aguilera, Dave Matthews Band, Dido, Whitney Houston, and others.
The critics weren't exactly favorable to this song. In fact, Richard Jinman of the Sydney Morning Herald compared this song of Britney's to another classic from six years earlier, noting that both this song and Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" were "ho-ho-horrible singles." The joke is on them, though; the song has repeatedly shown up on holiday charts since then, and many current reviewers have noted that it's something of a classic now that it's still playing a decade after its initial release. And apparently South Korea didn't get the message from Jinman; residents of that country have bought over 600,000 copies of this single!
|
December 14, 2014 at 11:42pm December 14, 2014 at 11:42pm
| |
** Image ID #2014892 Unavailable **
"Another Christmas Song"
by Stephen Colbert
Before you laugh at the inclusion of a campy, humorous Stephen Colbert song on my list, I feel obligated to point out that this comedy special actually won him Grammy, so . The album first went on sale November 25, 2008 and was briefly #1 on the iTunes chart. However, this was also around the time Kanye West declared himself "the voice of this generation of this decade" and Stephen Colbert took it upon himself to enact Operation Humble Kanye in which he implored everyone watching his show, The Colbert Report, to download his album at the same time on the same day to bump Kanye's album down the charts. This eventually resulted in Colbert's album reaching #2 on the charts, but that still bumped Kanye down to #4 and Colbert declared the following day that Kanye had been officially humbled.
I love how campy and completely unapologetic this song is. I've mentioned before that I don't generally like the idea of artists just re-recording the same old songs over and over again; it starts to feel like a cash grab when someone is suddenly putting out their third Christmas CD with their very own second special edition of "Silent Night." So I have a profound appreciation for this song of Colbert's with it's shameless plugging and not-so-subtle jokes about it being a cash-grab. You've gotta respect a song that has lines like "my humble yule tide, dreamed up poolside, Christmas song" that encourages you to "log onto iTunes and pay to download 'em, PAY for another Christmas song."
|
December 12, 2014 at 11:51am December 12, 2014 at 11:51am
| |
** Image ID #2014892 Unavailable **
"Last Christmas"
by Jimmy Eat World
I know this is probably shocking given my love for pretty much anything 80s, but I genuinely like the Jimmy Eat World version of this song better than the 1984 original from Wham! super-duo George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley. Still, the music video for the original is by far the best video version and I highly recommend it to anyone who can appreciate the finer things in life, such as coiffed hair, overused soft focus, and lingering sultry/creepy glances at the camera from George Michael. The video also features Spandau Ballet bassist Martin Kemp, model Kathy Hill, and a clean-shaven George Michael, which is actually his last filmed appearance without facial hair, as he grew a beard for the video of "Everything She Wants" and has maintained it since then. Come on, you know you want to check it out...
I also wanted to include this version from Ariana Grande because I found it while I was researching this song and it's kind of growing on me. I think she has a gorgeous voice; the song is a little too over-produced and synthesized for it to replace Jimmy Eat World as my favorite, but it's a new and decent version of the song nonetheless.
There are plenty of other versions of this song if you don't like these three though. Covers have been recorded by everyone from pop "stars" Hilary Duff and Ashley Tisdale (separately) to German dance music trio Cascada. What I particularly love about this song is that it's an original from the past few decades. I get so tired of hearing the same covers of the same songs that have been around forever; I really respect when an artist has the courage to record a completely new holiday song... you know, kind of like Mariah Carey did with "All I Want For Christmas (Is You)." I'm also awed by the fact that Jimmy Eat World released their cover of "Last Christmas" as a 2001 single that was a follow-up to their hit album Bleed American... and that the B-side of this single was, of all things, a cover of "Firestarter" by The Prodigy.  If you aren't familiar with that song, I highly recommend checking out the Jimmy Eat World cover and then listening to the electronica/synthpunk original version to fully appreciate how bizarre the choice was, not just to cover the song but to include it as a B-side to a Christmas song.
Wham!'s version of "Last Christmas" actually ended up as the runner-up during the prestigious "Christmas #1" race on the UK Singles Chart. Despite its second-place finish, the single sold over a million copies making it the most successful non-#1 song in the history of that UK Singles Chart. It's also the bestselling single in Japan to have never entered the Top 10 on their music charts... and has placed on the German singles chart every year since 1997. I guess the Germans really love George Michael!
|
Previous ... - 1- 2 ... Next
© Copyright 2024 Jeff (UN: jeff at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
Jeff has granted InkSpot.Com, its affiliates and its syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.
|
