Admit It, You Love It

You can tell me all day long how much you hate All I Want For Christmas Is You. 

I'm with you there if you do.

You can also tell me how much you hate Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer. 

I'm not with you there. Yep, I love that one. 

But there is one Christmas song I've never heard anybody say they hate.

It's the song that officially starts the Christmas season. You know this one...

The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire). Come on, don't try to be "cool" about it. You love it, and you know it. Just 'fess up and admit it. 

The story behind it is wonderful. It was written on a scorching day in Los Angeles in July 1945, by Mel Torme (tor-may, if you've never heard of him) and Bob Wells. 

Wells was trying to stay cool, so he started writing down Christmas images. Torme loved it, so they put their heads together and got the song done in about forty minutes. 

That may have been the most profitable forty minutes in musical history. Look how often that song's been recorded.

I'm going to have plenty of time to listen to it over the next few days. I'm taking the holidays off from this blog. See ya in '24! 

https://youtu.be/A8eWaR8ONvw?si=IktTaMJ9_PpygwKB

Feeling En-Titled

It's hardly a newsflash that your song title can save you...or sink you. There are so many "guidelines" for making it catchy. I'll just run through a few I've often seen.

Name it after a woman

Sherry has been used at least twice that I know of. 

Name it after an animal

Paul McCartney wrote Martha My Dear about his Old English sheepdog. Like we need another reason to love Paul. 

Name it after a month or a season

September by Earth, Wind & Fire was titled that because September was one of Maurice White's favorite months. One of my songs is named for summer, and another is named for October. Not surprising if you know me, because summer and fall are my favorite seasons. 

The most common word

Probably "love." But then again that's the most common song subject too. 'Nuf said on that! 

How long "should" it be - like how many words?

I typically have three words, maximum. But one of my titles clocks in at seven words, although they're short and simple. Mine usually come to me fairly short, and I don't "argue with the song" about it. 

Make it "intentionally misleading."

Colbie Caillat's latest album, Along The Way, is about her breakup with her fiance. She has a song on it called Meant For Me. Most songs with titles like this are done in the vein of "Oh, baby, you were meant for me and this is it."

Hold your horses with this one. As a friend put it, "Then she lowered the boom." Listen to it to find out how.

https://youtu.be/vxQCHmRHFJg?si=LjDv123RSXGA33sl

Yes, we all know my Colbie Caillat songwriting obsession is beyond ridiculous. But this whole album is a masterpiece. Trust me on this. My CD player is sick of it by now, but I don't care.

"What's the actual title?"

Earth, Wind & Fire didn't put the actual title in their hit Love's Holiday. So people have been goofing the title since...well...the song came out. 

This song is commonly called Would You Mind because that's what you hear consistently. To confuse things further...the acoustic demo is called Would You Mind. 

Not sure why they did that...but they're Earth, Wind & Fire...so I don't ask. 

https://youtu.be/KW8Or4BPDQo?si=nqolu-_Uk0cpUyYc

I'm always fascinated with how songwriters come up with titles. Be sure to leave a comment on your own ways of doing that.

Why NOT Me?

I've heard "all the news" about Taylor Swift lately. I don't need to rehash it. She's the most famous person in the universe. 

But I thought "Well, everybody else is talking about her, so why not me??"

Here's my thing about her: she's disproving that old saying "Nice guys finish last." Or shall we say "Nice girls." However you want to put it. Your call. 

She's nice to her fans. She asks people to get out and vote. She paid $55 million in bonuses to her employees out of her own pocket. She even featured a shelter cat named Yaris in her Time Magazine Person Of The Year photo

I'm not here to canonize her. Plenty of people are doing that already, which is cool with me. And she's human, so she has her faults like everybody else. 

Some people will say "Well, I'd be really generous too, if I had her kind of fame and fortune." (Yep, I name-played here.)

But when you combine her type of generosity with catchy, well-written tunes, it's easy to see why people on Pluto have heard of her. 

(Confession time: I've taken an astronomy course - under pain of death from my university - and I didn't hear anything about "people on Pluto." I made that up. But you get the point. I don't have to beat you over the head with a club.)

I just think a genuinely nice person who also writes catchy, fun, and heartfelt tunes - and works with other talented people - should have her day in the sun.

Yay you, Taylor! 

Turkey Brain Ruined This Blog

I took time off from this blog last week for the Thanksgiving weekend. Thought it might give me a little "refresh and regroup" time to come up with some new ideas.

But...the opposite happened.

I am completely out of topic ideas for this blog.

Maybe it's Turkey Brain. I have been living on a steady diet of turkey sandwiches since last Thursday. 

I love turkey sandwiches. That's why Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, not Christmas. 

I even started a food fight unintentionally last Friday when I posted on Threads about my first turkey sandwich. 

I had no idea turkey sandwiches could be so controversial. People got up in arms over what bread to use, and what to put on the sandwich. They were practically threatening to ring each other's bells over that.

Okay, I think you see something here: how I really must be out of topic ideas if I'm rambling on about turkey sandwiches. Lucky for you, the bird is completely out of meat now, and it's getting thrown out today. 

Goodbye, dear turkey. Gosh, you were awesome.

So if you want to help me get over Turkey Brain...why not use your brain and help me out here? I sure could use your ideas. 

Leave a comment, email me if you have my address, text me if you know my number...I wanna hear from you. Whatever ideas you have will be welcome. 

And maybe next year, I can handle Turkey Brain better.

🦃🥪