Still More Weird Christmas Songs, Vol. 2

Here's another cacophonous collection of Weird Christmas Songs to baffle, befuddle, and boggle the mind. Enjoy?  ~  JH

1)  Mr. Christmas  ~  “It’s Christmas Everyday!”  (Not a bad song, actually. But he is one weird guy!)

2)  Tarrus Riley  ~  “Crime-Free Christmas”  (It’s the least any of us could wish for, right?)

3)  Leroy Carr  ~  “Christmas In Jail – Ain’t That A Pain?”  (Yeah, I can imagine that it would be.)

4)  Manila Luzon & Alaska  ~  “Working Holiday”  (Anyone who’s ever worked in retail can relate to this one.)

5)  Advance Base   ~  “Christmas In Nightmare City”  (Well, that certainly puts me in the Christmas spirit…)

6)  The Merry Macs  ~  “Christmas Cha Cha Cha”  (Put on your dancing shoes!)

7)  Shonen Knife  ~  “Sweet Christmas”  (This almost doesn’t qualify as weird enough, but it’s awfully close so here it is.) 

8)  Ryland Adams  ~  “A Clickbait Christmas”  (Made ya look!)

9)  Christmas In The Stars  ~  “R2-D2, We Wish You A Merry Christmas”  (Droids need Christmas love, too.)

10)  Jon Lajoie  ~  “The Best Christmas Song”  (There’s a bit of false advertising going on here...)

11)  Rhett & Link ft. Hannah Hart, Grace Helbig, Benny Fine, & DeStorm  ~  “Christmas Face”  (These just keep getting better!)

12)  Cyndi Lauper  ~  “Minnie And Santa”  (Too much information, Cyndi…)

13)  CeeLo Green & The Muppets  ~  “All I Need Is Love”  (Kermit trying to speak hip-hop to CeeLo is everything.)

14)  The Marcels  ~  “Merry Twistmas”  (Well, why not?)

15)  H.E.R.  ~  “Psychedelic Christmas”  (Trippy!)

16)  Portland Youth Philharmonic  ~  “Bassoon It Will Be Christmas”  (This is, essentially, an instrumental medley of well-known Christmas songs. What's unique is that the featured instrument here is a bassoon. While quite beautiful to listen to, it’s still pretty darn weird if you ask me!)

17)  Wengie  ~  “Ugly Christmas Sweater”  (An ode to ugly. I love it!)

18)  The Kinks  ~  “Father Christmas”  (You have to see it to believe it!)

19)  T. Rex  ~  “Christmas Bop”  (Hope you still have your dancing shoes on…)

20)  Basshunter  ~  “Jingle Bells (Bass)”  (Merry Bassmas to all, and to all a good beat.)

21)  Pearl Bailey  ~  “C’est Magnifique” / “Five Pound Box Of Money”  (The second song here – which is the Christmas-themed one – starts around the 4:15 mark. But the whole video is golden!)

22)  Johnny Bower ft. Little John & The Rinky Dinks  ~  “Honky The Christmas Goose”  (This may be the only time the word “honky” will ever appear on my blog without being followed by the word “tonk.”)

23)  Chris De Burgh  ~  “A Spaceman Came Traveling”  (Let’s take the traditional Christmas story and set it out in outer space, they said. It’ll be great, they said. And actually, it kinda is…)

24)  Showaddywaddy  ~  “Hey, Mr. Christmas”  (The greatest thing about this song might very well be the name of the artist.)

25)  Fountains Of Wayne  ~  “I Want An Alien For Christmas”  (Ooh, me too, me too!)

Songs About Fireflies

I thought there was only one good Song About Fireflies. (I'm talking to you, Owl City.) Little did I know, there are quite a few more that are worth listening to. Here's a sampling of some of the best of those. Enjoy!  ~  JH

1)  Owl City  ~  “Fireflies”

2)  April Kry  ~  “Fireflies”

3)  Mason Jennings  ~  “Darkness Between The Fireflies”

4)  Jessa Anderson  ~  “Fireflies”

5)  Tony Bennett & The Muppets  ~  “Firefly”

6)  Caroline Herring  ~  “Fireflies”

7)  The Temptations  ~  “Firefly”

8)  Leona Lewis  ~  “Fireflies”

9)  A Silent Film  ~  “Firefly In My Window”

10)  Rhett Miller & Rachael Yamagata  ~  “Fireflies”

11)  Lindsey Stirling  ~  “Firefly”

12)  Paul Oakenfold ft. Matt Goss  ~  “Firefly”

13)  Mura Masa & Bonzai  ~  “Firefly”

14)  John Grant  ~  “Fireflies”

15)  Uriah Heep  ~  “Firefly”

16)  Richard Rawson ft. Tom Parker  ~  “Fireflies”

17)  Ron Pope  ~  “Fireflies”

18)  The Revivalists  ~  “Catching Fireflies”

19)  Chris Garneau  ~  “Fireflies”

20)  Jimmy Needham  ~  “Firefly”

Songs About Swallowing

These songs aren’t all about the act of allowing food or drink to pass down one’s throat. Some of them are about the metaphorical swallowing of intangible things, like pride and such. Still others are about swift-flying, migratory songbirds. Just call it Triple-Meaning Friday. Which isn’t a catchy phrase at all, actually. Enjoy?  ~  JH

1)  Bush  ~  “Swallowed”

2)  Rhys  ~  “Swallow Your Pride”

3)  NewSong  ~  “Swallow The Ocean (Coming Alive)”

4)  The Hearing  ~  “Swallow”

5)  Bombay Bicycle Club  ~  “How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep?”

6)  Jewel  ~  “Jupiter (Swallow The Moon)”

7)  The National  ~  “Don’t Swallow The Cap”

8)  Yo-Yo Ma & Wu Tong  ~  “Yanzi (Swallow Song)”

9)  Wailin’ Jennys  ~  “Swallow”

10)  Coldplay  ~  “Swallowed In The Sea”

11)  Crystal Fighters  ~  “Swallow”

12)  Toni Gibson  ~  “She’s Like The Swallow”

13)  Pearl Jam  ~  “Swallowed Whole”

14)  Judy Collins & The Muppets  ~  “Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly”

15)  morgxn  ~  “Hard Pill To Swallow”

16)  Wolf Alice  ~  “Swallowtail”

17)  Ramones  ~  “Swallow My Pride”

18)  brokeMC  ~  “Swallow You Whole”

19)  The Lennon Sisters  ~  “When The Swallows Come Back To Capistrano”

20)  The Autumn Defense  ~  “The Swallows Of London”

21)  Souleen  ~  “Swallow”

22)  Hank Williams, Jr.  ~  “Pride’s Not Hard To Swallow”

23)  Teach Me Equals  ~  “Swallow The Smoke”

24)  Eve 6  ~  “Inside Out”  (Nope, the word “swallow” doesn’t appear in the title of this song. But it’s all over the place in the chorus, which is repeated multiple times, of course. So here it is…)

25)  Della Lupa   ~ “Storm Of Swallows”

26)  Brandon Flowers  ~  “Swallow It”

27)  Lorena B  ~  “Swallow My Gum”

28)  Lorena B  ~  “Swallow My Gum 2”  (Rarely if ever have I posted a “sequel” to a song, especially within the same post. But frankly, they’re fairly unusual, so I suppose it’s no real wonder after all.)

29)  Billy Bragg  ~  “Swallow My Pride”

30)  Hilary Grist  ~  “Swallow Me Up”

31)  Ólafur Arnalds  ~  “Gleypa Okkur (Swallow Us)”

32)  Shreddy Krueger  ~  “The Sky Will Swallow Us Whole”  (I don’t usually go for songs in the “screamo” genre – or whatever they’re calling it these days – but this was really well-done. Nice mix of “clean” and “unclean” vocals.)

33)  Laura Gibson  ~  “Crow/Swallow”

34)  Teenage Wrist  ~  “Swallow”

35)  Katie Melua & Gori Women’s Choir  ~  “The Little Swallow”  (You may hear the tune of this song and correctly recognize it as identical to the “Carol of the Bells.” However, this Ukrainian-language version came first. An American songwriter penned English lyrics to the tune sometime later.)

36)  Postcards From Mars  ~  “Swallow”

"Ugly" Songs

Well, I was able to scrounge up more than enough songs to make my previous blog entry ("Pretty" Songs) into an "Opposites" post after all. A natural counterpart to those, this is a collection of songs with "Ugly" in their titles. Most of the songs aren't ugly, in the purest sense of the word. (Although some might be.) Enjoy?  ~  JH

BLOGGER'S NOTE:  Each of these songs is unique (no repeats within the post), even though many of them have the same, one-word title of "Ugly."

1)  Sugababes   ~ "Ugly"

2)  The White Stripes  ~  "As Ugly As I Seem"

3)  Meg & Dia  ~  "My Ugly Mouth"

4)  Living Colour  ~  "Love Rears Its Ugly Head"

5)  Avery *Sunshine  ~  "Ugly  Part Of Me"

6)  Sevendust  ~  "Ugly"

7)  LeeLee  ~  "Ugly"

8)  The Exies  ~  "Ugly"

9)  Masha  ~  "Ugly"

10)  Senakah  ~  "Ugly"

11)  Juliana Hatfield  ~  "Ugly"

Video wouldn't load properly – click link to view:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DzHW26H2mw

12)  Raashan Ahmad  ~  "Beautiful Ugly"

13)  EELS  ~  "Ugly Love"

14)  Jason Mraz  ~  "The Beauty In Ugly"

15)  Smashing Pumpkins  ~  "Ugly"

16)  Fulkultur  ~  "The Ugly Dance"

17)  The Muppets  ~  "Ugly Song"

18)  Razpy  ~  "Ugly People"

19)  Marco Machera  ~  "Ugly Song"

20)  Matthew Sweet  ~  "Ugly Truth Rock"

21)  Cold  ~  "Ugly"

22)   Lauren Aquilina  ~  "Ugly Truth"

Video wouldn't load properly – click link to view:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBs5I13wjps

23)  Blue October  ~  "Ugly Side"

24)  SOKO  ~  "Destruction Of The Disgusting Ugly Hate"

25)   The Black Keys  ~  "Grown So Ugly"