The Year In Music 2012 according to Tasia Ann Thomas

The PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER [2012]

A Very Special Christmas [HERC's Mix]

United State Of Pop 2012 [DJ Earworm]

Herc's Christmas Mix 2012

CHRISTMAS VACATION [1989]

The HOME ALONE Duology [1990-1992]

Like most of the country, HERC was devastated by shocking news this morning.  

Another GLEE Christmas!

HERC watched the premiere episode of Glee at least a dozen times on his DVR after it was buried sneak previewed following some show called American Idol way back in 2009. He even bought the episode on DVD when it was released as a Wal-Mart exclusive (above) but chose not to send away for the free Glee tee.

And then HERC waited and waited with antici- wait  for  it -pation for five long months until the series began its first season in September 2009.  He watched the extended Director's Cut of the episode on DVD a few times, pleased with both the song selection and the performances.  Three years on and HERC doesn't even watch GLEE anymore - he just listens to the music.

  

There wasn't a Christmas episode or any Holiday songs during that first season of the series. However, a charity single was released, a cover of Wham!'s "Last Christmas", in November 2009, and it peaked at #63 on the Hot 100.

Season Two did feature a Christmas themed episode, "A Very Glee Christmas", with the cast's renditions of  Christmas songs, many of which had been released four weeks prior as Glee, The Music: The Christmas Album.

Four singles were released from the album, which peaked at #3 on the Top 200 while selling over a million copies.  In addition, a song from the episode ("Welcome Christmas") not included on the album was released as a single as well.

Season 3's "Extraordinary Merry Christmas" episode featured 9 songs - including the original title song - and 8 of them appeared on Glee, The Music: The Christmas Album, Vol. 2, which had been released a month prior to the episode's airing.

The lone song from the episode that wasn't on the accompanying album was "My Favorite Things" from The Sound Of Music and, although it was released as a single it, like 7 of the other 8 singles from the album, failed to chart.

The only charting single from the episode was New Directions' take on "Do They Know It's Christmas?" which barely cracked the Hot 100, peaking at #92.  The album also featured a song that wasn't performed in the episode, "Santa Baby".








Volume 3 of Glee Christmas music was released in 2012 and it is filled with still more performances from the year's Holiday episode as well as four bonus songs not in the episode.  At the time of this writing, it is unknown what singles will be released.

Most of - if not all of - the covers above are fan created.

  

The Ultimate Christmas Album [HERC's Mix]

Once upon a time, HERC was in a Virgin Megastore (remember those?) and found a Christmas CD titled The Ultimate Christmas Album with the tagline "25 Great Songs for the 25th of December".  

That's the newer, reissued in 2008 album cover art above.  That new artwork is featured in the rest of this post merely for continuity and a generous dollop of laziness on HERC's part.  The original cover artwork, as it appears on the disc HERC bought that day way back in 1999, is below:

At the register, there were two small displays of Christmas CDs labeled as Virgin Megastore exclusives.  Thanks to a small yet effective tantrum and their cheap price ($3.99), Mrs. HERC authorized the purchase of both budget discs and The Ultimate Christmas Album.

 

Turns out The Ultimate Christmas Album was the first in a series and by the time HERC found that initial volume, there were already three other volumes out. By the following Christmas, he had rounded those up as well.

While each volume featured many classic and sometimes hard to find Holiday hits, The Ultimate Christmas Album Volume 3 stands out because of it's inclusion of the highly sought after and rarely licensed "Christmas Vacation" by Mavis Staples, as heard at the beginning of the movie Christmas Vacation and in the Christmas lights video below:

And speaking of Christmas Vacation, does anyone else besides HERC have a love/hate relationship with the Old Navy commercials featuring the cast from the movie?

 

Each volume in the series had a certain recipe to the playlist: a few classic Christmas songs peppered with lesser known songs by popular artists followed by a dash of novelty tunes, sometimes some New Year's tunes and a doo-wop Christmas song or two.  Volume 4 kicks off with this track from the other King:

Volume 5 featured more 70's and '80s songs than any previous volume as well as a slight improvement in sound quality.  The first track on the album is featured in the following video:

 

The sixth volume of The Ultimate Christmas Album (notice how the title was truncated for the 2008 reissue of the series?) features even more somewhat contemporary Holiday hits including this one:

 

To date, the last volume in the series is Volume 7.  It breaks the tradition of featuring 25 tracks on each album by only featuring 24 cuts.  Once again, Elvis kicks off the festivities:

BONUS STOCKING STUFFERS:  Arista Records issued two compact discs of Christmas music with a similar name to the Ultimate series above.  To avoid create avoid create avoid confusion as well as possible litigation, HERC has included songs from the those two albums in the Ginormous Playlist at the very bottom of this post.

In the spirit of the Holidays and that old chestnut "the more, the merrier" (which, for the record, HERC does not subscribe to) here is another Arista Christmas album, Platinum Christmas.  (There were two other volumes of Platinum Christmas released outside of America but HERC hasn't been able to score his own copies of those yet.)

And finally, HERC brings you the imported double CD known as The Ultimate Christmas Collection which features a generous helping of British artists.  It's got cool cover art, too.

 

 

Here's the GINORMOUS PLAYLIST

ELF [2003]

"A date which will live in infamy..."

A moment of silence for all of those who perished on this day, 

"a date which will live in infamy", 

seventy-one not-so-long years ago.

Now That's What I Call Music! The U.K. XMAS!

Christmas Music is a pretty big deal across the pond, maybe even a bigger deal than here in the States.  Every year at Christmas, there is fierce competition by labels and artists on the UK Singles charts to determine which artist gets to lay claim to the hallowed "Christmas Number One" even though many times the single itself has nothing to do with the winter holiday season other than it was released at the right time to sell more copies than any other single, often for the entire year.

 

Between 1952 (when the charts began) and 1972, only one Christmas themed song claimed the spot: Harry Belafonte's "Mary's Boy Child" in 1957.  Since 1973 and Slade's "Merry Xmas Everybody", there have been ten Holiday themed Christmas Number Ones including "Do They Know It's Christmas?", which made it a record-setting three times by three different configurations of the all-star group known as Band Aid in 1984, 1989 and 2004.

The Beatles share the record with the Spice Girls as being the only acts to be Number One at Christmas three years in a row: the lads took it from 1963-1965 while the gals claimed the title from 1996-1998, beginning with the track below: 

 
The Beatles quite possibly could have been at the top for five years running had they released a Christmas single in 1966 as they also claimed the top spot for Christmas 1967 with the song featured in the promotional video below:

Even "Mary's Boy Child", the Reason for the Season, made a return appearance in 1978 in a Christmas Number One version by the Frank Farian production Boney M.  They are the only group to have two of the top ten best selling singles in UK Singles Chart history.  If you are in the mood for an album of slightly different versions of traditional Christmas music, try their 1981 Christmas Album.

Unlike their Stateside counterparts, Now Music in the UK has regularly issued and re-issued massive, multidisc Christmas compilations: 

  

Now! The Christmas Album 

[1985, 1CD, 18 tracks]

 

 

Now! The Christmas Album 

[2000, 2CD, 41 tracks]

 

Now XMAS: Massive Christmas Hits 
[2005, 1CD, 22 tracks]

 

Now That's What I Call XMAS! 
[2009, 3CD, 60 tracks]

Now That's What I Call XMAS! 

[2011, 3CD, 64 tracks]

 

Now That's What I Call Christmas! 

[2012, 3CD, 63 tracks] 

Just about every track for the above listed albums can be found in the handy-dandy Spotify playlist below compiled by now-music themselves.

The Power Of Music #3: The Joy Of The Single

This hit HERC's inbox several times over the last few days.  As he watched it, he realized he can't wait to finish the renovations on the Hideaway's Audio Archives so he can get back to spinning vinyl.