I like that we get some good new actual Hanukkah music these days. But I do miss the wacky, weird and funny Hanukkah vids we were getting as recently as three or four years ago. Not so many, this year. But I enjoyed this one from Cloe Couture, who is not in the music biz at all. It seems she's a clothing designer for millenials (or whatever the next marketing tag is). So there's no hard copy of this, and not so much as a digital download or stream. Just the video. Nonetheless, her "Hanukkah" video expresses one of the oldest themes of the holiday......Christmas envy. I believe it was Lewis Black who said that Hanukkah was never going to win that fight. Christmas was a huge holiday, combining the birth of a religion's savior with a pagan myth of an old man who brings wonderous toys. Hanukkah, said Black, is basically a "Back to School" holiday.
Here's a great song from Saturday Night Live (circa 2005). Best thing about "Christmas For The Jews" is they got Darlene Love to sing it. This track may or may not be available on other CDs, but you'll definitely find it on "Jingle Belle Time Is A Swell Time" (though it's possibly OOP, it's not especially scarce).
Here's a great song from Saturday Night Live (circa 2005). Best thing about "Christmas For The Jews" is they got Darlene Love to sing it. This track may or may not be available on other CDs, but you'll definitely find it on "Jingle Belle Time Is A Swell Time" (though it's possibly OOP, it's not especially scarce).
The theme of Christmas envy has delivered a number of great tunes through the years, though mostly in Pop and Comedy, including the South Park not-yet-a-classic "Lonely Jew At Christmas". Adam Sandler's "Hanukkah Song", too, is essentially a response to Christmas envy. And here's a tune from musical theater that's been kicking around for 5 or 6 years, "I Sort Of Envy Christmas", though I haven't seen it on a CD yet (it might turn up on those "Carols For A Cure" CDs, but I haven't checked all the tracklists). It was written by Peter Saxe and this performance by Adam B. Shapiro is from 2015
I could go on forever with this theme. There are Pop and Punk songs that certainly fit the bill. And it's not the worst thing in the world that an "8 Nights of Hanukkah" song has to be easier to sit through than a "12 Days of Christmas" song. But we're just going to close out with a quickie parody from Listen Up! A Cappella, who were doing Jewish a cappella before anyone had even heard of Six13 or the Maccabeats. One of the earliest Hanukkah albums I ever bought following the "Festival Of Lights" collection (essential to any Hanukkah library), was Listen Up! A Cappella's out-of-print 1997 CD "Al Hanisim" (which also included songs for Shabbat and Purim). The band has been doing more parodies in recent years. "I'm Dreaming Of A White Christmas" is from 2014 and available at Amazon or CD Baby.
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