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Song of the week

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I like this choice, because it’s my favorite Xmas song, with all due respect to Frank, Ella, and everyone who’s ever covered “Baby It’s Cold Outside”. From JPK, as always:

Ronettes, “Sleigh Ride” (1963)
It’s a sad day to see Phil Spector imprisoned for murder, even sadder that he deserves to be, but never mind that. Let’s think about the good old days, when he was a tortured recluse with a Napoleon complex churning out his “little symphonies for the kids.” The Christmas album he released for the 1963 season came at the peak of his studio wizardry and contains some of his best stuff, applied perhaps disconcertingly to familiar Christmas standards. The Ronettes were a pet project of his and he always seemed to work a little bit harder on getting their material to pop. And did it ever. This version of “Sleigh Ride” really swings through the dense layers, including an entire string section in one break. Ronnie Spector sounds great too, and there’s even a whinnying, clip-clopping horse. Ring-a-ling-a-ling-a-ding-dong-ding!

More Christmas favorites from convicted felon Phil Spector.

Reader Interactions

46Comments

  2. 2.

    Tom Hilton

    One of the all-time greats Christmas albums–up there with the one from ZE Records. My favorite track is The Bells of St. Mary’s (Darlene Love, I think), but it’s all good.

  5. 5.

    Svensker

    Great song and the Ronettes are just super. Love them.

    Speaking of Christmas music, I heard Madonna’s version of “Santa Baby” the other day and wanted to break my radio.

  6. 6.

    Raven

    Speaking of the Ronnete’s

    By her account, Phil kept Ronnie a near-prisoner and limited her opportunities to pursue her musical ambitions. In her autobiography, she said that he would force her to watch the film Citizen Kane to remind her she would be nothing without him. Spector’s domineering attitude led to the dissolution of their marriage. Bennett was forbidden to speak to the Rolling Stones or tour with the Beatles, because Phil Spector feared that she would be unfaithful.[citation needed]

    Bennett claims Spector showed her a gold coffin with a glass top in his basement, promising to kill and display her if she left him. During Spector’s reclusive period in the late 1960s, he reportedly kept his wife locked inside their mansion.[citation needed] She claimed he also hid her shoes to dissuade her from walking outside, and kept the house dark because he did not want anyone to see his balding head. Ronnie stated in her autobiography that she walked out of the house through the closed and locked rear sliding glass door, shoeless, shattering the glass as she left, and feet all cut up by the time she got to the gate. She never returned. Ronnie Spector filed for divorce in 1972. She wrote a book about her experiences, and said years later, “I can only say that when I left in the early 1970s, I knew that if I didn’t leave at that time, I was going to die there”.[3] She and Spector separated in 1973 and divorced one year later. In August 2011, Spector admitted that she went to rehab in order to escape living with Phil.[4]

  7. 7.

    David in NY

    @Svensker:

    wanted to break my radio

    Haven’t had the pleasure (isn’t Eartha Kitt the usual?), but am curious about the violent reaction it caused.

  12. 12.

    MikeJ

    “Little symphonies for the kids” or was it teenage symphonies to god? I don’t recall, but I do know Velvet Crush named an album that after a quote from who was it? Spector? Brian Wilson?

    A good album though.

  14. 14.

    tkogrumpy

    I had forgotten how much extra noise and recording hiss there is on these sixties multi-track abominations yech.

  16. 16.

    geg6

    Can I just say how much I detest Christmas songs? Hate, hate, hate them. Every single one.

    That said, I am happy to report that I have finished my Christmas shopping. Of course, it’s easy when I only have to buy two gift cards (one Best Buy and one Macy’s, both of which I bought at the grocery store because I get double gas points for them) for the nieces, a book (Amazon) and sweater (J.Crew online) for the sister I got in the family grab bag, a cash donation for the boss’ gift, and a box of cigars for my John.

    Have I mentioned that I also hate, hate, hate Christmas shopping?

  17. 17.

    evap

    One of my favorite Christmas albums as well. I like The Ronettes version of “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”. Great stuff

  21. 21.

    Amir Khalid

    Does this count as a Christmas song? for some reason, I find it kind of moving, and I know there are people for whom it’s not fiction.

  22. 22.

    butler

    “Baby It’s Cold Outside” is not a Christmas song.

    Technically neither is “Sleigh Ride”.

  23. 23.

    Brachiator

    Fresh Air Interview with Ronnie Spector

    August 27, 2002 – In the 1960s she was a member of the girl group, The Ronettes. They were already making records with a different label when producer Phil Spector signed them and turned them into hit makers. Their songs include Be My Baby, Baby, I Love You, and Walking in the Rain. Ronnie married Phil Spector, but the marriage ended in divorce.

    Also available on the Fresh Air iPad app.

    The Ronettes – Be My Baby

  26. 26.

    David in NY

    @butler:

    “Baby It’s Cold Outside” is not a Christmas song.

    Technically neither is “Sleigh Ride”.

    By my criterion, “Baby It’s …” is not, and “Sleigh ….” is. The difference is in the content of those awful loops of “Christmas songs” that play in retail establishments, subjecting employees to five weeks or more of skull-penetrating pain. There are only so many true “Christmas songs” and they can all be played within about 1 1/2 hours, until the repetition makes workers suicidal. (I swore I was going to start slamming my head on the floor if I even heard “Silver Bells” again — like having a ball-peen hammer tapped regularly on one’s skull.)

    Anyway, “Baby It’s …” is never on that loop. And “Sleigh Ride” is. QED.

    BTW, there are some wonderful duets of “Baby …”, though I have a hard time imagining the one featuring Rod Stewart and Dolly Parton.

  29. 29.

    Brachiator

    @David in NY:

    There are only so many true “Christmas songs” and they can all be played within about 1 1/2 hours, until the repetition makes workers suicidal.

    There are a gazillion examples of wonderful Christmas Music. You just have to look beyond pop songs.

    Fer example, Jose Carreras wonderful singing of Ariel Ramírez’ Missa Criolla.

    Jose Carreras performs “Gloria” from “Misa Criolla” by Ariel Ramírez. The Misa, a mass for tenor, chorus and orchestra, is based on folk genres such as chacarera, carnavalito and estilo pampeano, with Andean influences and instruments. It is also one of the first masses to be celebrated in a modern language. Ramírez wrote the piece in 1963-1964.

  30. 30.

    Cris (without an H)

    @butler: Technically neither is “Sleigh Ride”.

    I’ve started trying to categorize (in my cluttered head) the songs we hear around this time of year. Classes include:
    * Religious Christmas – Ones that actually are about the Nativity of Jesus and related matters. Ex: Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Away in a Manger.
    * Secular Christmas – Santa Claus stuff, but still about Christmas per se. Ex: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Jolly Old St. Nicholas.
    * Wassail & Yule – regarding caroling and other old English traditions. Ex: Deck the Halls, We Wish You A Merry Christmas.
    * Winter – songs about snow and ice. As such, we should be encouraged to continue singing them through March, if we weren’t so burned out on them by New Years. Ex: Jingle Bells, Sleigh Ride.
    * Romantic Bullshit – standard love songs that happen to use Christmas as the backdrop. Ex: Merry Christmas Baby, Blue Christmas, All I Want for Christmas Is You
    * Christmas by Association – music that has nothing to do with Christmas or winter, but that goes hand in hand usually due to its being used in a Christmas movie. Ex: Linus and Lucy.

  31. 31.

    David in NY

    @Cris (without an H): @Brachiator:

    Oh, you guys. It’s not like nobody ever wrote a good seasonal song about the wintertime. Or that a sensitive person couldn’t put together a list of good songs of this sort. I know that.

    But the popular Christmas songs to which one is subjected indiscriminately at this time of year are awful, and not very varied. (Stores play the upbeat, chipper and repetitive ones, e.g.). And over a month or so, the popular stuff like “Little Drummer Boy,” [rum a tum tum], “Silver Bells” (ta ta TA, ta ta TA,), and yes even “Sleigh Bells” becomes lethal. Just try listening to any of this standard claptrap about three times without crying.

  32. 32.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    Listening right now to August Burns Bad’s shredding of God Rest You Merry Gentlemen. Did not realize that song could be a head banger.

  33. 33.

    David in NY

    @Cris (without an H):
    Good analysis.

    One of our Christmas Eve traditions for more than a couple of decades has been to go over the (Hudson) river and through the malls to my sister’s in Northern Jersey. And on the way, we listen to some radio station in Passaic or wherever that plays wall-to-wall Christmas songs. And the selection is often dispiriting, though when it’s heavier on the traditional stuff, and doesn’t have to pad out the (really) limited selection of decent popular Christmas songs with dreck, we quite enjoy it.

    In part, we are waiting to hear “Jingle Bells Rock” which, since our youngest was about five, became his favorite, then a requirement of the trip. It’s a rare hour-long trip when we miss it. And I secretly wait for Eartha Kitt’s “Santa Baby” and think, “But the children, the children …”

  34. 34.

    Librarian

    You forgot parody Christmas songs, my favorite of which is “Walking Around in Women’s Underwear.”

  35. 35.

    Librarian

    I can’t hear the Ronettes or Darlene Love songs without thinking of “Goodfellas”. “What did I tell you, don’t buy anything, don’t get anything…Do you want us all to get fucking pinched?”

  36. 36.

    Brachiator

    @David in NY:

    But the popular Christmas songs to which one is subjected indiscriminately at this time of year are awful, and not very varied.

    It’s 2011. A lot of people I know put together playlists of Xmas Music. Other people compile YouTube lists. I’m waiting for some fun Spotify playlists.

    Yeah, there’s some craptastic stuff out there, put it is increasingly easy to ignore.

    Meanwhile, anybody got any fun Festivus music?

  37. 37.

    Calouste

    Americans should take a clue from the Brits and make “Fairytale of New York” their favorite Chirstmas song.

  38. 38.

    Lojasmo

    While not technically a Christmas, both “River” by Joanie M. And the wonderful cover by Robert Downey Jr. Are lovely in holiday mixes.

  40. 40.

    debbie

    I can’t seem to find it on Youtube, but Robert Smigel’s SNL claymation short “Christmas Time for the Jews” is my favorite Darlene Love song.

  42. 42.

    jprfrog

    “Sleigh-Ride” was written by Leroy Anderson (no credit given here) and I don’t know who added the words. It was a pure instrumental made famous by the Boston Pops and Arthur Fiedler. I know this because I played in the Pops for 20 years and at least that many Christmas week shows (actually about 8 per…try “Jingle Bells” 4 times a day for a week!) ), and with the crap that we had to do (sometimes twice a day) a nice, clever, and clean arrangement by the composer (which also swings a little, unlike this one, which is as square as Mitt Romney’s head) was always a few minutes of relief.

    My favorite is “The Christmas Song” (“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…”) especially as Rosemary Clooney did it with us for a TV special — one of the high points of my career (BTW which included working under George Szell, Pablo Casals, and Leonard Bernstein, and yes, I am putting her in that class).

  43. 43.

    jprfrog

    And the worst one, IMO, is “The Little Drummer Boy”, which drives me absolutely batshit crazy (although it did provide the title — almost — for one of LeCarre’s best novels).

  44. 44.

    Blutowski

    Baby It’s Cold Outside, or as I prefer to think of it, The Date Rape Duet, is one of my favorites too. By the time she gets to “Say, what’s in this drink,” it’s basically all over for her.

  45. 45.

    Cheap Jim

    It is not sad to see Phil Spector imprisoned for murder. It is sad that he should have committed the act, but having done so, it is only appropriate that he be in prison.

  46. 46.

    Alex

    I’m glad someone beat me to pointing out that “Baby It’s Cold Outside” is totally about date-raping someone. It’s chilling (rim shot!) actually.

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