103 years ago today, Maila Nurmi was born in Massachusetts. Nurmi would go on to find fame as Vampira, television’s first horror movie hostess. Though she is now best-remembered for playing one of the zombies in Plan 9 From Outer Space, Nurmi actually had a long and varied show business career. James Dean was her best friend. She had an affair with Orson Welles. Walt Disney used her as a model for the Wicked Stepmother in Cinderella. She was commissioned to make jewelry and clothing for both Grace Slick and Frank Zappa.
Today’s song of the day came out in 1958. Here’s Bobby Bare singing about Vampira.
Awwwwww! Gwen and Blake are so cute together. (No, I don’t want to hear about those break-up rumors right now! It’s the holidays!)
There’s a lot of reasons why this video works but really, it all comes down to charisma and chemistry. Gwen and Blake look like they should be celebrating Christmas together and, when you watch, you want to celebrate with them.
Today’s music video is sure to get you in the holiday mood!
This video is for No Doubt’s cover of a Christmas song by the Vandals. It’s a pretty simple video, actually. No Doubt is beating some guys up when they finally get the Christmas spirit. To be honest, I’ve always imagined that this what a typical day in the life of No Doubt is like.
To help cover expenses while I was in college, I would usually get a part-time retail job during the winter break, helping to restock shelves and telling customers where they could find the really cheap Christmas gifts that had put on clearance because only the only people who buy them were the desperate fools who had put off shopping until the last minute.
Christmas music was usually playing nonstop. It drove some people mad. I could always handle it except for the year that they wouldn’t stop playing this song. I know you’re saying what many other people said to me when I complained that year, “Jeff, it’s a cute song!” Imagine having to hear it ten times a day.
From my nightmares, here is today’s song of the day.
I’ll spare you the details of some of the variations that my coworkers and I came up with for Suzi Snowflake. They definitely were not safe for work.
In this scene from Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas, David Bowie stops by the home of his old friend, Sir Percival Crosby, and meets Sir Percy’s long-lost American relative, Bing Crosby! A discussion of modern music and parenting techniques leads to them performing a duet of Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy.
This was Bing’s final Christmas special and he died just five weeks after filming completed. This scene is a holiday classic and has been described. by the Washington Post, as “one of the most successful duets in Christmas music history.”
When asked about David Bowie, Bing said he was “clean-cut kid and a real fine asset to the show. He sings well, has a great voice and reads lines well.”
As a group, The Beatles never released an “official” Christmas song, though the members of their fan club received a recording of Christmas Time Is Here Again in 1967. After the band broke up, all four of the members recorded Christmas songs on their own. Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmastime is probably the most remembered. I don’t know if I would say it was the most popular but anyone who has ever had to rush out to do some last minute Christmas shopping has heard it playing in countless stores on December 24th. Whenever I’ve been in a store while Wonderful Christmastime was playing, I’ve always felt as if the song was taunting me but it is definitely a part of the season.
McCartney recorded this song at his farm. He was just getting into what was then known as “electropop,” which is why he used a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 synthesizer in the song. More than anything, that weird bouncing noise probably explains why this song is so well-known. Whenever I hear this song, I imagine that this is what Christmas sounds like on Mars.
The video was shot at at the Fountain Inn in Ashurst, West Sussex. Though the members of Wings had nothing to do with recording the song, they all appeared in the video because they were all hanging out with McCartney on the night that it was filmed.
Reportedly, Paul McCartney receives $400,000 a year in royalties from Wonderful Christmastime.
Through the Shattered Lens 