“Auld Lang Syne” is a song traditionally sung on New Year’s Eve, just as the year turns. The phrase “auld lang syne,” which is Scots Gaelic, can be translated several ways: “old long since,” “long, long ago,” “days gone by” (you get the idea). It’s a song about endings and remembering the past.

The lyrics were written by the poet Robert Burns. Well, actually, he wrote down a song he’d heard from an old man, and then added to it. Robert Burns, if you aren’t familiar with him, is the national poet of Scotland. He was born on 25 January 1759 and only lived to be 37, but he packed a lot into those few years. My mother used to say that he was the father of Scottish poetry and most of Scotland, too. He had twelve children by four women, only one of whom was his wife. We used to talk about the rock lifestyle of “sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll.” For Robert Burns it was more like “sex, booze, and poetry.” 

Through all of those women and child, I am somehow related to Burns. My maternal grandmother’s maiden name was Burns. But, since some of his poetry is quite risqué, she never passed along how she was related. She did not approve of our poet.

Along with more standard poetic forms, like “Address to a Haggis,” he wrote a lot of poems that were intended to be lyrics. (Think “My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose,” or “Charlie, He’s my Darlin’,” a song about Bonnie Prince Charles, made more famous by its use in classic Star Trekwhen sung byUhurain the episode Charlie X.) 
 
Original Scots lyrics:

Should auld acquaintance be forgot, 
and never brought to mind? 
Should auld acquaintance be forgot, 
and auld lang syne?

CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my jo, 
for auld lang syne, 
we'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet, 
for auld lang syne.
And surely ye'll be your pint-stoup! 
and surely I'll be mine! 
And we'll tak' a cup o’ kindness yet, 
for auld lang syne.
CHORUS

We twa hae run about the braes, 
and pou'd the gowans fine; 
But we've wander'd mony a weary fit, 
sin' auld lang syne.
CHORUS

We twa hae paidl'd in the burn, 
frae morning sun till dine; 
But seas between us braid hae roar'd 
sin' auld lang syne.
CHORUS

And there's a hand, my trusty fiere! 
and gie's a hand o' thine! 
And we'll tak' a right gude-willie waught, 
for auld lang syne.
CHORUS
 
Usual translation:

Should old acquaintance be forgot, 
and never brought to mind? 
Should old acquaintance be forgot, 
and old lang syne?

CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my dear, 
for auld lang syne, 
we'll take a cup of kindness yet, 
for auld lang syne.
And surely you'll buy your pint cup! 
and surely I'll buy mine! 
And we'll take a cup o' kindness yet, 
for auld lang syne.
CHORUS

We two have run about the slopes, 
and picked the daisies fine; 
But we've wandered many a weary foot, 
since auld lang syne.
CHORUS

We two have paddled in the stream, 
from morning sun till dine†; 
But seas between us broad have roared 
since auld lang syne.
CHORUS
​
And there's a hand my trusty friend! 
And give me a hand o' thine! 
And we'll take a right good-will draught, 
for auld lang syne.
CHORUS
 
The melody was probably a dance tune from the time. We really don’t know if this was the melody that Burns intended. But, since this is the only melody that is used in Scotland, it seems like a good bet.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

The “Carol of the Bells” is one of my favorite Christmas songs. Even when it gets used for an ad campaign, I don’t mind because it’s another chance to hear this lovely song.

Though it is closely associated with Christmas, the origins of the song are connected to the new year. But, then, it’s not even the New Year that we know of as 1 January. Nope. The song goes farther back, into pre-Christian Ukraine. We need to look at the opening phrase: Hark how the bells, sweet silver bells, all seem to say throw cares away. Those four notes repeated over and over may be a chant that had connections to new year celebrations that took place in the spring, probably in April. The original text tells the story of a swallow that comes to a farmer and tells him that spring has arrived and that prosperity and a lovely wife are just around the corner.

Then, Christianity struck Ukraine, and with it the Julian calendar. New Year was moved to 13 January (1 January by the Gregorian calendar that we use), when it is still celebrated in Ukraine. At this time, children travel door-to-door singing this song. The song promises a bountiful year, and the kids are rewarded with baked treats. In Ukraine, the song is called Shchedryk, which roughly translates to “Bountiful:”

Shchedryk, shchedryk, a shchedrivka [New Year's carol];
A little swallow flew [into the household]
and started to twitter,
to summon the master:
"Come out, come out, O master [of the household],
look at the sheep pen,
there the ewes have yeaned
and the lambkins have been born
Your goods [livestock] are great,
you will have a lot of money, [by selling them].

If not money, then chaff: [from all the grain you will harvest]
you have a dark-eyebrowed [beautiful] wife."
Shchedryk, shchedryk, a shchedrivka,
A little swallow flew.

About this time in Germany at the Feast of the Epiphany (when the Wise Men arrived in Bethlehem to give their gifts to the Baby Jesus) children travel around dressed as the Wise Men and sing carols. They ask for money for a specific charity. Then, they leave a sign on the doorpost in chalk that promises a prosperous year. The kids are often also given treats. The similarities here are obvious, I think. I wonder if the origins of this German tradition are pagan, too?

Anyway, back to Ukraine. In 1914, Mykola Leontovych was making arrangements of various folk melodies and came up with a choral arrangement of this simple folk chant that was first performed in Kiev in 1916. The song was introduced to the world in the 1920s when the Ukrainian Republic Capella (a choir) toured the world. 
This version of the song was heard on 5 October 1921 in Carnegie Hall by Peter J Wilhousky. To him, the melody reminded him of bells, and he wrote new lyrics: 

Hark how the bells,
sweet silver bells,
all seem to say,
throw cares away
 
Christmas is here,
bringing good cheer,
to young and old,
meek and the bold,
 
Ding dong ding dong
that is their song
with joyful ring
all caroling
 
One seems to hear
words of good cheer
from everywhere
filling the air
 
Oh how they pound,
raising the sound,
o’er hill and dale,
telling their tale,
Gaily they ring
while people sing
songs of good cheer,
Christmas is here,
 
Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas,
Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas,
On on they send,
on without end,
their joyful tone
to every home
Dong Ding dong ding… dong! Bong!
 
Wilhousky was the arranger for the NBC Radio Symphony Orchestra. His arrangement was first heard over the radio during the Great Depression. Other performers began making recordings of the song starting in the 1940s. Since then, the song has been performed in just about every style of music from classical to jazz. 
On an odd note, since Wilhousky did not write the song, he could only copyright the lyrics. So, the song and its usual four-part arrangement are in the Public Domain but the words are not.

I’ll be posting some versions of this song every day on my Minnich Music Facebook page, so visit there to hear them! If you have any stories about “Carol of the Bells,” let me know in the comments section—I’d love to hear from you.

I’ll be posting roughly once a week with a new song. I’m trying to make the songs seasonal, but I can make exceptions. So, if there’s a song that you’d like some background on, or questions about what it means, let me know.

Until next time!

When I was four years old, a song came out by a group called The McCoys. It was called “Hang on, Sloopy.” At that young age, I had no idea that the song was supposed to be about a girl called Sloopy. Why would anyone name their daughter Sloopy, anyway? Why would you call anyone Sloopy? Anyway, I thought the song was Hang On, Snoopy. That made much more sense, and I still think it does.

Snoopy, Peanuts, and the Red Baron
Snoopy and the whole Peanuts gang were big in the 1960s. There were the holiday specials that we all know and love. There were the daily comics in the newspapers and the book. I had a poseable plastic Snoopy toy that came with all sorts of clothes and accessories. By 1967, there was even a Broadway musical based on the characters.

In 1966, a pop group named the Royal Guardsmen put out a single called Snoopy vs the Red Baron. It was a novelty song based around the epic battles between the fictional beagle, Snoopy, on his Sopwith Camel (a non-fictional WWI airplane) and the Red Baron. The infamous Red Baron, also known as Baron Manfred von Richthofen, was Germany’s most famous flying ace.

Baron Richthofen began the war in a cavalry regiment, but when the trenches made horses obsolete, he eventually scored a transfer to the new Feldflieger Abteilung (Flying Squadron). He only flew for two years, from 1916 to his death at the age of 26 in 1918. During that time, he took out 80 Allied pilots. Though he is closely associated with the Fokker Triplane, he only had 19 of his total kills in that plane. He started painting his planes red in 1917, and this is why he became known as the Red Baron.

World War One was a bizarre war. It saw airplanes and horses both going to battle. There are stories of fighter pilots refusing to take a kill when they saw that their adversary’s guns had jammed. The oddest stories, I think, are associated with Christmastime 1914. All along the Western Front, both sides had dug their trenches and settled in. By Christmas, boredom had set in. Keep in mind that this was only a few months into the war. On Christmas Eve and Day, an unofficial truce was declared. Soldiers from both sides left their trenches and joined with their enemies to celebrate. Food and drink were shared freely. There were even ballgames played in the No Man’s Land between the trenches. By the next week, hatred had regained control and the war continued.

In the Peanuts comic strip, the beagle Snoopy often fantasized about being a WWI flying ace with his doghouse as a Sopwith Camel. (When I was a kid, I didn’t realize that the Sopwith Camel was an American WWI plane. I thought it was a Snoopwith Camel.) Naturally, Snoopy took as his arch nemesis the Red Baron. Even though Snoopy tried so hard to shoot down the Baron, he was the one always shot down, leaving Snoopy beside his smoking doghouse, shaking a puppy fist into the air: “Curse you, Red Baron!” 

Snoopy and The Royal Guardsmen
The Royal Guardsmen are an American band that started out as the Posmen but changed their name when the British Invasion of The Beatles and the Mersey Beat Sound came across the Pond. (Paul Revere and the Raiders was another band that tried to capitalize on the British Invasion.) The Royal Guardsmenrecorded several albums and had a few small hits, but they really hit it big with Snoopy vs the Red Baron. And in the way of the world, they continued to record Snoopy-related songs. “Snoopy for President,” “The Smallest Astronaut” (it’s Snoopy), and even “Snoopy vs Osama” are among many others.

My favorite is “Snoopy’s Christmas.” It tells the story of Snoopy going up on Christmas Eve to take out the Red Baron. As usual, he is shot down, but as he lands his plane, the bells ring out Christmas Day. The Baron lands his plane nearby and comes up with a bottle of champagne and he toasts in the day with the startled Snoopy.

I was 6 when “Snoopy’s Christmas” came out. Mom and Dad had just gotten a new stereo, and my big brother, Hal, had been given their old one. That meant that I had my first record player, because Hal gave me his old one. It was not a stereo player, only having one speaker. You could buy the same album, one version in mono for the players with only one speaker, or you could buy the stereo version designed for two speakers. My first album was a Christmas compilation album, and the first song on side A was “Snoopy’s Christmas.” I played through the whole album a couple of times, but it didn’t take me long to realize that my favorite song on it was “Snoopy’s Christmas.” So, I played that song. Over and over again. For a couple of hours. (Keep in mind I was only 6. And there were no video games, no internet. There were only three channels on TV!) 

Somehow, Mom tuned out the song. But I drove my 15-year old brother crazy. He begged Mom to make me turn it off. She refused. (One of the few times she did not do what Hal wanted. He was her favorite. It was ok, though, because I was Dad’s favorite.) Finally, Hal came to my room to broker an epic deal. He gave me three Monkees albums and one Paul Revere and the Raiders album on the understanding that I never play “Snoopy’s Christmas” when he was in the house. I ended that day with even more albums, because Mom went through all the mono albums that they had been replacing with the stereo versions and gave the mono ones to me. I started the day with one album and ended it with an embarrassment of riches. 

And Hal never heard “Snoopy’s Chistmas” again.

I’ll be posting some versions of this song every day on my Minnich Music Facebook page, so visit there to hear them! If you have any stories about “Snoopy’s Christmas,” let me know in the comments section, I’d love to hear from you.

I’ll be posting roughly once a week with a new song. I’m trying to make the songs seasonal, but I can make exceptions. So, if there’s a song that you’d like some background on, or questions about what it means, let me know.

Until next time!
 

“O Come, All Ye Faithful,” or “Adeste Fidelis,” goes way back. I knew that it had Latin lyrics, but I hadn’t realized just how far back this Christmas carol goes. The original, Latin text may go back to sometime in the 1200s with St. Bonaventure mentioned as the author, although the English lyrics that so many of us know date to 1841. The translator, Frederick Oakeley, began life in England as an ordained minister in the Church of England, but became dissatisfied with the Church and converted to Catholicism. It is his translation of “Adeste Fidelis” that has brought him everlasting fame.

“Adeste Fidelis”: The Latin Lyrics 
As to who wrote the original Latin lyrics: people mentioned have included John Francis Wade, who lived from 1711-1786. All of the earliest copies of the hymn bear his signature. But that does not mean that he wrote it. There are those who feel that Wade wrote it and that the words refer to Bonnie Prince Charlie and that the whole thing is a code for the Jacobites.  Also mentioned is John Reading, an English composer and organist who lived from 1654-1692. And, finally, I found mention of King John IV of Portugal, who lived even earlier, from 1604-1656, and was known as, well, being King of Portugal. Apparently, the earliest known copy is at the ducal palace in Vila Vicosa. 

“Adeste Fidelis”: The Music 
And then we get to look into who wrote the music. And the answer is: no one knows. It’s possible that whoever wrote the lyrics also wrote the music. But to that list we can add; Handel, Gluck, Thomas Arne, and several lesser known composers. What we do know is that the chorale setting that we all know so well is from the English Hymnal of 1906. And we only sing a few of the many, many verses.

I spent twenty years as a church music director for various denominations, both Protestant and Catholic. Every Christmas eve and day service began with “O Come, All Ye Faithful.” And I know that I was not in the minority. It is sung every Christmas season by thousands of congregations all over the world. 
​
“Adeste Fidelis”… by Twisted Sister? 
We have a collection of unusual Christmas music. Were you aware that Squirrel Nut Zippers put out a Christmas CD? We own it. We have two Bob Rivers Christmas CDs, with such hits as “Walkin’ Round in Women’s Underwear,” and “Didn’t I Get This Last Year?” But I was surprised to find out that Twisted Sister had done a Christmas CD. Somehow, I did not associate Dee Snider with Christmas. But I was wrong. The man LOVES Christmas. He’s the type with multiple trees in every room and hallway.

Dee Snider is a man who continues to surprise me. In 1985, there was a movement to put ratings labels on albums. (An album is one of the things we had before CDs or downloads.) Dee appeared at a Congressional hearing in opposition to this along with quite a few other musicians from all sorts of differing styles. I was not expecting Dee Snider—the lead singer for Twisted Sister—to be intelligent and eloquent. He is both. 

More recently, in 2012, he put out a CD entitled Dee Does Broadway. There are a lot of duets in this. One of them is even with Patti LuPone! I haven’t listened to the whole thing yet, but I am liking what I hear. Dee’s version of “Mack the Knife” is worth checking out.

Anyway, back to the Christmas CD and "O Come, All Ye Faithful." The first time I heard the album, I was floored at how much “O Come, All ye Faithful” sounded like “We’re Not Gonna Take It.” Turns out this is not a fluke. When Dee Snider wrote the Twisted Sister hit, he borrowed the opening line from the Christmas carol. But it did not hit me until I heard the carol done in the Twisted Sister style.  

I’ll be posting some versions of this song every day on my Minnich Music Facebook page, so visit there to hear them! If you have any stories about “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” or Dee Snider and one of his songs, let me know in the comments section, I’d love to hear from you.

I’ll be posting roughly once a week with a new song. I’m trying to make the songs seasonal, but I can make exceptions. So, if there’s a song that you’d like some background on, or questions about what it means, let me know.

Until next time!

I’m trying to remember when I discovered Weird Al Yankovic. It may actually have been in 1981. He was on a late, late night show, the first one on after midnight, called the Tomorrow Show: “Another One Rides the Bus.”
Decades later, my older brother was shocked that I was a fan. I reminded him that he had had a great deal to do with establishing my musical tastes, and so should not have been surprised. 

My husband, Bill, and I collected cassette tapes of all the strange and silly songs we could find. These were constant companions as we and the kids traveled Europe and the U.S. Singing along with these songs made long distances fly. Weird Al was a natural for us.

When his ninth album, Bad Hair Day, came out in 1996, we got it as quickly as we could. That year, my youngest, Chris, was 6. It was the next year that this song got him in trouble at school.

Most of Weird Al’s songs are parodies, meaning that they are based on, and making fun of, other songs. Sometimes they are based on a single song. Think of “Another One Rides the Bus,” which is based on the Queen song, “Another One Bites the Dust.” Others are a combination of several songs. “The Night Santa Went Crazy” is one of these. It has elements from Soul Asylum’s “Black Gold,” Ozzy Osborne’s“Mama I’m Coming Home,” and Greg Lake’s “I Believe in Father Christmas.” But, I think that he took those elements and ran with them:

Down in the workshop all the elves were making toys 
For the good Gentile girls and the good Gentile boys 
When the boss busted in, nearly scared 'em half to death 
Had a rifle in his hands and cheap whiskey on his breath 
From his beard to his boots he was covered with ammo 
Like a big fat drunk disgruntled Yuletide Rambo 
And he smiled as he said, with a twinkle in his eye, 
"Merry Christmas to all, now you're all gonna die!"
 
The night Santa went crazy 
The night St. Nick went insane 
Realized he'd been gettin' the raw deal 
Something finally must have snapped in his brain
 
Well, the workshop is gone now, he decided to bomb it 
Everywhere you'll find pieces of Cupid and Comet 
And he tied up his helpers and he held the elves hostage 
And he ground up poor Rudolph into reindeer sausage 
He got Dancer and Prancer with an old German Luger 
And he slashed up Dasher just like Freddie Krueger 
And he picked up a flamethrower and he barbecued Blitzen 
And he took a big bite and said, "It tastes just like chicken!"
 
The night Santa went crazy 
The night Kris Kringle went nuts 
Now you can hardly walk around the North Pole 
Without stepping in reindeer guts.
 
There's the National Guard and the F. B. I. 
There's a van from the Eyewitness News 
And helicopters circling around in the sky 
And the bullets are flying, the body count's rising 
And everyone's dyin' to know, oh Santa, why? 
My my my my my my 
You used to be such a jolly guy
 
Yes, Virginia, now Santa's doing time 
In a federal prison for his infamous crime 
Hey, little friend, now don't you cry no more tears 
He'll be out with good behavior in seven hundred more years
But now Vixen's in therapy and Donner's still nervous 
And the elves all got jobs working for the postal service 
And they say Mrs. Claus, she's on the phone every night 
With her lawyer negotiating the movie rights
They're talkin' 'bout

The night Santa went crazy 
The night St. Nicholas flipped 
Broke his back for some milk and cookies 
Sounds to me like he was tired of getting gypped
Wo-oh, the night Santa went crazy 
The night St. Nick went insane 
Realized he'd been gettin' a raw deal 
Something finally must have snapped in his brain 
Wo-oh, something finally must have snapped in his brain 
Tell ya, something finally must have snapped, in his brain
 
There are gorier versions out there, but this is the original, and the version that I like best.

My younger son, Chris, is also a huge Weird Al fan. He, along with his older brother and sister, have grown up listening to his music. The album just before this one, Alapalooza, was a mainstay of road trips. We all learned the words to all the songs. 

It was December, and Chris was in the second grade. The school music teacher asked all the kids to come to class ready to sing their favorite Christmas song to the others. At this point in time, The Night Santa Went Crazy was his favorite Christmas song. 

Being a private voice teacher, I had Chris sing through the song for me to make sure that he wasn’t switching keys in the middle of the song and that he could sing the whole thing without making a mistake. He did a great job with it. Then I prepped him for the possibility that the teacher might not want something by Weird Al. I was sure that she was thinking more of the standard Christmas carols, but she had not given the kids anything more than “favorite Christmas song.” I instructed him to announce the name of the song, and the composer, and said that if she at any point told him to stop, he was to sit down without complaint. After all, the song runs for four minutes, if nothing else.

Then, I got a call from the school. Chris had been suspended for the rest of the day, and I needed to come to the school to pick him up. None of my kids had ever been in that kind of trouble before. I was in something of a panic as I drove the short distance.

Chris was quite a bit larger than most of the kids in his class. As an adult he is 6’4”. At 7, he was the size of a 10-year old. I was worried that he had accidently hurt someone. I doubted that he would have hurt anyone intentionally.

I was greeted at the school by a somber secretary who led me to the principal’s office. A chastened-looking Chris was sitting right outside her door. We were both ushered inside. The principal, a stern-looking older woman, motioned me to a chair. Chris was left standing. 

She explained to me that Chris had sung a highly inappropriate song in front of his class. Once he had finished the song, the music teacher had sent him directly to the office. He was being sent home so that he could meditate on his crime. I agreed that this was very serious and promised to deal with him as he deserved.

We made it to the car before I started laughing. I asked Chris if he had announced that the song was by Weird Al. He had. I asked if the teacher had tried, at any point in the 4 minutes of the song, to stop him. She had not. I told him that there was a lesson to be learned here. Sometimes, the people in authority over us are idiots. And then, we went out for ice cream.

I’ll be posting some versions of this song every day on my Minnich Music Facebook page, so visit there to hear them! If you have any stories about The Night Santa Went Crazy, or Weird Al and one of his songs, let me know in the comments section, I’d love to hear from you.

I’ll be posting roughly once a week with a new song. I’m trying to make the songs seasonal, but I can make exceptions. So, if there’s a song that you’d like some background on, or questions about what it means, let me know.

Until next time!