They Made A Christmas Album?- Advent 2018: Day 11

Today's featured artist is one of my all-time favorites. In fact, the holiday song that they sing is also one of my all-time favs. It might just be my favorite out of the entire Advent. The band I am focusing on today is U2. A prog-rock band from Ireland, the quartet holds the distinction of being one of the longest continuous line-ups in all of rock history. 

The band is know for a ton of hits. Where the Streets Have No Name, Mysterious Ways, With or Without You, and Pride (In The Name of Love) are just a small sampling of the U2 song book. But they aren't really known for being holiday artists. 

Both Bono and Adam Clayton performed on the epic 1984 holiday hit Do They Know It's Christmas? Bono contributed vocals. Clayton was on bass. But the two band mates didn't perform as U2 but as a group collective known as Band Aid.

In wasn't until 1986 that U2 officially went festive. During their Rattle and Hum project, U2 decided to borrow a Phil Spector/Darlene Love classic as a part of one of their December tour legs. As the song was to be included on the Rattle and Hum movie, it was necessary that U2 cut a performance of the song. 

So in 1987, U2 with Darlene Love on back-up vocals, the band recorded Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) As track producer Jimmy Iovine just happened to be working on the Special Olympics fundraising record A Very Special Christmas, U2 actually received zero payment for their version of the song. But that's okay. U2 isn't a band known for lacking funds.

So without any further to-do, I present to you a U2 and their live recording of Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)!

Enjoy!

They Made a Christmas Album?- Advent 2018: Day 2

Only 2 days into Advent 2018 and I am already playing hard and loose with the rules. But tonight is the first night of Hanukkah and there's no way I was going to overlook my wife's Jewish heritage. I could have gone easy and picked Adam Sandler's Hanukkah Song. But everyone either knows it or has heard of it. Knowing that, I went with something a little more obscure. 

Phil Spector and Darlene Love going over the lyrics of Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).

Today's featured artist is Darlene Love. A Phil Specter prodigy, Darlene Love's most famous non-holiday song was 1962's He's A Rebel. Later going on to do a ton of covers, Darlene Love performed on the 1963 holiday record A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector. Love sang several songs including Christmas (Baby Please Come Home). Being used in the opening sequence of Gremlins and an annual live performance on David Letterman, this is perhaps the song Darlene Love is most know for and it's a Christmas record. 

So, in order to spin things on it's ear- did you know she made a Hanukkah record?

In keeping with SNL inspired tunes about the Chosen People, on a 2005 Christmas episode, Darlene Love went Kosher with Christmastime for the Jews. The singer and actress even went claymation in this parody of Phil Specter inspired holiday tunes. 

While this song has never been released on vynil or CD, I'm allowing this because, well, it's my Advent. So sit back, grab some Manischewitz and enjoy Christmastime for the Jews...