Monday, December 7, 2020

The Fraternal Order of Dead Christmas Carolers

Maribel likes to sing Christmas carols. Unlike me she enjoys Christmas music. This morning she was singing along with the song 'Have a Holly Jolly Christmas', and doing it with vigor. On a whim I asked her if she knew who the vocalist is, knowing full well she did not. She was unimpressed when I told her it was Burl Ives and that he has been dead for 25 years. The next tune was sung by Andy Williams. That is not surprising. I think that Andy recorded every song that was ever written and some that weren't. His annual Christmas program was always popular. He died 8 years ago. 

Following Andy's song was a song was by 'mumbles' Presely. I was never an Elvis fan. Nor am I a fan of mumbling. If a Christmas song has to be sung, at least do it so that the words can be understood. I'llhavabooCismasthoutyo doesn't make it. Maribel says I shouldn't call him mumbles. Says it's disrespectful. She's probably right. And I guess I should stop referring to a bowel movement as a 'Trump dump'. Anyway, mumbles...I mean Elvis has been dead 43 years. So about this time I started wondering how many of the Christmas songs being played are sung by dead people. Besides Burl, Andy and mumbles...I mean Elvis, there's Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Gene Autry, Nat Cole, Bing Crosby, Karen Carpenter (tragic loss), Ella Fitzgerald, and...the list goes on forever! I tried searching the internet to see if, 1) there are any new Christmas songs and 2)  any living people who recorded them. It turns out that there are a few of both but I never heard of them so they don't count. Okay...Maribel pointed out that there's Jose Feliciano who is alive and regales us with "I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas" every 30 minutes or so, but he's 75 and could die at any moment. 

So I'm guessing that Christmas is not "...the most wonderful time of the year" from the viewpoint of the legion of carolers singing to us from the beyond.

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