We love Christmas. We love synths.
So, we should love Christmas synth music, right?
Unfortunately, synthesizer power, in the wrong hands, can ruin Christmas.
Now that Christmas has come and gone, we can reveal how we really feel about three synth-heavy Christmas songs that we hope we don’t hear again.
Not next year. Not ever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o8-eLZhrOA
Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmas Time combines inane lyrics, cheesy synth sounds, jingling bells, childrens chorus and excessive repetition to create the aural equivalent of a root canal.
And then, just when you think it’s over, it’s time for another chorus!
With hand claps this time!
Chip Davis had a novelty hit at the height of the CB radio craze, C.W. McCall’s Convoy.
Davis soon left country music behind, but he found another cash cow with Mannheim Steamroller’s series of Christmas albums. They combine classical instrumentation with synthesizers and disco beats and people just can’t get enough of it.
Mannheim Steamroller’s Christmas music sells like hotcakes and, at the holidays, it is everywhere you go.
When it comes to Christmas music, Mannheim Streamroller is it. Bigger than even Elvis.
What’s that mean?
Every Christmas, you’ll find yourself in a store hearing a song that sounds like it might be an interesting synthesizer arrangement of a holiday classic – Mannheim Steamroller’s Deck The Halls.
And then it turns into disco synth pop lite.
With harpsichord.
For some people, the idea of Singing Dogs doing Christmas songs is funny.
Maybe it was funny, twenty years ago.
Those days are gone, though, and it’s time to put this dog down.
THANK YOU! I was worried that I may be alone in my loathing of McCartney’s Christmas tune. I agree – it’s awful. I also don’t ‘get’ Manheim Steamroller’s popularity.
I think the Eurythmics did quite a nice job with “Winter Wonderland.” Other suggestions for worthwhile synth Christmas tunes?
The only way we'll know for sure is to get me a CS-80 and see if it makes any difference to my opinion of the song.
I like Wonderful Christmas Time! You're just mad that Paul McCartney has a CS-80 (more than one actually), and you don't.
I like Wonderful Christmas Time! You're just mad that Paul McCartney has a CS-80 (more than one actually), and you don't.
The only way we'll know for sure is to get me a CS-80 and see if it makes any difference to my opinion of the song.
The only way we'll know for sure is to get me a CS-80 and see if it makes any difference to my opinion of the song.
I can't help wonder if I detect a little envy here 😉
Now, while I agree on the singing dogs, I think thats just awful as well, I don't agree with McCartney's and Davis' songs. First of all I think you're looking at those pieces of music from the current-time perspective, while you should keep the age of the songs in mind. Next; keep in mind that those guys were also able to perform their stuff /live/ on stage, something many "artists" seem totally incapable of these days.
Yeah well, and finally I can't help wonder detecting some envy here. How those guys could make a few nice bucks with a relatively simple soundtrack.
I for one am glad you dug up these first 2 songs so that I can listen to 'm again 😉
I can't help wonder if I detect a little envy here 😉
Now, while I agree on the singing dogs, I think thats just awful as well, I don't agree with McCartney's and Davis' songs. First of all I think you're looking at those pieces of music from the current-time perspective, while you should keep the age of the songs in mind. Next; keep in mind that those guys were also able to perform their stuff /live/ on stage, something many "artists" seem totally incapable of these days.
Yeah well, and finally I can't help wonder detecting some envy here. How those guys could make a few nice bucks with a relatively simple soundtrack.
I for one am glad you dug up these first 2 songs so that I can listen to 'm again 😉
Maybe I'm a synth scrooge, but I'd like to hear more holiday music that makes creative use of synths.
Maybe I'm a synth scrooge, but I'd like to hear more holiday music that makes creative use of synths.
Maybe I'm a synth scrooge, but I'd like to hear more holiday music that makes creative use of synths.
http://soundcloud.com/substance_g/wham-last-christmas-large-hadron-collider-disaster-2009-mix
Enjoy…?
[youtube T82Ot04aqNw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T82Ot04aqNw youtube]
[youtube T82Ot04aqNw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T82Ot04aqNw youtube]
NO THIS SONG IS FUCKING TERRIBLE YOU ARE SOOOOO WRONG IN EVERY POSSIBLE WAY
ANOTHER CHORUS? ARE YOU SERIOUS, ugh there are so many things wrong with this. no envy. not ever. DIE IN A FIRE PAUL
Whether good or bad, envied or loathed there is one thing in common here – They are being actively talked about and re-listened to after how many years? I won't give an opinion either way as these songs lend me the 'take it or leave it' feeling but I too am here talking about them…
Whether good or bad, envied or loathed there is one thing in common here – They are being actively talked about and re-listened to after how many years? I won't give an opinion either way as these songs lend me the 'take it or leave it' feeling but I too am here talking about them…
what is the christmas song with a steady synth bass line
Mannheim Steamroller has DEFINED what all other instrumental Christmas music is measured against. Chip Davis, Jackson Berkey and others have this thang down. I love the 70’s rich synth sounds. Its pure gold folks, pure gold!
That one flat note in Mannheim Steamroller’s “Deck the Halls” always annoys me.