Most Insufferable Holiday Hit.

Feliz Navidad is horrible, but when I saw this thread, the first thing I wanted to write down was a CD of holiday covers by .... BILLY IDOL! Saw the CD at a Best Buy and wanted to vomit right there in the store. Can you imagine Billy Idol crooning Frosty The Snowman? Ugh.

 

Argh, you'd think that http://www.seuss.org/ would have the correct lyrics... guess not!

 

Idol's always been a douche, but his three albums with Generation X were pretty good. The first one was actually great and the next two weren't bad.



He really became an embarassment after going solo though. In the mid-80s, I remember telling new-wave girls I was into punk and they'd say, "Oooh, like Billy Idol?" No.

 

Gen X was a terrific band. They had some great singles like "Ready Steady Go", "Wild Youth", "Kiss Me Deadly" and, of course, the awesome "Dancing With Myself" which Idol got a hit out of as a solo artist.

 

A new entrant just streamed in through my computer.
Rod Stewart -- "My Favorite Things."
Holy mother of god.

 

"Wild, wild, wild youth! (thrump, thump, thrump!)"

Yeah, great stuff. I also really liked "From the Heart" and "Promises, Promises" from the first album and "Untouchables" from either the second or third album. So much better than (and different from) solo Idol.

WARNING: Brit-punk threadjack in progress. Oi, bugger off, Santa, y'old sod!

BTW, "the Rod Stewart sings the standards" thing was a very, very bad idea indeed.

 

I'm going to have to dig out my vinyl copy of "Truth" by the Jeff Beck Group and listen to "I Ain't Supersititous" just to cleanse the old mental palate.

 

Speaking of Rod the Mod, I was just reading a story on him in Rolling Stone.

I have zero interest in his standards albums (that's the kind of shit my mother wants for Christmas) but has anyone heard his new rock covers album? Just curious because, with the odd exception, Rod was always better doing someone else's material.

 

God bless you, Freelance.

I was THIS CLOSE to posting "Dear Mr. Jesus," but then I remembered it was about child abuse and decided it wasn't appropriate for the thread. But I've NEVER heard it outside of December, so I always think of it as a holiday song.

And thankfully, I don't think I've heard it since it was a huge hit for, no kidding, eight days in 1987. Scott Shannon played it on American Top 40 (or whatever show he hosted) and CBS did some morning news special on it. The first time my sister and I heard it, we were playing Super Mario Bros. on the nintendo. The song was so maudlin we stopped playing the game and started crying.

Of course, I was 14 and she was 13. So we have an excuse.

And 13 years later, she thankfully took about three milliseconds to punt the idea of using "Butterfly Kisses" as her father/daughter dance song at her wedding.

 

There's a joke in there somewhere about his favorite things requiring a trip to the emergency room, I just know there is.

 

When the dog bites, when the bee stings,
when the stomach's pumped...

 

And Fenian SLAMS it home!!!!