Valentine’s Day is upon us once again, and this year we’re tackling some holiday songs about love and romance that also turned out to be kind of spooky? By request, we listen to “Dear Santa (Bring me a Man this Christmas)” by The Weather Girls, which is weird but mostly charming. We pair it with “Christmas Eve” by Justin Bieber, which somehow manages to be even weirder, and also charmless.
A polarizing holiday classic is finally making its way onto our list! By request(s), we take a long, hard look at “Last Christmas” by Wham! and wash it down with George Michael’s “December Song (I Dreamed of Christmas)”.
For Groundhog Day, we’re celebrating the 90s way, with a little déjà vu! We cover requests from some of our repeat-requesters, digging into “Home Once a Year” by Marshall Burns and “Christmas C’mon” by Lindsey Stirling and Becky G.
Thanks to Listener Jenny and Captain McGloo for these requests!
This week we listen to two more Christmas songs from the southern hemisphere – “Aussie Jingle Bells” by Bucko & Champs, which is exactly what you would expect, and “Santa Never Made It Into Darwin” by Bill & Boyd, which is maybe more of a bummer than you would expect. FYI, this one is Ian’s fault.
It’s our first requests of 2019 (submitted in 2018)! We cover two songs destined for the “mushy middle” of the list, but each one brings us some joy along the way. “Santa Says Relax” by Joe Innes and the Cavalcade is a post-ironic indie tune that makes us wish it was Christmas, while “Christmas in New Orleans” by Rickie Lee Jones is a sad, complex song that merits a second listen.
RJ and Ian are back from their international holiday travels, and they are SLEEPY. In this first episode of HARK recorded on this side of 2019, Ian explains the Julian calendar, RJ coins some new idioms, and we cover two new year songs – “Same Old Land Syne” by Dan Fogelberg and “New Year’s Day” by U2. Yeah.
We have been informed that we do not cover enough songs from the 1980s, and for our first episode of 2019, we are taking decisive action. Unfortunately for 80s fans, that action does not involve covering songs from that decade. Instead, we’re talking about two songs that remind us of the 1980s – “Christmas was Better in the Eighties” by The Futureheads and “Merry Something to You” by Devo.
Matthew’s slideshow featuring analysis of HARK can be viewed here!
Hanukkah and Christmas are done and past for another year, and on this December the 26th we’re celebrating Kwanzaa! We add two new Kwanzaa songs to the list: Teddy Pendergrass’ smooth, catchy, and a little bit corny anthem “Happy Kwanzaa” and Lovely Hoffman’s – well, lovely – “A Kwanzaa Song”.
Our 200th episode is here, and RJ and Ian are once again trying to beat out the best and worst songs on the list! We begin by discussing the safe, reliable picks that we both settled on weeks ago – and then instead present the riskier choices that surprised us in the eleventh hour. Listen in to hear which unique tune by the smooth-voiced June Christy charmed us and what hellish nonsense by Ray Stevens made us very uncomfortable!
The slideshow featuring analysis of every song we’ve ever covered (before last week) can be viewed here! Many thanks to our friend Matthew Murray for creating it!
With Christmas less than two weeks away, we’re trying something novel and only listening to extremely good music in this episode. These two songs – “Mary’s Baby” by Charles Bradley and “Christmas is a Feeling In Your Heart” as performed by Love Colony featuring Six – may not be the greatest holiday songs of all time, but they are definitely honorable mentions.
