As we pass through the final dog days of summer, HARK takes on two dog-centric holiday songs! On her 2017 Christmas album Sia gave us the beautiful gift of “Puppies Are Forever”, the catchiest jingle about responsible pet ownership we’ve ever heard. “Lonely Pup (In A Christmas Shop)” by Adam Faith is a more melancholy tale, unless you presuppose that Santa gives presents to dogs – which of course, would take even longer than children, because they’re all good dogs.
This week’s requests have us hitting some highs and lows on our list! “A House Or Maybe a Boat” by Hawksley Workman feels like a pleasant dream, while “Rudolph Chewed Off” by Dragon Boy Suede feels exactly like listening to a comedy rap about a guy getting his privates mutilated by Santa’s reindeer. Also RJ gets like, just super heated bout ranch dressing.
Thank you to Richard for these requests!
We get back into our requests backlog, covering two songs that sound very much of their time – 1937’s “The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot” by Vera Lynn and 1996’s “Merry Christmas Eve” by Better than Ezra.
Thanks to Brian for these requests!
In honor of British Columbia Day, we listen to holiday songs by two bands from here in beautiful BC! “Christmas Day In the Sun” by Hot Hot Heat sounds like your typical California-obsessed garage rock despite its Canadian origins, while “Puddleglum” by Said the Whale is unmistakably a Vancouverite creation.
This week we’re beating the heat with two Hanukkah songs in musical styles from the Caribbean… theoretically. “Hanu-calypso” by Kenny Ellis offers a bounty of calypso instrumentation, as well as questionable wordplay and problematic accents. “Hanukkah Mambo” by the Yule Logs swings to another extreme, offering a pretty catchy tune with absolutely no resemblance to anything approaching mambo.
BIRTHDAY BOY’S CHOICE!!
Our beloved co-host Ian has completed another year of this thing called life, and in this episode he receives the gift of picking this week’s songs! He selects two songs from an album that caught his eye – “A Winter Romance” by Dean Martin. We cover the title track in addition to the intriguing “Canadian Sunset” and speculate about just how much swinging is going on.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY IAN
Performers go head-to-head in this week’s back-to-back listener requests! First up, Liza Minnelli and Alan Cumming perform a cheeky, maybe-subversive rendition of “Baby It’s Cold Outside” – then Cyndi Lauper joins The Hives for “A Christmas Duel”, a surprisingly spectacular song about spouses tearing their marriage to shreds.
Thanks to Stuart and anonymous for these requests!
This week we’re celebrating summer blockbuster season with two holiday songs by or pertaining to America’s favorite Will Smith, Will Smith! By request, we begin with a twangy plea from Scott Aukerman and Paul F. Tompkins to show a little kindness this holiday season, titled “Please Don’t Joke About ‘I, Robot’ This Christmas”. Then things get wild as “Will 2k” takes us on a journey through time with the Fresh Prince himself.
Thank you to an anonymous listener for requesting “Please Don’t Joke About ‘I, Robot’ This Christmas'”!
Get ready for double the Dion! We celebrate Canada Day (and Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, kinda) with two songs performed by French-Canada’s favorite diva: “Don’t Save It All For Christmas Day”, a sentimental original that Celine co-wrote, and “Promenade En Traineau”, a francophone version of Sleigh Ride from the very first year of her professional singing career. Joyeuses fêtes!
Hark, Herald Angels! It’s milestone time! For our latest experiment in extremes, Ian tries to claim the highest spot with a special recording by an artist who you may be shocked is not yet on our list. Then RJ runs some calculations to decide which of the world’s worst holiday songs we’re going to expose ourselves to this year and lands on a toxic family drama.
Thanks for listening, and be nice to your pets!