Join us, herald angels, for a sequel of sorts – our second Beatles-themed episode, this time featuring holiday songs written and performed by George and Ringo. If you want knowledgeable analysis of music greats, look elsewhere. If you want more Hogwarts house chatter and at least one sick McCartney burn, tune in.
Multiple people, or possibly one persistent person, requested this week’s first song, “It’s Called Christmas with a Capital C” by Go Fish. Because they hate us and our happiness, I guess? After suffering through it, we seek an antidote in the form of Eric Idle’s extremely rude “Fuck Christmas”.
May the… well, you know. This episode is all about Star Wars Day, which means we listened to some truly terrible holiday music – “What Do You Get a Wookiee For Christmas (When He Already Owns a Comb)” by some nobody droids that no one cares about, and “A Day To Celebrate” by Carrie Fisher, which is a shining beacon of Life Day spirit in comparison.
This week we cover a request for a familiar song in a new context: “When You Wish Upon a Star”, performed by Cliff Edwards as Jiminy Cricket, which has apparently gained Christmas classic status because of its inclusion in a Disney special aired annually in Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. We also listen to a song by Disney Channel Original Series star Kyle Massey which involves someone yelling “REMIX!” Thank you to settlechaos711 for requesting “When You Wish Upon a Star”!
It’s our 4/20 episode, man. Time to blaze up that menorah and smoke some Christmas trees. We dive into what might be two of the best songs in the surprisingly large and unsurprisingly mediocre world of marijuana-themed holiday music: “Scary F**cked Up Christmas” by Garfunkel and Oates and “Pot in the Latkes” by MC Flow.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year… for audiophiles! Record Store Day has rolled around again, and we celebrate with songs from albums purchased this past Christmas at one of our local independent music stores – Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song” (the album, not the song), and “It’s A Holiday Soul Party” by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings.
This week marks a first for HARK as we cover a song performed by a listener! “The Angel Gabriel” by PC Muñoz is a modern take on a centuries-old carol, and we pair it up with another slick update on a classic song – “Dreidel” by Erran Baron Cohen featuring Jules Brookes and Y-Love.
Gosh, we can’t wait to celebrate the holidays happening this week! Let’s see, the first week of April, that means it’s… oh. Oh no. Oh no, no no. For April Fools Day, we have given ourselves the unpleasant task of covering two holiday song parodies. Hear us gnash our teeth as “12 Pains of Christmas” by Bob Rivers teaches us true despair, and “Chanukah Honey” by Rachel Bloom is, you know, also not our favorite.
We grow tired of Santa Claus and jingle bells — it’s time to cover some songs inspired by the good book. We review two new-fashioned songs about old-fashioned stories — the charming “Joseph Who Understood” by The New Pornographers and the perplexing “Christmas Song” by The Dave Matthews Band, which despite its title, only just barely qualifies for this project.
This request was anonymous: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. Having been tasked with covering a song of our choosing from the Muppet Christmas Carol, we select the cheerful “It Feels Like Christmas” performed (primarily) by Jerry Nelson. As RJ is particularly biased towards Muppets, we then endeavor to find the worst Muppets Christmas song in existence, and possibly find it in “Christmas Smorgasbord”.