Here at HARK, we’ve committed to reviewing and ranking to EVERY holiday song… even the bad ones, especially the bad ones. But as our list hits its first milestone, we’ve got a lot more good songs than bad. In this episode, we aim to remedy that. This week, the Hanson brothers and Billy Gilman offer up two obscure Christmas duds, “Everybody Knows the Claus” and “I’m Gonna Email Santa”. We attempt to convey the listening experience to you in our most mystifying, exhausting episode yet.
Is the deed to a platinum mine a sound financial investment? And how much cash is actually in a five pound box of money? Could that song about talking sexy to Santa Claus so he’ll bring you a yacht actually be a feminist anthem in disguise? We (sort of) answer these questions in this week’s episode, in which RJ and Ian review and rank “Santa Baby” by Eartha Kitt and “Five Pound Box of Money” by Pearl Bailey. The Hairpin article mentioned is “The True Cost of Santa Baby”: http://thehairpin.com/2013/12/the-true-cost-of-santa-baby Thank you to Andy for requesting “Five Pound Box of Money”! Check out Andy’s blog where he talks about literature, film, comedy, podcasts, and other things: http://wahwriter.wordpress.com
Which Beatle are you, and what does it have to do with Hogwarts? In this episode, RJ and Ian review and rank two popular Christmas tunes by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, with mixed results. If you want to see the Cracked: After Hours video we reference, it can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtsmluPK7Ug. If you want to find out what member of the Beatles you are, take one of the MILLIONS of internet quizzes about it.
In this second episode of HARK, the holiday music podcast, Ian and RJ talk about socks, ska, Fox News and extraterrestrials. And, of course, we add two new songs to the list! Or is it one song? Two versions of the new wave pop Christmas classic “Christmas Wrapping” get reviewed and ranked, Hanukkah gets its first bit of representation, and RJ rants about hegemony. Check out our tumblr at harkpodcast.tumblr.com for the powerpoint slides mentioned!
It’s the inaugural episode of HARK, the holiday music podcast! To get this year-round holiday party started, Ian & RJ review the songs that will hold the top and the bottom positions of the list for quite a while: “The Christmas Song” by Nat King Cole and “The Christmas Shoes” by NewSong. This podcast was inspired in part by War Rocket Ajax’s Every Story Ever project – if you like comics, go give those guys a listen: http://www.warrocketajax.com