Advent Calendar 2021 – Day 14 🎅

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The response to yesterday’s selection was rather mixed. As a sweeping generalisation, I’d say that it depends which side of the Atlantic you are from as to how you reacted to the choices. That left me in a bit of a quandary, which I decided to resolve in the best way I know: crank up the volume to 11, or maybe even 12! So prepare for some blasting of your eardrums and remember, it’s your own fault…

Having said that about musical tastes differing by continent (as opposed to the incontinent), I’m possibly taking a chance by starting with this one:

Why is that taking a chance? Well, the fount of all knowledge tells me that George Thorogood And The Destroyers haven’t exactly set the UK charts alight in their 47 years. Wikipedia even missed their star moment, which I had to fill in by reference to the Official Charts Company’s archive: always a useful source. This told me that the band had only ever reached the UK charts with their eponymous debut album, released in 1977, which peaked at #67 and spent a grand total of, wait for it, one week in the chart. Frankly, I was amazed at this, as they are a familiar band on our touring circuit, and even recorded one of their live albums over here. They have had tv appearances, and I find it hard to believe that we haven’t ever bought any of their records in sufficient quantities to get them a chart placing. They are a fun band, as the video shows, and a good time is always had by all who go to their shows. I’ve never been, but a friend at work once did and he raved about it for days afterwards, once the buzzing in his ears subsided. I’ve loved this song since I first heard it, way way back: it was released as a non-album single in 1983 but Wikipedia doesn’t record any chart placings for it. But what do they know? I hope it did the intended job of blowing away any cobwebs that might have been forming in your head!

That is a new one for me to share, but this one is making a return visit:

They don’t come much more rock ‘n’ roll than Chuck Berry, do they! The song may have been around for donkey’s years but that video was only released last year, and already has more than 2m views. I think it’s superb. The track was originally released as a non-album single in 1958, reaching #69 in the US – it has been re-released several times, and achieved its best ever position of #10 in the US in the last week of 2020. No doubt this animation helped! In the UK its highest chart placing was #36, in 1963 – it didn’t rush into the charts, did it? It was co-written by Marvin Brodie and Johnny Marks: the latter of those also wrote Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, which is a kind of prequel to this one. Wikipedia gives a very long list of cover versions of Run Rudolph Run but, thankfully, none by that Carey creature. I dread to think what she’d have done with it.

Having given you the regular daily quota of two songs, I thought I’d add another. Yesterday I included a less than serious song by Bob Rivers, and I thought I’d share another that he wrote:

I think that video is hysterical, especially the looks on the faces of the men in the subway station at the end as the Lay-D’s chase each other around. In case you were wondering, this is a parody version of Barry Mann’s 1961 song Who Put The Bomp? and Rivers’ version is on his album Chipmunks Roasting On An Open Fire. As far as I can tell, this is the only incarnation they have ever made as a group: there are no other videos by them on YouTube and they don’t show up as a band in Google searches. But all four of them do show up individually as ‘serious’ actresses in the IMDb, though none of their entries seems to mention this video. Funny, that…

Time for one more thing before I go. I’m not going to reveal my source, but this sad little letter has come into my possession:

And having upset believers everywhere, I bid you a good day and will return to greet you on the morrow 👼

29 thoughts on “Advent Calendar 2021 – Day 14 🎅”

  2. I didn’t expect to like Who Put the Stump Up My Rump, but I was pleasantly surprised. I’m the guy who typically responds to the Crank it Up attitude, so I loved the first two songs too. I have to confess that the only George Thorogood song I knew before this was Bad to the Bone.

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  7. I never heard that George Thorogood song before, but that was great. I’m surprised they never caught on in the UK.

    great song, and video to go with it, of Run Rudolf Run.

    and another clever parody by Bob Rivers. I thought it was a fun video to watch. It’s amazing how much work they put into a parody!

    sounds like some trouble at home between Mary and Joseph…

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  9. Great fun, rock and roll never dies and I didn’t know how many songs there were around to lower the tone. At least the obliteration of Rolf Harris from history has saved us from having to listen to the wholesome Six White Boomers ever again, or would you dare to play that?

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