Day 14 already. It’s terrifying how quickly this is going: I really should start some Christmas shopping, and it is getting a bit late to put the sprouts on. I wonder if the takeaway places will be open on Christmas Day, with a seasonal special of turkey and sprouts on a pizza? Behind today’s door on my Advent Calendar I have found quite a lot – three songs and an advert – so I’d better get started.

The first is another from one of my favourite covers bands. I’ve played them before this year – on Day 2 if you missed it – but they do such a good job with adding a rock feel to songs that I’m playing another of theirs. This is as close as Screeching Mariah will ever get to being played here:

Normally this would be the point at which I’d tell you something about the original but in this case I’m prepared to make an exception. But whatever I may think, I feel it incumbent on me to point out that the bloody thing is #1 this week on the UK Singles chart. Come on Ladbaby, we need you!

I played a charming animation by Ingrid Michaelson on Day 5 and as so many of you really liked it I thought I’d give you another by her:

No cute bunny rabbits this time, but another beautiful song with a lovely animation: Ingrid has some talented friends! Christmas Lights was a track on Ingrid’s most recent album, Stranger Songs, which was released in June 2019. She co-wrote all eleven of the album’s tracks, which were inspired by the Netflix series Stranger Things, about which I can tell you absolutely nothing as I’ve never watched it. The record got to #128 in the US, though it peaked at #3 on their Independent Albums listings.

Following on from yesterday’s Beach Boys Christmas classic, today’s final song is another from the Sixties with a much more recent animated video:

Like the Beach Boys one that was also released in 2020, but it is outperforming them: over 7.5m views so far. The Ronettes only made one album but, as befits their lead singer, Veronica Bennett, who later went on to marry their record producer, they did have three tracks on his 1963 album A Christmas Gift From Phil Spector, of which this was one. Sleigh Ride has never been released as a single, despite being such a well known track, but has been a hit thanks to the inclusion of downloads in recent years: it has made four consecutive US chart appearances, its best position being #10 in the 2021/2 Christmas season, and it currently stands at #35 in the UK. Ronnie Spector, as she became better known, died in January 2022 so it seems likely to me that the most recent US showing may have been in tribute to her. I’ve always liked the Phil Spector ‘wall of sound’ approach, and still enjoy listening to that album. which has also benefitted from downloads: having not charted in the US in its original format it has since peaked at #10, in January of this year. A 1972 physical re-release did however make the UK Albums listings, reaching #19.

That’s it for today’s songs, but I did promise you an ad, didn’t I. Here’s one I rather liked. It came out in Germany in 2020, and I found it on YouTube:

As I am extremely unlikely to follow this guy’s example I thought I’d find out a little about kettlebells so that I could at least sound knowledgable. The use of weights like these by circus strongmen is recorded in the 19th century, and they began to be used for recreational and competition strength athletics in Russia and Europe in the latter end of that era. The birth of competitive kettlebell lifting, or girevoy sport (гиревой спорт), is dated to 1885, with the founding of the Circle for Amateur Athletics (Кружок любителей атлетики). Russian girya are traditionally measured in weight by something called a ‘pood,’ corresponding to 16.38 kilograms (36.1 lb). The English term kettlebell has been in use since the early 20th century. Similar weights were however used in Classical Greece, known as haltere, which were comparable to the modern kettlebell in terms of the movements you could do with them. So now you know!

Here endeth today’s lesson. An image before I go? OK, here you are:

See you again tomorrow for some more songs, but possibly not another education 🎊