The Sounds of Christmas
  • Home
  • Listen Now
  • Podcasts
    • Podcast Archives 2023
    • Podcast Archives 2022
    • Podcast Archives 2021
  • News
  • New For 2024
    • New For 2023
    • New For 2022
    • New For 2021
    • New for 2020
    • New for 2019
    • New For 2018
    • New For 2017
    • New For 2016
    • New For 2015
    • New For 2014
  • Friends
  • Links
  • Attention Singers and Bands!
  • Connect

The Sounds Of Halloween 2023

9/20/2023

0 Comments

 
This is part of a blog I wrote years ago, but I revisit it and try to update it a bit each year.

​Like most families, Halloween and Christmas have always been big at our house. Lisa and the kids are on the Halloween side, while I'm with Santa.

I learned long ago not to try and convert any of them. I think what happened at Disneyland once illustrates it best. In one of the studios at California Adventure, you can use this machine to determine which hero or villain you are.

I was Tarzan. All three of them were villains.
Picture
Oh, well. They love me, anyway.

So as we move toward October, I'm super-busy working on the new season of the Sounds of Christmas. While the station stays on year-round, it goes through a big change every October. The Sounds of Christmas becomes the Sounds of Halloween from October 1 through Halloween night.  

I admit, mostly, it started out as something just for my family, while I kicked the tires and otherwise made sure everything was set to go for the coming season. But over the years, I've found there are a lot of other people that love Halloween, too, so I've expanded the playlist (a lot) and hope you have a good time with the Sounds of Halloween.

With all that said, what exactly is Halloween music?

Some of it is pretty obvious. Monster Mash. Purple People Eater. Ghostbusters. Songs about things you associate with Halloween - ghosts, monsters, werewolves, vampires and witches. Some are scary stories, and some are about candy or trick-or-treating.

I also include songs from scary movies and TV shows. Some of those are pretty creepy. And some are funny. Many are in-between.

While there are some kids' songs (like The Count from Sesame Street), a few of the songs do have bad language. And some of the themes of some songs are straight out of horror movies, and those probably aren't for little kids, either. 

On the Sounds of Christmas, I play many versions of many songs, so you won't just hear Bing Crosby's version of "White Christmas". You'll hear lots of different singers and bands, old and new, offering their wake on that classic. I do the same thing with the Halloween tunes. For example, I have over two dozen versions of "(Ghost) Riders In The Sky" (though I may not get to all of them this year, as I try to separate songs and artists so you don't hear the same songs and same voices over and over).

During the Sounds of Halloween, you'll hear from many of your favorite Christmas music singers and bands, including Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Mannheim Steamroller and even Bruce Springsteen!

There are songs about Killer Tomatoes, Black Magic Women and Haunted Houses. There are also songs about Alien Invasions, Invisible Men and around thirty takes on "I Put A Spell On You" (I probably won't get to all of those, either).

I play lots of Disney songs, from movie villains and from spooky shows on Disney Plus. I also have at least half a dozen songs from Mystery Science Theater 3000. 

To give you a better idea, here are a dozen of the songs I listened to from the Sounds of Halloween library as I put this blog together...

Jimmy Buffett "Desperation Samba (Halloween In Tijuana)"
Paul Simon "The Werewolf"
Erutan "Come Little Children"
Rush "The Twilight Zone"
Five Man Electrical Band "Werewolf"
Florence + the Machine "Call Me Cruella"
The Polyphonic Spree "Over At The Frankenstein Place"
Lynn Anderson "The Devil Went Down To Georgia"
Bo Diddley "Bo Meets The Monster"
Idina Menzel "Beast"
Heaven 17 "(Don't Fear) The Reaper"
Elvis Costello "Let Him Dangle"

Hope you enjoy this upcoming celebration of Halloween during the month of October! And then the new season of the Sounds of Christmas will be here!

May you always believe in Santa Claus (and also the Great Pumpkin)!

Ken

P.S. - To listen, just go to our home page (or click LISTEN NOW above) and click on the player. For some reason, the player isn't showing up on some browsers, so you can also just click on the tree which will give you a pop-up player. And you can search for us in the Google Play store and get our free app for your Android Phone and take us along with you!
0 Comments

About Us (2023 Version)

9/2/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
Hi All!

A note popped up in my Facebook memories today from 2009. I thought it was worth sharing, well, after a significant update.

At the time, I was getting ready to put the Sounds of Christmas back on the air for what was our upcoming third season. At that time, the Sounds of Christmas went live at some point in October, and then ended on January 7 (after Epiphany).

I started by thanking the thousands that had connected to us on social media (mostly MySpace, but Twitter and Facebook were starting to build). And while the numbers (and platforms) have changed, the sentiment is the same.

Most of the listeners to the Sounds of Christmas are not connected to our social media sites. To be honest, I'm not even sure how they stay connected. Maybe it's as simple as having the Sounds of Christmas bookmarked on their computer or device, or maybe they just use our app. Or maybe it's something else I'm not aware of.

Whatever the case, I am very grateful. It's an honor and a privilege to spend at least part of the season with so many all over the globe. While we're not on MySpace any more, we are on Instagram, and we recently joined Threads, Post and Bluesky. So if you'd like to be connected, you have a bunch of options. If you're interested, just click on CONNECT up above and you'll get links to all the social media sites that we're on.

In this note from 2009, I also explained what the Sounds of Christmas is, and maybe I shouldn't take it for granted that you already know that. So just in case, here's what I wrote back then...

For those who don't know, The Sounds of Christmas is an Internet Christmas radio station. For those who haven't discovered Internet radio, yet, it simply means it's like a radio station, but available online instead of through a traditional radio. And as far as I'm concerned, it's a lot better.

I am a huge fan of Christmas music, and I always have been. Increasingly over the years, I became more and more disillusioned with the way those traditional radio stations went about playing Christmas music.

Year after year, they seem to roll out the same 100 songs right around Thanksgiving, and play them all over and over until Christmas Day. It's no wonder that so many people groan when this begins each November.

There are tons of great Christmas CDs out there, and most seem to get ignored, while Bing's "White Christmas" and Nat's "Christmas Song" get featured seemingly every hour.

Don't get me wrong, I love Bing Crosby and Nat "King" Cole. I love Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, Andy Williams, Judy Garland, Johnny Mathis and the Chipmunks, too. But there's a lot more than just those standards, and I can't be the only one that loves all the rest of the Christmas music.


Then, I thanked Mannheim Steamroller. They had sponsored the first two seasons of the Sounds of Christmas, celebrating a brand new Christmas CD each year. And each year, both releases shot up the charts! More than anything, that should have shown these other "traditional radio stations" that people love the new Christmas music as well as the old.

If that didn't underscore my point, I also brought up Josh Groban. His Christmas CD, which debuted in 2007, sold so well it broke records held by Elvis Presley! In fact, it went on to become the best-selling CD of the year! Not just the best-selling "Christmas" CD, but the best-selling CD, period.

In 2009, I pointed out that listeners to the Sounds of Christmas the previous year got to hear new holiday music from singers and bands as diverse as Los Lonely Boys, Harry Connick Jr., Tommy James, Aretha Franklin, Weezer, Billy Bob Thornton, Carrie Underwood, the Archies, the Pretenders, Celtic Woman, Enya, Faith Hill, Greg London, Julianne Hough, Katy Perry, Neil Sedaka, Lorenna McKennitt, Kristin Chenoweth, Sheryl Crow, Melissa Etheridge, Plain White T's, Sarah Brightman, Roy Holliday, Spyro Gyra, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Sixpence None the Richer, Tony Bennett, U2, Straight No Chaser and the Archies.

In 2022, listeners to the Sounds of Christmas were treated to new music from Alanis Morissette, Harry Connick Jr., Alicia Keys, Ingrid Michaelson & A Great Big World, Blane Howard, Jim Brickman, Bob Sirois, Jimmy Barnes, Andrea Bocelli, Cliff Beach, Joss Stone, Grant Maloy Smith, Jane Monheit, the Backstreet Boys, Joyce Cooling, Blake Shelton, Lindsey Stirling, Macy Gray, Bryan Adams, Nora Jones, Olivia Rox, Kristin Amarie, David Lanz, the Offspring, Chris Isaak, Laurie Berkner, Pentatonix, Straight No Chaser, Michael Sinatra, Switchfoot, Cliff Richard, David Foster & Katharine McPhee, Paul Kelly, Rhonda Burchmore, Debbie Gibson, A Girl Named Tom, Sarah Partridge and Gloria Estefan. Just to name a few.

In 2009, the Sounds of Christmas playlist was well over 3000 tracks. In 2023, it's more than five times that.

I explained that, while I love Bing's "White Christmas", having such a wide and diverse playlist meant that it didn't get played every hour on the hour. Besides, Bing has lots of other great Christmas songs. In fact, all the artists I've mentioned have more than just one Christmas "hit". It seemed really short-sighted, and a dis-service to Christmas music fans, to ignore that and just play the same ones over and over.

And it still does.

This station was something I had wanted to do for a long time, and thanks to Mannheim Steamroller's sponsorship during those first few year, I was able to make it happen.

At the writing of this original note, i was getting ready to do start it up again. Now, while the station is on, I'm getting ready for an all-new season, which will begin on November 1.

From there, I went into a pitch about advertising, or buying things from our online store. This year, as I type this, I'm just about sold out of advertising spots, and we no longer have an online store.

That means I'm not asking you to buy or pay for anything. The best way you can support us is by listening!

The Sounds of Christmas is on right now, so as we roll through September, any time you need a little musical Christmas Spirit, stop by!

On October 1, the Sounds of Christmas becomes the Sounds of Halloween, and for the entire month, you'll only hear Halloween music here.

And then, on November 1, the new season begins, with thousands of great Christmas songs, including new holiday music from David Arkenstone, Tommee Profitt, Cher, Pentatonix, Johnny Mathis, David Foster & Katharine McPhee, Jon Pardi, Kate Rusby and Creed's Mark Tremonti (among many, many more)!

Thanks again for your continued support!

And may you always believe in Santa Claus!

Ken

0 Comments

    Archives

    June 2025
    April 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    March 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    September 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    July 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    November 2011
    October 2011

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly