Most of us remember Patty Smyth as the lead singer of Scandal, the 80's group that gave us "The Warrior" and "Goodbye To You". She also had a solo career that included a huge hit with Don Henley ("Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough"). Sandal reunited seven or eight years ago for a VH-1 special, then toured and released new material. The rumor is that they're now working on a Christmas album due this Fall! Not a lot of details about it just yet, but in the meantime, we do have this single from last year. Patty's version of "Silent Night", which was featured on an episode of NCIS last December, is only available through her website here. This isn't really much of a video, and "Silent Night" isn't necessarily the Christmas song you want to hear in August, but maybe this will tide us all over until the Scandal Christmas album comes out!
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Most know Jack Black from his movies, whether he was the lead role ("King Kong", "School Of Rock"), supporting ("High Fidelity", "Tropic Thunder"), or even just a cameo ("The Muppets", "Anchorman"). Some also know him as half of Tenacious D. And others know him as the voice of Po from the"Kung Fu Panda" movies. Jack has also appeared in lots of music videos, including videos from the Foo Fighters, Weezer and Beck. He even recorded a duet with Meat Loaf! A couple years ago, as "Gulliver's Travels" was about to come out, he recorded a Christmas song with co-star Jason Segal. Here's their animated video for their version of "Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy"... The Go Go's never gave us any Christmas music (other than a version of "Jingle Bells" for KROQ in L.A.). Belinda Carlisle has on her own, though. In fact, she's released two Christmas songs, "Christmas Lullaby" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman". Both originally appeared on various artist compilations and have been in and out of print for years. Luckily, I was able to connect with her a few years ago and she graciously allowed us to put her version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman" on our second compilation "The Sounds of Christmas Volume 2". That's still available, by the way, and you can get it HERE, or at Amazon or iTunes (among other places). You can also hear it in this fan-made video (which isn't much of a video, but it's worth it to hear Belinda sing)! Steve Martin has always been one of my favorite performers. Well, maybe not always, but ever since the late 70's. While most are familiar with his early comedy albums, his hilarious movies and even his recent foray into bluegrass, you don't usually think of Steve Martin in terms of Christmas, other than (perhaps) the movie "Mixed Nuts". Some are familiar with a duet he did with Paul Simon on "Silver Bells". This was a skit for "Saturday Night Live" that got cut after rehearsal and never aired, and Steve doesn't really sing, he just comments as Paul sings. The comments are somewhat reminiscent of a sketch he did later on "Saturday Night Live". Since it's Steve's birthday, here's "Steve Martin's Christmas Wish". Hard to believe that in their long career, U2 have only released (officially) two Christmas songs. The most recent was a cover of Greg Lake's "I Believe in Father Christmas", which was released on behalf of Bono's Product Red campaign to fight AIDs in Africa. The previous Christmas song is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year! Originally on the first "Very Special Christmas" collection, here's U2 with their version of "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)"... Tony Bennett has had a fantastic career, and gave us his first Christmas album in 1968. Forty years later, he gave us another Christmas album, and even stopped by Rockefeller Center to sing at the tree lighting! Here's his performance from that Rock Center appearance in 2008, "Winter Wonderland"! Oh, and Happy Birthday, Tony! |
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