I love my husband, but there are times when he has the attention span of a gnat on Jolt cola. This usually manifests itself in the car. We are a family screaming out for satellite radio in our minivan; the government should just give it to us to put an end to all the in-fighting. Instead, we muddle along with my ten preprogrammed FM stations. Since commercial radio pretty much sucks, ten stations in Chicago is kind of a stretch. We could listen to NPR all the time, but Brian says that it puts him to sleep while driving. So we are constantly in search on decent music on the car radio. Needless to say, this is pretty much a hopeless task. Occasionally we’ll get a bone thrown at us from ‘XRT or ‘LUP (tonight we heard “Ballroom Blitz”!) but you know rest of it is pretty much all rot.
Add this to Mr. Picky, who often cannot accept even a good song on the radio because he’s “heard it too many times,” and I want to tear my hair out before we leave the garage. He usually won’t leave a song on longer than a nanosecond. Sometimes he searches while he’s driving and I’m sitting there like a chump in the passenger seat. I’ll try to make a stand–“Come on! It’s Tom Petty!” or “It’s just a song by Snow Patrol! It’s not a lifetime commitment!”–but am usually vetoed. Frankly, I fear for the children in the backseat. They will probably grow up loving medleys.
I belabor this long story because I can count on one hand the times that my husband has heard a song on the radio and just let it play out. One of those times was when he heard “I Just Haven’t Met You Yet” by Michael Bublé. It’s a good thing I was already sitting down, in the car.
“You’re not changing this song?!?” I asked incredulously.
He shrugged a little shamefacedly. “I like the Bublé.”
Yes to the Bublé! I also like the Bublé. Not since Harry Connick Jr. have we appreciated a nice new voice taking on the old standards. I’m usually a fan of Bublé’s reinterpretations, but this Christmas his “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is blowing my mind. You’re able to discover that the song is actually a decent, catchy, nonmaterialistic Christmas ballad. You would never know that from the Mariah Carey version. There are words I never even knew existed in that song until I heard Buble’s dreamy, lovelorn take over Mariah’s screechy, cheerleadery one (like, “Santa won’t you bring me the one I really need?”).
So,
Best: Michael Bublé
Worst: Mariah Carey. I’d even take the “Love Actually” version over it, and I usually can’t stand that fricking sapfest. I’m not going to include the clip below, because I am sure you’ve heard it enough times in your life.
Let me add that one of my beefs with the Lite is that there must be millions of holiday albums out there, and every year they seem to just pull songs from the same six records. I’ll start listening in November just for the novelty aspect, and I am sick of it all by December 1. So the Bublé album was a welcome addition to their playlist this year. Welcome Bublé! Thank you for bringing “All I Want for Christmas Is You” back from the grave, buried by too many Mariah overplays.
Now, if someone only could stop the over-the-top Celene Dion “O Come All Ye Faithful” onslaught. It always makes me think of her SNL skit: “I . . . am the greatest singer . . . in the world!” It’s torturous. See also, Mannheim Steamroller. Also, any version of “Little Drummer Boy.” Also, for two guys that made amazing music together, Paul McCartney and John Lennon created two of the most rancid holiday songs of all time, although “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” is only about a tenth as awful as “Wonderful Christmas Time.” Even Bublé couldn’t save that one.
Tomorrow: “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”: Charmingly Seductive or Uncomfortably Predatory?
I thought I was the only one who liked him some Buble! My favorites are “Holly Jolly Christmas” (only Buble can pull off the ‘oh by gosh, by golly’ line) and ‘Baby Please Come Home’…..Merry Christmas:)
Gwen! So many spot-on observations. Thanks for introducing me to the Buble’. Decidedly NOT-overwrought. He reminds me of the best of the ’70′s balladeers; all sincere vocals.