American Song-Poem Christmas

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 7, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Bar/None Records
• ASIN: B0000AYLIO
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #106,663 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Heather Noel - Santa Came On A Nuclear Missile

2. Bobbie Boyle with The Singers - Santa Claus Goes Modern

3. Norris The Troubadour, Seaboard Coastliners- Christmas Time Philosophy

4. Dick Kent with The Lancelots - A New Year's Dawning

5. The Sisterhood - Rocking Disco Santa Claus

6. Stan Beard & The Swinging Strings - Snowbows

7. Bobbie Boyle with The MSR Singers - Randy, The Lil Elf

8. Rodd Rogers - Maury, The Christmas Mouse

9. Randall Reed with The Forerunners - The Peppermint Stick Man

10. The Sisterhood - Christmas Treat, Peppermint

11. Kay Brown - Daddy, Is Santa Really Six Foot Four?

12. Rodd & The Librettos - How Do They Spend Christmas In Heaven

13. The Sisterhood - Ole Year Christmas

14. Gene Marshall - Evelyn Christmas

15. Rodd & Nita - Jolly, Jolly Santa Claus

16. Sonny Cash - Merry Christmas Polka

17. Rodd & Judy - Santa Fix My Toys For Christmas

18. The Sisterhood - Baby, It's A Cold Night In December

19. Rod Rogers & The Librettos - Santa Claus Goes Modern

20. Cara Stewart with Lee Hudson Orch. - The New Year Song

See all 21 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

What do you get that obsessive music geek with the record collection that threatens to overrun the house for the holidays? American Song-Poem Christmas, of course--even if he or she collects song-poem recordings, there’s no way he or she has all of these 21 songs. "Song-poems," of course, are rare, privately-pressed records that were sort of a scam in their 1970s heyday--companies lured people to send in lyrics and cash to record "hits" and what the would-be Lennon-and-McCartneys got in return was a few copies of a song composed and arranged off-the-cuff to the poems they’d mailed in. The best of the songs on this collection--"Santa Came On A Nuclear Missile," "The Rocking Disco Santa Claus," "Evelyn Christmas," "Maury, The Christmas Mouse" and "Randy, The Lil’ Elf" among them--are accidental art with the same outsider charm one finds in Jim Shaw’s Thrift Store Paintings project. The songs on this record have incredibly awkward rhyme schemes and sound like some sort of alien karaoke beamed from the past--but in a good way! Once you start, it’s very hard to stop listening to American Song-Poem Christmas, one of the most interesting, and bizarrely uplifting, holiday albums ever collected. --Mike McGonigal

Product Description

No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: AMERICAN SONG-POEM CHRISTMAS
Title: DADDY IS SANTA REALLY SIX-FOOT FOUR?
Street Release Date: 10/03/2006
Domestic
Genre: XMAS VOCAL COLLECTIONS

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Outsiders Unite for the Holidays, December 15, 2003

By 

Brendan Collins (Tulsa, OK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: American Song-Poem Christmas (Audio CD)

Re-re-releases of the same old Holiday strains re-re-recorded by the new voices of today's artists will not be heard on this album. In fact, the majority of these particular voices have never been heard on a commercial release, ever. Yet, that's exactly what is so unique about the "American Song-Poem Christmas."

This is not so much an attempt to laugh at ineptitude, either. Certainly, there are many flaws to be heard, carrying the album far, far away from the Lost Lands of Mediocrity. Yet, these are the words and voices of our neighbors. Perhaps, if I dare say so... perhaps even ourselves?

Everybody's got a Christmas song to sing. These people actually went out and did something about it, and leave their legacy for the rest of the world, thanks to this album.

While not as ground-breaking as the "American Song-Poem Anthology" album released shortly before this compilation, it is an essential piece to be owned by admirers of the outsider music sub-genre. Traditionalists, on the other hand, will want to pass over this disc, for Frosty the Snowman has long since melted away and Rudolph's nose has been extinguished in the realm of the American Song-Poem Christmas.

And for many of us looking for a variety of Christmas spirit that comes not from mass-produced, sanitized recording studios, but from the heart of folks just like us... that's not nearly as bleak a concept as it sounds.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hauntingly Mystical Adventure Music, December 14, 2003

By 

Jane Rodgers (Olema, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Song-Poem Christmas (Audio CD)

Ok, that other review? Possibly honest and to the point, but one star??? No way, dude. This album is worth every penny. Perhaps I live in the land of Dork, but dang it if Santa Came in on a Nuclear Missile doesn't crack me up every time. For those of you who want to wretch every time you go shopping from Thanksgiving until Christmas, this album will put you back on food. I call it "My Christmas Antidote." The title track is the absolute best!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Santa Claus is a wise old man., December 4, 2007

By 

Johnny Heering "trivia buff" (Bethel, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: American Song-Poem Christmas (Audio CD)

What is a "song poem"? Back in the day, ads were run in magazines, comic books and tabloid newspapers requesting people to send in their "poems or song lyrics". People who responded to the ad would receive a letter saying that their lyrics had the potential to be turned into a hit record, but the record company needed a few hundred dollars from the songwriter to produce the record. This was all a big scam, of course. Anyone who sent in the money would have their song quickly and cheaply recorded, and they would be sent a few copies of the song on a record. Unsurprisingly, no song poems ever actually became hits. But years later, record collectors discovered old song poems, and they managed to become cult favorites. This particular CD collects song poems about Christmas (or New Year's or winter). These are pretty weird songs. Songs about Santa Claus riding on a nuclear missile or a flying saucer. And other Christmasy things almost as strange as that. But the oddball nature of these songs is what makes them charming (to some people). I like them, but I won't be surprised if you don't.