Have Yourself a Listen Closely Christmas

Explicit content warning

12/15/20 • 70 min

In this very special (and somewhat long) episode, hosts Jon and Chris take a fond and sentimental look back at their favorite Christmas music of all time, and each of them count down their top five Christmas carols. The duo also discuss their December 1985 acting debuts in a third grade production of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, in which Jon portrayed The Ghost of Christmas Present and Chris had a three-line 'cameo' as Boy With Turkey.

Previous Episode

The Raw and the Cooked - Fine Young Cannibals (1989)

There was no escaping the Fine Young Cannibals and their chart-topping album, The Raw and the Cooked, in 1989 and 1990. Combining new wave, techno, and soul sounds, the album was #1 for seven consecutive weeks during the summer of 1989, and their lead singer, Roland Gift, graced the cover of Rolling Stone, was named one of People's 50 Most Beautiful People, and had a golden voice that drew comparisons to Al Green, Sam Cooke, and Mick Jagger. And while their success was short-lived (The Raw and the Cooked was the group's second and final studio album), their music left an indelible impression on pop music and on Chris and Jon. Listen as the two take a look back on this vital and hugely successful 1989 album, as well as their shared affinity for peanut butter sauce.

Next Episode

Getz/Gilberto - Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto (1964)

Jon and Chris welcome Jim Moscater back to the podcast, and the three say goodbye to 2020 in style by paying homage to the Brazilian Bossa Nova craze of the 1960s, and the album that started it all. Featuring the brilliant American saxophonist, Stan Getz. and the legendary Brazilian guitarist, Joao Gilberto, the album introduced America to the beautiful and stylish songs of songwriter and pianist, Antonio Carlos Jobim. Getz/Gilberto also made an unlikely star of Gilberto's wife, Astrud, who sang vocals on the album's biggest single, 'The Girl from Ipanema' (a song that would become one of the most recorded in the history of popular music, and would also go on to inspire two Playboy spreads), and the album helped to usher in an era of smooth lounge music in the mid-1960s that would pave the way for chill pop music in decades to come.