VIEWPOINT (cont.)

Jackson 5 when they hit the “rum-pa-pum-pums” on “Little Drummer Boy.

The best part about the return of Christmas music season is finding a new favorite. It doesn’t have to be a new song, just one I haven’t heard before. My current favorite example is a song I found last year that came out way back in 1973, which just happens to have been my first Christmas ever (I was four months old!). It’s by a group called Wizzard. They were never really a bigtime rock band, made up of some former members of ELO and some studio musicians, and boy were they weird. I happened upon their song “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day,” just by chance as I was playing Christmas music videos on my TV on YouTube and it was a recommendation. I ignored it for a while because it was so silly looking, but I finally gave it a listen. It was full of fun 1970s awesome fun! Turns out it’s actually the second-best-selling Christmas record in the UK behind “White Christmas” and I have no idea how I’ve never heard it before.

Now it’s right in there on my “Fun Christmas Songs” playlist along with “Santa Claus and His Old Lady” by Cheech & Chong, “Leroy the Redneck Reindeer” by Joe Diffie and “The Season’s Upon Us” by the Dropkick Murphys. Seriously, give it a listen!

You know, or don’t… listen to what you like. I’ve given up on recommending songs after no one is willing to recognize the pure genius of Lou Monte’s “Dominick the Christmas Donkey.”