5 votes

Mystery solved: Here's how 'My Favorite Things' from 'The Sound of Music' became a Christmas song

7 comments

  1. [7]
    balooga
    Link
    Thanks for posting this! This time every year I dive into the Christmas song canon and come up with a couple oddballs that have been thrown into the playlist but don't really fit. Nice to have...

    Thanks for posting this! This time every year I dive into the Christmas song canon and come up with a couple oddballs that have been thrown into the playlist but don't really fit. Nice to have some historical context for this one.

    3 votes
    1. [6]
      Algernon_Asimov
      Link Parent
      It was bugging me. I keep hearing this song at Christmas, and I could never understand the connection. So I looked it up.

      It was bugging me. I keep hearing this song at Christmas, and I could never understand the connection. So I looked it up.

      3 votes
      1. [5]
        balooga
        Link Parent
        The one that's particularly irking me this year is Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. For some reason, Pentatonix recorded a cover for their 2016 Christmas album and now it keeps coming back up in...

        The one that's particularly irking me this year is Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. For some reason, Pentatonix recorded a cover for their 2016 Christmas album and now it keeps coming back up in holiday playlists. The song isn't remotely Christmassy.

        2 votes
        1. Algernon_Asimov
          Link Parent
          You don't get how a song which includes Biblical references and whose every chorus is a repetition of the Jewish phrase "God be praised" might be connected to a religious festival celebrating the...

          You don't get how a song which includes Biblical references and whose every chorus is a repetition of the Jewish phrase "God be praised" might be connected to a religious festival celebrating the birth of Christ? Really? ;)

          Regardless of the other imagery and any deeper meaning in the song... on the surface, it's very religious.

          In fact, according to my research, Donny Osmond has written a new set of lyrics for this song which explicitly link it to Christmas, and released this new version of the song on a Christmas album a few years ago.

          4 votes
        2. cfabbro
          (edited )
          Link Parent
          And Born in the USA is a song that doesn't exactly paint a flattering picture of life the US, but that doesn't stop most people from thinking it's patriotic since all they really hear is the...

          And Born in the USA is a song that doesn't exactly paint a flattering picture of life the US, but that doesn't stop most people from thinking it's patriotic since all they really hear is the chorus... which is probably also why Cohen/Buckley's Hallelujah is seen as a Christmas song despite being anything but.

          4 votes
        3. [2]
          Algernon_Asimov
          Link Parent
          P.S. Speaking of being irked: Rufus Wainright sings a version of 'Hallelujah' where he pronounces every "do ya" and "knew ya" as "do you" and "knew you". Way to ruin a perfectly good song!

          P.S. Speaking of being irked: Rufus Wainright sings a version of 'Hallelujah' where he pronounces every "do ya" and "knew ya" as "do you" and "knew you". Way to ruin a perfectly good song!

          4 votes
          1. balooga
            Link Parent
            Ugh, that is the worst.

            Ugh, that is the worst.