I will just come out and say it, I avoid Christmas songs like the plague! As someone who spends their day scribbling about all and any music that comes my way in an effort to pay the heating bill, you can imagine that currently my inbox is full of “hilarious Christmas songs” (their words, not mine) and at any given time, at least five different covers of “Feliz Navidad!” The struggle is real. (The former need to look up the word hilarious in the dictionary, and if those covering the latter had ever seen Me First and The Gimme Gimmes featuring CJ Ramone in a gold lamé suit playing a punked up version of that song, they would know that the perfect rendition already exists.)*
But, it’s Bad Mary, how can I not at least put my scrooge-like demeanor aside for three minutes and six seconds and see what these genuinely fun and funny, punky-pop-rockers have done with the Wham! classic, “Last Christmas.”
What we get is a Ramones-infused, four-chord workout, suitably scuzzed up but totally in keeping with the original…only at three times the speed, obviously. But their spin on it comes from a wholly unexpected trumpet break where the jingly bell bit usually sits. Foot on the monitor, Christmas cheer!
Throw in a fun video, …it isn’t Bad Mary without a silly video, is it…and you have everything you need, a familiar song with a fresh spin, a funny video, and a reminder that Christmas is around the corner. Who’s for a mince pie?
*If people are going to cover the same songs, I’m going to wheel out the same overused anecdotes!
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