LATEST MIX FOR DECEMBER 2024
"I Wish It Was Christmas Today" Is
Mark's 20th Annual Holiday Mix
I'm pleased to kick-off the 2024 holiday season by posting "I Wish It Was Christmas Today!" — my 20th and latest annual holiday mix. Running just under 80 minutes, this mix contains 41 tracks dating from the 1950s to the present and reflecting a wide variety of content, styles and levels of quality. In short, there's a little something for everyone.
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The mix opens with an excerpt from the 1954 holiday episode of The Liberace Show, one of television's first variety programs hosted by one of the medium's most flamboyant and colorful personalities. The next track pays homage to NBC's "Saturday Night Live," currently celebrating its 50th year on the air. "I Wish It Was Christmas Today" was first performed in 2000 by cast members Jimmy Fallon, Chris Kattan, Tracy Morgan and Horatio Sanz, who made the song a genuine holiday classic.
The rest of this mix is a typically odd jumble of tunes and comedy that runs the gamut from The Sonics' 1965 garage rock hit "Santa Claus" to the beautiful "Written in the Snow," by Ted Pandel and Bruce Haack, a Canadian composer known both for his popular children's songs and trailblazing electronic albums. There are clips from Johnny Carson and David Letterman, a stirring country ballad about the night Ronald Reagan rode with Santa Claus, and three amazing radio station promos created by Billy West and Tom Sandman during the heyday of Boston's WBCN-FM, arguably one of the best rock radio stations of all time.
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You can hear the first several tracks from my latest mix by way of the Soundcloud app to the right. The links below the preview tool provide access to the mix as a single file or a folder containing all 41 tracks as separate .mp3 files. You can also download a copy of the complete track list. Additional information about the 41 tracks featured on "I Wish It Was Christmas Today" will be posted throughout the holidays on Bells Will Be Ringing, my holiday music blog.
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Best wishes to all for peace, good health and fellowship during the holidays and the year ahead.
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*NOTE: You may download any or all of the 41 individual tracks on this year's mix as individual .mp3 files by way of the button above, which includes a link to my box.com site. You may then upload these tracks to iTunes or some similar app where, if ordered by title or track number from 1-41, they should play without interruption or breaks. This will allow you to skip ahead to the next track more easily.
