I hope you had a wonderful day.
After all, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year"! Lyrics by Edward Pola, music by George Wyle, sung by The Muppets (with Mindy Kaling, although I have to say you can't hear her):
Video from ABC Television Network
If that's just too cute for you (it's not for me, but hey, tastes differ), have a version by ...uh. I'm not actually sure. I think they call themselves A Cappella Collab, but that might be a project rather than the group. To be safe, then: the singers are Jean-Baptiste Craipeau, Simon Craipeau, Andrew Kesler, and Evan Sanders.
Video by JB Craipeau
Although not, perhaps, less cute, I think they did quite a good job of de-treacle-ing the song. But perhaps not quite as good a job as this version:
Video thanks to candihanks
(Oh, that's the first place your mind went too, don't pretend it wasn't!)
***
Both the composer (George Wyle) and the lyricist (Eddie Pola) of this song-with-the-long-title were Jewish. The two men were long-time collaborators, and "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" is their best-known song.
George Wyle (which sounds remarkably like the name he got at birth, Bernard Weissman) had a long career as a successful working musician, starting on the Catskills circuit and including stints as orchestra leader, composer, and music and choral director. Aside from this song, he's probably best known for co-writing the theme song for Gilligan's Island. . . . Yep, that one, with the Professor and Mary Anne and all the rest of it. (You're very welcome for the ear worm.)
The lyricist Eddie Pola (which actually does sound quite a bit like the name his parents gave him, Sidney Edward Pollacsek) spent his life shuttling back and forth between the US and UK, beginning as a very well-known musical jack-of-all-trades in the UK and ending as a teacher of creative writing to gifted children in the US. Pola's history is quite fascinating, and you can read a a lot more about him at either Google's or Archive.org's cached copies of the 2012 version of the article "The Jews Who Wrote Christmas Songs" (scroll down to the bottom); the author of the article, Nate Bloom, did a *ahem* wonderful job tracking it all down.
If that's just too cute for you (it's not for me, but hey, tastes differ), have a version by ...uh. I'm not actually sure. I think they call themselves A Cappella Collab, but that might be a project rather than the group. To be safe, then: the singers are Jean-Baptiste Craipeau, Simon Craipeau, Andrew Kesler, and Evan Sanders.
Although not, perhaps, less cute, I think they did quite a good job of de-treacle-ing the song. But perhaps not quite as good a job as this version:
(Oh, that's the first place your mind went too, don't pretend it wasn't!)
Both the composer (George Wyle) and the lyricist (Eddie Pola) of this song-with-the-long-title were Jewish. The two men were long-time collaborators, and "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" is their best-known song.
George Wyle (which sounds remarkably like the name he got at birth, Bernard Weissman) had a long career as a successful working musician, starting on the Catskills circuit and including stints as orchestra leader, composer, and music and choral director. Aside from this song, he's probably best known for co-writing the theme song for Gilligan's Island. . . . Yep, that one, with the Professor and Mary Anne and all the rest of it. (You're very welcome for the ear worm.)
The lyricist Eddie Pola (which actually does sound quite a bit like the name his parents gave him, Sidney Edward Pollacsek) spent his life shuttling back and forth between the US and UK, beginning as a very well-known musical jack-of-all-trades in the UK and ending as a teacher of creative writing to gifted children in the US. Pola's history is quite fascinating, and you can read a a lot more about him at either Google's or Archive.org's cached copies of the 2012 version of the article "The Jews Who Wrote Christmas Songs" (scroll down to the bottom); the author of the article, Nate Bloom, did a *ahem* wonderful job tracking it all down.
Keep it up, we all need some happy.
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