What’s up, dudes? Mike Westfall of Advent Calendar House and Tim Babb from Can’t Wait for Christmasare with me to talk all about the genius that is Al Yankovic! Even Caleb Cote from Insert Reference Here pops in to dive into Weird Al “Christmas at Ground Zero!”
Synopsis
The song is a throwback to the Phil Spector “wall of sound” era, full of bari sax and keyboard layers. Of course, in Al fashion, he copies the style to perfection. Harmonically, it’s a simple I-vi-ii-V chord progression reminiscent of the 1960s.
Lyrically, the song is awash in Cold War nuclear disaster tropes. Yankovic’s label, Scotti Brothers Records, insisted that he record a Christmas album. However, after Yankovic presented the song to his label, they relented, because it was “a little different from what they were expecting.” After the song was written and recorded, Yankovic wanted to release the song as a commercial single, but Scotti Bros. refused. Eventually, Scotti Bros. released the song as a promotional single and then commercially.
Sleigh bells ringing? Check. Trimming the tree? Uh huh. Atom bombs dropping? Only if it creates new mutants! So load your gun and suck and cover to this episode on Weird Al “Christmas at Ground Zero!”
Advent Calendar House
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Twitter: @adventcalhouse
IG: @adventcalendarhouse
Can’t Wait for Christmas
FB: @CantWaitForChristmasPod
IG: @cantwaitforchristmaspod
Twitter: @ChristmasPod
