[78-L] The Christmas Songs

[Michael Biel]

Tom <last_name_never_noted>, Radio stations don't play music, they play
FORMATS.  The three stations you hear playing non-stop Christmas music
have temporarily changed their format, and most likely they are playing
performers and styles that cross away from what their normal format
allows, and they are probably playing many different styles of music on
this same topic.  On the 26th these stations will return to their normal
formats, and if they look they will discover that there are NO
recordings IN-FORMAT of "Winter Wonderland", or "Jingle Bells".  They
only had played these because they temporarily changed format.  If they
are rock, country, urban, AOR, MOR stations they play CURRENT recordings
in their format.  When was the last time these songs were recorded
IN-FORMAT?  And were these HITS?  Even if they are oldies or Big Band
stations, they play HIT oldies and HIT big band records.  In order for
ANY station to play "Jingle Bells" or "Winter Wonderland" they would
have to break format.  I'll go further, in order for ANY station to have
played ANY recording of "White Christmas", "Silent Night", "Silver
Bells", "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer", "Rockin' Around the Christmas
Tree", or almost any REAL Christmas song they would have to BREAK FORMAT
with few exceptions.  (About the only current Christmas release this
year is Bob Dylan's album, and this might have fit into some formats as
a current release by an important performer regardless of the song's
context.)   

David Lennick's statement is about the only sensible contribution I've
seen here, and he bases it on a long career in the broadcasting and
music business with a good knowledge of how a good radio programmer
would plan.  But the problem is that there are very few good programmers
left in the industry, and that most stations are remotely programmed by
services and syndicators.  The economy of the broadcasting business has
eliminated most intelligent local programmers.  Thus when it starts
snowing in a city or town on January 21 or Feb 15, the remote
programming service in San Antonio, LA, Chicago, or NYC will not insert
a format-breaker like "Let It Snow. Let It Snow, Let It Snow", "Baby Its
Cold Outside", "Winter Wonderland", "Sleigh Ride", "Frosty the Snowman",
or some other Wintery song.  


Scanning around from station to station to station is not a good
indication of what a station actually has played.  The ONLY proof of the
status of a song being played are the BMI reportings the station does
and the ASCAP reportings they do from monitoring.   If a station does
decide to play "Let It Snow" it will not go into rotation, it will be
played once or maybe twice over three days.  You won't hear it except by
sheer dumb luck.  ANY of these songs will not go into rotation on any
station unless it is IN FORMAT.  There are no recordings of these songs
that are IN-FORMAT on practically any station.  They were only heard
during Christmas season because the stations have DROPPED FORMAT to play
ANY Christmas song.

When it is Springtime, how often do you ever hear "April In Paris",
"When It Is Springtime in the Rockies", "April Showers", or some other
Spring song?  Are there stations that play "Easter Parade"?  Are there
stations with Easter formats???  How about October when you should also
hear "Autumn In New York"?  You might hear "Autumn Leaves" on a 50s
nostalgia station because it was a HIT.  In August on a rock oldies
station you might hear "See You In September" because it was a HIT.  

Would you hear "Autumn Leaves" or "See You In September" in February? 
Perhaps -- on a station that might also play "Sleigh Ride" in August.   
  

In short, Winter Season recordings are IN-FORMAT for stations that
change to a Christmas FORMAT.  Winter Season recordings are NOT
IN-FORMAT for ANY OTHER FORMAT to any noticeable effect any more than
any other NON-HIT record.  But as for live concert performance where
radio formats are moot:

Kristjan Saag wrote:
>>> And I've co-arranged a Leroy Anderson 100 year memorial concert in
>>> Gothenurg in January where the conductor was happy to exclude
>>> "Sleigh Ride", just because nobody wants to hear Christmas Songs in January.

Sounds like he was TALKED OUT of performing it, not that it was his idea
to not perform it.  You were probably very persuasive and that his
happiness might have been more to end the discussion!  Since this was a
concert to honor the composer, not the season, it seems like a strange
programming suggestion to exclude ANY number for a seasonal reason. 
Therefore we must exclude "Spring Song" from Mendelsohn tributes in the
winter or fall.  Could we never include both "Easter Parade" and "White
Christmas" in a single concert tribute to Irving Berlin?  

Soundthink wrote:
>> I played in a Leroy Anderson 100th birthday tribute last year and we
>> included "Sleigh Ride," which was met with tumultuous applause
>> ...in the middle of March.  Cary Ginell

Sounds like sound thinking to me, Cary.

and how come THIS has been ignored?

From: "Kristjan Saag" <saag at telia.com>
>>> I've yet to see record companies starting to issue "Best Of Winter"
>>> compilations with Santafree songs, good until March in Massachusetts
>>> and All Year Round in Alaska.

> GOTCHA!!! How about THIS one???
> Varese Vintage 066404 Release Date Nov 12, 2002
> Winter Wonderland Album 

and 

>From David Lennick:

Horsefeathers, Kristjan..Sleigh Ride and other winter songs will be
played on
radio stations well into January. And I have seen several LPs of winter
compilations, going back to a Jo Stafford one in the fifties, a Skitch
Henderson one that was half classical, quite a few others. They'd
usually be
filed with the Christmas LPs but they provided a nice buffer for
building up to
Christmas and moving away from it, AND they filled the requirement of
playing
seasonal music without ramming Jesus down everyone's throat even back in
the
60s when (a) far less of the stuff was required, programmed or even
available
and (b) nobody gave a rat's ass about political correctness. Ooh, I said
a bad
word.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com  



-------- Original Message --------

From: Tom <nice_guy_with_an_mba at yahoo.com>
I concur with the observation made by another individual that I've never
heard "Jingle Bells" or "Winter Wonderland" -- just to mention two
examples -- on or after 12/26. I've always got my car radio glued to
the scan setting while driving around, too -- I just like to see what
else is out there on the radio and even here in a decent-size metro
area (Raleigh, NC) there are only three FM radio stations that have
non-stop Christmas music on right now, and the playlists are pretty
boring stuff. But all of that will disappear the day after Xmas.
 
Tom

-------Original Message-------
> Tom (no last name ever noted) wrote:
>> If I remember correctly, one of the very first popular secular Christmas
>> songs was the recording of "Winter Wonderland" by Ted Weems and his
>> Orchestra which, I believe, was released in the early 30's. I think it
>> made it to number two or three on the charts of that era.

 From: Michael Biel <mbiel at mbiel.com>
> Neither "Winter Wonderland" nor "Jingle Bells" are "secular Christmas"
> songs. They are WINTER songs. Absolutely NOTHING to do with Christmas.
> NOTHING. Just like "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow" which goes
> one step further into winter weather into seduction.
>
> For a song to be a "secular Christmas" song it would have to reference a
> non-religious aspect of Christmas such as perhaps one of the pagan
> aspects of the holiday such as the tree, or perhaps Christmas presents
> -- and I don't think that being able to keep a woman from going home is
> strictly even a "Christmas" present even if the assignation takes place
> on Christmas Eve or in a manger.
>
> Just because a song is played during the "Christmas season" doesn't make
> it a "Christmas song" secular or otherwise. After all, the season of
> Winter only begins four days before Christmas and continues for almost
> three months after the presents are unwrapped and the tree is dumped
> outside to be picked up in the trash. And the tribute to the Druids
> results in the coming of Spring, which would arrive anyway.