Far Out There Christmas Playlist: Trigger

Now things get a bit weird. Trigger’s official music of choice, as befitting a kid who runs around in barefoot hippie garb, is Psychedelic 60s music. Specifically, of the sitars and power chords variety. Alas, the 60s counterculture wasn’t especially big on celebrating commercialized versions of Judeo-Christian religious holidays, so there’s not many Psychedelic Christmas songs to chose from. And the few I can find aren’t even all that good. But here’s the thing: I’ve always felt that one of the best parts about Holidays in general is the way they can provide brief windows into genres and forms of entertainment that we’d normally never even consider partaking in, and Christmas in particular is great for that. Just think about how many people would NEVER listen to Bing Crosby or Andy Williams outside of Christmas songs. Heck, just look at Mannheim Steamroller for that manner! So I think there’s wiggle room for Trigger to listen to something different than what he’s normally into once the Holiday Season rolls around, just so long as it’s still relatively character consistent. With that in mind, I actually have come up with a 60s-based playlist for Trigger, just not of a Psychedelic variety. Instead, these are the types of songs that would appeal to the excitable little kid Trigger is when he’s NOT cosplaying as a hippy to try and impress Skye.

That said, though, the first track here actually is the most Psychedelic of the bunch: “Christmas Time (is here again)” by The Beatles. An obscurity from a Fan Club release that didn’t come out in a full version until the 90s, “Christmas Time (is here again)” is one of those songs I really wish somebody else would cover. That’s probably the only time I’ll ever say that about a Beatles song, but it’s really obvious that the “song” was only intended to play as a snippet between the short skits and audio gags that made up the bulk of those fan club discs. I mean, it’s still The Beatles, so even a snippet from them still sounds better than most bands’ whole songs, but that just makes me wish even harder that this WAS a whole song. Still, Trigger wouldn’t know any better, he’d just love how catchy the hook is... even if that hook is the entire song.

And next up, we have EVERYBODY’S favorite Christmas tune: “The Chipmunk Song”! Yep, the original, in all it’s helium-fueled glory. Look, I’ll defend “The Chipmunk Song” to a certain extent as a decently catchy little ditty despite the inherently annoying gimmick, but Trigger wouldn’t need any of that. He’d probably find the prospect of a bunch of grown men sounding like squeaky little rodents to be genuinely hilarious all on it’s own. He’s a simple boy, that Trigger.

On a much MORE defensible note, we next have “Everyone’s A Kid At Christmas” by Stevie Wonder. I’d still a bit annoyed that I only just discovered this song existed last year, because it SHOULD be a standard on every Oldies radio station’s December rotation. It’s catchy, it’s fun, and it definitely captures Trigger’s attitude both about Christmas and pretty much everything else in life as well.

Moving on to a song that most definitely IS on every Oldies station’s rotation, we have “Little Saint Nick” by The Beach Boys. Even outside of the holiday context, this really is one of the best parodies of “Beaches & Hot Rods” era Beach Boys ever recorded, which is both really obvious and impressively self-aware given that it’s by the band themselves right as they were at the peak of that phase in their career. And it’s also a really fun, catchy little tune, as well. That helps.

Catchy in a different way is out next entry, “Hooray for Santa Claus.” The shrill, trumpet-driven theme song of the infamous Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, I actually think this is a pretty decent kiddie Christmas tune, if a little too grating in it’s most-familiar version. That wouldn’t stop Trigger, though. He’d happily blare this tune at all hours of the day or night regardless of how sick everyone else had gotten of it.

And if you thought a song from Santa Claus Conquers the Martians was obscure, our next song is from a source even more mysterious and forgotten: INDIANA! No, but seriously, “The Wildest Christmas” by The Boys Next Door is apparently a bit of a regional standard in The Midwest, but only just recently discovered this thing exists. And that’s a shame, because this is another song that SHOULD have been on every Oldies station at least once a day every December. It’s a simple but catchy little slice of Garage Band fun that any kid like Trigger would definitely find delightful.

Going even further down the obscurity trail, only this time arriving at a song I don’t think was ever even a local tradition, we next get “If Santa Claus Were President” by the Cam Cobern Trio. Now, before you freak out, don’t worry. It’s not any kind of political satire, just a deliberately childish dream about how Santa would give presents to everybody every day. And it’s a good thing it’s not trying to think too hard about this premise, too, because Santa’s open stance on only giving presents to GOOD kids would doom the Claus administration to years of accusations of institutional discrimination. None of this would ever occur to Trigger, of course, it’s just another song he’d find really catchy.

Even more catchy is a second appearance by The Chipmunks with their blatant attempt to re-do “The Chipmunk Song” around a decade later with “Wonderful Day.” I’m on record as thinking the actual song at the core of “Wonderful Day” is a lot better than “The Chipmunk Song,” though the comedy shtick is laid on a lot thicker the second time around. That’s the very part Trigger would probably like the most, though.

As we approach the end of the list, we have another two-time entrant in the form of The Beach Boys with “The Man With All The Toys.” This is probably the second most well-known Brian Wilson original off of The Beach Boys Christmas, after the aforementioned “Little Saint Nick.”, and at least occasionally played on the radio even today. While I personally feel like it’s a bit under-written (the harmony vocals outside of the chorus really sound like Brian just wrote down one part, then quit before filling in the rest) it’s still catchy enough that I understand why the song’s had legs. Obviously, I think Trigger would like it well enough.

And speaking of songs that get played on Oldies radio after all these years, we climax with the immortal “Snoopy’s Christmas” by The Royal Guardsmen. Probably the single most triumphant example of a forced holiday sequel to a previous success, “Snoopy’s Christmas” single handedly turned what SHOULD have been a gimmicky one-hit wonder band (seriously, how often does anybody actually hear the original “Snoopy vs The Red Baron” anymore?) in to a perennial holiday staple, and Trigger would absolutely be down with this cartoon-fueled silliness.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! Yes, “Spoony’s Christmas” was GOING to be the final song on this list, but well after I’d written what I thought was the final draft, I suddenly remembered that there actually IS a Psychedelic Christmas song that Trigger would totally like! It’s not actually a 60s tune, but it really wants to be: “Silent Night” by Rubber Band. They’re a Dainish Beatles tribute act, you see, so their take on “Silent Night” is built around “Lucy In The Sky With Diamond.” That’s just a little bit headier than Trigger’s usual brand of “one riff for seven straight minutes” brand of Flower Power, but it’s still one of the trippiest Christmas tunes you’re going to hear this year. And yes, that’s two in a row to end with a Beatles tribute. I apologize for nothing.

Anyway, there you have it! Again, aside from the bookends, it’s pretty far from Psychedelic, but you can’t deny that this is one seriously Sixties Christmas playlist! Just… be careful listening to it if you’re especially susceptible to getting tunes stuck in your head, because the earworm potential here is especially potent.

Trigger's YouTube Christmas Playlist