I don't buy many CDs anymore, mostly because I don't have a proper CD player. However, my home laptop, Bettie, can play some CDs (some are compatible, some aren't--total crapshoot), and lately I've been bouncing around town, trying to find something that would put me in the holiday mood.
A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector? Sure. That works. (Hell, it was what was constantly running through my brain the last time I was in the hospital back in 2016.)
Something from Tony Bennett, maybe? Of course--even though he's in his 90s now, Tony can belt out a tune with the best of the golden-age crooners.
The Beach Boys? That would be great...if I could find their Ultimate Christmas CD...which I can't.
However, there was one that I found at the wonderful Laurie's Planet of Sound (on Lincoln Avenue just south of the elevated tracks) up in my former neck of the woods, Lincoln Square, that works just fine: The Monkees' Christmas Album.
"What's that?" you say. "A Monkees Christmas album? Hell, any Monkees album in 2018? Are you shitting me?"
Nope. Not shitting you at all. This is a real thing.
And more than real? It's good.
Yes, Mickey Dolenz, Peter Tork, Mike Nesmith and Davey Jones all deliver heartfelt renditions of holiday classics such as "The Christmas Song" (you know: "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...") by Nesmith, "Angels We Have Heard on High" (Tork), "Silver Bells" (Jones) and "Wonderful Christmastime" (Dolenz).
No, the Monkees don't perform together at any point--all of the songs are performed individually, not as a group. Dolenz has the overwhelming majority of cuts on the album (nine), and Jones has just two songs on the album--most likely because he died back in 2012. But there are also fun interpretations of more recent Christmas songs, like Andy Patridge's "Unwrap You at Christmas" and Michael Chabon and Adam Schlesinger's "House of Broken Gingerbread."
So I'll be rockin' around the Christmas tree this year to that other Fab Four--the Monkees.
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