Rhino’s Got You Covered...for Christmas!
It’s Wednesday, so it must be time to take another dip into the Rhino catalog and trot out a new quartet of cover songs that you may or may not have heard before. This time, we’re putting a holiday spin on the usual proceedings, and we’re even throwing in a bonus track, so...let’s get started, shall we?
• The Flaming Lips, “Little Drummer Boy / Peace on Earth” (2019): You already knew that Wayne Coyne and company were capable of recording cover songs at the drop of a hat, so it was only a matter of time before they decided to take a shot at a Christmas tune. We’re confident that both Bing and Bowie would appreciate their heartfelt version of their all-time great duet.
• Honeymoon Suite, “I Believe in Father Christmas” (1988): Back in ’88, Warner Brothers released a promotional-only holiday compilation with the wonderfully witty title of WINTER WARNERLAND, and this was one of the tracks. Here’s hoping we soon secure the digital rights to Danielle Dax’s cover of “Blue Christmas.” (Yes, really.)
• Brian Setzer Orchestra, “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” (2005 / 2009): Originally released on a Surfdog Records compilation in 2005, this Thurl Ravencroft cover by the still-occasional Stray Cats frontman found its way into the Rhino catalog in 2009, when it ended up on the GIFT WRAPPED collection.
• Kylie Minogue with Mika, “Wonderful Christmastime” (2016): Statistically speaking, there are probably precious few men who wouldn’t consider it a dream come true to have a Kylie Christmas, and while we realize that some of those men might not be dreaming of her music, those guys are just gonna have to suck it up while we spin her version of this Paul McCartney Christmas classic, which she covered with the help of Mika.
Bonus track:
Pilot, “It’s Christmas” (2017): Just when you thought Pilot had flown the coop for good, they did a bit of holiday travel and returned to the studio to kinda sorta cover themselves. Yes, it’s a little sketchy to suggest that a band re-recording their own song really qualifies for this column, which is why we’ve put it down as a bonus track, but the idea of turning “Magic” into a holiday tune is just a little too amusing to leave out of the mix.
