New Pop Records

Christmas brings out the pixie in record companies, or at least it encourages them to bring out their pixie singers. Time was when things were sweet and sentimental--as when homesick G.I.s made a nice, solid hit of Irving Berlin's White Christmas--but that mood was dimmed in the smoke of a goofy juvenile called All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth (1948), and the pixies took over. The following year, all the kiddie stars were lisping the lyrics of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and 1952 brought the coyest Christmas hit, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus. This year's subadolescent hit, if any, is slow to show, but according to both M-G-M and Columbia, a number called Nuttin' for Christmas is showing frightening signs of life. Sample lyrics, usually sung in a piercing whine:

I broke my bat on Johnny's head, Somebody snitched on me I hid a frog in sister's bed, Somebody snitched on me . . .

Mommy and Daddy are mad, I'm getting nuttin' for Christmas 'Cause I ain't been nuttin' but bad.

It may be hard to see why Mommy and Daddy would buy this ditty for any child, but rival record companies--King, Capitol and Dot--rushed their own versions on the market. Victor has brought out two novelty versions of the tune; Eartha Kitt sings it sexy ("I'm gettin' nothin' for Christmas 'cause I didn't want to be bad"), and Country Clowns Homer and Jethro take the part of the child's hardened parents ("Nuttin's too good fer our Johnny, and that's what he's gonna get")

With these efforts, it seemed that little of the Christmas spirit remained to be evoked, but Victor kept on releasing Christmassy disks until it had the subject covered in a world tour de force. The route: from Europe, with Italian Jingle Bells (Campanella, campanella, solo bella . . .) sung by Lou Monte, to South America with Christmas in Rio, tricked out in samba tempo by Tony Martin, to a cornfed, shuffling western version of Jingle Bells, played on guitar by Chet Atkins.

Then there are Victor's Singing Dogs yelping out the same tune, one canine voice to a note (done by splicing tapes) to achieve a spirited effect, while Perry Como (in a reissue) transforms God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen into a queasy dirge. The curtain on Victor's celebration is rung down by Christmas, Christmas, with chorus, chimes and strings uniting to provide a festive background while the bass voice of George Beverly Shea repeats "Chrishmush, Chrishmush."

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