STMcC’s Vote On '2018, December 1st: Battle Of The Bands' (BOTB) - Or, Dean Martin Versus The Temptations - And The Final Tally:
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It wasn't much of a "Battle", but it took place HERE. I expected a one-sided affair, but I didn't anticipate quite the blowout that it turned out to be. The song was 'Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer' (surprisingly, this was the first time it was ever used in BOTB) and the competitors were Dean Martin and The Temptations.
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I sincerely thank all of you who took time during this extra busy part of the year to stop by, listen, and vote!
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Although it does happen, it's pretty rare. Me using a recording in BOTB that I personally do not like, I mean. The one I dislike is the one that won.
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Dean Martin = 12 votes
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The Temptations = 3 votes
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For me, Dean Martini just plays it too cutesy. Is Deano really such a good friend of Rudolph's that he can get away with calling him "Rudy"?
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However, the first time I heard The Temptations' version, I didn't like that one, either. Years ago I purchased a CD which included Christmas songs by both The Supremes and The Temptations. I'd bought it specifically for The Supremes' version of 'My Favorite Things', as I dearly love that song and their rendition is my favorite.
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The album also contains 'Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer' by The Temptations. And the first time I heard it, I thought: WTH?!?! I didn't hate it, but I sure didn't like it, either. The second time I heard it, I said, "I don't know about THAT!" (Spoken the way Martin Crane always said it.) By the third time I'd heard it, I was rather digging the way The Temptations kept shouting, "Hey, Rudolph!" And before long, I was enjoying the arrangement of the entire song.
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'Rudolph' is hardly one of my very favorite Christmas songs, but The Temps' (yes, I'm a good enough friend of theirs to call them "The Temps") is probably now my favorite version of the song. They really put the FUN in 'Rudolph' for me. But, mine is obviously a minority view. That's OK; no problem. I'm used to holding minority viewpoints.
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I believe it was in late October that I got the idea to use 'Rudolph' in this BOTB installment. One day I decided to hike up to the white "V" on the side of Mount Davidson in Virginia City, Nevada:
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And when I started out on the hike, 3 dogs that live in the neighborhood were very excited to accompany me. They waited for me on the road ahead:
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However, "Rudy" was the only dog of the 3 who stuck with me all the way up to the "V" and back down again:
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And that gave me the idea to use 'Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer' in my first of December's two BOTB contests.
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In The Battle Within The Battle, both The Magic 8-Ball (11-6) and The Amazing Sixwell (12-5) correctly predicted Dean Martin's victory.
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I hope to see you all here again on December 15th, when I will be featuring a highly unusual version of a famous sacred Christmas standard.
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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Dino was kind of "cutsie" on most of his songs--I think that was part of his shtick. I used to watch his TV show regularly. I liked his happy carefree attitude which carries into most of his song performances.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the Temptations version would start to grow on me if I listened more, but like you said, this is not one of my favorite songs.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
LEE ~
DeleteAs you undoubtedly remember, there are only a few "crooners" I really like, and Bing Crosby ain't one of 'em. And by his own admission, Dean Martin was always consciously trying to sound like Bing. (Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery and all that.) So there's more than one reason why Deano would likely never get my vote in a BOTB competition. But he sure ran away with this one!
~ D-FensDogG @ Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...
Ha! Martin Crane.
ReplyDeleteMartin: "I call him Eddie Spaghetti."
Daphne: "Oh, does he like pasta?"
Martin: "No, he has worms."
One of my favorite shows.
Apartment 1901 ranks right up there with the 4077th. In the past, I've gathered up all the Frasier Christmas and New Years episodes and watched them this time of year.
Glad I voted with the majority this time.
Sig "StillNeverSeenMaris" Too
Hola, Senor Sig!
DeleteFeliz Navidad!! Mucho mas cerveza, por favor!
I just exhausted my entire knowledge of the Spanish language (and I have no idea why I did so).
I've got my Vince Guaraldi Trio soundtrack to 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' playing right now, I'm drinking a mug of Milk Punch, and have caught the Christmas Spirit for the first time this year!
Oh, 'Frasier' -- in my opinion, it was the first, second, and third funniest sitcom in the history of television! My all-time favorite sitcom (for several reasons - some of them being sentimental) will always be the black & white episodes (first five seasons) of 'The Andy Griffith Show'. But "Laughs-Per-Minute"? Nuttin' beats 'Frasier' for me.
Do you have a #1 favorite episode of 'Frasier'? Believe me, I know how tough a question that is to answer, but I believe - speaking just for myself (ya un'erstan') - I can answer it.
And speaking of Christmas, TV, and TAGS... I don't necessarily watch it EVERY December, but it's not uncommon for Nappy and I to make it a point of seeing TAGS' [Link> Christmas Story.
In fact, inspired by that episode, many, many years ago, Nappy and I adopted the word "Evidence" as a code for booze:
Nappy: "Where you goin'?"
STMcC: "To the store. Why?"
Nappy: "Can you pick up some Evidence for me?"
STMcC: "Whaddaya want?"
Nappy: "A pint of Sailor Jerry's rum."
STMcC: "You know what that stuffs does to you."
Nappy: "Ah sa-aaa-id... a pint of Sailor Jerry's!!"
STMcC: "Ite."
I love the fact that they never showed Maris on 'Frasier'. They left her up to our own individual imaginations. But some of the lines spoken about her were abbalouly hilarious!
I think my favorite may have been when Niles said that Maris had always dreamed of being a ballerina, "...but the poor thing couldn't keep her weight up."
~ D-FensDogG @ Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...
Niles: It’ll be fun to drink some beer and have some pizza with a couple of rapscallions.
DeleteWoody: Oh hey, if you don’t mind, could we make that half rapscallions, half pepperoni?
>>I've got my Vince Guaraldi Trio soundtrack to 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' playing right now…
Got it, but waiting for Jason1920’s Easy Listening 60’s tunes (Youtube) to work their way out of my head first.
>>I'm drinking a mug of Milk Punch, and have caught the Christmas Spirit for the first time this year!
Sound like Clarence would approve of both.
>>Do you have a #1 favorite episode of 'Frasier'?
I thought I was pretty good at problem solving but that question overheated my CPU and I’ll have to re-boot the hard drive…and then have a few shots of Evidence. Y tu?
Season 6, the beginning of “Three Valentines” comes to mind. No words, just 5 minutes of Niles, Mozart, Eddie, fire, blood, and more great writing.
Cheers, ( I mean Frasier)
Sig2of2
Buenos Dias, Sig Chavez-Garcia Dos ~
Delete>>... Got it, but waiting for Jason1920’s Easy Listening 60’s tunes (Youtube) to work their way out of my head first.
That sounds like it's up my alley. Or at least down my street. I will have to check that out.
Just a few days ago, I was at YT watching some highlights of Niles (despite the fact I own every episode of 'Frasier' on DVD), and several people (actually, more than "several") mentioned in the comment section that their favorite Niles bit was that very same portion of 'Three Valentines'. I remember it well, and it's hilarious - looking at his finger and fainting multiple times.
I'm pretty much like you are in that my favorite 'Frasier' episode is really a list of at least 30 titles with such little space between them that even Maris couldn't slip through them.
But I suppose that if someone held a Smith & Wesson to my head and demanded that I name just a single title, I might go with: Season 6 - 'Dial M For Martin'.
With Frasier home all day, he and Martin get into explosive arguments. Roz suggests that Martin move in with Niles for a while. Niles is as enthused at the idea as Frasier was six years before, but changes his mind rapidly when he realizes Daphne will be coming too. Then she announces that Martin's hip has improved enough for her to find another job. After a series of minor accidents, Martin becomes afraid that Niles is trying to injure him on purpose.
But, sheesh! There are just so many that come to my mind and vie for the top spot. I love any episode that includes Bebe Glazer, and especially the one where she and Frasier were hosting a morning TV entertainment show.
'Sliding Frasiers' - where we get to see how Frasier's destiny with women would be altered if the timing of just one insignificant little event at the coffee shop were changed.
The one where Frasier and Niles were scoring underground Russian caviar comes to mind. The one where Frasier and Niles each thought the other guy was trying to steal his woman. And on and on...
I think my favorite of the Christmas episodes is probably that one where Niles wound up dressed like Jesus and was hiding in the bathroom (with a Christmas tree) from the mother of Frasier's new Jewish girlfriend. I literally start GOLing just thinking about that one.
Ahh, the writing, casting, acting - it was all brilliant. A show where everything just came together perfectly. And I like that it did not write "down" to the audience. Only folks who have a pretty good and well-rounded education are going to catch all the jokes. To get the show completely, a person needed to have at least some decent knowledge of world history, music, art, theatre, psychology, etc. Even a little knowledge of wines helped. (At least enough to know that Zinfandel is not a white wine!)
The way those writers would have the primary and secondary plots intersect and then meld together at the end always left me in awe.
Whenever I think of 'Frasier', I quickly focus on the very ending of the "Parking Garage" episode, the ending of the "Frasier's Imaginary Girlfriend" episode, and the ending of 'Dial M For Martin'...
Frasier: [deep breath & voice cracking a little bit] "Alright... bring him in."
Cheers, ( I mean Frasier)
(Oooh! I like that!)
~ D-FensDogG @ Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...
McBroMan, another good battle and writings. Sixwell with a lead is a bonus. Never thought of favorite Christmas songs so much... I've never heard a bad Christmas song.
ReplyDeleteThe dogs are awesome. Lined up with perfect spacing like a defensive backfield. Rudy. I'd be like a Middle Eastern sheik to the neighbors, "I shall trade you two camels and a goat for Rudy."
BRUHTHUH G DOGG ~
ReplyDeleteThanks, my friend! The Battle was pretty lopsided but I enjoyed it nonetheless. My next one will probably raise a few eyebrows.
Ha! You are more... uhm... "inclusive", I guess, when it comes to Christmas song recordings. I could name 6 to 10 that I abbalouly detest. (And, no, Dean Martini's version of 'Rudolph' would not even make that list.)
Yeah, I dig them dogs. That wasn't the first time they went up the mountainside with me, but it WAS the first time that one of them (Rudy) stayed near me all the way up and all the way down. He even sat down next to me in the middle of that "V", while I pet him and enjoyed the view.
All three of the dogs live at the same house, and the house is right on the left corner of where that paved road can be seen in the photo.
That paved road comes to an end just beyond the point where you see it turning toward the left at the far point of the photo. In other words, it's a short paved road that really goes nowhere, and comes to an end where a dirt trail begins to wind its way up the mountain.
Therefore, the only reason anyone ever walks up that short segment of paved street is to begin hiking up Mount Davidson. So, when the dogs see me start walking up that little bit o' road, they run up ahead and wait for me, because they know I'm about to climb up the mountain. And those dogs LOVE to go romping over that mountain.
My only worry is that one of them will someday walk right into a rattlesnake, because they go tearing through the sage and brush amazingly fast. Hopefully they'd pick up the scent of a rattlesnake before actually stepping within range of one.
~ D-FensDogG @ Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...
Misssed this one, but I would have voted for Dino too. Always like his "cutesy" schtick. ☺ Have you heard that Rudolph is now one of those in a long list of songs that is considered "offensive"? ~rolling eyes~ Where will it end?
ReplyDeleteNo worries, DEBBIE. I know everyone is swamped with extra activities at this time of the year (me included!). And besides that, Dino didn't need yer help. He did just fine in clobbering The Temps without it. ;o)
ReplyDelete'Rudolph' -- yes, let's see... that one is for the crime of promoting bullying, if I recall correctly.
And one of the Charlie Brown cartoons (the Thanksgiving special, I believe) is in trouble for being "Racist" because of one scene where a little Black boy was sitting by himself on the other side of the table. Of course, had it been Lucy van Pelt sitting by herself, then the charge would have been Sexism instead of Racism. And if it had been Linus or Schroeder sitting by themselves on the other side of the table, then our lovely Social Justice Warriors would have said that the cartoon was subliminally highlighting White supremacy.
We are surrounded by certifiable know-nuttin' lunatics.
Where will it all end? I would say Jerusalem in 2029 (give or take a year or two). Ha! ;o)
Have a great day and I'll see ya on the 15th or thereabouts. (Everyone's probably going to hate me after my next BOTB, but I'm going to try to be a good boy starting in 2019. We'll see how long *that* lasts.)
~ D-FensDogG @ Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...