Best Christmas Songs of the Modern Rock Era

For the holidays, here’s a change from discussing Social Media Marketing and PR this week. Let’s talk tunes!

Here’s my list of the best Christmas songs of the Modern Rock Era, which I’m defining as roughly the mid- 1970s through the early 2000s. You will find no Perry Como, Andy Williams, or Bing Crosby here (wait, we do have some Crosby….see #2…) I would love to hear your thoughts on these and others!

10. Squeeze – “Christmas Day” (1979)

9. Captain Sensible – “One Christmas Catalogue” (1984)

8. Slade – “Merry Xmas Everybody” (1973)

7. Weird Al – “Christmas At Ground Zero” (1986)

6. Ramones – “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight)” (2001)

5. Pretenders – “2000 Miles” (1983)

4. The Kinks – “Father Christmas” (1977)

3. Band Aid – “Do The Know It’s Christmas” (1984)

2. David Bowie and Bing Crosby – “Little Drummer Boy / Peace On Earth” (Recorded / Originally Broadcast 1977; Released 1982)

1. The Pogues with Kirsty MacColl – “Fairytale of New York” (1987)

The Greatest Thanksgiving PR Stunt of All Time: WKRP

The holiday reruns start now! Here’s a re-posting of last year’s Thanksgiving post, with a new list…

Arthur Carlson WKRP — "As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." Click image for video clip.

Several years ago, I had the privilege of meeting Gordon Jump, aka Arthur “Big Guy” Carlson of WKRP in Cincinnati. He was passing through town on a PR tour for Maytag (he was the Maytag Repairman in the commercial campaign at the time) and did a live studio interview at the radio station I was programming.

What a pro! Mr. Jump was a PR person’s AND a media outlet’s perfect interviewee: he promoted the Maytag event for which he was the guest, and also was open to reminiscing about his WKRP glory days. It was near Thanksgiving, so he gave us his best on-air recreation of his classic quote from the WKRP turkey massacre episode. He was thankful for having such a good run and for still acting and portraying fun characters.

In honor of the late Mr. Jump’s spirit of thankfulness for lasting in his chosen industry, here’s a new list of just a few of the folks in the PR and Social Media Marketing industry I am thankful for meeting, collaborating with, or working with in 2010:

@PaulaBerg @kamichat @geoffliving

@cldegoede @_LaurenShapiro_ @cgflood

@Engage121 @JackSerpa @nperold

@reynmorgan @evelyntimson @emailfray

@kristinepfeiff @AllisonB023 @PaulSegreto

@jeswal06 @terrimcculloch @StoryAssistant

@chuckhester @JessicaNorthey @jillianmk

@rebeccafoss @brandjournalist @prsachicago

@acappellamedia @shashib @shelholtz

Apple iTunes Announcement: Beatles???

Today over on the iTunes Store, much of the pricey real estate is promoting a big announcement tomorrow at 9am CT / 10am ET. You’ll see the same thing at apple.com.

Let the speculation fly! I am once again predicting the announcement that The Beatles catalogue will finally be available via iTunes. Last year, I speculated that this would be a big Apple announcement in the near future but I didn’t see it taking this long.

I may be way off … many folks on Mashable or elsewhere are predicting application-related news. I’m guessing Beatles simply due to the timing; a mid-November roll-out means that it’s product or content FOR SALE. It must be something that will ring the iTunes Stores cash register. See you tomorrow at the “the store”…

Apple Logo

Andy Griffith and The 3 Stages of Social Media Engagement

As we begin to wrap up a year of explosive growth in Social Media usage and engagement, I’m seeing many Social Media Marketers moving into new stages of their own involvement. It reminds me of similar changes of audience engagement by one of the all-time great story tellers.

I speak, of course, of Andy Griffith’s portrayal of Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry!

Stage 1: Over the top and finding our way

At the start of The Andy Griffith Show, Andy’s depiction was the same as the characters he had been playing on stage and screen and in his popular monologues and comedy records for the previous few years. Andy was over-the-top, absurd, and loud. It’s what Andy knew how to do to get attention and laughs.

We dig into our own history of past success and use those same tactics when launching our social media engagement. Sometimes it fits, but more often than not, marketers need to tweak their voice and role, leading to…

Stage 2: Getting down to business and finding our role

After the first season or so, Andy realized that it would be best for the show if he played the straight man and let those around him get the laughs. His decision to pay it forward catapulted the show into legendary status.

The character of Andy as the normal and wise hub for the crazy Mayberry citizens’ shenanigans is a great role model for how Social Media Marketers should carry themselves within their online communities. Be the Andy by helping solve your connections’ business problems, mediating different point of views, and most of all promoting others before yourself.

Note, many so-called Social Media “Experts” or “Gurus” are the equivalent of Deputy Barney Fife. They take credit for others’ heroics, crow about their own expertise, and obsess on the tools of the trade rather than the message. Barneys don’t really make a community worse; in fact, they can be funny. But in the end, we’re just laughing at them.

Stage 3: Getting annoyed by and tired of those around us

It would be best if you as a Social Media Marketer could stay in a perpetual stage two. Toward the end of The Andy Griffith Show’s original run, Andy’s character further developed into a role that you don’t want to be. These episodes are easy to identify as they are in color and “Angry Andy” is constantly irritated by the dimwits around him.

Andy and Aunt Bee — Stage 3 Andy: Annoyed

If you feel yourself getting easily agitated by the day to day engagement with the Goobers and Aunt Bees in your online communities, it may be time to stop and to move on to new challenges.

Media Trends: Animated Christmas Specials

The animated holiday specials of the 60s and 70s had death, terrifying situations, and narration by actors so old no kid had ever heard of them.

In Christmas cartoons created in the past few years, you will not find any of the above tragedy and anxiety-inducing melodrama. For the past few weeks, I have been studying the Christmas specials of three popular current kids’ series (and by studying, I mean a constant viewing every evening with my daughter):

• Nick’s Diego Saves Christmas

• PBS’s Super Why and ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas

• Disney’s Little Einsteins and The Christmas Wish

In these recent shows, I found no character’s mother dying, Misfit Toys, evil Burgermeisters, scary wizards, or killer magicians. All you find in the above three is positive messages, interactivity, learning, and good animation (well, not so much in Diego).

Now let’s talk about the best Christmas Cartoons of the pre-PC media era, filled with oddities and freaks:

#7 Frosty The Snowman

Nothing merrier than a cartoon where our star snowman melts into a pool of water and dies. Merry Christmas, kids! Spoiler: He comes back to life in the end.

#6 Nestor, The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey

I’m only including my wife’s all-time fave to keep peace at home this holiday season. It does have some catchy tunes by country-folkie Roger Miller and, yep, Momma donkey dies. Nice.

#5 A Charlie Brown Christmas

“Isn’t there anyone…who can tell me…what Christmas is all about?”

This poor bald kid had the first documented case of childhood holiday depression. Relax, Chuck. It’s all about a dog saving your crummy tree, Linus’ sermon which I always tuned out, and Dolly Madison commercials.

#4 How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Stop with the Jim Carey remake already and watch the original with narration by Boris Karloff. Yeah not too freakin’ scary.

#3 Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town

Best line by Keenan Wynn as the deadly Winter Warlock: “Hey, maybe I’m not such a loser after all!”

#2 Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer

Cool: Island of Misfit Toys (yeah!) which is so weird yet cool that Verizon effectively uses it to slam AT&T 40 years later.

Not cool: Rudolph’s voice is the most grating sound of the holidays

#1 Year Without A Santa Claus

Five words: They. Call. Me. Heat. Miser.

****Honorable mention (not fully animated): ***
The Star Wars Holiday Special which included Wookies celebrating … something. But it did feature the whole Star Wars cast along with special guests Harvey Korman, Bea Arthur, and Jefferson Starship. I can’t make this stuff up! Hey, if you were a kid in 1978, this is why TV was invented. It was the closest thing to seeing Star Wars again in the pre-home video age.

Media Of Futures Past

In 2010 there will be no universally-watched media entity in the US that can influence everything citizens do. No, I’m not referring to Oprah’s recent decision to end her show. I’m saying that my favorite films and other media of the 1980s got it wrong!

Throughout the Eighties and into the Nineties, films – particularly in the action genre – portrayed life 25 or so years in the future (that would be NOW) as dystopian societies where a single media outlet controlled everything. Often times, it controlled the government and military.

Running Man Arnold and Dawson — The All-Powerful ICS Network's Top Show: The Running Man

My favorite example is The Running Man with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Cue the Don LaFontaine deep voice-over: In a world where Arnold is accused of crime he didn’t commit, he must play a deadly game live on the world’s most popular TV game show hosted by the evil and scene-stealing Killian (Richard Dawson). It’s a great view of an oppressed society obsessed with media. We see criminals executed live on TV for big ratings and gems like “court-appointed publicity agents”. I love that last part!

These films were supposed to take place in the future but sure still looked like the 80s as far as synthesizer music, clothes, and smoking habits.

Total Recall Arnold 2 — Arnold Watches The Only News in Total Recall

Vendetta1 — The State-Run Media Is Called "The Mouth" In the 1982 Comics and 2005 Film V For Vendetta

T2 SkyNet Core — The Core of T2's "Skynet" Which Gained Sentience Shortly After Going Online

: Jonathan Pryce As A Media Mogul Bond Villian In Tomorrow Never Dies

Fast forward to the present or our past’s future, and we have moved in the opposite direction! Media today has been completely fragmented and splintered into millions of TV channels, online sites, blogs, audio programs, and more. Today’s citizen journalist has the same opportunity to reach an audience as “Killian” did in The Running Man. Better yet, that citizen does more than just broadcast to an audience; he can actually engage with the consumer.

Let’s not be too hard on the screen writers of the 70s and 80s; the Cold War and the rise of certain media outlets along with the distrust of big government would be hard themes not to tackle. We would not have paid to see a movie about the future with someone updating their Facebook page.

The Greatest Thanksgiving PR Stunt of All Time: WKRP

Arthur Carlson — "As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."

Several years ago, I had the privilege of meeting Gordon Jump, aka Arthur “Big Guy” Carlson of WKRP in Cincinnati. He was passing through town on a PR tour for Maytag (he was the Maytag Repairman in the commercial campaign at the time) and did a live studio interview at the radio station I was programming.

What a pro! Mr. Jump was a PR person’s AND a media outlet’s perfect interviewee: he promoted the Maytag event for which he was the guest, but also was open to reminiscing about his WKRP glory days. It was near Thanksgiving, so he gave us his best on-air recreation of his classic quote from the WKRP turkey massacre episode. He was thankful to have had such a good run and to still be acting and portraying fun characters.

In honor of the late Mr. Jump’s spirit of thankfulness for lasting in his chosen industry, here’s my list of just a few of the PR industry folks who I am thankful for having worked with on some level recently:

@gail_nelson

Thanks Tweeps!
-Jack

Oh the humanity!
-Les Nessman, WKRP news

Apple and Apple PR

The Biggest Release That Wasn’t Released…Yet

Many Beatles and iTunes fans spent the past few weeks speculating that The Beatles catalog would debut on iTunes at the same time as the remastering of their catalog on CD and the debut of Beatles Rock Band, making a perfect hat trick. Many in the PR community also anticipated this cross-promotion no-brainer.

However, the lack of an iTunes announcement on 09.09.09 made the Apple gathering a non-event for some. But just wait…the delay will create yet another publicity-friendly event in the future. And, even more important to Apple Inc and Apple Records, a future Beatles / iTunes event will ultimately drive more sales via more product downloads. Steve Jobs even said, “we’ll see you soon.”

This masterful delay didn’t waste a great event and allow the iTunes availability to get buried in the PR and ad frenzy of Beatles CDs and Rock Band by Apple Records or the new iPod launches, iTunes 9 update, and the return of Mr. Jobs by Apple Corp.

After all, September is the time for releasing holiday gift choices (CDs, video games, and new iPods) not downloadable songs which won’t really drive holiday sales. It’s very smart of the two Apples to delay a deal and announcement until 2010 or later.

A Brief History of Beatles Repackaging

The 2009 remastering project is not the first time the band’s records have been repackaged and sold amid a flurry of positive PR and fan response. If you were born post-Beatlemania, chances are your first Beatles record was not Meet The Beatles or Sgt Pepper’s, but was one of these previous top-selling collections:

2006 Love

Love is a remixing, editing and splicing of a hundred or so Beatles tunes mashed together as a soundtrack for Circe du Soleil. It sounds like blasphemy to purists, but being produced by Sir George Martin makes it not only legitimate but fun to hear. I think the platinum-selling Love was also was a test for the 2009 remastering project.

2006 Capitol Years
This remixing of the first 8 US Capitol Beatles albums was the first time some of the US versions of Beatles records made it to CD.

2000 The Beatles 1
This is virtually the same set of tracks as 1982’s “20 Greatest” released on CD and promoted to the next generation of fans. The result: over 10 million copies sold in the US alone!

1995-96 Anthology 1, 2, & 3

Not truly a greatest hits compilation; the Anthology series featured alternate versions, demos, outtakes, and historical live performances. It also served as a companion piece to the much-hyped ABC documentary series of the same name. The Apple and Capitol promotional machine did phenomenal job making sure every person on in America knew about this release

1988 Past Masters Volume 1 & 2
1988 Beatles Box Set
This release was significant as the first complete box set of all albums on CDs plus the two Past Masters CDs of singles and B-sides not available on any album. This set is virtually identical to the 2009 release but not remastered.

1982 20 Greatest Hits

Absolutely nothing special about this release – just repackaging the same ol’ songs and selling millions of copies to a new generation of fans, that’s all.

1982 Reel Music

In the 70’s and 80’s, Capitol seemed to like to have a twist or theme to tracks repackaged and compiled. I guess this gave consumers a reason to care. This one featured only music from the Beatles movies (???). This also featured a “new” track: a medley of the Beatles movie songs taking advantage of the Stars on 45 fad happening at the time.

1977 Love Songs
The repackaging theme for this compilation was obviously the band’s love songs and ballads.

1976 Rock ‘n’ Roll Music
The repackaging theme for this inferior compilation was old-time rock n rolls cover tunes written by Chuck Berry and others. I assume the thought behind this choice was the fact that these cover tunes were not included in the 1973 Red and Blue albums below, even though “Twist & Shout” and others were some the band’s most popular early records. These tracks were poorly selected and remixed and the packaging looked substandard. It’s interesting that this compilation itself was repackaged four years later and split into two budget-priced albums.

1973 The Beatles 1962-1966 (aka “The Red Album”)

These are the granddaddy of all compilations, great hits, and repackaging! These mega-selling albums were #1 worldwide instantly and sold well for the next two decades.

1973 The Beatles 1967-1970 (aka “The Blue Album”)

1970 Hey Jude
At the time, Apple and Capitol tried to spin this release as a new Beatles album (in the US only). But the only thing new was the packaging. All tracks were previously released as singles or b-sides, but never included on previous Beatles albums. The plan worked, with the record reaching #2 on the US album charts.

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