Friday, January 21, 2022

"Jingle Bells" - Part 94 - Rockabilly!





Let's jump ahead to the 1990s and beyond with "Jingle Bells" for a handful of latter-day Rockabilly versions!

First up is the Honeydippers from the 1997 "12 Days of Christmas" album on the Shattered Music label:


That's a fun record, taking off from the 1957 Frank Sinatra arrangement by Gordon Jenkins.

I see this track sometimes credited to the Honeydrippers, which was the retro group led by Robert Plant that recorded "Sea of Love" on a memorable EP back in 1984, but this is the Honeydippers, featuring British singer Gary Twinn and American guitarist Danny B. Harvey.

SOme of the songs from "12 Days of Christmas" were included on 2001's "Swing Cats Present A Rockabilly Christmas" on Cleopatra, which also featured the titular Swing Cats with this snappy medley called "Christmas Tree Boogie":


I like that one a lot!

The Swing Cats were former Stray Cats Lee Rocker and Slim Jim Phantom with Danny B. Harvey and they cut some solid instrumentals.

Next is Reverend Horton Heat with their take on "Jingle Bells" from 2005's "We Three Kings" album on Yep Roc Records:


Reverend Horton Heat is one of those acts that's the group name, but the leader, in this case Jim Heath, is also known by the group name.

Here's the title track from that album:


We move to 2009 with Mexico's Rebel Cats version of "Jingle Bells" from their "Navidad Rock-A-Billy" on Grabaxiones Alicia:


That's very fun as well!

I also did "Triste Navidad," their take on "Blue Christmas":


Rockabilly and Christmas go together well!

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