Sunday, January 23, 2022

"Jingle Bells" - Part 95 - Tiki!


We stay somewhat in the modern world with some takes on "Jingle Bells" from the exotica/tiki/lounge world!

First up is the Blue Hawaiians with "Jungle Bells" from their 1995 album "Christmas On Big Island" on Restless Records:


The whole album is excellent and I quite like their version "Of Christmas Time is Here," the Vince Guaraldi tune from "A Charlie Brown Christmas":


That is awesome!

We move to 2001 with guitarist Vinnie Zummo for his version of "Jingle Bells" from his extremely descriptively-titled "A Retro Cool Bossa Nova Christmas with Vinnie Zummo" album:


You could definitely play that album at a cool holiday cocktail party!

Apparently no Scrooge, Vinnie has a "Volume 2" in the "Bossa Nova Christmas" series as well as the 2014 "A Retro Cool Mixed Bag Christmas" album on which we find "Jingle Bells Surf Party":


And we hit 2010 with Tiki Joe's Ocean from Double Crown Records' "Seasonal Favorites, Volume 3" album:


That's just a blast!

Tiki Joe's Ocean has a couple of Christmas albums which are really fun. "Vol. 2" contains a great take on another "A Charlie Brown Christmas" song - "Skating" - and both volumes can be purchased as downloads from their online store.

One more fun version of "Jingle Bells" comes from perhaps an unlikely source: the popular TV cartoon "SpongeBob SquarePants":


That show features some really cool background music!

Hopefully Santa's somewhere warm with an umbrella in his beverage listening to these tunes after a long holiday season!



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