The Fast Path to Immortality

My wife and I were doing a little shopping tonight and the store's Muzak started to play Johnny Mathis' arrangement of "O Come All Ye Faithful".  It's a Christmas classic, and as we heard that it occurred to me that one of the fastest paths to immortality is to record a Christmas song that becomes a seasonal classic.  Think Andy Williams and "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year", Jose Feliciano with "Feliz Navidad", Burl Ives with "Holly, Jolly Christmas".  Those songs will be heard long after those artists are gone (Ives is already gone).

Back in 2007 I did a piece called "Nobody Recorded Them Better" to identify some of the songs that have become Christmas classics.  There aren't that many songs from the last 20 or 30 years that are on that list.  Perhaps my definition of Christmas classic was set long ago, and I wonder if my kids will look at those songs the same way I did, even if they don't know who the artists are.

I guess if I want to obtain that level of seasonal immortality I'll have to come up with a song that's catchy enough to end up on the radio stations that start playing non-stop Christmas music the day after Thanksgiving.  And one a bass singer can knock out.

A tall order, that's for sure.