Sunday, October 4, 2015

Christmas in Space


 
 
  I have a massive love for any Christmas song that puts Santa in some sort of space adventure. Particularly for tunes that were made either pre-space travel or when it was in it's infancy. I'm 39, so NASA and space exploration have always been a part of my life. That being said, hearing most of the songs on this list makes me feel some sort of displaced nostalgia for the days before space exploration. I think it's great that Santa would have his own space suit and spaceship to make his toy run in space. I can only imagine the wonder the children of the 40's and 50's had at what was out there beyond our planet.

1. Zoot Zoot Zoot, Here Comes Santa  in His New Space Suit - Tiny Tim;  A song about Santa's new space suit, pretty self explanatory.

2. Zoomah the Santa Claus from Mars - Barry Gordon; Not really sure what's happening here, for undisclosed reasons the Martian Santa is coming to Earth to give the earth kids Martian toys. Maybe a cultural exchange happened?

3. There's No Christmas on the Moon - Thee Spivies; A sad tale of a family that moved to the moon and now the kiddies are unable to get Christmas presents because Santa doesn't have a space suit. Perhaps Thee Spivies weren't familiar with Tiny Tim's song, because Santa does indeed have a space suit.

4. Spacey! Santa's Space Ship - Johnny Collins & The Caravans; If you can get past the vocals, this is a cute song about Santa's space ship which is named Spacey of course.

5. Space Age Santa Claus - Jaymz Bee & His Royal Jelly Orchestra and also recorded by Hal Bradley Orchestra w/Patty Marie Jay; This song documents Santa's first trip into outer space. Lots of exciting things take place like a gift shop being set up on the moon and space kids putting out nylon hoses instead of stockings.

6. Solar System Simon, Santa's Supersonic Son - Francis Smith; The heir apparent to the Santa empire. I'm not sure when the clauses had this guy, but despite the boast of him being highly educated I have a feeling he's daddy's dirty little secret.

7. Santa's Rocket - Tim Dinkins; Yet another song about Santa visiting the moon kids in his rocket. I guess there were some serious plans for populating the moon back then.

8. Santa to the Moon - Sonny Cole; And another one about Santa doing due diligence and delivering presents to the children on the moon.

9. Santa Claus Meets the Purple People Eater - Sheb Wooley; While making his space run, Santa almost crashes into Sputnik, but he is saved by the purple people eater.

10. Santa & the Satellite - Buchanan & Goodman; As with most Buchanan & Goodman songs, it features a bunch of audio clips spliced together to form a story. This time it's a story about Santa being kidnapped by aliens on Sputnik.

11. Rudolph Pouts - Israfel's Son; This song is awesome in so many ways, Vixen must take over pulling the sleigh because Rudolph is too lazy and tired to make the trip to space to deliver the toys to the space kids! There is some serious smack talk about Rudie's work ethic.

12. Rocketship Santa - The Bellrays; Santa drives a rocket ship Cadillac in this song. It's obviously the vehicle of choice to go to Mars and mess around with electric guitars.

13. Outer Space Santa - The Lennon Sisters; A tale of Santa's milky way work shop where toys are made for the good children of space.

14.  Futuristic Christmas Tree - Camarata; This technologically advanced tree decides to take a trip to the moon, probably so the moon children will have a tree.

15. Flying Machine (for Christmas) - Flo Price; Yes, in the future kids will want their own flying machines to visit nearby stars.

16. Christmas on the Moon - Troy Hess; Another one with bad vocals, this young man sings about Christmas on the Moon of course. We had such plans for the moon in the 50's and 60's.

17. Captain Santa Claus (And His Reindeer Space Patrol); Santa's sled breaks down, and then another Santa? this one Captain Santa shows up with his reindeer space patrol. They quickly build a rocket for Earth Santa to use.

I'm sure there are many more space themed Christmas songs that I've missed. If anyone is actually reading this, I would love to know some of them.

4 comments:

  1. I definitely remember another one (and I had the 45 RPM record back in the 60's) along the same lines: something about invaders from the moon (or Mars) that kidnapped Santa, or something, and there was even a battle sequence with crazy "woop-woop-woop' sounds of a ray gun firing in the battle. Of course, Santa comes out it of alright, and makes the aliens all happy. I think Rudolph may have saved the day. For the life of me I cannot find any reference to it anywhere on YouTube, or any internet sight. Your site cam up during my search, and I thought for sure that you would have the song I was looking for. Oh well, this site was a real charm to read, nonetheless. Happy Holidays!!

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  2. OMG... I just found it!!! It's called "Santa and the Touchables." I had not heard that in probably thirty years (or more!), but I think my recollection above was fairly accurate. Here it is. Feel free to add it to your list above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4M0bYgYfHM

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  3. It was produced by Dickie Goodman, who was a pre-curser to the sytle of Dr. Demento, Weird Al Yankovic, etc.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dickie_Goodman

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  4. Alan, thank you so much! This song is amazing! I haven't had a chance to update this blog due to a sick family member, but rest assured I will be adding this song along with a couple of others I've found to the list.

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