Christmas Wrapping

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"Christmas Wrapping"
Single Waitresses-Christmas Wrapping cover.jpg
Front cover of picture sleeve of 1982 UK reissue
Single by The Waitresses
from the album A Christmas Record
B-side
Released1981
Format7-inch, 12-inch
Recorded1981
GenreChristmas music, new wave, post-punk
Length4:30 (single edit)
5:18 (LP edit)
LabelZe WIP 6763 (1981)
Ze WIP 6821 (1982)
Songwriter(s)Chris Butler
Producer(s)Chris Butler
The Waitresses singles chronology
"I Know What Boys Like"
(1980)
"Christmas Wrapping"
(1981)

"Christmas Wrapping" is a Christmas song by the American new wave band the Waitresses. It was first released on the 1981 compilation album A Christmas Record on ZE Records, and also appears on the Waitresses' 1982 EP I Could Rule the World If I Could Only Get the Parts and numerous Christmas holiday compilation albums.[1] It was written and produced by Chris Butler, with vocals by Patty Donahue.[2] The song received positive reviews and AllMusic described it as "one of the best holiday pop tunes ever recorded."

Writing

In 1981, ZE Records asked each of its artists to record a Christmas song for a Christmas compilation album, A Christmas Record. Songwriter Chris Butler wrote the song in August that year, assembling it from assorted unused riffs. He finished the lyrics in a taxi cab on the way to the recording studio. The lyrics came from Butler's hatred of Christmas: "Everybody I knew in New York was running around like a bunch of fiends. It wasn't about joy. It was something to cope with."[3]

Written while hip hop music was beginning to gain prominence, the song is "almost rapped" by vocalist Patty Donahue.[3] Its title is a pun on "rapping",[4][5][6] and was a spoof on the name of the 1979 song "Christmas Rappin'" by Kurtis Blow.[7] Beyond that, the title is a play on the lyrics themselves: Butler explained in an interview that he "liked the idea of the word 'wrap,' like a wraparound, because the story is circular".[7]

Lyrics

The song is told from the perspective of a busy single woman adamant not to participate in the exhausting Christmas period. She has "turned down all [her] invites" and resolves to "miss this one this year". Earlier in the year, she met an appealing man at a ski shop and got his number, but had no time to ask him out. Despite their attempts to meet in the following months, a succession of mishaps keeps them apart. On Christmas Eve, the woman is roasting "the world's smallest turkey" for herself when she realizes she has forgotten to buy cranberries. At a 24-hour grocery store, she runs into the man, who has also forgotten to buy cranberries, bringing her Christmas "to a very happy ending". In the final refrain, she admits that she "couldn't miss this one this year".[6]

Release and reception

The song was an immediate and unexpected success. According to Butler, the Waitresses were in the middle of a difficult tour and the Christmas song commission was "the last thing we wanted".[8] He recalled later that its enthusiastic reception was a rejuvenating gift for the band: "We do the Christmas song, forget about it and go back on the road. The next thing I know when calling back to New York is that it's all over the radio and much to our surprise it leaps over our heads and hits all the cities where we're heading and all of a sudden we're back on an upswing again."[8]

The song was released as a single in the UK in 1981 on Island Records. Although it did not make the charts that year, it was reissued in 1982 and reached No. 45 on the official UK Singles Chart in December 1982.[9]

Writing in 2005, Guardian arts journalist Dorian Lynskey called the song "fizzing, funky dance-around-the-Christmas-tree music for Brooklyn hipsters."[10] In 2012, Daily Telegraph writer Bernadette McNulty called it "one of the most charming, insouciant festive songs ever."[4] AllMusic reviewer Andy Hinds called it "one of the best holiday pop tunes ever recorded."[1]

Commercial performance

On the UK Official Singles chart, "Christmas Wrapping" peaked at number 45, spending two weeks there. It remains the group's highest-charting single there.[11] During the 2016 holiday season, the song experienced a resurgence in popularity in the UK, re-entering the singles chart at number 96.[11]

The song has since been featured on numerous holiday music compilations including The Edge of Christmas, Dr. Demento's Holidays in Dementia, and Now That's What I Call Christmas!: The Signature Collection.[12]

Covers

"Christmas Wrapping" has been covered by numerous artists. It was covered by the British pop group Spice Girls as a B-side for their 1998 single "Goodbye", with lyrics altered to include a reference to British supermarket chain Tesco.[10] It has also been covered by Save Ferris (with lyrics altered for a Jewish perspective),[13] Kate Nash,[14] the Front Bottoms,[15] the Donnas,[16] Summer Camp,[16] the cast of the Broadway musical Wicked,[17] Miranda Cosgrove,[18] comedian Doug Benson,[19] Martha Wainwright,[20] the cast of the TV show Glee with Heather Morris on lead vocals,[21] and Disney Channel star Bella Thorne.[22] British/Irish girl band the Saturdays did a cover of the song for the film Get Santa.[23] Australian singer Kylie Minogue recorded the song for her 2015 album, Kylie Christmas.[24]

References

  1. ^ a b "I Could Rule the World If I Could Only Get the Parts". Allmusic. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
  2. ^ NME TV Song Stories - The Waitresses, 'Christmas Wrapping' on YouTube
  3. ^ a b Petrick, John (22 December 2005). "How an obscure 80s punk band created a Christmas classic". The Star. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
  4. ^ a b McNultey, Bernadette (16 December 2012). "Christmas songs advent calendar: Day 16. The Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping". The Telegraph. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
  5. ^ DiMeo, Nate (2010-12-24). "The story behind 'Christmas Wrapping'". Marketplace. MPR.
  6. ^ a b Urycki, Mark. "Couldn't Miss This One: Behind 'Christmas Wrapping'". Morning Edition. NPR. Retrieved 2014-12-24.
  7. ^ a b Spears, Steve (December 5, 2016). "The story behind ... 'Christmas Wrapping' by The Waitresses". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved December 18, 2019.
  8. ^ a b Pouncey, Edwin (March 6, 1982). "The Waitresses: What The Butler Said". Sounds. Retrieved November 17, 2018 – via Rock's Backpages.
  9. ^ Betts, Graham (2004). Complete UK Hit Singles 1952-2004 (1st ed.). London: Collins. p. 829. ISBN 0-00-717931-6.
  10. ^ a b Lynskey, Dorian (23 December 2005). "Readers recommend: alternative Christmas songs". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
  11. ^ a b "Waitresses Chart History (OCC)". Official Charts. Official Charts Company. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
  12. ^ "Christmas Wrapping" at AllMusic. Retrieved December 21, 2019.
  13. ^ Jane, Ally (6 December 2013). "Video Vault, Episode 15: Save Ferris "Christmas Wrapping"". 333sound. Archived from the original on 25 December 2013. Retrieved 24 December 2013.
  14. ^ "Artist Of The Week: Kate Nash". Buzzworthy. MTV. 7 January 2008. Retrieved 24 December 2013.
  15. ^ Staff (20 December 2011). "MP3: The Front Bottoms Get In The Holiday Spirit With "Christmas Wrapping"". Filter. Retrieved 24 December 2013.
  16. ^ a b "Summer Camp Cover "Christmas Wrapping"". Stereogum. 2010-12-03. Retrieved 24 December 2013.
  17. ^ Gans, Andrew (11 November 2004). "Stars From Avenue Q, Wicked, Hairspray and More Featured on "Carols for a Cure Volume 6"". Playbill. Archived from the original on 25 December 2013. Retrieved 24 December 2013.
  18. ^ "Christmas Wrapping - Single Miranda Cosgrove". iTunes Store. Apple. Retrieved 24 December 2013.
  19. ^ "CDR Xmas CD". Earwolf.com.
  20. ^ "A Not So Silent Night". Revelation Films. Archived from the original on 25 December 2013. Retrieved 24 December 2013.
  21. ^ VanDerWerff, Emily (14 December 2011). "Glee: "Extraordinary Merry Christmas"". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 24 December 2013.
  22. ^ Crooks, Amy (16 October 2013). "Disney "Holidays Unwrapped" Details". Dis411. Retrieved 24 December 2013.
  23. ^ "'Get Santa' Soundtrack Released". Filmmusicreporter.com. December 3, 2014. Retrieved October 19, 2018.
  24. ^ Sendra, Tim. Kylie Minogue: 'Kylie Christmas' at AllMusic. Retrieved November 17, 2018.

External links


This page was last updated at 2020-07-06 04:25 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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