2019 Cranberry First Night – November 22-23

Ever since the end of the evening, when Greg pointed out that a cover version of Last Christmas was playing on the sound system, I have had that song stuck in my head. It has been a miserable experience (I don’t know most of the words, so my brain just repeats the same section over and over) and it is definitely Greg’s fault. And also George Michael’s. But mostly Greg’s.

>> I think you heard Taylor Swift’s remake. You need to blame her too.

I finally got it out of my head over Thanksgiving, and then on the drive back to Pittsburgh, they were playing another cover of it at a Turnpike rest stop, so it’s back. I’m still blaming Greg.

The one at rest stop was not the same one that we heard at Cranberry, but it was a female vocalist. I noticed that on the Wikipedia entry for the song, eleven covers of the song get higher billing than Taylor’s. Namely: Whigfield, Billie Piper, Jimmy Eat World, Hilary Duff, Ashley Tisdale, Crazy Frog, Cascada, Alcazar, Joe McElderry, Ariana Grande, and Carly Rae Jepsen. Most of those people I don’t even know who they are.

I thought the most interesting part of the entry was though was this:

On behalf of the writers of the song “Can’t Smile Without You”, made popular by Barry Manilow, publishing company Dick James Music sued Michael for plagiarism in the mid-1980s, claiming that “Last Christmas” lifted its melody from the former. The case was thrown out when a musicologist presented 60-odd songs from the past century that had a comparable chord sequence and melody.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Christmas