I had so much fun perusing Christmas rock videos on YouTube that I thought I’d throw in a few more tunes this week. These aren’t my favorite Christmas songs, but they have a few things in common. 1. They are both by artists that were popular in 1990. 2. They are the same song, "Jingle Bell Rock." 3. The first one is by an artist I didn’t care for when they were popular, but I do like this Christmas song. The second song is by an artist I did like in the eighties/nineties, but this video makes me cringe.The first song is "Jingle Bell Rock" by Nelson. Nelson is a band with two brothers, Matthew and Gunnar, who had a hit in 1990 called, “(Can’t Live Without Your) Love and Affection.” I actually saw them in concert this year with my mom. We went to see Great White, LA Guns, and Nelson. Good bands, not great bands, but they were playing in a cornfield about twenty minutes from us, so we went. It was pretty fun, and we had our picture taken with Gunnar and Matthew (don’t ask me which is which). They were nice guys. If you have ever seen The Suite Life on Disney Channel, picture Zack and Cody 25 years from now.
They don’t have a video, so just take a listen to "Jingle Bell Rock" from the Monster Ballads Xmas album (which is seriously on my list this year!).
The next video is "Jingle Bell Rock" by Billy Idol. Billy Idol is cool. He has a sneer like no other, and I love the song, “White Wedding.” He was a major Mtv staple of the eighties. So I thought this would be an awesome version of “Jingle Bell Rock.” It is probably the video that turned me off to it. I like to think of Billy as a tough, lip curling rocker. This 2006 video just makes him look like a goof, and it looks like he’s had a little work done, too. Actually, his vocals sound good in the song, he just looks silly in the video! If you like the song, Billy has a whole album of Christmas songs titled, Happy Holidays: A Very Special Christmas Album.
Here it is!
