Elliott Yamin puts on a Santa Hat. Oy vey!

In the pile of holly-jolly cash-ins on my desk, one stands out: “The Elliott Yamin Holiday Collection.” Oy vey! The emblematic Nice Jewish Boy of “American Idol” just couldn’t resist putting on that Santa hat and getting in the Christmas mood. And exclusively for Target!

Jewish composers have long provided secular alternatives to the season’s musical Nativity scenes. Yamin mostly expands on this legacy with cheesily arranged secular classics (“Jingle Bells,” “The Christmas Song”) and odes to winter-season nookie (“Let’s Be Naughty and Save Santa the Trip,” previously a country tune recorded by Gary Allan). One nod to the baby Jesus makes it in, though, via “The Little Drummer Boy.”

That song, popularized in the 1950s by the Harry Simeone Chorales, is probably the most Middle-Eastern sounding modern-day carol, though it’s actually based on a Czech folk tune. It has a beat that wouldn’t sound wrong played on a dumbek, and a slowly escalating melody any cantor could wring for high drama. My own lovely Jewish neighbors, Esther and Jerry Schor, requested it at every neighborhood Christmas party during my childhood. So I can forgive Elliott for that capitulation to America’s dominant religion. But would it have killed him to include “The Dreidel Song”?

--Ann Powers

Comments

[Cathy]

From Elliott's comments regarding this CD, I got the impression that he intended to include at least one original Hanukkah song. But Target was calling the shots on this one. I don't know what happened but he owns the recordings after one year and may release a new holiday album next year with some Hanukkah songs as well.