Chestnut Roasters, Part 1

Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia

Slate Podcasts

Music, Music History, Music Commentary

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 December 2021

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Bing. Nat. Dean. John and Paul. Darlene. Mariah. Ariana. Musicians so famous, with so many classic hits, you don’t even need their last names. Now here are a few more, with fewer hits: Vince Guaraldi. José Feliciano. Donny Hathaway. The Waitresses. What do all of these acts have in common? Years from now, each of them may be known primarily for a single holiday chestnut. In fact, in the streaming era, some of them already are consumed largely in December. In this holiday episode of Hit Parade, Chris Molanphy dives deep into radio, streaming and Billboard chart data to compare these acts’ long hitmaking histories to the majority-merry ways they are consumed today. And none has been more condensed by Christmas than another artist who was once famous enough to go by her first name: Brenda. A ’60s chart dominator and double–Hall of Famer, Brenda Lee is now mostly known for that tune about Christmas tree rockin’. How did the legendary “Little Miss Dynamite” become Santa’s little helper? And will she ever pass Mariah and go back to No. 1? Podcast production by Asha Saluja. Sign up for Slate Plus now to get episodes in one installment as soon as they're out. You'll also get The Bridge, our trivia show and bonus deep dive. Click here for more info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, Hit Parade listeners. What you're about to hear is part one of this episode.
0:06.0	Part two will arrive in your podcast feed at the end of the month. Would you like to hear this
0:11.3	episode all at once the day it drops? Sign up for Slate Plus. You can try it for a month for
0:18.1	just one dollar, and it supports not only this show, but all of Slate's acclaimed journalism
0:24.4	and podcasts. Just go to Slate.com slash Hit Parade Plus. You'll get to hear every Hit Parade
0:31.7	episode in full the day it arrives. Plus Hit Parade The Bridge, our bonus episodes with guest
0:39.0	interviews, deeper dives on our episode topics, and pop chart trivia. Once again, to join,
0:45.6	that's Slate.com slash Hit Parade Plus. Thanks. And now, please enjoy part one of this Hit Parade
0:53.6	episode. This podcast contains seasonal WAM content. WAM A Get in Players discretion is advised.
1:17.3	Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate magazine about the hits
1:23.0	from Coast to Coast. I'm Chris Mulanfee, chart analyst, pop critic, and writer of Slate's Why
1:28.7	Is This Song No. 1 series. On today's show, if by some chance you don't recognize this vocalist,
1:36.3	that is the legendary Bing Crosby, with swinging on a star. It spent a total of 10 cumulative weeks
1:44.6	at No. 1 on Billboard's pop singles charts, best selling retail records, and most played
1:51.6	jukebox records in 1944. That 10-week run was the most of any chart topper that year.
2:03.6	Swinging on a star has become a standard, thanks in large part to its prominent inclusion in the film
2:10.5	going my way. The Crosby starring Best Picture Academy Award winner for 1944. At that same Oscar
2:18.8	ceremony, the tune itself won the Best Original Song Prize, and it probably contributed to Crosby's
2:25.4	own Oscar win that night for Best Actor. For most musicians, feats like these would make
2:32.1	swinging on a star their definitive song, the way such Oscar winners as theme from Shaft,
2:38.4	my heart will go on, and lose yourself are the definitive hit for Isaac Hayes, Celine Dion,
2:45.7	and Eminem respectively. But I mean who are we kidding? This is not the signature hit for
	...

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