Last month, the local paper issued this challenge:
“You tell us: What’s the most memorable concert you’ve ever been to in Green Bay?”
Challenge accepted.
We’re invited to nominate one memorable concert. We also can list two honorable mentions if so inclined. I’m so inclined.
Since 1979, I’ve seen about 100 shows in the Green Bay area. I made a list of my most memorable concerts. It had 24 shows on it. Now I have to narrow that to three. OK, here goes.
Honorable mention No. 2: Chuck Berry at the Oneida Casino ballroom on Sunday, May 31, 2009.
Chuck Berry was 82 when he played here. Never thought I’d have the chance to see him live. After that show, you wondered whether he’d played for roughly an hour, or played roughly for an hour. He read poetry. Which was OK. With Chuck Berry, you never can tell. I’d taken my son, who was 14. Not sure what he made of it all.
At the time, the casino brought in lots of big-name music acts for insanely reasonable prices, a loss leader intended to drive free-spending visitors into the casino. I saw lots of shows there. My friend Todd helped book that show. One good story: Chuck Berry drove home to St. Louis from the show.
(It pains me to put Chuck Berry at No. 2 because it forces me to omit seeing Little Richard — another founding father of rock ‘n roll — at the casino in 2002 and 2007.)
Honorable mention No. 1: Eric Clapton with Muddy Waters at the Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena on Saturday, June 16, 1979.
You never forget your first. That was my first concert in Green Bay. I wasn’t even living here at the time. I went to the show with my girlfriend of three months. It was our first concert, and it was in her hometown. We drove through a fierce thunderstorm to get to the show. Memorable for those reasons.
But I remember almost nothing about the concert, least of all anything Clapton may or may not have played. Others who claim to have been there say Clapton was pretty fried. I can’t confirm or refute that. My lingering memory is of someone sitting up above us, throwing firecrackers down toward the Arena floor.
My most memorable concert in Green Bay: Def Leppard at the Brown County Arena on Wednesday, Dec. 9, 1992.
That night, I accompanied another young lady who wanted to see a concert at the Arena. She was a co-worker going through a separation or a divorce. She wanted to go, but not by herself. I was going, but I’d planned to go by myself. Understandably, there were certain rules for this outing. Everything had to be quite proper. It was.
We saw a tremendous show by a band at the peak of its video-driven popularity. It came roughly halfway through their Adrenalize “Seven-Day Weekend” World Tour, on which Def Leppard played 244 shows over 18 months. Ticket demand was so great that they added a second show in Green Bay, the show we saw. That almost never happens in Green Bay.
Def Leppard played the concert in the round, a setup rarely seen in the Arena. Still not quite sure how the band got on stage without being noticed, but the stage was built up above the Arena floor. Whatever. Everything they played was great, as was their showmanship.
It was an eye-opener for me. I was in my mid-30s, but I hadn’t seen a lot of concerts — maybe 15 shows over 20 years. Oooh, I thought, I gotta do this more often. By the time I reached my 40s, I did. I’d come to the realization that some of my favorite bands were not going to tour forever, and now that I could afford it from time to time, I should get out and see them live.
“That,” my friend Meat said, “is a pretty cool mid-life crisis.” I didn’t agree, but you had to smile at the notion, and it’s always made for a great story.
That oh-so-memorable Def Leppard concert got it all started.
Some background for those not familiar with Green Bay …
About a quarter of a million people live here. Our venues have ranged from Lambeau Field (capacity roughly 50,000 for concerts) to arenas of 10,000 seats (the Resch Center) and 6,000 seats (the old Brown County Arena) to theaters of 1,000 to 2,000 seats to smaller auditoriums, dance halls, nightclubs and bars.
This has historically been a second-tier stop on most concert tours, a place they visit after playing all the big cities, or a place to swoop in and fill a random open date. This also has been a place where bands or performers on the rise play some of their first shows.
(If you seek a playlist as you read this, my friend Larry Grogan has put together two tribute shows to musicians we lost in 2025. Larry’s one-hour soul and R&B tribute was on his Funky 16 Corners Radio Show. Larry’s two-hour pop and rock tribute was on his Testify! show on WFMU radio. They nicely complement this post with some artists not mentioned here. Dig them!)
They go in threes. They always go in threes. 2025 was no different.
Bob Uecker, though, was in a class by himself.
It’s 1971. I’m 13. My radio is my constant companion. There’s a new guy calling Brewers games with Merle Harmon and Tom Collins. Some guy named Bob Uecker. I listen to him for a lifetime.
It’s 2024. I’m 67. I’m still listening to Brewers baseball on the radio. I hear Ueck say the last words we’d ever hear from him. He was seemingly and uncharacteristically almost at a loss for words after the Brewers were eliminated by the Mets in Game 3 of the NL wild-card playoff series:
“The Crew will … um … will have it end … here tonight. … “That one … had some sting on it.”
Bob Uecker, gone three months later at 90. That one had some sting on it.
Anyhow, they go in threes. They always go in threes. Here’s 2025.
ABA players: Kim Hughes, Larry Jones, Larry Miller
The Academy Award goes to: Gene Hackman (“The French Connection,” “Unforgiven”), Stanley Jaffe (“Kramer vs. Kramer” producer), Diane Keaton (“Annie Hall”)
Adventurers: Felix Baumgartner (extreme skydiver), Cleo Hearn (Black rodeo trailblazer), Kanchha Sherpa (last surviving member of first team to conquer Mount Everest)
Advocates: Miss Major (trans rights), Cecile Richards (led Planned Parenthood), Alice Wong (disability rights)
Animal magnetism: D. Wayne Lukas (horse trainer won 15 Triple Crown races), Dan Seavey (helped organize Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race), Ron Turcotte (Secretariat’s jockey)
Architectural details: Frank Gehry (designed Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Walt Disney Concert Hall), Bob Irving (founded Chicago Architecture Center’s river cruise), Louis Naidorf (designed Capitol Records building)
Author, author! John Feinstein (sports), Tom Robbins (fiction), Joseph Wambaugh (crime)
Badasses: Dave Parker (baseball’s Cobra), Ronnie Rondell Jr. (stunt man on fire on cover of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” LP), Dale Webster (surfed every day for 40 years, one month, one day)
Basketball coaches: Richie Adubato (NBA, WNBA), Dale Langbehn (my high school coach), Frank Layden (NBA, WNBA)
Beatlemania: Peter Bassano (Played four notes on trombone in the coda of “Hey Jude,” sang the “na na na na na na na” refrain and clapped along, 1968. “Over the years, that single, easy and enjoyable Beatles’ session has earned me more money than anything else I have ever done.”), Vince Calandra (booked Beatles’ debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show” on Feb. 9, 1964), Eddie Thornton (played trumpet on “Got To Get You Into My Life,” 1966)
Behind the sound board: Roy Thomas Baker (produced Queen, The Cars), Jerry Kasenetz (bubble gum music producer), Terry Manning (Stax, Argent, Abbey Road engineer)
Blues men: Linsey Alexander, Barry Goldberg, Joe Louis Walker
Brewers, briefly: Marshall Edwards, Andy Kosco, Bernie Smith
British royalty: Dame Joan Plowright (actor), Dame Patricia Routledge (actor), Sir Tom Stoppard (playwright, screenwriter)
Brother acts: Dick Addrisi (Addrisi Brothers), Wayne Osmond (The Osmonds), Chubby Tavares (Tavares)
A (Carpenters) song for you: Richard Chamberlain (the actor was the first to record “[They Long to Be] Close to You,” 1963), Terry Draper (wrote “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft” for Klaatu, covered by the Carpenters), Roger Nichols (co-wrote “We’ve Only Just Begun,” “Rainy Days and Mondays,” “I Won’t Last A Day Without You”)
Cartoons: Tony Benedict (writer, “The Jetsons,” “The Atom Ant Show”), Jerry Eisenberg (designed many Hanna-Barbera characters), Jules Feiffer (satirist)
Canadian sisters: Cecile and Annette Dionne (last surviving Dionne quintuplets), Jane McGarrigle (folk singers Kate and Anna McGarrigle’s older sibling)
Cast in space: Kenneth Colley (second and third “Star Wars” films), Gil Gerard (“Buck Rogers in the 25th Century), June Lockhart (“Lost in Space”)
Cheers! Jack McAuliffe (first modern-era microbrewer, New Albion Brewing Co., 1976), Peter Sichel (CIA Cold War operative developed Blue Nun wine), George Wendt (Norm from “Cheers”)
Child actors: Jay North (“Dennis the Menace”), Danielle Spencer (“What’s Happening!!”), Michelle Trachtenberg (Nickelodeon shows, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”)
Chronicling the music: Michael Lydon (Rolling Stone founding editor), Gary E. Myers (Wisconsin music historian), Michael Ochs (photo archivist)
Civil rights, by the numbers: Jo Ann Allen Boyce and Bobby Cain (among Clinton 12 who integrated Clinton [Tenn.] High School, 1956), Joseph McNeil (one of Greensboro Four who staged sit-in at Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., 1960)
Civil rights voices: Bob Filner (Freedom Rider, 1961), Charles Person (youngest Freedom Rider, just 18 in 1961), Betty Reid Soskin (national park ranger from age 85 to 100)
Come fly with me: Valerie Andre (first woman flying combat rescue missions in helicopter), Beverly Burns (first woman to captain Boeing 747 jumbo jet), Conrad “Gus” Shinn (first pilot to land at South Pole)
Commissioners: Judy Bell (USGA president), Paul Tagliabue (NFL), Fay Vincent (MLB)
Composers: Alf Clausen (“The Simpsons”), Lalo Schifrin (“Mission: Impossible” theme, movie scores), Charles Strouse (“Bye Bye Birdie,” “Applause,” “Annie” on Broadway)
Danger in space: James Lovell (Apollo 13 commander), William R. Lucas (NASA administrator blamed in Challenger disaster), Ed Smylie (Apollo 13 engineer, troubleshooter, rescuer)
Dig that Latin sound: Rafael Ithier (salsa), Eddie Palmieri (salsa, Latin jazz), Rubby Perez (merengue)
Director’s chair: Robert Benton (“Kramer vs. Kramer,” “Places in the Heart”), Henry Jaglom (“Eating”), David Lynch (“The Elephant Man,” “Blue Velvet,” “Twin Peaks”)
DJs: Jed the Fish (KROQ Los Angeles, alternative radio), Bob Rivers (DJ, parody songwriter), Pierre Robert (WMMR Philadelphia, rock)
Dolly world: David Briggs (session keyboards), Carl Dean (husband), Jeannie Seely (close friend)
Early rockers: Dave Burgess (rhythm guitar, Champs), Sonny Curtis (guitar and vocals, Crickets, wrote “I Fought the Law,” and “Love is All Around,” the theme to “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”), Robert Jaramillo (singer, Cannibal and the Headhunters)
Elegant singers: Roberta Flack, Dame Cleo Laine, Jane Morgan
Elvis world: Mac Gayden (session guitarist), Donna Jean Godchaux (backup singer, “Suspicious Minds,” 1969), Troy Seals (wrote “Pieces of My Life”)
Enigmatic: Betty Webb and Ruth Bourne (two of the last British World War II code breakers), Julia Parsons (last U.S. Navy code breaker from WWII)
Fashionistas: Giorgio Armani (Italian designer), Soo Catwoman (London punk scene), Pam Hogg (British designer and post-punk musician)
Foodies: Nathalie Dupree (Southern cooking), Marilyn Hagerty (Grand Forks, N.D., writer whose Olive Garden review went viral), Pat Scala (meat wholesaler who sold Chicago on Italian beef in the ‘70s and ‘80s)
Girl power: Nina Kuscsik (women’s marathon pioneer), Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt (beloved Loyola basketball chaplain), Mabel Staton (only American in women’s long jump at Helsinki Olympics, 1952)
Goalies gone: Eddie Giacomin, Ken Dryden, Bernie Parent
Gone country: Melba Montgomery, Stu Phillips (oldest member of Grand Ole Opry), Johnny Rodriguez
Gone too soon: D’Angelo, Jill Sobule, Angie Stone
Half of the act: Bobby Hart (Boyce and Hart), Sam Moore (Sam & Dave), Tom Shipley (Brewer & Shipley)
Hall of Famers: Dick Barnett (NBA), Kenny Easley (NFL), Ryne Sandberg (MLB)
Hasta la bye bye: Dick Cheney, James Dobson, Jimmy Swaggart
Hosts with the most: Anne Burrell (Food Network), Wink Martindale (DJ, game shows), Ron Nessen (White House press secretary hosted “Saturday Night Live,” 1976)
Influencers: Susan Brownmiller (feminism), Pope Francis, Alvin Poussaint (psychiatrist studied effects of racism on Blacks)
Inside the ring: Nino Benvenuti, George Foreman, Dwight Muhammad Qawi
Inventive: Joan Anderson (introduced and named hula hoop), Robert Jarvik (artificial heart), James Moylan (Ford designer created fuel gauge arrow pointing to gas tank)
It’s complicated: Eugene Hasenfus (alleged CIA operative with Nicaraguan Contras), Hulk Hogan, James Watson (identified DNA double helix but was racist, sexist, problematic)
I want my MTV: Marty Callner (music video director), Ananda Lewis (‘90s host), MTV as we knew it (killed off its 24-hour music channels at year’s end)
John Wayne’s co-stars: Edward Faulkner (six films), Claude Jarman Jr. (“Rio Grande”), Peter Jason (“Rio Lobo,” his film debut)
Jazz men: Roy Ayers (vibes), Jack DeJohnette (drums), Al Foster (drums)
Kid brothers: Rahaman Ali (boxer, Muhammad’s sibling), Stan Love (NBA and ABA player, Beach Boys’ Mike Love’s sibling), Randy Moffitt (MLB pitcher, tennis star Billie Jean King’s sibling)
Last man standing: George Hardy (last of the original Tuskegee Airmen fighter pilots), John Hemingway (RAF captain, last Battle of Britain airman), Donald McPherson (Navy fighter pilot, last World War II ace)
Last one left: Garth Hudson (The Band), David Johansen (original New York Dolls), Joey Molland (Badfinger)
The last out: Tommy Brown (last living player to debut before the end of World War II, last living player from pre-integration era), Billy Hunter (last living St. Louis Browns player), Betsy “Sockum” Jochum (last All-American Girls Professional Baseball League player from 1943 season)
Lombardi’s Packers: Tom Brown, Bob Long, Steve Wright (each three-time NFL champions, two-time Super Bowl champions)
Los(t) Super Seven: Joe Ely, Flaco Jimenez, Raul Malo
Mel’s Diner: Alan Bergman (wrote theme for “Alice” TV show), Polly Holliday (“Flo”), Diane Ladd (“Belle”)
Memphis men: Don Bryant (Hi Records songwriter, wrote “I Can’t Stand the Rain” for future wife Ann Peebles), Steve Cropper (Booker T. & the M.G.s, Mar-Keys, Stax Records house band guitarist, producer, co-wrote “Knock On Wood,” “In the Midnight Hour,” [Sittin’ On] The Dock of the Bay”), Don Nix (Mar-Keys sax player, Stax session player, producer, wrote “Going Down”)
The Naturals: Joe Don Baker (“The Whammer”), Michael Madsen (Bump Bailey), Robert Redford (Roy Hobbs)
Never forget: Frank Chuman (interned at Manzanar, became Japanese-American equal rights advocate), Margot Friedlander (Holocaust survivor and public speaker), Gyorgy Kun (survived Josef Mengele’s experimentation on twins at Auschwitz)
Notorious: H. Rap Brown aka Jamal al-Amin (Black Power militant), Sara Jane Moore (tried to assassinate President Ford), Assata Shakur (fugitive Black Power militant)
Oscar nominees: Samantha Eggar (“The Collector”), Graham Greene (“Dances With Wolves”), Sally Kirkland (“Anna”)
Pee-wee’s playmates: Jeremy Railton (designer), Mark Snow (composed music for four episodes), Lynne Marie Stewart (Miss Yvonne)
Picture this: Herb Greene (San Francisco counterculture photographer), Marcia Resnick (New York punk photographer), Joe Stevens (New York rock photographer)
Reporting history: Peter Arnett (Vietnam and Gulf wars, AP and CNN), Sid Davis (last surviving reporter to witness LBJ being sworn in after JFK assassination), Ed Rabel (CBS, last reporter to interview Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. before his assassination, then volunteered to cover Vietnam War)
Rural comics: Rick Hurst (“Dukes of Hazzard”), Lulu Roman and Gailard Sartain (“Hee Haw”)
Sammy Davis Jr. loves ya: May Britt (his second wife), Olga James (“Mr. Wonderful” co-star on Broadway), Alfie Wise (“The Cannonball Run”)
Seattle’s super Sonics: Slick Watts, Lenny Wilkens, Gus Williams
See you in court: L. Clifford Davis (his fight for University of Arkansas Law School admission helped other Black students get in), David Souter (Supreme Court justice), Gerry Spence (trial lawyer)
Session men: Albert “Junior” Lowe (guitar, bass, Muscle Shoals), Sam McCue (guitarist worked with Everly Brothers and many acts visiting Milwaukee), Phil Upchurch (guitar, bass, Chicago groups, Chess Records)
Sex symbols: Loni Anderson, Brigitte Bardot, Claudia Cardinale
Singer-songwriters: Todd Snider, Peter Yarrow, Jesse Colin Young
Singers turned actors: Marianne Faithfull, Connie Francis, Bobby Sherman
Sitcom stars: Lynn Hamilton (“Sanford and Son”), Loretta Swit (“M*A*S*H”), Malcolm-Jamal Warner (“The Cosby Show”)
Soap kings: Anthony Geary, Chris Robinson and Tristan Rogers (“General Hospital”)
Soap queens: Denise Alexander and Leslie Charleson (“General Hospital”), Eileen Fulton (“As the World Turns”)
Solo singers: Lou Christie, Chris Rea, Terry Reid
Soul brothers: Jerry Butler, Carl Carlton, Brenton Wood
Soul sisters: Patti Drew, Gwen McCrae, Ann Sexton
Spies like us: Marthe Cohn (Holocaust survivor turned French spy in Nazi Germany), Sandra Grimes (CIA officer who helped expose double agent Aldrich Ames), Stella Rimington (first woman to lead Britain’s MI5, the inspiration for James Bond’s spymaster “M”)
Spy guys: Joe Caroff (designed James Bond 007 pistol logo [and “West Side Story” movie poster]), Bruce Glover (Mr. Wint, assassin in the James Bond film “Diamonds Are Forever”), Dave Ketchum (Agent 13 on “Get Smart”)
Sports voices: Dick Button, Mike Patrick, Al Trautwig
Superheroes and supervillains: Val Kilmer (Batman in “Batman Forever”), Julian McMahon (Doctor Doom in first two “Fantastic Four” films), Terence Stamp (General Zod in first two “Superman” films)
Survivors of history: John Cleary (shot at Kent State, made cover of Life magazine), Virginia Giuffre (Epstein sex trafficking victim, became advocate for other victims), Anne Marie Hochhalter (shot at Columbine, became anti-gun activist)
Trailblazers: Nancy Leftenant-Colon (first Black woman in Army Nurse Corps), Loretta Ford (co-founded first nurse practitioner program), Ruth Lawrence (pediatrician, breastfeeding advocate)
Unacceptable political violence: Mark Hortman, Melissa Hortman, Charlie Kirk
Unforgettable games: Lee Elia (profane rant after 1983 Cubs game), Jim Marshall (recovered fumble and ran the wrong way in 1964 Vikings game), Tom Patton (Orioles catcher whose MLB career lasted one game in 1957)
Upstairs, Downstairs: Charlotte Bingham (first-season writer), Pauline Collins (maid Sarah Moffat), Jean Marsh (co-creator and star, maid Rose Buck)
Washington insiders: David Gergen, Bill Moyers, Susan Stamberg
Weather men: Chuck Doswell (among first storm chasers to research thunderstorms and tornadoes), Gary England (first on-air TV weather person to use Doppler radar to warn of a tornado), Neil Frank (National Hurricane Center director turned Houston TV meteorologist)
Witnesses to history: Viola “Mother” Fletcher (oldest known survivor of Tulsa race massacre, 1921), Clint Hill (Secret Service agent jumped on the back of the presidential limousine to provide cover after the JFK assassination, 1963), George Raveling (basketball coach stood next to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at his “I Have a Dream” speech, asked for and was handed King’s typewritten script, 1963)
Gone in Threes, the band
Front men: Rick Davies (Supertramp), Ozzy Osbourne (Black Sabbath), Mark Volman (Turtles, Mothers of Invention, Flo and Eddie)
Guitar: Rick Derringer (McCoys, Johnny and Edgar Winter), Ace Frehley (KISS), Mick Ralphs (Mott the Hoople, Bad Company)
Bass: Ray Estrada (Mothers of Invention, Little Feat), John Lodge (Moody Blues), Mani aka Gary Mounfield (Stone Roses, Primal Scream)
Drums: Bob “Boom-Boom” Bennett (Sonics), Clem Burke (Blondie), Jellybean Johnson (The Time, The Family)
Keyboards: Gary Graffman (“Rhapsody in Blue” on “Manhattan” soundtrack), Chris Jasper (Isley Brothers), Bobby Whitlock (Derek and the Dominos)
Horns: Gene Barge (Church Street Five sax), Chuck Mangione (jazz flugelhorn), Teddy Osei (Osibisa sax)
Surf elders from Sheboygan, the Malibu of the Midwest: Mike McDonell, Andy Sommersberger, Tommy Ziegler
The stunner
There always is one death that takes your breath away. This year, there were two.
Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner.
The last word
Some memorable farewells
— Sharon Broekman of Athelstane, Wisconsin: “The wild woman from Borneo has left the building. … So as not to screw up your day I do not want a wake. Don’t think it is worth the cost anyway. So instead at 5:00 pm on the day you wish, take a drink of your liking.”
— Herman Kafura of Green Bay, Wisconsin: “Having enjoyed the bright side of the world for these past 83 years, it seems to be time to now also explore the unknown. Not a choice I like to make, but the time apparently has arrived. Off to another thrilling adventure …”
— Shirlyn Miller of Green Bay, Wisconsin: “When she died, Shirlyn Miller, daughter of a dentist, proudly had all her teeth, most of her marbles and as always, her astonishing, ageless beauty.”
— Dick Walker (Grandpa One Eye) of Merrill, Wisconsin: “Richard, known mostly as Dick (more ways than one) … Dick thought he was the greatest for having created triplets in 1968, he thought it made him more manly. … He survived (barely) being married twice and divorced twice. Second marriage is probably why there is no money left over for generational wealth. Hence, his wish not to have a funeral and waste hard earned money. This obituary is going to cost us enough.”
— Doug Youra of Green Bay, Wisconsin: “I, daughter Carmen, apologize for the length and detail of my father’s obituary; hopefully, you will still read to the end. ‘Dougie’ never really did anything fast in life, nor without great detail, so this is to honor him.”
Noteworthy
This is not intended to be an inclusive list of all who died in 2025. This is my highly subjective list. Yours will be different.
(If you wonder why this always lags the new year by a few days, it’s because some deaths aren’t announced immediately. This new year is but nine days old and already we’re going forward without Renee Nicole Good, murdered by ICE thugs in Minneapolis.)
“Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” isn’t just a Christmas song. It also leans into New Year’s Day.
So this is Christmas
And what have you done? Another year over
And a new one just begun
“Happy Xmas (War Is Over),” John Lennon and Yoko Ono, the Plastic Ono Band and the Harlem Community Choir, released as an Apple single, 1971.
I’d long had this song on “Shaved Fish,” the 1975 compilation LP from Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band. Then I found the green vinyl 45 a few years back. Delighted to have it.
A very Merry Christmas And a happy new year Let’s hope it’s a good one Without any fear
In 1966, Motown songwriters Ron Miller and Bryan Wells looked around and wondered just what the hell was going on in this land of ours. A lot of us wonder the same thing today.
A year later, 17-year-old Stevie Wonder voiced these wishes:
Someday at Christmas man will not fail Hate will be gone and love will prevail Someday a new world that we can start With hope in every heart, yeah
“Someday at Christmas,” Stevie Wonder, 1967, from the “Someday at Christmas” LP. (I have this cut on “A Motown Christmas,” the essential 1973 holiday comp on the Motown label.)
Maybe not in time for you and me But someday at Christmastime
20 years later, in 1987, Pat MacDonald and Barbara K — the husband-and-wife duo that performed as Timbuk3 — looked around and wondered just what the hell was going on in this world of ours. A lot of us wonder the same thing today.
Their humble wish:
All I want for Christmas All I want for Christmas All I want for Christmas is world peace
“All I Want for Christmas (Is World Peace),” Timbuk3, 1987, from the 45 single.
(This is the sleeve for that 45. You could have bought it for 25 cents if you also bought a carton of Kent, True, Newport or Old Gold cigarettes.)
There’s no music. Just “Louis Satchmo Armstrong talkin’ to all the kids … from all over the world … at Christmas time,” reading Clement Clarke Moore’s classic poem in a warm, gravelly voice.
“But I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight, ‘Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night. A very good night.’
“And that goes for Satchmo, too. (Laughs softly.) Thank you.”
It was the last thing he ever recorded. Satchmo, 69 at the time, died a little over four months later, in July 1971. Satchmo, gone 54 years now.
Rob’s Christmas wish.
Eighteen years ago, when this blog was not even a year old, our new friend Rob in Pennsylvania declared Irma Thomas’ rendition of “O Holy Night” to be “goosebump-inducing stuff.” It still is. Here you go, buddy.
These are mp3s from my collection, taken from vinyl whenever possible. Enjoy. All music presented here is shared under the premise of fair use. This blog is solely intended for the purpose of education, a place for me to tell stories and write about music and cultural history. If you are a rights holder to any of the music presented and wish for it to be removed, please email me directly and it will be taken down.
About the words
The text is copyright 2007-2026, Jeff Ash. Text from other sources, when excerpted, is credited.
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