Green Christmas (Stan Freberg song)
"Green Chri$tma$" | ||||
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Single by Stan Freberg | ||||
B-side | "The Meaning of Christmas" | |||
Released | December 2, 1958 | |||
Genre | Comedy, Christmas | |||
Length | 6:50 | |||
Label | Capitol Records | |||
Songwriter(s) | Stan Freberg | |||
Stan Freberg singles chronology | ||||
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"Green Chri$tma$" is a comedy
The title is wordplay on the phrase "green Christmas", a Christmas with no snow, with "green" taking on a double meaning of the green ink uniformly used on U.S. currency at that time (and still predominant today). This and the replacement of each "s" in "Christmas" with a U.S. dollar sign refer to the theme of the sketch, the over-commercialization of Christmas. The sketch adapts two characters from Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge (Freberg) and Bob Cratchit (Butler).
The single developed substantial popularity despite efforts from the advertising agencies of the era to suppress its release and promotion through the usual channels such as radio, print media and television (a few radio stations defied their sales departments, enough for the song to become a regional hit, reaching as high as #3 on Los Angeles radio charts).
Plot
Scrooge, the head of an unnamed
Message
Green Chri$tma$ is a scathing indictment of the commercialization of Christmas, with references of Christmas-themed advertising by
Release
At first, Capitol Records refused to release the record. Lloyd Dunn, the president of Capitol, told Freberg the record was offensive to everybody in advertising, and predicted that Freberg would never work in advertising again. Freberg responded with his intent to end his entire recording contract with Capitol. He spoke to a contact at Verve Records, and the company offered to release the record without even hearing it. Faced with this, Capitol finally decided to release it but provided no publicity at all.[1] [a]
Initial reception
The record was attacked in advertising trade magazines. It was played only twice in New York by one disc jockey, and the station's sales department threatened to have him fired if he played it again.
Station KFWB, then known as "Color Radio Channel 98", where the record reached No. 3 on 3 January 1959,[5] also kept on playing it. KFI, then the Earl C. Anthony station, played it a few times and then discontinued it, as did many other stations because of a negative reaction from the advertising community.
However, the mail Freberg received from the public, including rabbis and Christian clergy, was overwhelmingly positive.
Aftermath
Within six months, Coca-Cola and Marlboro, both recognizably satirized in the record without being named, asked Freberg for advertising campaigns. He turned down Marlboro (Freberg, a devout Christian, was adamantly against promoting tobacco and alcohol products), but he created a campaign for Coca-Cola that was very effective.[6] Contrary to the predictions of Lloyd Dunn (see above) and others, Freberg became a prominent figure in advertising himself, producing several iconic advertisements in the 1960s and 1970s.
Some years later, Time magazine was going to publish an essay in their Christmas issue about the overcommercialization of Christmas, including considerable attention to Green Chri$tma$. The essay was killed at the last minute due to pressure from their sales department.[7]
Rebroadcast and rerelease
Of especially noteworthy importance is the impact of this song's message in the heart of corporate America, as reflected in the fact that it received no commercial AM radio airplay until 1983; only getting a little FM airplay before that (such as on the
Notes
- ^ The B-side is titled "The Meaning of Christmas". It consists only of a Christmas carol medley sung by the Jud Conlon Chorale, with Freberg singing solo on parts of "O Come, All Ye Faithful". This may be the only recording in which Freberg sings something serious.
References
- ^ Freberg 1988, pp. 194–196
- ^ Pasternack, Dan (2017-04-07). "Stan Freberg: Guerrilla Satirist". Vulture.com. Retrieved 2020-07-17.
- ^ Pasternack, Dan (2015-01-09). "Stan Freberg". mcsweeneys.net. Retrieved 2021-09-04.
- ^ Freberg 1988, pp. 196–197
- ^ "KFWB Fabulous Forty Survey". 1959-01-03. Retrieved 2017-12-22.
- ^ Freberg 1988, p. 198
- ^ Freberg 1988, pp. 197–198
Bibliography
- Freberg, Stan (1988). It Only Hurts When I Laugh. Times Books. ISBN 0812912977.
- Mirtle, Jack (1998). The Music of Billy May: A Discography. Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780313307393.