Switched on Pop - Slay Bells, All Year Long

Episode Date: December 26, 2018

This winter season unwrap a deep dive through a pop subgenre of monumental importance: non-holiday songs that feature sleigh bells, from Bonnie Tyler to Nas, On Side B, we rebroadcast our episode on Mariah Carey's classic "All I Want for Christmas Is You"...and more sleigh bells.  Featuring: •The Beach Boys - God Only Knows •Gustav Mahler - 4th Symphony, I •Michael Jackson - Jam •Bonnie Tyler - Total Eclipse of the Heart  •Miles Davis - On the Corner •Nas - Halftime •Kygo ft. Conrad Sewell - Firestone •Mariah Carey - All I Want for Christmas Is You Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you're tired of endless scrolling to figure out where to eat, same. I'm Stephanie Wu, editor-in-chief of Eater. We've just launched the new-ish and way better Eater app. It has all the restaurants we love, gives you personalized picks wherever you are, and serves up smarter search results just for you. You can find my list of the best places for martinis and fries in New York City. And save your favorite spots, share lists, follow editors, and book right in the app. the Eater app at Eaterapp.com. It's free for iOS users. Welcome to Switchdown Popham songwriter Charlie Harding.

And I'm musicologist Nate Sloan. Nate, we have some unfinished business. Yes, we do. Yeah, last year we did a really fun episode on Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is you. And I think we've determined it's probably the best holiday song of all time. I don't see the need for such superlatives myself, but it's a great song. Yeah, I guess that would really upset your Irving Berlin, uh, hankering Composer of White Christmas. Yeah. No, I'm just, I'm not here to make comparisons, Charlie. Okay.

Comparisons are a form of violence. So I thought what we needed to do was resolve where we left off a year ago. Right. The unanswered question that I know was just consuming listeners for the last year. Twelve months of just pain because we never really fully addressed this. People have been writing us for 12 months with- Yes, non-stop. comments about sleigh bells. And it turns out that sleigh bells, which are sort of the absolute most sonically

identifiable marker of holiday music, don't exist only in holiday music. Yes. Right. So we could take a listen just to familiarize ourselves with that slave bell sound to Ryan Carey. And it turns out, slave bells are all over the place. Yeah. Somehow we missed this. Even though we talked about sleigh bells for an ungodly amount of stuff.

time more than anyone ever should. We weren't sure if there were examples of sleigh bills being used in non-holiday songs. Turns out there are many. So here's what we're going to do. Great. I don't want to bury the lead. I want to get right into songs that have sleigh bells that are not holiday tracks. Very concise.

And for those who might have missed it in the second half, we're going to go back to that episode on Mariah Carey and all I want for Christmas is you, which I think is totally fine because that song keeps on coming back over and over and over again, coming. back on the top 100 charts for how many years now, 20, 30 years? It's timeless, whatever it is. And so we're going to come back to that episode as well for those who might have missed it. But we should jump right in and listen to songs that are not holiday songs that have some sleigh bells. So we've both prepared a couple of different tracks. And we've also brought in some listener suggestions. Do you want to kick us off? Oh, yeah. Okay. So I'm very excited to share our first

selection of what is it, non-holiday songs featuring sleigh bells. We need a much bit of here. I guess B. Wait, I got this. I got this. NHSSV. Nahispas. Okay.

Okay. So our first Nihispa is Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart, which is written by Jim Steinman and is you know, just an incredible song. You're going back in time.

Yeah, yeah. This is a song I've loved listened to so many times transcribed. And yet I never really noticed that there were sleigh bells in here. All right, let's go right to the moment. All right, here we go. Get ready, Chuck. Are you prepared? No.

Here it comes. Wow. It is so cinematic. What is happening? I don't know where to start. What is happening? I mean, I can't answer that. I can just talk about sleigh bells.

They're really effective here, I think. Again, I've never noticed them because they're buried in this, what you describe accurately as a very cinematic, you know, sort of orchestral texture. The song has taken a minor turn here. Yeah. Right. Well, yeah, it's, yeah. I feel like one of the qualities of holiday music is it often has this happy sad, right? There's a lot of Christmas songs that will be in minor keys, and you'll hear something like, I don't know, silent night.

and you might have sleigh bells in the background and they're sort of like this nostalgia, happy, sad thing that's happening. And I'm getting that a little bit here. Yeah, I mean, Silent Night is a bad example because that's a major key. But I got one. Don't worry, I got you covered.

What about God rest, do you, merry gentleman? Thank you. Which is definitely minor. And, yeah, okay, so. I said Silent Night, I was thinking Carol of the bells. They all blend together. Great. On my list, I also wanted to go back a moment.

And to one of, I just think, one of the most beautiful songs in all of music history. Yeah. To The Beach Boys God Only Knows. And this is a track that was suggested to us by someone on Twitter, right? Yeah, this was a trick. Okay, great. So let's listen to God Loan Nose for a second.

Pretty quickly, we've got sleigh bells. There they are. May not always love you. I wonder what that other sound is, the clopping horses. You never need. There's so much in there. I don't know. It's gorgeous.

It's, yeah, again, it's, it is surprising. There's a bit of melancholy that I didn't expect from, from those bells. Can we tell the difference between sleigh bells and a symphony of tambourines? I mean, this comes up in the Mariah Carey song, too, where they're using both sleigh bells and tambourines. And, you know, we, we have a little, you know, you'll see in the second half of the episode, we have a little back and forth over whether it's a, whether, whether when we're hearing it, tambourine and a sleigh bell. I don't know. It's hard to say.

I would say very unscientifically that sleighbells seem more jangly. Well, they are a different kind of percussion because tambourines are like two little mini high hats coming together and a bunch of them. Whereas a slea bell is actually a bell with a little ringing metal thing inside. You speak the truth? Hard to hear the difference. So I'm wondering, I feel like this could have actually potentially been actually like a whole orchestra of tambourines with a ton of reverb. My gut says sleigh bell here. It makes sense because they're all into sort of animal-y sound effects and who wears bells.

Yeah. Don't worry. This is just the tip of the... We're going to get even more forensic here. All right. I'm up next. This is another listener submission here. We've been told that there are sleigh bells in Michael Jackson's track, Jam.

Jam. Let's investigate. More sound effects. What do you think? Slay bells? We're focusing on that sound in the distance. Ching, ching, ching, ching, ching, ching, ching, ching, ching. The sleigh bells.

I think so. I think so, too. I think it's a sleigh bell sample that they're triggering with a drum machine. Yeah, I know what you mean. It has that. It kind of like skips in and out. And it's like very, they sound very identical. Yeah.

Slavell sample. I think that's my diagnosis here. All right. Very cool. Michael Jackson's jam. King of Pop never disappoints. All right. The Beach Boys, Michael Jackson.

It turns out, and Mariah Carey, it turns out if you want to be a successful pop star, There you go. You just got to get friendly with the sleigh bells. Okay, so I think it's my turn. We're going to move from Pop into a little bit more of a, I don't know, is it proper to call it an indie aesthetic? Your face looks sour. I have resting sour face. You can call it whatever you want.

Okay. So we've got Radiohead off of their biggest album ever, OK Computer. Supposedly, we've got some sleigh bells on airbag. Let's check it out. I'm convinced. Yeah. Yeah, I'm buying. Which I love because this album is, it's a pretty serious album.

It deals with weighty issues. And I feel like sleigh bells are the least weighty. Oh, this is legit funny. I mean, this is hysterical. It's very, it's such a bizarre juxtaposition between this intense, angular, distorted guitar and these bright, jaunty sleigh bells. I mean, it's got to be some kind of joke or parody. perhaps a dark joke of some kind. A little bit more of that happy, sad, but to a greater degree.

Yeah. But also something sort of parodic or so. It's like so, it's very, they're fun. It cracks me up. They're so good at burying little clues and everything they do. If you look at the internet forums trying to deconstruct their music video daydreaming, it is like cultish, Illuminati like conspiracy theory stuff. And I am a total.

convert. And yet there's nothing hidden. They're not hiding this sleigh-belt. It's fascinating that we've both heard this song and I think all of these songs before and never noticed these slave-vels. They're invisible somehow. It's amazing. Yeah, I'd never heard it before. I've heard that song a hundred times. All right. I've got one. You initially with my Bonnie Tyler pick said I was going back, but that was nothing. We're going back now to the great romantic composer, Gustav. Mahler. His symphony number four is probably my favorite of his symphonies. He were very challenging and rich, complex music.

Yeah. Well, I think I like it because it's likely the most accessible one. It's kind of like the party. It's the party symphony. And aren't his symphony is like each totally distinct from each other? Isn't he known for sort of pushing his musical boundaries within each work that he did? Yeah. Yeah.

No, he's right. I mean, I called him a romantic composer. but he's right at the cusp of modernism. He's really, yeah, the sort of the last romantic in a lot of ways. So do you think this is his most pop chart-oriented symphony? Oh, yeah. No, this is definitely his top 40 symphony. And I wonder to what degree it has to do with the use of sleigh bells.

Let's play the track and find out. Oh, how much? What? I felt like I was totally brought in by the sleigh bells. And then, no. Yeah. No, it's just that it gives you just a little taste and he takes it away. He'll bring it back.

Yeah. But no, it's not too much. It's just a little dollop. What is this label doing here in the symphony? What's going on? It's a great question. I mean, I've looked into this. It's not like what would be called a programmatic symphony where it's trying to, you know, say, conjure the feeling of a particular season or something.

Right. So it's an aesthetic choice that, I mean, to me, in my ears, creates the same kind of dissonance we were talking about. There's, you know, this minor melody and this. strings, but then the kind of brightness of the sleigh bells. It seems like in a dark texture, the sleigh bells bring light, and in a light texture, the sleigh bells bring darkness or something. Yeah, totally. They're like a countervailing force. I also, I feel like here it does a really good job of creating immediate progression into the symphony, right? We're not sort of building slowly into a mallet. It's like we're getting almost, it feels like in the

middle of something. Well, that's really interesting because let's think about the function of sleigh bells originally. Yeah, well, they would be on Santa's sleigh, and they are truly originally, they're probably on herding animals, and that's probably how they ended up on all of the reindeer. Right.

And are they supposed to announce the movement of something coming through town? I assume so. It's like a garbage truck backing up. Well, I was on a hike the other day, and there were mountain bikers on the trail, and they had... With sleigh bells.

Oh, no way, really? Yeah, which was really helpful because you could hear when they were coming. Huh. So maybe, yeah, something similar. Maybe, I mean, slays go fast. Yeah. So it's saying...

And you're suggesting that the bells are on the animals pulling the sleigh rather than the sleigh itself? Oh, yeah, I think they are. Someone's going to fact check me. I don't know. But they are about something moving fast and getting in the way, but are also connected to like an old mode of transportation. So there's some of it's like the nostalgia in them.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So we're moving right into the symphony. Watch out. Something's going to happen. What's next? I've got another interesting.

listener one, which I'm really excited to diagnose with you. Okay, cool. This is supposedly Miles Davis used the sleigh bells in his song, Black Satin. I'm intrigued. Let's have a listen. I'm so curious. Nice James Brown kind of funky. Slavell.

Slavell. Okay. Wow. I love it. That is definitely a sleigh bell. That is awesome. That was really fun. That's a different use of the sleigh bell, though, right?

Because typically we're used to the movement. And here, they're almost an accent. Yeah, it's a little more atmospheric. It's a nice segue to another song. Whitney introduced me to this one. This is Kaigo Firestone. A song, I think I've mentioned this perhaps on the show already, but I'm bound to repeat it every time I mention this song.

Firestone was written after one of the co-writers. Swedish co-writers or Scandinavian, let's say, saw a billboard for Firestone tires and then created this song about Firestones burning in the dark. And it's beautiful. It's an amazing pop track. Inspiration is all around you. Okay, anyway, Slave-Belt. This one is very sparse, even more than the Miles Davis track we just listened to. Right? Yeah. So it has that sort of same accent quality. Now we have to be really patient. Wait, really?

Oh yeah. That singular sleigh bell isn't going to come around until the beginning of the verse, which should be right here. I think here we're getting a sleigh bell accent

and then in the beat they're using a little bit of a tambourine later on. So we're getting, they both have that same bright, percussive quality, but they're mixing up the percussion. Check it out. Slay bell here. bringing a tambourine here.

Yeah, that does seem to be a recurring thing here. Where you find sleigh bells, there you will find tambourines. In this case, the sleigh bell is almost a little overwhelming, right? If you had it shaking that entire time through that house beat, it would be a little too much. And so they wanted to have that same bright quality of the percussion, but just bring it in a little bit. Tone it down, throw a tambourine on it. I love it. All right, we got one more, and then we will conclude one of the most absurd exercises we

we've ever done on the show. Talking about sleigh bells and non-Christmas pop songs at length. The whole podcast is absurd. Okay, I guess once we go down that road, then. This one is my favorite. This is unexpected. Yeah. Yeah, this came in from a listener as well, which was, I just, I did not think that we

would find a lot of sleigh bells in hip-hop, but it turns out on just, you know, one of the most important albums in the history of hip-hop off of Naz's Illmatic. On his track halftime, we have got the sleigh bell. Let's spin it. It's so wild. It's a lot. Once again, it's just like, eye opening to me. You're opening because I listened to this album produced by DJ premiere, you know, countless times growing up.

And I never consciously thought, oh, that's a sleigh bell. And yet, there it is. Clear as Christmas Day. We have gone very far from the world of holiday music. And I actually really like holiday music. I think we get a lot of sort of interesting harmonies. and styles from the past that we don't always get the rest of the year

and it opens our hearing to different kinds of music and it would be totally appropriate to go to the recurringly most successful holiday song to Mariah Carey. It just never gets old. No.

So we'll take a short little break afterwards. Let's spend our show from last year on Mariah Carey's all I want for Christmas is you. Yeah. And more slave bells.

Maria, you have a podcast now. and you need to start acting like it. What's the first step as a podcaster? Well, you have to ask lots of questions. I'm Maria Sharpova, and I'm hosting a new podcast called Pretty Tough. Every week, I'm sitting down with trailblazing women at the top of their game to discuss ambition, work ethic, and the ups and downs that come on the path to achieving greatness. I have a few pretty tough questions for you.

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drop Wednesdays on YouTube or in your favorite podcast app. Immigration may be Donald Trump's signature issue. President Trump is now targeting predominantly Democratic cities for ice raids and deportations. Dozens of protesters clashing with. with immigration and customs enforcement agents in Minneapolis Tuesday. We will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came. But what we want to do in this space is talk about America and politics beyond the current president. So what do most Americans think about deportation and border security, period? I think that Americans are definitely against the kind of violent displays that we've seen in the street from ICE.

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and fiery novas. And there's one other event in the universe that occurs with inexorable power. And that is that every December, Mariah Carey's all I want for Christmas is you will be inescapable. Oh, it's such good news. I thought you were going to say daylight savings because Mariah Carey's lot more exciting. Today, we are going to explore all I want for Christmas is you. I could not be more excited. It is that time of year, and this is one of the most requested songs for us to cover on the show. It's going to be great. It's a total jam. You're pro. Oh, absolutely. It's incredibly catchy. I love getting to hear each year. She sings some impeccably high notes, and it's an absolute classic. I'm glad you feel that way. I do, but I had to take some time to come to your

euphoric vision of this song. I did not like this song and it all changed for me once I performed it. Oh. You know I do this holiday charity concert in Brooklyn every year. Right. The music director. Yes. And so I had to write an arrangement and perform this song and once I did that, then I gained this new appreciation for the track for the way it's so beautifully constructed. Well, I'm sorry your ears weren't as great as mine and appreciating its beauty, but I am intrigued to find out what you've learn along your path. Well, and for those out there who don't love it now, you might by the time we're done. Okay, here we go. Okay. Ready, Charles? See, belt on. So there's three things I want to focus on in this song, and I'll mark them each with the tinkling of a sleigh bell. So you're aware of the

divisions, all right? Good, good. Okay, the first thing that hooks us in is the suspense of this song. Now, that might not be an adjective that would immediately come to mind when you're thinking of all I want for Christmas is you. No. But in the intro of this song, we as listeners are kept in rapt suspense. This intro just hooks us in and once we're done, we're never getting it out of our head again. And it's a long intro. It's 50 seconds long, so we can't listen to the whole thing. Yeah. But here's a taste of the beginning of all I want for Christmas is you. Is that Glockenshiel? Ooh, Glockenshiel, Charlie.

No, no, no, no, no, no. It's, um, you got it. Tubular bells. Well, yes, the Glockenshiel's mature, older, cousin. Minor four chord. Wow, I've never appreciated that so deeply, especially the final ridiculous drum fill. And why is that drum fill such a big payoff trial?

It's because of that suspense we feel. throughout the intro. Okay, so first let's focus on the lyrics. What's the very first lyric of this song? I don't want a lot for Christmas. And the second. There is just one thing I need. Okay, so there's the setup, right?

There's the suspense. Oh, that's a good set. She doesn't tell us after that. No. She goes on to tell us other things she doesn't need. Presents. She doesn't care about presents. She's got a wish.

She's got a wish. What is that wish? And then it's not till the very end of this introduction that we learn. All I want for Christmas is pause. And then finally we discover what it is. You. She wants you. I mean, of course, she tells us that in the title of the song, but, you know.

She gives way the punchline. So from the beginning of this intro to the end, we are in lyrical suspense. What does Mariah Carey want for Christmas? That is our burning question, and we are only given the answer at the very end of the intro. And then that drumfield takes us into this raucous holiday party time. And at that point, we are hooked. Okay. But that's not enough.

Why this intro is so effective is because that lyrical suspense is mirrored in the chords that Mariah Carey uses. Yeah, they're sort of like big, lush, open orchestral elements, strings. tubular bells and a really loose sense of time. Yes, and if we look at the harmonies under each of these lyrics, they are taking us through their own journey of suspense, because at the very beginning of the song, we get the home chord, the main key that we're in, which is G major.

But it's not until the very end of the intro that we're going to get back to that G-major. major chord. Even though the chords are constantly changing, we're not going to return to that home key, that sense of our song center till the very end of the intro. Oh, okay. As the lyrics are kind of giving us this suspense, what does she want for Christmas? So do the chords give us that suspense, too? We're up in the air until the reveal. All I want for Christmas is you on that line. She goes back to the home key of G. Okay, so we can go through it together. We start on G. I don't want a lot for Christmas and then we go up to B. There is just one thing I need up to C.

I don't care about the presents up to E flat. Underneath the Christmas tree. And we're rising with suspense. And at this point you're like, okay, we could totally go back to G right now, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But we're not. We're going to D. And then from D, I just want you for my own to E.

minor, more than you could ever know, down to E flat, down to D, make my wish come true. A minor, all I want for Christmas, and then D is, and at this point we are just like waiting, please, take me back, take me back, take me back to that G, and then finally, you, G, we are home and ready to launch into the song proper. Huh. There's so many points in that chord progression where you think it's going to go back to where you started, and instead she keeps dancing around it. Suspense.

Yes. And once you get that resolution, then you are in for the rest of the song. But that's not all. Second point, Sleigh Bell, please. The other reason this song is so successful is that it is right at home with holiday classics of Yore. I mean, this song has more in common. with a classic like Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, Winter Wonderland,

then say one of Mariah's biggest hits, Always Be My Baby, where you have a section that is a repeating chorus. All I want for Christmas is you, however, uses a much older song form that has a rather prosaic name that is simply called A-A-B-A, where each of those letters refers to a section of the song.

This is like old Sinatra style songs. Oh, yeah. You might not think of Bing Crosby and Mariah having much in common, but Der Binger would be very pleased by her use of the ABA form here. You're very excited about this. Why don't you tell us what you're talking about? Well, check it out. This is how this form works.

Okay, we have the first A section, which starts, I don't want a lot for Christmas, and then ends with this now familiar refrain. All I want for Christmas is you. Right. And then we get another one of these sections. It has the same exact music. Different lyrics.

This time she starts, I won't ask for much this Christmas, but she ends on the same refrain. All I want for Christmas is you. I think this time around she throws an oh baby in there just for a little bit variation. A little variation. But so far we've had two sections that are virtually identical musically. Yes. So that's A and A. Now we get this new material, this contrasting section, the B section, the section that goes all the light

are shining so brightly everywhere. Beautiful moment here, right? Kind of mixes it up, takes us to another place harmonically. And then this bridge section builds back into one more statement of the original A section. So now she sings, I don't want a lot for Christmas. And then ends one more time on this now haunting refrain, one that we will never be able to get out of our synaptic pathways. all I want for Christmas is you. Finn, QED, we have arrived. A-A-B-A, very elegant, effective form,

but one that we're not really used to hearing. It's only this time of year when we get these reduxes that we are exposed to this very antique song form. And I think as such, it gives us a nostalgia. It makes us feel warm and comfortable like we're sitting in front of a fireplace, wearing our grandpa's old shoes. Rather than having the build to the hook, it's almost like you have the hook is played three times with a break in the middle. Like the A section is the main material. And in that way, you're just kind of like a hook, hook, hook, hook, hook, slight derivation, hook.

Yes. And then like it grills that thesis, all I want for Christmas is you into your mind that much deeper. It's the whole point of the song. There's no if Santa butts about it. Okay, so that's the thing number two. What's the thing number three? And let's get a nice, vigorous sleigh bell for this one, because that's the subject of my third point.

Sleigh bells. Sleigh bells. Okay. Let's just zero in on these sleigh bells for a second. We can hear them right between the intro and the first verse of this song. Let's have a listen. Let me ask a tangential question. Why do sleigh bells sound like winter?

Ooh. Oh, okay. Now I see I've gotten your gears turning. Okay, so there's an obvious explanation, right? Let's get that out of the way. They're usually played during the holiday period, which in the Northern Hemisphere is winter. So for people in the Northern Hemisphere, they probably make the association. Yes, that was a little, in Selebeated Brown, I was thinking more like they are on slays, which are something that are used in winter. Dude, have you ever been on a sleigh with a sleigh bell? No one ever has. No. No, I certainly have. haven't, though it's on my bucket list. They sound like ice. It sounds like shaking a bucket of ice. Yes. Ooh, okay, I'm totally on your wavelength there, Charles. Yes, it has this kind of sparkly, shimmery sound. Yeah. Like ice, like snow, like twinkling snowflakes. Yeah, yeah, right? So maybe we're

attracted to that. And there's also something kind of evanescent about them, right? It's a sound that that you hear as quickly as it disappears, just like the holidays. Oh. Wow. Okay. I see where we're going with this. And then this song is so brilliant because they put these sleigh bells in this, like,

world of twinkling sound. So we have the sleigh bells. And then you can hear they add a tambourine. Oh, yeah, yeah. I was going to say the sleigh bell is like the December version of the tambourine, which any pop parties or knows to, like, make a. a song really shimmer, throw in a shaker or a tambourine in the background, and then everybody's moving. It magically always works. I love it. I'm never going to get that out of my mind. Slavelle is the

December tambourine. Does that make the tambourine the August? Slavelle. Is that all you have to say about Slebells? Because I have something really important to say about the recording of these sleigh bells. What I have to say about Slea Bills would fill a toome to rival infinite jest, but please tell me what you're thinking. Everybody knows that if you're going to write a a Christmas track that you just put in sleigh bells in the background and then all of a sudden, ha ha, it's a Christmas song. This is not your average sleigh ball. I was listening to this.

I've never listened to this thing. I've never listened to this with headphones and turn up the volume and really pay attention. It's usually just like in the background at CVS. So I don't pay that much attention when the song is on. I should. These sleigh bells are like an orchestra of sleighbell. So first of all, I can't count how many there are. There's got to be like 15 of these.

People are just shaking so many of them. More than that. There's a stereo image of sleigh bells. One sleigh bells shakes in your right ear, and then the next sleighbell shakes in your left ear. So you're really enveloped in these sleigh bells that are like going around you, circling your head. It's completely mad.

No, that's ooh. No, no, no, no. I have a scoop for you, Charles. There's a scoop? That's the tambourine. Wait, what? It's sleigh bell tambourine. Slavell tambourine.

Oh. They're talking to each other. Yeah, no, no, no, but that's okay because I had to spend a long time to unpack that. You can hear the subtle differences. I'm impressed. How did you find this? I like to think so. I don't know.

Maybe someone out there has an even more educated opinion. Nevertheless, I think your comment still holds water, right? We are bombarded by slave elves back and forth in every year throughout this song. Yeah. Now we're sailing above all I want for Christmas for a moment because is there any other sound in our popular music world that is so specific and so seasonal. Like, as a thought experiment, can you write a summer pop smash that features the sleigh bell? I mean, if you told me that it was like on thriller, I'd be so excited, but I really doubt it.

Let's make an experiment. Let's take Thriller and throw a sleigh bell over it. Let's take another song. What's the last song we did? Let's take Sorry Not Sorry by Demi Levato. Throw a sleigh bell on it. You shouldn't do this. Okay, one more.

Kendrick Lamar, Slavell. Yeah, yeah. Adds a real sparkle to everything. Suddenly, each of those songs has become a Christmas song. My goodness, the awe of inspiring power of the Slavell. It has more musical, emotional force for us than the gnarliest synthesizer, the most distorted guitar, the deepest bass drum. The Slai bell is the most.

powerful instrument of them all. Let's step back a minute because this song is now one of the top 15 best selling singles of all time. And Charlie, I don't think that is going to change anytime soon. I think what's crazy is that this song is just going to get more and more popular. And do you know why I think that? Why is that?

Because in 2011, this song was re-recorded by Mariah Carey and... Justin Beaver. So now it has the Bieber bump and whether you like it or not, looking forward into the future, the song is always going to be with us. Oh, this is abysmal. I'm so disappointed. Why?

Why? Tell me. Okay. So I think we've established that this song is effective in that it places itself in its form and in its sonic texture in a different era. And so like it fits in with classic holiday songs. and then they try to update it for a modern sound by throwing electronic kick drums on it

and auto-tuning the crap out of Justin Bieber's voice. I don't know. I feel like Christmas holiday songs gain new life when they're updated when the drifters cover white Christmas and turn into this indelible duop version. May you'll taste, may you taste, may your days be merry and bright. But I feel like really big holiday hits.

I think that's in many ways the whole point of this episode is that they stopped being classic at some point in the 60s. And then this is sort of like establishes itself as like a 50s, 60s sort of song. And new holiday hits that kind of happened for a year and then they go. This does have a tremendous staying power. So this song written in 1994 remains incredibly. popular. It's one of the 15 best-selling

singles of all time. This song is not going anywhere. So if you're like us, if you're into this song, you're very pleased. If you can't stand this song, I have bad news for you. Well, I'm happy. I'm pleased. But hopefully if you're one of those people, you like it a little bit more now, now that you know, the lyrical suspense

and the ancient song form of ABA and the eternal mystery of the twinkling sleigh bell. This episode of Switched-on-Pop was produced by me, Charlie Harding. And me, Nate Sloan. We were mixed, edited, and engineered by Bill Lance, our design by Luke Harris, and our community manager is Sarah Terry. You can always find more episodes at switchedonpop.com, the Apple podcast app, Spotify, radio public, or any other way you listen to these things.

Also, throughout this entire episode, we referenced so many great ideas that you all provided us. So please chat with us. on Twitter and Instagram at Switchdown Pop. We love to have dialogue with what you're listening to and hearing all of your wild theories, whether it's Slaybell related or otherwise. Hit us up at Switchdown Pop. We'll be back in mid-January.

Until then, we're wishing you and yours a very merry holiday season. And as always, thanks for listening.