Offbeat Holiday Music: Macy's Window and Sleigh Ride

Paul Revere & The Raiders: Macy's Window

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The Ventures: Sleigh Ride

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Two Northwest rock'n'roll legends leave their mark on the holiday season. The Raiders' cut comes from one of the most bizarre Christmas albums of all time, 1967's A Christmas Present...And Past. While the kids are enchanted by the window decorations, Dad is getting hot and bothered by the elves in mini-skirts.

On what just may be the greatest rock n roll Christmas album of all time, The Ventures blended guitar riffs from mid-60's hits with well known holiday tunes. So you get the "Walk Don't Run" riff and a bit of the "Perfida" riff weaving in and out of "Sleigh Ride", the most played ( overplayed?) holiday song on US radios.

Weather Report: Rain, Sleet Or Snow

Paul Revere and the Raiders: Rain, Sleet or Snow

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Not everything Paul Revere and the Raiders recorded turned to gold. Their 1967 holiday album, A Christmas Present...And Past, never broke the Billboard Top 100 album chart or even launched a single. In fact one Columbia exec hated the album so much  he frisbee'd his preview copy across the room.

Rain, Sleet or Snow" would have been the single. A heavily distorted tongue-in-cheek rant from the point of view of an overworked holiday mailman, it sounds kind of like Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion" at half speed.

On his website, singer Mark Lindsay admits the Christmas album is a mess but it reflected the counterculture attitudes of those times:
"Most of our singles weren’t political, but the Christmas album totally was. It was a disaster, but it reflected what we were feeling at the time. It was a good time for flower power and protest.”