skip to content
home > albums > s > this page

Support www.hipchristmas.com! Amazon Shop at Amazon, Apple Music, and more...

On This PageOn This Page

SleighedFounded in 1996, the Hip-O label was a rather transparent attempt by Universal Music to get into the CD reissue market dominated by Rhino Records. At the time, Universal consisted solely of the former MCA Records, one of six "major labels" at the time. But, Universal would subsume fellow majors Polygram in 1998 and EMI in 2012, becoming the behemoth they are today - and just one of three remaining major labels. For a time, that gave Hip-O some deep reserves to call upon, and they put out some amazing stuff. In the realm of holiday music, they gave us Louis Armstrong's What A Wonderful Christmas (1997), Classic Rock Christmas (2008), The Complete James Brown Christmas (2010), and the fine jazz series, Yule B' Swingin', among others. But, like all things subject to corporate creative destruction, Hip-O's usefulness to Universal eventually waned, and they were shuttered in 2015.

But, back when they were still Universal's shiny new object, one of the stranger things Hip-O gave us was Sleighed: The Other Side Of Christmas (2000). Without explicitly saying so, Sleighed presents a sort of alternative-rock-meets-Dr. Demento view of the holidays, collecting 10 good-to-great Christmas songs far outside the mainstream - at least during the 1990's when all this music was recorded, well before the rise of the internet led to an annual deluge of alternative holiday music. Most of the songs are pulled from the Universal vaults, but Hip-O also cherry-picks several tracks from indie labels like Dionysus (Burbank, California), Drive Thru (Sherman Oaks, California), and BEC (Seattle, Washington).

Most notably, Sleighed rescues several fine tracks from obscure sources. These include Plankeye's ecstatic reading of "Away In A Manger" (from the alt-Christian compilation Happy Christmas), Less Than Jake's speedy annihilation of "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" (from the hard-to-find Christmas Gone Wrong), Local H's impossibly heavy "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" (from the Gravesend soundtrack), and Home Grown's horny comedy of errors "Christmas Crush" (from Santa's Got A GTO). Even more rare, Goldfinger's "White Christmas" had previously appeared only on a local cassette and a Universal promotional CD.

Christmas Gone Wrong
Santa's Got A GTO
Just Say Noël
A Midnight Christmas Mess
A Home For The Holidays: Phoenix House

Sleighed also plucks two big-name tracks from Geffen's 1996 compilation Just Say Noël, Beck's funky Hanukkah epic, "Little Drum Machine Boy," and Sonic Youth's twisted take on Martin Mull's "Santa Doesn't Cop Out On Dope." And, they pull the Mighty Mighty Bosstones' cover of "Xmas Time (It Sure Doesn't Feel Like It)" - originally recorded by fellow Boston band the Dogmatics in 1984 on A Midnight Christmas Mess - from a long-forgotten 1997 benefit album. That generally dull collection also included two excellent alt-rockers by Redd Kross ("Mary Christmas") and Marshall Crenshaw ("Sock It To Me Santa"), neither of which is included here. This compels me to point out that Sleighed tops out at only 12 tracks adding up to just 40 minutes of music - far less than the capacity of a compact disc.

Happy Christmas
Spinal Tap
Smithereens
Little Stinkers
Local H

And, two of the tracks on Sleighed are novelty songs that have absolutely nothing in common musically with the rest of the album: the Little Stinkers' silly, though amusing, "I Farted On Santa's Lap" and Red Peters' execrable "You Ain't Getting Shit For Christmas." For that matter, the Smithereens' well-worn track, "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer," is based on the Cadillacs' 1956 doo wop version of the Gene Autry classic, and Spinal Tap's "Christmas With The Devil" is a heavy metal parody - so both of them sound out-of-place, as well. So, we're left with quite a few good songs and a failed concept - worth purchasing for the contents if you can forgive the imperfect box they came in. [top of page]

Albums Albums

SongsEssential Songs

  • Away In A Manger (Plankeye, 1999) Top 100 Song
  • Christmas Crush (Home Grown, 1997)
  • Christmas With The Devil (Spinal Tap, 1992)
  • Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer (Less Than Jake, 1997)
  • Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (Local H, 1997)
  • I Farted On Santa's Lap (Now Christmas Is Gonna Stink For Me) (Little Stinkers, 1998)
  • Little Drum Machine Boy (Beck, 1996)
  • Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (Smithereens, 1992)
  • Santa Doesn't Cop Out On Dope (Sonic Youth, 1996)
  • White Christmas (Goldfinger, 1997)
  • Xmas Time (It Sure Doesn't Feel Like It) (Mighty Mighty Bosstones, 1997)

Further ListeningFurther Listening

[top of page]