Skip to main content

The Ramones - Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight)


Around my house you might find my kids humming this tune as if it were a classic song like Blue Christmas or Silent Night. To them, The Ramones are great Christmas singers; right up there with Bing Crosby and Brenda Lee.

 Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight) first appeared as a b-side to I Wanna Live in 1987.  The single failed to chart in the U.S. and U.K. However, the Ramones released Merry Christmas again in 1989 as the third single from The Ramones' Brain Drain. This would be the final record to feature Dee Dee. The video, depicting a holiday meltdown with people speaking in an authentic Long Island vernacular (maybe?), features Dee Dee's replacement, C.J. on bass.

Here's to a non-violent, peaceful and perhaps humorous holiday!



Further Listening: This year, Steven Van Zandt released a cover of the song with a 15 piece band and a new third verse. Check it out:
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/see-steven-van-zandts-video-for-ramones-merry-christmas-w514553

Comments

Post a Comment

Trending Tracks

U.K. - In The Dead of Night

In the late 70s, as punk and post-punk bands spiraled towards their new wave destinies, prog dinosaurs stood paralyzed in the shadows. Bands like the Sex Pistols were meteors, igniting a global firestorm that would trigger prog's extinction. The British music press (Melody Maker, Sounds, NME, etc.), once proponents of prog darlings Genesis, Yes and ELP, now bashed any band releasing songs in odd time signatures and singing about aliens and whales. The punk revolution had turned the U.K. music industry and press on its head within a year (1976-1977). For me, this is one of the most interesting times in pop music. Although prog groups saw their audiences rapidly dwindle (Yes audiences had dropped from 20,000 to 3,000 by 1980's Drama tour), many record labels had built fortunes on the works of prog artists and were willing to foot the bill for some interesting transitional experiments. Yes' Drama , ELPs' Works , Genesis' . ..And Then There Were Three... were p...
Post a Comment
Read more

Chilliwack - My Girl (Gone, Gone, Gone)

Imagine if the Beach Boys grew up in Vancouver and had a love affair with Hall & Oates at a Pablo Cruise party in Malibu. That's what Chilliwack sounds like to me. This is their biggest single, My Girl . According to my friend, Aaron from Toronto, this is a "classic from (his) youth." I picture Canadian kids in the early 80s cruising around at malls, eating poutine and wearing Chilliwack shirts. I know this is a total fabrication of my non-existent memory that is mostly rooted in watching Rush's video for Subdivisions one too many times. C'mon, let me have my dream. Meanwhile, you get your dose of Chilliwack. Are you hooked on Chilliwack? Go behind the scenes with them in this "decent" interview on American Bandstand. Why is Dick Clark giving Brian MacLeod such a hard time? Plus, the band records their albums on boats!!!!
Post a Comment
Read more