Songs for the Eight Days #MusicMovesMe

It's the first Monday of December and it's time for music.

Let's introduce the Music Moves Me bloggers. We blog about music each Sunday or Monday and if you have music to share with us, you are most welcome to join! (Music Posts Only-meaning at least one music video, please!)   Our head host is Xmas Dolly, and our co-hosts are Cathy from Curious as a Cathy, joined by the knowledgeable Stacy of Stacy Uncorked and yours truly.

For the month of December, we've traditionally had holiday music. For many (not all) of our Music Moves Me bloggers that means Christmas music, and I will have that starting next Monday.

As for today, the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah begins at sundown this Thursday, December 7, and runs for eight days and nights.

I believe that it's more important than ever to feature music related to Hanukkah.  These aren't necessarily religious songs.  You'll even recognize some of the artists.  But before I dive into my post, I am going to play one Christmas song in honor of the late Shane MacGowan of The Pogues, who passed away November 30 of pneumonia, a week after he had been released from the hospital.  He was 65.

I can not listen to this song without crying.  Here is their classic Fairytale of New York.

Let's start the Hanukkah celebration with a Neil Diamond song, a cover of a song first performed by comedian Adam Sandler on Saturday Night Live.  Here comes Neil (with a tiny change in lyrics) singing The Hanukkah Song .

The Muppets and Sesame Street characters sing the Hanukkah song Sevivon.

Did you know that Woody Guthrie wrote a Hanukkah song?  He did and here it is, covered by The Indigo Girls:  Happy Joyous Hanukkah.  The lyrics were co-written with his Jewish mother in law Aliza Greenblatt in the 1940's when Guthrie lived in Brooklyn (a borough of New York City) and was involved in the Jewish community in Coney Island.  After his death, the song was rediscovered in 1998 by Guthrie's daughter Nora Guthrie.

Then, there are the Jewish a capella groups who take songs we know and turn them into parody songs celebrating the holiday with a fun dose of education.  

Here is the Y-Studs, one of these groups, and their 2023 release:  You Can Light With Me (A Taylor Swift Hanukkah).

But here's my favorite of the Hanukkah parody genre.

Six13 and Bohemian Chanukah.  (The air guitar is absolutely amazing).

And that's a wrap.

Join me again next week for another episode of Music Moves Me.