Monday, December 21, 2020

Countdown to Christmas: Ding-a-Ling The Christmas Bell (1971)

 I hadn't heard this next song until it played on the radio this morning before work. Man, it brings back some memories.

"Ding-a-Ling The Christmas Bell", recorded by Lynn Anderson in 1971, was actually being considered to be adapted into an animated special. The project never got off the ground, and, if you listen to the song, I think you'd understand why.

There is no video footage of Lynn singing this on TV back then, so all we have is a video with a screencap of the album cover.


"Ding-a-Ling", if you listen close, hews pretty close to Johnny Marks' immortal classic, "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer". Ding-a-Ling is an outcast who comes to the rescue when, in this case, Santa can't find his way into a snowbound small town. I think you can understand why it never even merited a half-hour special, although in the nearly 50 years since, there have been stranger tales.......

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