Friday Random Ten

In honor of today's holiday, I decided to skip a week in my concert reviews to put together a suite of songs suitable to such a patriotic day. Instead, I decided to go with a Christmas in July theme. Have you got any idea how lame most of the available patriotic songs really are? On the other hand, I love a good pile of odd Christmas songs, so that's what you'll be getting instead for this week.

"Bob and Bob" by Trout Fishing in America* -- A song about the unlikely identical snowflake brothers.
"The Night Santa Went Crazy" by Weird Al Yankovic* -- A ballad chronicling Santa destruction of the North Pole.
"Santa Brought Me Clothes" by Trout Fishing in America* -- The kid just wanted one toy. But, "it's better than nothin', I suppose."
"I Want a Hippopatamus for Christmas" by Gayla Peevey -- There's just nothing like the desire for the odd gift.
"The Eleven Cats of Christmas" by Trout Fishing in America* -- This is what happens when people think you like cats. All I can say is that I'm glad there weren't twelve.
"You Gotta Get Up" by Rich Mullins* -- Don't you dare sleep in and miss all the fun!
"My Birthday Comes On Christmas" by Trout Fishing in America* -- What a gyp.
"A Christmas Carol" by Tom Lehrer -- There's so much you have to do on Christmas, there's no time for any normal daily stuff.
"It's Christmas Time Pretty Baby" by Elvis Presley -- Ooh! Ooh! I'm pretty! Where's my present?
"Christmas At Ground Zero" by Weird Al Yankovic* -- This is what happens when an atomic blast is crossed with the big December holiday. I can't even tell you how much I love this song. How can you dislike a song that contains the line "we can dodge debris while we trim the tree"?

Bonus Christmas in July pick -- "God Bless the USA" by Lee Greenwood

Okay, so I cheated and threw in a single patriotic song. That's all I could manage, but it seemed an appropriate token. Happy birthday, United States of America! Here's to a better year for the next one.

* Acts I've seen live