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Song of the Day #3,853: ‘Mamma Mia’ – Lily James

I always spend about the first two months of a new year processing the previous year in music and movies, so if you’re already sick of 2018, please bear with me.

Tomorrow, the Motion Picture Academy will announce nominations for this year’s Oscars. It’s been a tumultuous year for that outfit, from the ill-advised and quickly withdrawn ‘Best Popular Film’ Oscar to the Kevin Hart hosting fiasco. But it always makes for good sport to guess who the Academy will honor and snub — for good and bad reasons — each February.

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Song of the Day #3,852: ‘You Wouldn’t Know Me’ – Miranda Lambert

Five years ago I did a countdown of my favorite albums of the 2010s to that point, halfway through the decade. Two of my top five entries were by Miranda Lambert — 2011’s Four the Record and 2014’s Platinum.

Five years later, we’re 11 1/2 months away from the end of the decade (wow!) and I have to start thinking about updating that list and arriving at the definitive version. Both of those albums will still be in play, no question.

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Song of the Day #3,851: ‘Giving Up the Gun’ – Vampire Weekend

It’s been six years since Vampire Weekend’s last album, the extraordinary Modern Vampires of the City.

Lots has happened since then, including the departure of key band member Rostam Batmanglij and a relationship between frontman Ezra Koenig and one of my celebrity girlfriends, Rashida Jones, which resulted in the birth of their first child last summer.

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Song of the Day #3,850: ‘The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)’ – Nat King Cole

Wrapping up this extremely festive edition of ‘What the Kids are Listening To’ is the Hot 100’s #11 track, Nat King Cole’s ‘The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You).’

Cole came within one slot of landing his third Top 10 hit and his first since 1963.

Cole recorded several versions of this song, with the 1961 one (heard here) considered definitive. But the original, stripped-down 1946 version is arguably even sweeter.

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Song of the Day #3,849: ‘A Holly Jolly Christmas’ – Burl Ives

In contrast to yesterday’s track, sung by a 13-year-old Brenda Lee, today’s Christmas song was recorded by Burl Ives when he was pushing 60.

This week’s #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 is best remembered as a song from the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Christmas special. Ives voiced the narrator, Sam the Snowman.

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