A Twisted Christmas
Encyclopedia
A Twisted Christmas is a Christmas album
from US
heavy metal
group Twisted Sister
, released on October 17, 2006. The album features classic Christmas songs performed in Heavy metal versions.
The second video version (using the radio edit) is a short animated feature with the band taking over Santa's workshop and using his sleigh to drop off Twisted Sister merchandise and cans of hairspray to children.
The music video for "Silver Bells" is the sequel to the first "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" video, as the couple are paid a visit by numerous guests while the band performs live on TV and the couple's new baby's head is replaced by the face of various band members singing.
Twisted Sister also filmed a studio performance of "Heavy Metal Christmas" for GameTap
. This video featured Dee without his makeup.
" uses the tune of "We're Not Gonna Take It" (the melody of which was inspired by the carol) and ends with a rendition of "Hava Nagila
". The song was performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on December 13, 2006. Parts of the guitar riff to "White Christmas" seem to be based on "I Wanna Rock
", another Twisted Sister Song. Parts of the guitar riff on "Silver Bells" is based on "Problem Child" by AC/DC
. Some of the guitar riffs on "Let it Snow" are based on Children of The Grave by Black Sabbath
. Also, the guitar riffs on the Song "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" are based on "You Got Another Thing Coming" by Judas Priest
.
Christmas music
Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music normally performed or heard around the Christmas season, which tends to begin in the months leading up the actual holiday and end in the weeks shortly thereafter.-Early:...
from US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
group Twisted Sister
Twisted Sister
Twisted Sister is an American heavy metal band from Long Island. Musically, the band implements elements of traditional heavy metal bands such as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, along with a style that is similar to early glam metal bands...
, released on October 17, 2006. The album features classic Christmas songs performed in Heavy metal versions.
Track listing
- "Have Yourself a Merry Little ChristmasHave Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is a song introduced by Judy Garland in the 1944 MGM musical Meet Me in St. Louis. Frank Sinatra later recorded a version with modified lyrics, which has become more common than the original. The song was written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane...
" – 4:48 - "Oh Come All Ye FaithfulAdeste Fideles"Adeste Fideles" is a hymn tune attributed to English hymnist John Francis Wade . The text itself has unclear beginnings, and may have been written in the 13th century by John of Reading, though it has been concluded that Wade was probably the author.The original four verses of the hymn were...
" – 4:40 - "White ChristmasWhite Christmas (song)"White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the version sung by Bing Crosby is the best-selling single of all time, with estimated sales in excess of 50 million copies worldwide.Accounts vary as...
" – 3:56 - "I'll Be Home for Christmas" – 4:08
- "Silver BellsSilver Bells (song)"Silver Bells" is a classic Christmas song, composed by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans. The lyric is unusual for a Christmas song in that it describes the festival in the city and not a rural setting....
" – 5:05 - "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa ClausI Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" is an American Christmas song with music and lyrics by Tommie Connor.The original recording by Jimmy Boyd on 15 July 1952 when he was 13 reached #1 on the Billboard charts in December 1952, and on the Cash Box chart at the beginning of the following year...
" – 3:39 - "Let It Snow" – 3:09
- "Deck the HallDeck the Hall"Deck the Halls" is a traditional Yuletide/Christmas and New Years' carol. The "fa-la-la" refrains were probably originally played on the harp. The tune is Welsh dating back to the sixteenth century, and belongs to a winter carol, Nos Galan. In the eighteenth century Mozart used the tune to "Deck...
s" – 2:52 - "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)The Christmas Song"The Christmas Song" is a classic Christmas song written in 1944 by musician, composer, and vocalist Mel Tormé and Bob Wells. According to Tormé, the song was written during a blistering hot summer...
" – 3:40 - "Heavy Metal Christmas (The Twelve Days of ChristmasThe Twelve Days of Christmas (song)"The Twelve Days of Christmas" is an English Christmas carol that enumerates a series of increasingly grand gifts given on each of the twelve days of Christmas. Although first published in England in 1780, textual evidence may indicate the song is French in origin...
)" – 5:14 - We Wish You A Twisted Christmas –00.36 (Bonus)
Twisted Sister
- Dee SniderDee SniderDaniel "Dee" Snider is an American singer-songwriter, screenwriter, radio personality, and actor. Snider is most famous for his role as the frontman of the heavy metal band Twisted Sister...
– lead vocals - Eddie "Fingers" OjedaEddie OjedaEddie "Fingers" Ojeda is one of the two guitarists of the American heavy metal band Twisted Sister....
– lead guitar - Jay Jay FrenchJay Jay FrenchJohn French Segall , better known by his stage name Jay Jay French or J.J. French, is a founding member and one of the two guitarists of the American heavy metal band, Twisted Sister....
– rhythm guitar, backing vocals - Mark "The Animal" MendozaMark MendozaMark "The Animal" Mendoza is the bassist of the American heavy metal band, Twisted Sister. He joined the band on October 31, 1978, after he left The Dictators. He also briefly played in Blackfoot in early 1990s.Mendoza played the bass guitar on all of Twisted Sister's major label releases...
– bass, backing vocals - A. J. PeroA. J. PeroAnthony Jude Pero is the drummer of the American heavy metal band Twisted Sister.He went to St. Peter's Boys High School in Staten Island, but left because the faculty made him cut his hair. He then went to New Dorp High School.Pero joined the band in 1982, after he left Cities, a local New York...
– drums, percussion
Additional musicians
- Lita FordLita FordLita Ford is a British-born, American rock musician and singer who was the lead guitarist for The Runaways and achieved popularity for her solo career between the 1980s and late 2000s.-Early life:...
– backing vocals on "I'll Be Home for Christmas" - Doro PeschDoro (musician)Dorothee Pesch , popularly known as Doro Pesch or Doro, is a female rock vocalist, formerly of the German heavy metal band Warlock ....
– backing vocals on "White ChristmasWhite Christmas (song)"White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the version sung by Bing Crosby is the best-selling single of all time, with estimated sales in excess of 50 million copies worldwide.Accounts vary as...
"
Music videos
Two music videos were made for "Oh Come All Ye Faithful." The first one follows the same style of the band's landmark videos "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "I Wanna Rock," as a married couple celebrate Christmas when the wife discovers that her husband's gift to her is a CD copy of A Twisted Christmas. She then starts to rant about the present until Dee and the band appear behind her.The second video version (using the radio edit) is a short animated feature with the band taking over Santa's workshop and using his sleigh to drop off Twisted Sister merchandise and cans of hairspray to children.
The music video for "Silver Bells" is the sequel to the first "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" video, as the couple are paid a visit by numerous guests while the band performs live on TV and the couple's new baby's head is replaced by the face of various band members singing.
Twisted Sister also filmed a studio performance of "Heavy Metal Christmas" for GameTap
GameTap
GameTap is an American online video game service established by Turner Broadcasting System . Dubbed by TBS as a "first of its kind broadband gaming network", the service provides users with classic arcade video games and game-related video content...
. This video featured Dee without his makeup.
Premise
"Oh Come All Ye FaithfulAdeste Fideles
"Adeste Fideles" is a hymn tune attributed to English hymnist John Francis Wade . The text itself has unclear beginnings, and may have been written in the 13th century by John of Reading, though it has been concluded that Wade was probably the author.The original four verses of the hymn were...
" uses the tune of "We're Not Gonna Take It" (the melody of which was inspired by the carol) and ends with a rendition of "Hava Nagila
Hava Nagila
"Hava Nagila" is a Hebrew folk song that has become a staple of band performers at Jewish weddings and Bar/Bat Mitzvahs.-History:...
". The song was performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on December 13, 2006. Parts of the guitar riff to "White Christmas" seem to be based on "I Wanna Rock
I Wanna Rock
"I Wanna Rock" is a song from the album Stay Hungry by American heavy metal band Twisted Sister. In 2009 it was named the 17th VH1 Greatest Hard Rock Songs by VH1...
", another Twisted Sister Song. Parts of the guitar riff on "Silver Bells" is based on "Problem Child" by AC/DC
AC/DC
AC/DC are an Australian rock band, formed in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Commonly classified as hard rock, they are considered pioneers of heavy metal, though they themselves have always classified their music as simply "rock and roll"...
. Some of the guitar riffs on "Let it Snow" are based on Children of The Grave by Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath are an English heavy metal band, formed in Aston, Birmingham in 1969 by Ozzy Osbourne , Tony Iommi , Geezer Butler , and Bill Ward . The band has since experienced multiple line-up changes, with Tony Iommi the only constant presence in the band through the years. A total of 22...
. Also, the guitar riffs on the Song "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" are based on "You Got Another Thing Coming" by Judas Priest
Judas Priest
Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band from Birmingham, England, formed in 1969. The current line-up consists of lead vocalist Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Scott Travis. The band has gone through several drummers over the years,...
.