Holiday Hipness!

Today I feature a holiday song that you may not have heard before. As a matter of fact, it may be the ginchiest Christmas song you’ve ever heard. 

Huh? What is “ginchiest?” Well, back in the late 50’s and early 60’s it was a slang word that means “Cool. Hip. Admired by others.” All the hep cats were using this beatnik slang during that time. One TV show that featured a lot of this slang was 77 Sunset Strip.

Edd Byrnes played Kookie on the show and his conversations were sprinkled with words and phrases like: Baby, Baller, Gasser, Crazy, Dig, Flat Top, Flip your lid, Jazzed, Keen, Like wow, Nifty, Off the hook, Pinned, Rumble, and SO many more! (Younger folks remember him from the Movie Grease. He was the emcee Vince Fontaine at the Dance Contest.)

In 1959, Kookie and Connie Stevens had a hit with “Kookie, Kookie Lend Me Your Comb.” Because you know, it was all about the hair!

That same year, Kookie presented his own version of the Night Before Christmas. I’ve always loved this little two minute tune. While it is mostly spoken, I always get lost in the background music. I think it is so cool. 

The beatnik slang often added, “sville” to words. Boresville would be someplace boring. Antsville might be a place where there were so many people that they were packed in like ants. So I suppose it is only appropriate that Kookie’s holiday song is called “Yulesville.”

Yulesville

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the pad,

Not a hep cat was swingin’ and that’s nowhere, dad.

The stove was hung up in that stocking routine,

Like maybe the fat man would soon make the scene.

The kids had fell by and soon made the street.

I was ready for Snoresville, man, was I beat.

When there started a rumble that came on real frantic.

So I opened the window to figure the panic.

I saw a slick ride that was making fat tracks,

Souped up by eight ponies all wearing hat racks

And a funny old geezer was flippin’ his lid.

He told them to make it, and man, like they did!

They were outta the chute making time like a bat

Turning the quarter in 8 seconds flat.

He parked by the smoke stack in bunches and clusters,

Till Chubby slid down, coming on like Gangbusters

His threads were from Cubesville and I had to chuckle

In front, not in back, was his Ivy League buckle.

The mop on his chin hit a button down collar.

And with that red nose, dad, he looked like a baller

Like he was the squarest, the most absolute.

But let’s face it huh, who cares when he left all that loot.

He laid the jazz on me and peeled from the gig.

Wailin’ “Have a cool yule, man.  Later.  Like, dig?”

Oh, and you might need the above book to get the gist of the lingo!

Have a Cool Yule, Man!