The First Rap Song: The Sugarhill Gang- "Rapper's Delight"

This is generally believed to be the first "rap" song ever.  1979.

80's Rap: Blondie "Rapture"

This was the first rap song most white kids ever heard, from the New Wave band Blondie.  I totallt remember when I first heard this song on the radio.  We still lived in Ohio, it came out in January of 1981.  I was at my friend Tom's house, and the radio station out of Cleveland, G-98, played this song.  When it was done, we went, "What was THAT?"  Rap didn't exist, we had never even heard of it.  I was about 13.  The radio must have played it before it was released, because I think we lived in New Mexico in 1981.  

Back-up, You guys know the play/movie RENT, about the young artists, musicians, and weird people living cheap, and squatting in empty buildings, in the "Alphabet City" area of New York City.  "Rent" takes place, starting on Christmas Day 1989, on Avenue A in NYC.  New York City really went downhill in the late 1960's and 1970's, and that area of the A-B-C letter streets, "Alphabet City," was a part that was really run down.  A decade before "Rent" was set, in the late 1970's, Disco was the popular mainstream music, but a lot of alternative stuff, like the original punk rock bands, and art and alternative bands, played at a club called CBGB's, and similar dive bars, not far away from Greenwich Village and Alphabet City.  Lots of young musicians, artists, and weirdos lived super cheap.  The first rap and hip hop was just starting in the ghetto neighborhoods there, and popular in that group of innovators.  Madonna also came out of that scene.  

Blondie was originally a punk band, but morphed into New Wave, which was punk influenced, but had synthesizers and more keyboards, and became popular music.  But Debbie Harry and the Blondie members new and hung out with the punkers, the artists, and the first rappers, like Grandmaster Flash, graffiti writer Fab Five Freddie, and others.  So they incorporated the idea of rapping into this song "Rapture," and it was really the first mainstream "rap" hit song.  It was a few more years before mainstream radio and MTV started playing much rap and hip hop.  

80's Rap: Run DMC (with Aerosmith) "Walk This Way"

This one was actually pretty cool, and this song got a lot of young whuite kids stocked on rap music.  This was a HUGE hit on MTV, back when they played music 24 hours a day.  

80's Rap: The Fat Boys (with The Beach Boys) "Wipeout"

Way back ni the olden days of the 1980's, when your parents and me were teenagers, rap music was just evolving, and starting to make it ont MTV.  It was a lot different in those early days...

80's Rap: Proof that Will Smith, The Fresh Prince, was always a dork

Straight outta Disneyland...

Merry Christmas... Partridge Family Christmas medeley

Merry Christmas Katherine and Ethan.

The Christmas spirit...

Ah... Bad Santa, starring Billy Bob Thorton.  Nothing reminds me of Christmas as a kid like this movie.  Heh, heh, heh.

RUN DMC- "Christmas in Hollis Queens"

One of the first rap groups to hit it big, with the first hip hop Christmas song to get popular.  From 1987, when rap music was still super controversial.  

Brian Setzer Orchestra- "Jingle Bells"

This is the Brian Setzer Orchestra, Brian is the guy on guitar, and first became known leading The Stray Cats, a rockabilly revival band, back in the early 1980's.  Here's Brian with his bigger band, in the 1990's, playing a swinging version of "Jingle Bells."  Did you know Grandpa Tom played the clarinet and saxophone when he was young?  He was pretty good, and a fan of big band/swing music, and he actually liked this band when I showed them to him.  

The Waitresses- "Christmas Wrapping"

This song about being to tired for Christmas came out in 1981, months after a new cable channel called MTV (for Music TeleVision) started.  Back then MTV actually played music videos 24 hours a day.  This song was an MTV Christmas classic when old geezers like me were in high school.  

Monique Powell- Jewish parody of "Christmas Wrapping"

Monique Powell was the singer for a ska band called Save Ferris, and was compared a lot to Gwen Stephanie of No Doubt, in the late 1980's and early 1990's.  Ska is a blend of punk and reggae, and both bands were coming up at the same time.  Save Ferris is best known for this cover song, but they rocked plenty of their own songs, as well.  

Joan Jett & The Blackhearts- "Little Drummer Boy"

She came up in The Runaways, the first all girl hard rock band in the late 1970's, then took off with her own band.  Joan Jett's Christmas carol.

The Partridge Family- "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree"

Katherine and Ethan, this is from a record our family played every Christmas growing up.  The Partridge Family was a TV show in the 1970's.  

DRopkick Murhpys- "The Saeson's Upon Us"

It's not Christmas for me without hearing this song now.  The Dropkick Murphys.  

Adam Sandler- Original version of the Chanukah song

Adam Sandler with the debut of his now famous "Chanukah song," on Saturday Night Live.

The Kinks- "Father Christmas"

The Kinks, with a streetwise take on those corner Santa Clauses.