You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch

This performance is taken from the Just Play Music Holiday episode. Live, slow, dark, slightly-creepy, and full of non-sensical, whimsical fun...just as it was intended.

While there are literally hundreds of holiday/Christmas songs out there, with the exception of Linus & Lucy (the famous piano/jazz romp from A Charlie Brown Christmas, 1965) no other Christmas song has remained in my mind for as long (and with as many fond memories) as You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch from Dr. Seuss' classic children's story, How The Grinch Stole Christmas (1966).
 
This performance is taken from the Holiday episode of my still-unreleased children's show, Just Play Music™. As a lead-in to the song, I discuss some of the interesting chord structure found in this tune, namely the use of the diminished chord (and how that adds an extra level of dark creepiness to it all)
 
The whole mantra of the show is to focus on the feelings of joy and exhilaration derived from playing live music...and sometimes, depending on the type of music I'm making, that involves singing in an ultra-low, slightly-creepy voice, whilst making weird faces and talking about things like sauerkraut and toadstool sandwiches...with arsenic sauce :)
 
Dig this...and Happy Xmas.
As mentioned above, in each episode of the show I will often discuss a technique or specific characteristic of a particular tune before the performance occurs. This excerpt from Vimeo actually starts with the lead-in to the performance above (it may just give you a little more context, if you want to take a look...:)
Oh, and should you be so inclined...you can buy this tune (along with several others) at Amazon & iTunes :)
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