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Lots of Hebraic folk were miffed years ago when Neil Diamond put out a couple CDs of Christmas classics, including some that were a bit more spiritual than, say, “Jingle Bells.” (i.e., “Away In A Manger,” “O Come All Ye Faithful”). After all, this is the Brooklyn boychik who played a chazzan in the 1980 remake of “The Jazz Singer” (with Larry Olivier and Lucy Arnaz, for crying out loud!) and was once known as “The Jewish Elvis.”
Maybe ol’ Neil is doing teshuvah for that. Recently, he released a cover of Adam Sandler’s “The Chanukah Song.” (It should be noted that the track is on Mr. Diamond’s new “A Cherry, Cherry Christmas,” his third Xmas CD. Guess old habits die hard, and Christmas albums probably tend to sell better than their Chanukah counterparts.)
The raspy-voiced singer delivers a dead-on, fairly hysterical cover version of Mr. Sandler’s classic, which famously offers shout-outs of such Jewish Hollywood luminaries as Goldie Hawn, Dinah Shore, Leonard Nimoy, Ann Landers, Harrison Ford and Bill Shatner.
At the start of the tune, Mr. Diamond, 68, even addresses the paucity of songs concerning the Festival of Lights: “There are so many beautiful Christmas songs around and so few Chanukah songs, so I thought we’d try this one for you.” He even throws another celeb into the mix omitted in the Sandler original—Jesus Christ. And he changes the last naughty verse to “Don’t smoke your marijuanukah.” (How Neil of him!)
The track—produced by DJ Ashba, the new guitarist for Guns ‘N’ Roses – is kinda fun, but you can’t help wonder to yourself, “What was Neil thinkin’?” After all, nothing can top Adam’s original. (Check out Neil and Adam’s versions on YouTube.)
Meanwhile, guess who has come out with his first-ever Christmas CD? America’s favorite `now-he’s-a-Jew/now-he’s-not” singer-poet, Bob Dylan.
That’s right, the Nasal One’s CD “Christmas In The Heart” was just released, featuring such Yuletide faves as “It Must Be Santa,” “Little Drummer Boy,” “Winter Wonderland” and “Here Comes Santa Claus.” All U.S. royalties from the collection will benefit the charity Feeding America, the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity. Other proceeds from it benefit hunger relief organizations around the world.