Quad City DJs

Twelve Songs of Christmas

This episode is bittersweet for me. The things I love on Quad City DJs' All-Star Christmas make me very happy, and this week one half of the Quad City DJs, CC Lemonhead, tells the story of the Jacksonville, Florida DJs' journey from "Whoot! There it Is" to "Tootsie Roll" to "C'mon and Ride It (The Train)" to "What You Want for Christmas." It's the kind of story I love, with people working up homemade solutions to musical challenges, and what happens along the way.

Unfortunately, one of the things that happened is that CC and his partner Jay-Ski fell out during the recording of Quad City DJs' debut album for Atlantic Records, Get on Up and Dance, and he was out of the picture entirely for the recording of All-Star Christmas in 1996. Equally unfortunately, I didn't know that until a half-hour into our interview. So far, Jay-Ski has not responded to interview requests, but I'm going to keep trying.

Fortunately, last episode's guest, Bill Adler, tracked down one of the singers on the album, an artist who goes by the name of Big Tyme and recorded "Xmas Blues," otherwise known as Bonquisha and Otis, which bounce rapper Big Freedia turned me on to on a previous episode. Adler wrote the story for LL Cool J's Rock The Bells website, so I this episode I read an excerpt of it to help answer one more question about the album.

In this episode, singer Alexandra Scott returns to talk with me about new Christmas music from Meghan Trainor, Ingrid Michaelson, and Amanda Shires. You can hear Alexandra's music on her Bandcamp page.

This episode is sponsored by Car-Floats.com, purveyors of removable, reusable fabric stickers for your car.

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