The twenty-second day of Hot Roxmas

Working through the alphabet, the next letter would be U, but I did two S songs, so I'm skipping to V, so I can wrap all 26 days by Boxing Day.





The Ventures were just inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, along with Madonna, John (Cougar) Mellencamp, Leonard Cohen and the Dave Clark Five. I'm not going to debate the merits of these acts individually, but that's going to be one heck of a post-ceremony jam session!If the DC5 are in the hall, then the Hollies and the Zombies have to be a lock. And if JCM is in, then Graham Parker has to be a lock. And if Madonna is in, then .. I'm sorry but the whole concept of the "Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame" is nothing but a silly joke!

But anyone who says the Ventures don't belong doesn't know what they're talking about. A 50 year career with more than 90 million records sold. The most influential instrumental band of the rock era. The best thing about being an instrumental band, sales-wise, is that your records become popular all over the world -- "Walk, Don't Run" rocks in every language!

The Ventures 1965 Christmas album is one of their most popular ones, probably a big part of the 90 million records they've sold. Their arrangement of "Sleigh Ride" still gets mall and radio airplay during the festive season, and the song fits the Ventures sound really well. Most of the songs on the Los Straitjackets Christmas album (including "Sleigh Ride") were cribbed note-for-note from the Ventures arrangements. When you're doing rock/surf instrumental versions of Christmas songs, there's only one way to play them correctly. I can already hear those guitars jingling and ring-ting-tingling too, so it's time go on a two minute and twenty second sleigh ride!

The Ventures - Sleigh Ride