Holidays in Dementia

Handpicked by the notorious Dr. Demento, the selections on this CD/cassette lean most heavily on recordings from the '80s and '90s, with a few evergreen oldies/oddities added to the mix!

Dr. Demento is an archivist elf of the first order. Testament to his timeworn ways is this collection of fractured holidays tunes and his earlier The Greatest Christmas Novelty CD of All Time. The good Doc showcases 17 tunes here, although the collection could do without nearly a quarter of those, including Joseph Spence's oddity "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and the Waitresses' "Christmas Wrapping." The latter is a pop-rap tune that sounds pretty tame in the cracked company of the inimitable Bob Rivers ("The Twelve Pains of Christmas"), Spike Jones (sending up New Year's resolutions), and Father Guido Sarducci ("Santa's Lament"). Then there's James & Kling's perverse "A Terrorist Christmas," as well as a couple of loopy Hanukkah tunes, one a rap number by Doc Mo She and the other from Gefilte Joe & the Fish. --Martin Keller