The fastest way to irritate a radio disk jockey at Christmastime

Call and request “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.”

Every disk jockey in America is sick of that song. It’s not just because the song is so kitschy, but because the phones at every radio station in the nation ring off the hook for it throughout the holiday season.

As a public service to disk jockeys everywhere, we here at Down the Road are posting the song’s video. Now when you want to hear this song, you don’t have to call the radio station โ€“ all you have to do is click Play below. Doing so will make your favorite disk jockey’s Christmas more merry โ€“ because he won’t have to listen to it, too.

Merry Christmas!


Comments

24 responses to “The fastest way to irritate a radio disk jockey at Christmastime”

  1. Lone Primate Avatar
    Lone Primate

    I think this is the original recording, but I’ve always preferred The Irish Rovers’ version. It’s got more punch and the singer doesn’t wander all over the melody like this chap does. And it’s just not Christmas without Jimmy Ferguson’s baritone Ulsterman brogue.

    Their version can be heard here, should anyone care to hear. It’s got a good beat and you can dance to it. I give an 8. :)

    1. Jim Avatar

      It’s the 1984 recording. The original was from 1979. I used to hear that version every Christmas on The Dr. Demento Show back in the day…

    1. Jim Avatar

      I can’t believe I sat all the way through that rendition. I also can’t believe you found it on a Web site named turnbacktogod.com.

  2. vanilla Avatar

    No, thank you. I have gone this far through the season without hearing it and I am hoping to extend the string to the end. ;-)

    1. Jim Avatar

      See, that’s the great thing about me featuring this song on the blog: You get to choose whether you listen to it!

  3. Dani Avatar
    Dani

    Oh, Lord have mercy. ;-)

    1. Jim Avatar

      I like to think I’m exhibiting Lord-like mercy today, merely by offering this public service to the broadcasting industry!

  4. Denny Gibson Avatar

    Holy cow! I can’t type fast enough. First off, though I realize that you have a higher percentage of DJ readers than most, calling this a Public Service Announcement is still a major stretch. Then Lone Primate takes it to a whole new level by pointing to a website named TurnBackToGod and touting “Christian Music Download” which not only offers GGROBAR but has a link to “Track Santa Online”. And we still haven’t figured out what mysterious force caused the Irish Rovers to actually record this in the first place.

    1. Jim Avatar

      Denny, haven’t you figured out by now that my whole blog is a major stretch? :-)

      1. Denny Gibson Avatar

        Must be time to put more tensile on the Christmas tree.

        Besides a smile, this thread brought on a question. I recall listening to a late night DJ in the early 1960s who usually referred to himself as Dr D but whose full “name” I thought was Demento. Wikipedia says the real Dr Demento was created in 1970 so that can’t be him. I doubt many (or any) of your readers are old enough to answer but I’ll ask anyway. Anyone remember a Dr D from 1962-65 on an AM station that could reach Darke County Ohio late at night when the moon and stars and solar winds were just right?

        1. Jim Avatar

          The Dr. Demento I know is Barry Hansen, and iirc he did start in the 70s. So maybe my vast (cough) readership will have an answer for you!

  5. Tori Nelson Avatar

    My eye started twitching immediately. Southerners think this song is HI-LARIOUS!

    1. Jim Avatar

      Judging by the way the phones rang for this song when I worked as a disk jockey, so do northerners.

  6. Scott Palmer Avatar

    Hey, can you play “The Shaving Cream Song”? That’s my favorite Christmas record. :-)

    1. Jim Avatar

      Shaving cream, be nice and clean, shave every day and you’ll always look keen!

  7. ryoko861 Avatar

    I have this on a 45. This, Dominic the Christmas Donkey and I want a Hippopotamus For Christmas are three songs that drive me nuts. I normally have the local radio station on through out the season that plays only Christmas music, this year I haven’t put it on hardly at all. They play the SAME songs every hour! I haven’t even gotten out my own CD’s. Just not into it this year.

    1. Jim Avatar

      I actually seriously considered including Dominic and the hippo in this post, but even I have standards, and chose not to do that.

  8. zorgor Avatar

    At first I thought, ‘Yeah! I like that song!’ and clicked play. About halfway through I thought, ‘Ok, once was enough. I’m good for another year.’ By the end it occurred to me that if more people saw this video, fewer and fewer would ever want to hear this song again. I see your diabolical plan revealed.

    1. Jim Avatar

      I’m nefarious!

  9. mj monaghan Avatar

    Disappointingly, I did not click on the song!! I have gone all year without listening to it in a store, the car, a restaurant, etc. Thanks Jim, now you have put it in my head without even hearing it :(. hehehe

    Have a great holiday, my new blog friend!

    1. Jim Avatar

      Sorry to have caused it to play on the radio station in your head!

  10. Todd Pack Avatar

    As a former boy disc jockey (I got my 3rd class permit when I was 14), I was more annoyed when I was playing Christmas music one afternoon — the station got a bunch of traditional Christmas music on reel-to-reel tapes and played them one after another — and this old woman called and demanded, “What is that NOISE you’re playing?” I checked the sheet and said, “Mahalia Jackson, ‘O, Holy Night.’” She goes, “Well, it’s TERRIBLE! Why can’t you play some GOOD Christmas music?” I wanted to say, “I am,” and I wanted to call her a racist, but I think what I really said was, “OK,” and hung up.

    1. Jim Avatar

      I got a call like that once, too. I was playing Johnny Mathis. He made quite plain that we should be playing music only by white artists. I told him that we would be playing whatever music we wanted, and he could listen or not.

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