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Phthor Quiddity's avatar

Hoping for partial credit on the assignment: While secular Christmas songs are usually bad, the jangly atheists comprising XTC did alright with "Thanks for Christmas," released under the pseudonym The Three Wise Men. Achieves a rare balance of cheese with the dour acknowledgment that Christmas makes other days seem sucky in comparison. Yes, there is too much glockenspiel in the mix, but it is completely free of imaginary characters.

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Reader John's avatar

You didn't mention that the Soulful Celebration Messiah album was a Quincy Jones project. He was a giant.

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Phthor Quiddity's avatar

Yes! Everyone knows about Thriller etc, but not that he arranged Fly Me to the Moon for Frank Sinatra. That pretty much covers the waterfront of popular music!

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