Sugarland – “Nuttin’ For Christmas”
Songwriters: Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett.
When covering Christmas songs, artists have something like three options: They can do something bland and boring but inoffensive; they can choose to put in the artistic work necessary and cut something that rivals the standard recording, or even becomes a new standard itself; or they can release a version that generically sounds like one of their own tunes.
Sugarland went the third way.
Jennifer Nettles is a distinct enough singer who, despite constantly sounding like she’s trying to be cute by wrinkling her noise, accomplishes what she’s aiming for here, and Sugarland’s faux-country acoustic hoedown pop sound works in context as well.
Of course the context here is Sugarland being Sugarland and leading a frivolous sing-a-long. So, hooray?
“Nuttin’ for Christmas” is definitely a cutesy song, no doubt about that, and to be honest I was disappointed that Nettles didn’t have more fun with this. Playful is kind of her thing, and here is a perfect song on which to be all the goofy she can be.
But instead, the duo altered the song’s melody, and Nettles ends up giving an entirely forgettable performance. It is a straightforward, serious attempt at a song with lyrics like, “I spilled some ink on mama’s rug/I made Ronnie eat a bug/Bought some gum with a penny slug/Somebody snitched on me.”
Ironically, the one time I’d be completely happy to hear Sugarland be fun-loving in an over the top and ridiculous way, they lock it up and try to play “Nuttin’ for Christmas” like an up-tempo, old time bluegrass hymn. Lame.
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8 Comments
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December 22, 2008 at 9:12 am Permalink
Spot-on review, Ben. This is pretty lame.
December 22, 2008 at 9:18 am Permalink
Aww, I love this song. I’ve heard it a few times and it puts a smile on my face every time.
December 22, 2008 at 9:43 am Permalink
It’s a drag that something that takes real sentiment and authenticity like a Christmas song can quickly uncover a lake of sincerity that for some reason they can mull over in a country song. Seems there’s a lot of overlap between country and Christmas songs as far as the listeners demands but for some reason, maybe because of its tie with a short period (late November to early January)of time and lack of complete overexposure, Christmas songs can still uncover an emotional fraud. It’s also a drag because Sugarland is one of the few Nash Vegas bands I can stomach.
December 22, 2008 at 10:46 am Permalink
They should have inserted a “Ho,Ho,Ho,Ho,Ho” chorus as such silliness has worked well for them in the past…
December 22, 2008 at 11:51 am Permalink
The link to the song is not working for me … and yes, I have RealPlayer.
December 29, 2008 at 1:50 pm Permalink
This is one of my childhood favorite Christmas songs and I would have lOVED to see Nettles do something fun with it! Don’t pick this song if you ain’t going to have fun with it right?
December 8, 2009 at 9:49 pm Permalink
Opinions are like butt holes, everybody has one. This was waaaay better than any other version of this song I have ever heard.
December 8, 2009 at 10:38 pm Permalink
Sorry Velter – the definitive version of this song was by Art Mooney – ALL other versions are left in the dust compared to that version except , perhaps, the Spike Jones version
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