Holiday Music is quite an interesting genre containing hit songs such as Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” or Danny Elfman’s “This Is Halloween,” however most of the Holiday Music genre is either Christmas or Halloween songs, you never hear songs about the one Holiday sandwiched right between the two: Thanksgiving. Now seeing as Thanksgiving is literally next Thursday from the time I’m writing this, I suppose it’s time to expose myself (and you guys) to unsung tunes of Thanksgiving Music.
So when I first opened my google search tab and typed in “Thanksgiving Music,” I was greeted by a list of pretty well known people such as Bob Dylan, Louis Armstrong, Adam Sandler, …..Green Day???? How did I not know that Green Day has a Thanksgiving song?? Why haven’t I heard of it?! If you know me, then you know I’m super emo and like heavy music, so you could imagine how surprised I was when I learned that Green Day made a Thanksgiving song, specifically about the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. And now, the only left to do is to review them, so here we have an honest review on 4 Thanksgiving songs that I’ve (probably) never heard of.
Bob Dylan – Turkey Chase
Just by looking at the title you can tell this song you can tell it’s going to be something upbeat, something with a little pep in its step, and that’s exactly what you get when you first listen to this song. It has an acoustic guitar opening, the first few notes descending down from the 5th note of the b minor scale, and it keeps that motif throughout the song. After the short little acoustic opening, it’s joined by a fiddle and a bass, playing an upbeat polka bass line. Shortly after, the banjo comes, giving us a nice country feel to the song. On the Thanksgiving-core scale, I give it a 7/10: a good song, I did like it a lot, especially the motif of descending down the b minor scale, however it lacked some vocals, which I feel would’ve really added more to this song. Overall, this song truly did make me feel like chasing a turkey.
Louis Armstrong – What a Wonderful World
Now I know what you’re thinking, “Sparsh, I’ve never heard of this song classified as Thanksgiving,” and you, dear reader, would be right. I’ve never heard of this song as a “Thanksgiving” song, however google says it is and I definitely trust the google AI with my whole heart therefore, What a Wonderful World can be a Thanksgiving song! I personally have very nice memories of this song, and you can see how it could fit the Thanksgiving vibe with the nature imagery and the descriptions of people just socializing and having fun. I suppose Thanksgiving is about being around the ones you love and sharing some fun memories with them, and this song definitely fits it. On the Thanksgiving-core scale, I give this song a 10/10. That’s right, Sparsh Aiyar, the Emo of City High likes Louis Armstrong, and honestly, who doesn’t?
Adam Sandler – The Thanksgiving Song
There are no words to describe how incredibly appalled, yet amused I am. Immediately when I play the video, I’m greeted with the strange, high pitched and squeaky voice of the one and only Adam Sandler, saying “Love to eat turkey,” in a strange child-like voice. He then continues, with his acoustic guitar, to sing about eating a turkey, however many of the lines make no sense and just rhyme with the previous line. However, the more I listen to this song, the more it grows on me, like a cancer or the strange fungus on the back of my heel. I must say, the song gets a little more bearable after listening to it 15 times, therefore on the Thanksgiving-core scale, I give it a 10/10, however the song itself is a 2/10. It’s a great Thanksgiving song, however I would never go out of my way to genuinely listen to it.
Green Day – Macy’s Day Parade
The song opens with a nice acoustic intro, simple chords in a very Green Day-like style, of just simple chords in a simple pattern. This is definitely one of their softer songs, and this song specifically came out as the fourth and final single released from Green Day’s 2000 album, Warning. It keeps up with the same simple chord progression for the entire song, and while listening to it I could definitely tell that the song was more about the message than the music. Unlike other “Thanksgiving” songs, this one is more of a social commentary, highlighting the bad parts of American culture and its consumerist ideologies. On the Thanksgiving-core scale, I give it a 3/10, mainly because it’s more about the detrimental effects of our capitalistic society and just alludes to Thanksgiving, however song-wise I give it an 8/10. Good song, just not Thanksgiving enough.
