Most of you have probably heard this already, but Neil Diamond has a holiday album with a cover of Adam Sandler’s Hanukkah Song.  Besides the general strangeness of covering the song, it is very bizarre that he feels the need to change “tom cruise isn’t, but I think his agent is” to “…but Jesus Christ is.”  Also bizarre that he felt the needed to say “don’t smoke your marijuanica.”  But if that wasn’t enough, he does a song called “Cherry, Cherry Christmas” where he takes the names of all his popular songs and inserts them into a new song about the holidays.  You can check them out at the hype machine or his myspace.

But there’s more!

• Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings just released a new 45, called “Ain’t No Chimneys in the Projects.”  And in the spirit of the season, are giving away the mp3 of it for free through their website.
• One of my favorite blogs, Soul-Sides, is giving away a mixtape of Aretha Franklin songs.
• While not a holiday song, it would be a great gift for me: White Stripes Live dvd “Under the Great White Northern Lights.”  You can now see the full version of “Let’s Shake Hands” on their myspace.
• This might be a stretch, but Christmas just came early for a couple bands.  They just released all the inductees for this the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year.   For once, I am happy with all of the picks: ABBA, the Hollies, Genesis, Jimmy Cliff, and The Stooges.