Don't let the holiday rush get you down.

One of the key members of Fleetwood Mac, Christine McVie has died at the age of 79.

Born with the "perfect" name of Christine Perfect (her actual name - not a stage name), she established herself in British music scene in 1967 as a member of a band called Chicken Shack, winning best female vocalist honors from Melody Maker in 1969 and again in 1970. She also was the group's main songwriter. During those years she also became a fan of the British blues band, Fleetwood Mac, which recorded for the same label in the UK.

Christine was asked to play sessions for Mac's second album. She and the group's bassist, John McVie quickly became an item. The pair married and Christine joined the group in 1970, remaining with them for the rest of her career. In the mid-70s, the band relocated to America, added California musicians Stevie Nicks & Lindsey Buckingham and quickly morphed into one of the most successful rock acts of all time with Christine writing and singing lead on many of the groups hits ("Over My Head," "You Make Loving Fun" and many more).

Along the way, Christine recorded and released several solo albums and one album with Mac bandmate, Buckingham (allegedly because the duo were tired of waiting for the other band members to contribute to a Fleetwood Mac album).

While she and McVie divorced in 1976, they remained amiable and she retained his surname for the rest of her life.

Her contributions to rock are significant and she will be missed.

At this late date with anthologies, amped-up John Lennon demos, and Anniversary editions, you wouldn’t think there were any Beatle “rarities” left in the vault, but there are!

Between the years 1963 and 1969, the Fab Four released special Christmas records only to members of their fan clubs in the UK and US. A segment of 1967’s record appeared on the Anthology set in 1995 and there was a limited-edition release of all 7 records as a vinyl box set in 2017.

These records were put together quickly and mainly featured the boys fooling around, occasionally breaking into song. They were sent to the fans on cheap, one-sided flexi-discs. The running time for these special recordings ran between 3 and 7 minutes, but they were a nice perk for those who had forked over membership dues.

Never produced in great numbers to begin with, many of these discs have been lost over time. But for any die-hard fan, they are a “must-have” item. Thanks to the internet and digital recording, you can find mp3 versions of all these records at various sites around the web.

Who had thse on their list for Santa?

Is there anyone in the U.S. – heck – is there anyone on the world that hasn’t seen the holiday comedy A Christmas Story at least once? Based on the essays of noted humorist Jean Shepherd (who also services as the movie’s narrator, it seems to be on a perpetual loop during December at all kinds of cable & streaming services.

But we bet there are still a few things about this perennial classic you may not know

The real inspiration for that leg lamp (“It’s a major award!”) was an old ad for Nehi soda pop (also a favorite of Radar O’Reilly on M*A*S*H). For years, the soda featured a woman’s gams next to their bottle of pop (“knee-high,” get it?). Jean Shepherd remembered those ads vividly and a pop culture icon was born.

Jack Nicholson nearly played Ralphie’s Old Man. Jack was sent the script as he was director Bob Clark’s first choice. Nicholson liked what he read and agreed to do the film, but his asking price would have single-handedly doubled the movie’s budget, so the producers took a pass and the part went to Darren McGaven. Don’t feel bad for Jack. He was also offered a part in Terms of Endearment at the same time and that part snagged him his second Oscar. Nice, but no leg lamp, am I right?

Ralphie helped kick off the MCU. As Peter Billingsley grew up, acting parts became scarcer, so he channeled his efforts behind the scenes and became an established Hollywood producer. And one of the films he executive produced was Iron Man, the very first entry in what became known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you look closely, he also appears as one of the scientists at Tony Stark’s company (a role he reprised in Spiderman: Far From Home.)

Author Shepherd used his own middle name in the film. Jean’s middle name is Parker, so he used that as the family name in the film because the story is based on his memories of his own family.

Melinda Dillon’s reaction in the restaurant is not acting – it’s genuine. Playing Ralphie’s mother, Dillon was deliberately given a wrong script for that scene because the director wanted to see what her unrehearsed reaction would be when she saw the duck served at the table with its head attached. Her genuine reaction is what you see in the finished film.

There really was a “Little Orphan Annie” decoder. Born in the funny papers, Annie was also an early radio star, just like it’s shown in the movie. However, the secret messages her fans could decipher with that secret radio giveaway were never insipid sales plugs for Ovaltine.

Peter Billingsley also appeared in another holiday classic. Next time you watch Elf with Will Ferrell, take a good look at Ming Ming, the lead toymaker – that’s Ralphie himself – Peter Billingsley all grown up.

No tongues were harmed during the filming of A Christmas Story. That famous flagpole scene was shot using concealed suction tubes to make it appear that Ralphie’s friend had his tongue stuck to the frozen flagpole.

A new study, conducted by researchers in Denmark and Australia, indicates that walking may be the best way to prevent dementia. Is there a catch? Well, a slight one. According to the study, you need to walk 9,800 steps daily to gain this benefit.

So, set your step counters and start walking!

By now, you know that the last of the rock pioneers, Jerry Lee Lewis passed away on Friday, October 28, 2022. He was 87 years old and, somewhat like Keith Richards, it almost defies belief that he outlasted virtually all of his contemporaries.

Born & raised in Farraday, Louisiana, Lewis absorbed a wide variety of musical styles, both black and white. When Elvis hit it big, Lewis packed up and headed to Memphis, landing at the doorstep of Sam Phillips’ Sun Records. Phillips signed the young man and almost immediately had another budding superstar. His second and third releases on Sun, “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On” and “Great Balls of Fire” raced to the top of the charts, followed by other successful rockers like “Breathless” and “High School Confidential.”

What really earned Jerry Lee his place in rock history were his live appearances – wild and frequently bordering on totally out of control. He and Little Richard established a style of performing that came to influence countless performers from Pete Townsend to Bruce Springsteen and beyond.

Lewis’ career hit a major speed bump in 1958 when it was revealed that he had married his 13-year-old second cousin, Myra Brown. Making matters even worse, it seems he hadn’t really divorced his previous wife before tying the knot with young Myra. (Despite the scandal, the couple’s marriage lasted more than a decade.)

Immediately blacklisted from rock, Lewis spent the next decade slowly rebuilding his career as a country singer, finally achieving even greater success in that genre. However, his rampaging stage shows still featured healthy doses of the rock & roll he loved, earning him the nickname, “The Killer.” His personal life was often tumultuous, filled with family tragedies, drug & alcohol excess and even violence, like the time he shot his bass player in the chest with a .357 Magnum. Fortunately, his bass player lived and chose not to file felony charges.

Lewis was among the first group of musicians inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame. Curiously, he wasn’t inducted into the Country Hall of Fame until just a few weeks before his death.

Who could have guessed that a cute little Broadway show designed to appeal to nostalgic Baby Boomers and their slightly older siblings would go on the become such a multi-generational cultural touchstone? But Grease did just that – largely because of a movie version that shrewdly soft-pedaled the 50’s and instead substituted a lot more of the 70’s.

The blockbuster film jettisoned several of the original Broadway show’s tunes and inserted 4, count ‘em, 4 modern pop tunes (Olivia Newton-John’s “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” John Travolta’s “Sandy,” the duo’s “You’re the One That I Want” and Frankie Valli’s title tune, written by Barry Gibb).

Looking at the original show’s tunes, 3 of them were clearly “homages” (a polite way of saying “rip-offs”) of some authentic tunes from the actual age of grease. Here are those tunes and the original hits that inspired them.

“Freddy, My Love” – inspired by “Eddie, My Love”: The song’s title gives away its inspiration. The original is a doo-wop classic from 1956 that originally charted for the group, the Teen Queens. The original song was written by Maxwell Davis, Aaron Collins, Jr. and Sam Ling. Davis played sax on the original record. Collins was brother to the two sisters who made up the Teen Queens and “Sam Ling” was a pseudonym for Saul Bihari, the man who owned the RPM record label that released the record.

The song reached the top 20 for the Teen Queens as well as for the Chordettes and the Fontaine Sisters all in 1956.

“We Go Together” – inspired by “Who Put the Bomp (In the Bomp, Bomp, Bomp)”: This up-tempo ditty was sung twice in the original Broadway show to close both the first and second acts. In the movie, it’s heard only once as the film’s finale. Its tribute to dozens of classic doo-wop nonsense words has its roots in a novelty record written and sung by one of rock’s great early composers, Barry Mann. Mann usually wrote songs in collaboration with his wife Cynthia Weil. But for this record, he co-wrote it with Gerry Goffin (who usually was writing songs with his then-wife Carole King, maybe you’ve heard of her?).

For whatever reason, Mann chose to sing this one himself rather than giving it to an established singer. It reached #7 on Billboards Hot 100, making it one of the most successful novelty records of its time (1961).

“Born to Hand Jive” – inspired by “Willie & the Hand Jive”: Like “Freddy, My Love,” it’s not hard to determine where this song came from. The original, featuring “Way-Out Willie” was written and recorded by r&b great, Johnny Otis in 1958. His version reached as high as #8 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and inspired teenagers from coast-to-coast to do their own version of the Hand Jive at dances and sock hops for many years after. The song was covered by Eric Clapton in 1974 and again charted on Billboard, this time getting to #24. The “tribute” (another polite word for “rip-off”) of the song in Grease really doesn’t mess with the essentials.

If you ever see the stage show, it will probably now include some of the songs written just for the movie, but it may also include two wonderful tunes that never got the attention they deserved in the film. The first is “Magic Changes,” a wonderful little hymn to the simplicity of sweet early rock & roll. In the stage show, it’s sung fairly early by one of the Burger Palace Boys as a way of demonstrating how he’s learning the guitar. In the movie, it’s sung by Johnny Casino at the school dance, but it’s heard mainly in the background as the film’s major characters interact at the dance.

The other song is “Alone at the Drive-In Movie.” This is a hilarious song about the thwarted lust Danny feels when Sandy dumps him at the drive-in. The song takes the form of a 1950’s teen weeper. In the movie version, it’s replaced by the ultra-saccharine, “Sandy.”  In the movie, it’s only heard as instrumental background music.

Okay, what are they putting in that V-8?