”Last Christmas” with Annie Zalenski

Twelve Songs returns to regular programming this week with writer
Annie Zaleski joining me to talk about Wham!’s “Last Christmas” and
our favorite versions of it.    On Christmas Day last
year, Zaleski told the song’s story at Salon.com, which is
just one of the places where she has covered pop music and
Christmas music over the years. She also wrote a book on Duran
Duran’s Rio for the 33 1/3 series.    The song
has become a fascination of mine for a lot of reasons, one of which
is that I’ve only really come around to it in the last few years.
For a long time, I understood those who played Whamageddon online
during the holiday season, but eventually the durability of the
song and its stylish, bonkers, of the moment video won me
over.    Annie and I also talk about cover versions by
Jimmy Eat World, Carly Rae Jepsen, Manic Street Preachers, and Lucy
Dacus. The episode closes with one of my favorites from last year
by Japanese noise rock band Boris. If it speaks to you, you can
find it at Boris’ Bandcamp page.    In the conversation,
I mentioned the video for the version of "Last Christmas" by the
Japanese rock band Chai, and Annie and I break down Wham!'s
video.