"Merry Christmas in the NFL" by Willis "The Guard" & Vigorish

Song#:  0451
Date:  12/27/1980
Debut:  82
Peak:  82
Weeks:  3
Genre:  Christmas, Novelty



Pop Bits:  This novelty duo obviously does not exist. The real folks behind the song are Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia. Those names may seem familiar to you. If so, then you may remember them as Buckner & Garcia, the duo behind the Top 10 hit "Pac-Man Fever" (1982). The pair came up with this Christmas novelty tune based on the standard holiday poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" and it was released for the 1980 holiday season.

ReduxReview:  I happen to listen to a radio show that will do their own novelty/pop culture songs quite often and they are really well-done, clever, and funny. The show will also have guest comics that sing their own tunes as well. Again, a good chunk of them are really good. So this proves novelty songs can be good. How something like this gets attention is beyond me. It's not the least bit funny or clever and it sinks as a parody. And the actual recording is even awful. It sounds like a cheap commercial jingle. I try to cut novelty songs a little slack because they are not meant as a serious addition to a musicians catalog, but in this case I can't. It's just..so..bad...

ReduxRating:  1/10

Trivia:  The song imagines sportscaster Howard Cosell as Santa Claus. For whatever reason, Cosell thought the lyrics were offensive and because of his pull/popularity at the time, the song ended up getting little airplay. But sales most likely pushed the song onto the chart and it quickly came and went.

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