There have been a lot of holiday playlists going around, some focusing on The Good, and some focusing on The Bad, but all focusing on one particular holiday. With Chanukah less than a month away, what’s a Nice Jewish Boy or Girl to listen to? To bring a little diversity to your mixtape and give you a break from ringing your sleighbells, here’s a list of the Catchiest Chanukah Songs:
“Hanukkah Song” by Adam Sandler
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeC8nTYEwQQ
That’s it.
Just kidding! There’s also “Hanukkah Song” Part 2 and Part 3.
Okay, so sometimes it seems like Sandler’s Hanukkah Trilogy is the Yentl of Chanukah songs – one of the few obvious go-to’s when trying to think of a Jewish-themed example in modern media that doesn’t suck. But never fear! While Sandler sings away nights 1-3, I’ve found 5 more Jewish jams to make sure all 8 candles are covered this year.
1. “Candlelight” by The Maccabeats
Set to the tune of Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite,” “Candlelight” does the near impossible: It swaps Jewish lyrics into a catchy pop song without coming off corny. Yeshiva University’s answer to Glee‘s Warblers, these singing cuties will have you updating your Frumster account.
2. “Miracle” by Matisyahu
“Miracle” boasts a super trippy video, with an intro that includes a Frat Boy/Toga Party King Antiochus who tries to tempt Matisyahu into checking out a soiree at his place with promises of “babes, desserts, and chocolate stuff.” Who doesn’t love chocolate stuff? It has a real 80s video vibe – minimum budget and maximum silliness. Moreover, the song has a fun, uptempo beat, that’ll make you wanna shake your tuchus. Catchy enough to go mainstream, tell CVS to put this ditty in their holiday rotation, so you can tap your toes to it in the checkout line, right after “All I Want for Christmas” finishes playing.
3. “Dreidel” by Erran Baron Cohen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcHFukECvMo
This amped up version of the classic dreidel song doesn’t deviate much from the original. The dreidel’s still made out of clay, and there’s nary a mention of a compatible iPad app. However, it does feature a sick cameo from Y-Love, an African-American Chasidic Jewish hip hop artist who’s part of a pretty awesome anti-bigotry campaign and whose other music you can check out online. The track is part of a Chanukah album put together by Erran Baron Cohen – yes, Sacha’s brother – who is a musician and dj’s as a member of the ZOHAR Sound System.
4. “Hava Nagilah” by Lauren Rose
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF2p87nvsjU
Another new take on an old classic, Lauren Rose gives us a version of “Hava Nagilah” that’ll have our inner teenyboppers singing along faster than Justin Bieber can sell out Madison Square Garden. Granted, by never mentioning the holiday by name, this is a “Chanukah song” the same way “Walking in a Winter Wonderland” is a “Christmas carol.” However, the British chanteuse’s club-friendly rendition did push this traditional Hebrew ballad towards the top of the UK’s Christmas Singles chart in 2007.
5. “Ocho Kandelikas” by The LeeVees
The LeeVees aren’t the first to sing “Ocho Kandelikas,” but their version is hipster-y enough to make it onto your playlist in between Arcade Werewolf Brigade and whatever band you’ll have “liked before they sold out” 3 months from now. It’s sung in Ladino, a Sephardic Jewish language that’s a mix of Old Spanish, Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Turkish, and the native languages from other countries where Sephardic Jews settled. You should probably get on the train now so you can loudly sigh over how you were into Judeo-Spanish dialects way before Lady Gaga released a Ladino-remix of “Born This Way”.
Happy Chanukah to everyone who celebrates and here’s to good music for us all!
Images:
Four Loko menorah courtesy of HipsterJew.com and some very enterprising NYU students
The End
