I don’t remember the name of my fourth-grade music teacher (or maybe it was fifth grade).

I don’t remember any of the songs we sang from the official music book. What I remember is Teacher handing out purple ditto machine pages of current pop songs. Boys and girls together, we’d all sing in unison. Looking back, none of the songs were really appropriate for schoolkids.

“Seasons in the Sun?”  A dying man saying goodbye. “Rhinestone Cowboy?” A failed singer clinging to dreams. “Beth?” A rock star choosing the band over his girlfriend. Even “Sloop John B” is about a drunken fight, food poisoning, and LSD (“the worst trip I’ve ever been on.”) As a kid, I was just happy to be singing songs I knew from the radio. Complicated harmonies are magical, but there’s also something special about a big pack of children’s voices all singing the melody together in a big room with no acoustics.

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A Christmas song every day until Christmas —

I guess Bing Crosby was the first to hit with “A Marshmallow World,” but to me, it’ll always be Dean Martin’s song. His relaxed croon obviously borrows from Bing, but Dean’s tossed-off phrasing and casual enunciation make it his own. You can find at least a dozen “live” versions out there from various variety shows of the ‘60s and ‘70s, but here’s a goodie with Frank Sinatra. They seems to have almost rehearsed.

It’s a busy Friday, so today’s Christmas song is a quick one. Paul McCartney just released his new isolation album, “McCartney III,” let’s go back to the 1979 song you either love or hate … “Wonderful Christmastime.”

I’ll spare you covers by MF Doom, Harry Styles, and Chicago with Dolly Parton. Instead, here’s Macca and Martin Short, aka “Caleb and Monte” with a new Christmas song from SNL 2012 … and something familiar at the end.

Yesterday, I wrote about how Universal Music Group has been making animated videos for classic Christmas songs in its back catalog. Turns out UMG is not alone.

Rhino Records, which is now owned by Warner Music Group, just released an animated video for Donny Hathaway’s “This Christmas.” I was tempted to save the song for closer to December 25, but when I realized “This Christmas” is fifty (!!!) years old this year, I figure we should get the anniversary party started now.

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I’ve been picking a Christmas song a day to talk about here on the blog, and for the last couple days, I’ve woken up with Elton John’s “Step into Christmas” in my head. Seems like a sign…

A couple Easter eggs – or Christmas presents —

1. Elton’s John’s legendary collaborator Bernie Taupin is “playing” the tubular bells.
2. Elton holds up his Watford Football Club supporters club card. A longtime fan, he bought the team a couple years after this and owned it for more than a decade.

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