What Music Would Rob Listen to on Hanukkah?

Tonight my wife and I lit candles for the third night of Hanukkah, something we have always enjoyed doing, even more so now that we are sharing the experience with our new daughter. We've eaten our fill of gourmet latkes (thanks to a great recipe from cookbook author Joan Nathan). And even though our baby is still a little too young to play, we even took out the dreidls and let her watch us spin them around. The one tradition I haven't been as eager to pass on is listening to cheesy Hanukkah music. If you're wondering what this sounds like, this parody says it all:

Luckily, there have been a whole slew of Jewish bands making contemporary music that's much easier to listen to. Groups like The LeeVees and Good For the Jews are helping to reshape what Hanukkah sounds like. I interviewed Jacob Harris the founder of the Jewish music label JDub Records about this last year; he had some interesting things to say about the evolution of Hanukkah music.

This year I'm inspired to look beyond the confines of music made just for Hanukkah. Today on Tell Me More I talked to Cheryl Corley about the great secular music out there made by Jews. Some of my favorites are Herb Alpert, Guster and Sammy Davis Jr.

I also mentioned that Jews can even take pride in some popular Christmas tunes because a fair number of them were written by members of the Tribe; this includes "White Christmas" by Irving Berlin. Here's a more extensive list of Christmas songs written by Jews, in case you're interested.

Happy Holidays!

8:14 PM ET | 12-23-2008 | permalink

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