h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Do You Hear What I Hear? Pray for Peace - A87959803
Author: Dmitri Gheorgheni - Not Banned in China - U1590784

One day recently, I realised my stash of Christmas music was missing this song and went to order it for the season. It occurred to me that the backstory might be of interest to somebody. The song's always meant a lot to me.

Good entry, Dmitri.

I was alive in 1963, but not yet aware of what was going on in the world, so I don't remember the Singing Nun.

A few little pedantic tweaks to your entry:

"What Noel Regney saw in October, 1962? "

This sentence fragment is a bit off-putting as the first sentence of the entry. I'd rephrase it as "What did Noel Regney see in October, 1962?"

"He was shot, too, probably to keep him from falling under suspicion"
-- I don't think you need the comma after "shot"

after awhile --> after a while

That's all I can see.

G

Thanks for reading, Gnomon.

I don't think either of those things are wrong, but I'll be glad to change the first one so as not to throw readers off.

I'll have to change the whole second sentence, because, at least where I come from, there is always a comma before 'too'. Especially as he wasn't shot in addition to anything else that happened to him, but shot in addition to the other soldiers...oh, heck, now I really will rewrite that sentence.

I wasn't alive in 1963 but I remember 'Dominique-nique-nique'. In fact, Sasha and I discussed her tragic life & death story just last year. I didn't realise that it was translated into English, though

I feel that Herod the Great is getting a bit of bad press in this entry. To redress the balance I should emphasise that he didn't just commit incest and slaughter babies in Bethlehem, he wiped out whole chunks of his family too (including some of his sons by at least two of his ten wives, his favourite wife, their sons, her parents, grandparents and siblings, her favourite eunuchs (hadn’t they been punished enough already?) and because she was his favourite wife he had her embalmed in honey and 'mounted'. In more than one way, apparently.) His son Herod Archelaus – who also committed incest by marrying his niece/sister-in-law Herodias - slaughtered far more people: at least 3,000.

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I agree, I kind of understated there about Herod. But I'd rather not give him any more coverage.

Wow. I just looked up the Singing Nun. I didn't know that story - maybe you or Sasha could do it justice. The song was popular here in the US for awhile. All the kids who learned French went around singing it in that language. I even remembered the chorus, and I wasn't in the French class.

I always thought the English words were unfortunate. 'At a time when Johnny Lackland over England was the king, Dominique was in the backland fighting sin like anything.' I mean, seriously...

Interesting Entry!

I was curious and, shockingly, 'Do You Hear What I Hear' has never made the Top 40 in the UK.
In fact, the only time the song is listed in the charts is when a cover version by Mary J Blige featuring Jessie J reached #59 in December 2013. (In the old days people sang with people, now they feature people)
http://www.officialcharts.com/search/singles/do%20you%20hear%20what%20i%20hear/

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I never do statistics, but I did notice that the 45 (that's a 45-rpm vinyl record) sold a quarter of a million copies in 1962, and Crosby's version the following year sold 500,000.

Sadly, Anita Bryant's album of that title got on the Billboard 200 chart at #25. That many people listening to Anita Bryant sing anything makes ME sad, anyway.

I have found a version of 'Do You Hear What I Hear' featuring Whitney Houston singing with Pentatonix, but it turns it to mean that Ms Houston was not alive for the performance. They're doing 'posthumous' recordings now.

Eva Cassidy's sole UK number one hit – and indeed only time she made it in the top 40 - was 'Wonderful World' , her duet with Katie Melua nine years after her death (which at least was for charity) and in 2015 Frank Sinatra had a duet with Kylie on 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town', 17 years after he died...

Eva Cassidy is the 14th of, to date, 14 artists to have a posthumous UK #1 (following Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Jimi Hendrix, , John Lennon, George Harrison, Jackie Wilson, Freddie Mercury and various random people who do not appear to have had surnames)

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Lovely Entry - thank you. Superb use of quotes and links.

"Once, Regney intentionally led his unit into a partisan trap. Regney was shot by the ambushers, probably to keep him from falling under suspicion. This was a terrible position for an ethical man to be in"

I'm not sure I follow this - is it saying he led the unit into the trap and was shot, so realised he was putting other people in danger by trying to work with both sides?

'Dominique-nique-nique' is not a song I had encountered, although I was pleased to have discussed the life of the Singing Nun with Bluebottle, so I appreciated the link in this Entry - particularly lovely harmonies... Sounds like the English translation of the lyrics doesn't have quite the same 'ring' to it as the French original

Thanks, Sasha. I guess I need to make the ethical dilemma a little clearer. He didn't want the Germans to win, but he felt bad about being complicit in betraying the men in his unit. I'll see what I can do.

See if this is any better.

Excellent, thanks

What better to do on 1 April than read about Christmas songs!

'awhile' is a good word, but it doesn't go after a preposition - you could say 'rest awhile', or 'rest for a while'

That's very pedantic, though - this is looking good to me

I forgot 'a while' - corrected the typo.

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