I swear I'm not planning a Mad Men themed Christmas party
November 12, 2010 9:48 AM

Can you tell me what Christmas song(s) are playing during the SCDP Christmas party in the second episode of season 4 of Mad Men?

I'd like to know the song name and artist for the songs played during the office party portion of "Christmas Comes But Once a Year".

I've tracked down Teresa Brewer's version of "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause" that closes the episode, but I can't find any info on the other tracks, and my DVR ate the recorded episode I had been saving and so I can't check the credits.
posted by dyobmit to Media & Arts (4 answers total)
Can't be of much help, except to tell you that the first jazzy Christmas number at the party is "The Wassail Song," which Amazon has a hard time even giving candidates for. Also, the end credits don't include the songs played in the episode anyway.
posted by Kylio at 10:45 AM on November 12, 2010


That episode is widely available on those "watch TV online free" websites. All the ones that I looked at cut off before the credits, and like Kylio says, the songs don't seem to be in there anyway, but maybe you can watch it and see if you can recognize the songs as they play.
posted by CathyG at 3:38 PM on November 12, 2010


I thought I'd give a try at least getting you some more information. I'm afraid I don't have titles for you, but hopefully this'll be of some use.

0:22:22 - 0:22:47 – Unfortunately, I don't know what this one is.

0:24:55 - 0:26:40 – "Here We Come A-Wassailing," and there's a little bit of a instrumental "dashing through the snow" musical line from "Jingle Bells" they're mixing in, if that helps.

0:26:46 - 0:27:38 – The one that kicks in when Lee Garner Jr. arrives is "Good King Wenceslas" -- I'm not sure, but I think that musical style is called bossa nova.

0:28:35 - 0:30:09 – I have no idea what the one for the conga line is.

0:30:44 - 0:32:18 – A jazzy "Jingle Bells."

0:32;42 - 0:34:56 – There's a few light strains of the instrumental we heard in the previous scene when Sally came into her room and discovered it untouched aside from Glenn's little gift. Then, there is music from the party, but the crowd noise and the conversation between Don and Faye overpowers it too much for me to make out. It's a downtempo piano piece.

0:34:57 - 0;35:15 – Now that we're in the main room, it's clearer, but it's still freeform enough I can't identify it.

0:35:53 - 0:36:17 – Still can't make it out too clearly, but I think it's the same piece.
posted by Fizzgig at 12:17 PM on November 14, 2010


The 45s you see an anonymous individual going through at the beginning of the SCDP party at 0:24:55 – an a unidentifiable Cameo-Parkway 45 is playing. The 45 that the person puts next in line is "Goodbye to Love," by the Marcells, the B-side to "Blue Moon" (accidentally, the prop person used an anachronistic reissue).

The 45 he's holding in his left hand – I'm actually proud of the detective job I did on this one. I lightened up the gamma and zoomed in as much as I could, and got enough to make it out that it was a Chancellor 45 and that the catalog was almost certainly C1037. That took me over to this page, and given that you can tell that there are some parantheses in the song title, it became clear that it was C-1037 and not C-1087, and that it was the B-side, Fabian's "Mighty Cold (To A Warm, Warm Heart)".

The latter two – they don't appear to be any of the ones I couldn't identify. So, offerred for the sake of completism/curiousity.
posted by Fizzgig at 2:47 PM on November 14, 2010


« Older Please pick out dishes and flatware for me   |   Overthinking running on a treadmill for 15 minutes Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.