![]() where they can tune their radios to the perfect backdrop of holiday hits, then drive through the beamingly beautiful route of lights and cheer while safely distanced inside their automobiles.įirst, of course, you'll need tickets, which go on sale for $25 per carload starting Thursday, Oct. To participate, vehicles enter the drive-thru at 6751 S. 3, Winter Wonders will set up and string up more than one million LED lights covering almost a mile and a half of the Boerner Botanical Gardens and Whitnall Park, in all sorts of mesmerizing shapes and patterns – from silly snowman to trees awashed in color and much more – all safely viewed from your car, driving through the route. Plus, this year's edition will feature even more car-bound cheer with a new mini drive-in, allowing 20 cars to watch a Christmas cartoon short and singalong to a holiday song from the safety of one's vehicle. The simmering midsection is a fake-out, the singer murmuring “Got me walkin’” right before the song bursts back to life and everyone takes off like a shot once more.It may be hard to believe, but the holiday season is almost upon us – and that means a flurry of festive fun in the forecast, including the Winter Wonders light display drive thru, coming to Boerner Botanical Gardens and Whitnall Park this November and December. Right on top is O’Neal, riding that pulse-racing groove by alternately swerving and stepping on the acceleration. The jazz orchestra sounds like it’s constantly straining to hold itself back, with horn flips that blast out excitedly and a bass that seems like it’s stopping itself from tiptoeing ahead of the rest of the band. ![]() There are plenty of swing versions of “Wonderland” to be found, but few are as jumped-up as O’Neal’s. Here are ten that stand out in a worthy crowd. Insert the singer of your choice and it’s hard to go wrong. ![]() Since its 1934 debut, when Richard Himber’s orchestra banged out the first recording as a one-take Hail Mary at the end of a session at the urging of vocalist Joey Nash, it’s proven itself malleable enough to adapt to any number of genres (rockabilly, R&B, country, jazz, shoegaze, gospel, and heavy metal, among them) and sturdy enough to maintain its appeal even when roughly 80% of all versions fundamentally stick to some variation on the same big band arrangement. Things don’t much improve in the rewritten kid-friendly version that celebrates clown-punching and includes a word that’s increasingly understood to be offensive.īut such is the good nature of “Winter Wonderland” that, except for that last bit, none of it works to undercut the song if anything, it adds idiosyncratic charm. And even disregarding the way that our heroes specifically and unsettlingly “conspire” and “face unafraid the plans” – two very normal holiday activities – the indoor canoodling by the fireside in the third chorus is the precise opposite of walking in a winter wonderland. The first two choruses basically boil down to “Hey, it snowed, and also birds are nice,” right before a bridge where a snow golem is imbued with religious authority. Listen to enough versions of “Winter Wonderland” – say, more than 150 – and it’s hard not to start picking up on the fact that lyrically speaking, it’s a bit of an odd duck as holiday songs go.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |