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Serenade to a Cuckoo with Jerry Gordon

Dec 19, 2025 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Music

With Jerry Gordon

Serenade to a Cuckoo & Jerry's Room: first a two hour jazz show featuring new, modern jazz releases or special jazz features, followed by a one hour show of various themes that are non-jazz, including pop, r&b, rock, and blues from the forties thru the seventies! You will love it!

12.19.25 The Christmas Show/Randy Newman Covers Part II

Two hours of great Christmas music Cuckoo-style, followed by one hour of covers of great songs composed by Randy Newman

12:04 PM		Bill Smith Greensleeves (feat. Shelly Manne, Jim Hall & Monty Budwig) Folk Jazz (feat. Shelly Manne, Jim Hall & Monty Budwig) Original Jazz Classics 1961
12:06 PM		Don Patterson Merry Christmas Baby Holiday Soul Original Jazz Classics 1964
12:16 PM		Gene Ammons Night Lights A Stranger In Town Prestige 2002
12:19 PM		Jeremy Pelt Wee Three Kings Christmas Interlude
12:27 PM		Ella Fitzgerald We Three Kings Ella Fitzgerald's Christmas (Deluxe Edition) Capitol Records 1967
12:27 PM		Richie Cole I'll Be Home for Christmas Have Yourself an Alto Madness Christmas Richie Cole Presents 2016
12:48 PM		Roland Kirk Quartet & Rahsaan Roland Kirk Quartet Serenade to a Cuckoo I Talk with the Spirits Verve 1963
12:48 PM		Ismael Rivera Bomba de Navidad Feliz Navidad Fania 1975
12:48 PM		Héctor Lavoe & Yomo Toro Aires de Navidad Asalto Navideño, Vols. 1 & 2 Fania 1973
12:48 PM		Willie Colón, Héctor Lavoe & Yomo Toro La Banda Asalto Navideño, Vols. 1 & 2 Fania 1973
1:04 PM		Mickey Champion Gonna Have a Merry Xmas Bam-a-Lam: The R&B Recordings 1950-1962 Ace Records 2009
1:04 PM		Mabel Scott Boogie Woogie Santa Claus Hipsters' Holiday
1:04 PM		Matt Wilson's Christmas Tree-O Mariah Parusha Tree Jazz - The Shape of Christmas to Come Palmetto Records 2024
1:04 PM		Samantha Fish Run Run Rudolph Run Run Rudolph / Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Single Rounder 2019
1:05 PM		Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials I'm Your Santa Christmas Blues Alligator Records - X5 Music Group 2013
1:07 PM		Little Charlie & The Nightcats Santa Claus Christmas Blues Alligator Records - X5 Music Group 2013
1:22 PM		Marvin Gaye I Want to Come Home for Christmas A Classic Motown Christmas UNI/MOTOWN 2014
1:25 PM		Jerry Butler Oh Holy Night A Vee-Jay Christmas Vee-Jay Records 1992
1:26 PM		Imani Records All Stars/Michelle Lordi Blue Christmas Holiday Extravaganza
1:27 PM		Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks I Saw Mommy Kissin’ Santa Claus Crazy For Christmas Surfdog Records 2010
1:29 PM		John Scofield Chipmunk Christmas Yule Struttin'
1:36 PM		The Blind Boys of Alabama & Taj Mahal Christ Was Born on Christmas Morn Talkin' Christmas! Masterworks 2014
1:38 PM		Michael McDonald This Christmas This Christmas
1:43 PM		Bob Mover I'll Be Home For Christmas Jazz City Christmas Vol. 2
1:46 PM		The Blind Boys of Alabama & Taj Mahal Do You Hear What I Hear? Talkin' Christmas! Masterworks 2014
1:48 PM		Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters White Christmas (02-04-54) Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters: 1953-1954 Classics Blues & Rhythm Series 2004
1:52 PM		The Dramatics The Christmas Song A Dramatic Christmas - The Very Best Christmas of All Fantasy Records 1997
1:56 PM		The Band Christmas Must Be Tonight Islands (Expanded Edition) Capitol Records 1977

Chat is archived.

Welcome to the Cuckoo Christmas Party!

Happy Chanukah Jerry!

Thank you, Rabbi. And Merry Christmas. I hope you like the selections today!

👍

It's that time again! 🎶 🐦

Several regulars have told me they will be engaged in other activities today!

Clutch shopping no doubt. :)

Yep...the last weekend

Pat & Rick. Rick is a cantor in a church!

Only 1 day, 21 hours and 56 minutes until the solstice

Hey Mike, how the hell are ya?

Oh hell, doin good

That's good. No complainers in this crowd! All with strong physical and mental constitutions

Mike, I wanted to consider putting in some of the Beatles Christmas stuff... but it was not ready for Prime Time

mike all i can say is woof moo

Yeah, there's some good stuff on those messages

Hi Affrig... interesting!

This is brand new, 2025, excellent

This track is really good. 🎺

Hi Christine! I agree, it sticks out!

I tried to play tracks that I haven't used over the years. I was semi-successful.

world wide audience , if only it wasn't so hot down here in florida

That amazing modulated trumpet, @Jerry

aiffrig, it's getting nicer out today, brighter, rain stopped, just not sandals weather

groovin to the tunes

There's that theme song again! 🎶🐦

Cuckoo!

Ha!

OK Christine, these next 3 are for you!

Access to the egg nog formula? It's on!

Yes!

Merry cuckoo Christmas one and all…I can smell the fried plantains!

Hi Dan, how are you? Nice to hear from you!

Couldn’t be better, last day of sub teaching until 1/6! Thanks for asking.

ROFL, those couple of years we didn't hear from Mike he was spending time with Stanley Owlsley.

How many days a week have you been teaching?

Only time of year I use ground nutmeg

A man of science.

2-3 min.

Hi Jerry. I have been clicked in all day. Happy to have you in my digiteria. I hope you have a great show.

My ex was always with the ground nutmeg. With overtones of criminal intent.

Thanks, Richard! Glad to be included.

Thanks for a touch of Latin Jazz. Reminds me of "Calla 54" sides A & B, Jerry, Andy Gonzalez, others.

Falaffelll, your ex must have had too much "nutmeg" if she's not with the great Kerrofflesburgsteinski!

I think JSBach’s “While sheep graze safely”, any version, might be my favorite Christmas music.

Hey Richard! I hope you are trimming your digital Christmas tree 2.0 with all the best ones and zeros sir.

Dan, they're not safe around a few of our listeners.

Rimshot!

Haha

Happy to yer straight man Ron

That's what the shepherds are for.

What did Cher have her hands warming in, Paul Shaffer’s Late Night annual Holiday tribute?

Cuckoo listeners will take cheap laughs whenever they can get them

She put the nutz in nutmeg.

Indeed

One of our senior centers had an actual reindeer in their parking lot a couple years ago. Stopped traffic

Dueling favorite lines from, “It’s a wonderful life!”

Great promotion for the place!

They finally put Santa in the home, eh?

Calling bingo! Now turn down Matlock on the giant flat screen.

That’s a Simpson’s line

It's an honest living.

I feel sorry for the reindeer this year if he comes out of retirement. There is a LOT of coal to deliver this year.

I always get Matlock conflated with Mannix. Although McCloud never got mixed up with Columbo

Haha, hey Lester!

The elves are all armed this year!

Andy Griffith was a geriatric sex symbol, like Dr. Welby.

Forget it. My grandmother liked Dr. Ben Casey.

“I’d park his Velcro laced shoes under my safety bed…

Hey Jerry. There's only so much ceiling sanding one can do before the 4th Sunday of Advent. OK, I had no idea or notion of what exactly Advent is. Till now.

Dr. Kildare too... lol

Ben Casey actor is heavy in Kubrick’s “The Killing”, buddy of Elisha Cooke jr.

He was the middle age icon though.

Buddy of his Wife, sorry

Clooney has a new film out. Mixed reviews. I think Paul Newman is out of the game, as is Harrison Ford.

I think the Owsley Punch is kicking in with some flashbacks.

Jay Kelly, very strange, disappointing.

Disclosure Day early trailer Spielberg looks intriguing. UFO

I'll go to Frisco Buy a wig & sleep On Owsley's floor

Hi Guys, Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!

Happy Merry backatcha Stephen!!

He’s a regular at Schuba’s on Belmont Ave., Chicago

I've been to Chicagoland many times, but not downtown much ever. Usually Fox Valley or around the belt areas.

But it sounds really cool.

Hey Stephen, good to see you!

The various ethnic neighborhoods don’t change as much as some long gone favorite tourist stops. Greektown looks like Disney/Epcot now, one example.

Mike C never completely came back.

I went alright

Inspired Cher, er…and Paul’s parody both

whoah. What a voice.

Classic! Classic! Classic!

Category of one, adultery themed Christmas song.

Dan, you may be right! Maybe Backdoor Santa

Backdoor Secret Santa? Jerry, this is a family friendly chat. Till now.

Uh-oh!

Scofield, Frissell, Metheny, monsters

It started to bad earlier, Lester

Please tell me Randy Newman never wrote, covered a Christmas song.

yeah I know. As an aside, I love all the WPRB DJ's, but I did put on WKCR -Columbia U radio- famous for re broadcasting the beep beep beep of the Soviets- yesterday, but I digress. The DJ played the Vince Giraldi Trio, a very Charlie Brown Christmas. Great stuff.

Or Tom Waits, without alcohol

Tom Waits without alcohol? That would be like Voltage with no Amperage.

Didn’t Vince also write standard, “Throw fate to the wind” also?

Not sure but I don't think so. I think it was Allen Toussaint, believe it or not

Yea, “Cigs & Milk”, not quite the same

Cast Your fate

I don't know about Randy Newman and Christmas tunes!

Fate can be so cruel. But also funny. IF you have a sense of humor.

Geraldi did write it.

OK, then. I didn't realize! What a great song, it was a hit there for awhile!

Ah, Michelle Lordi 💜

Later lyrics were written for it. Weber.

Blow big man, blow

Never forget the rhythm section. Or the weird spelling of that word.

I heard a jazz guitar Christmas album that included “My Favorite Things”. I never thought of that, especially Coltrane’s a seasonal tune.

Next up, Cream Ginger Baker little drummer boy

Hi Jerry, happy holidays and a happy new year to you!

Anyone but der bingle

Thank you very much, Rob. Backatcha as always!

Beware of Mr. Baker.

The song's lyrics express a carpe diem sentiment, portraying the inchworm as having a "business-like mind" and being blind to the beauty of the flowers it encounters.

Glow

Ty Jerry!

Ginger didn't make it this Christmas. I will have to check out his attitude.

Thank you, Rob. It turned out to be a nice bright day!

I think I received 10 straight Christmas beatle albums. They’re all Christmas records.

wowowowowow

Also a door stop awful boxed set, Chicago At Carnegie Hall. Dog

Got that one at Xmas also

Somehow the barometer is reading 29.5 still. I did not know that about Mr. Baker. Worlds Greatest Drummer, perhaps. Don't be the World's Greatest Bass Player, unless your name begins with the letter C And last name M.

Christmas in Cape Town by Randy Newman: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pVyhQ4qnWeY

There is the definitive answer. Thank you Russ! Have to check out those lyrics later!

Oh baby it’s gold outside…T’s favorite.

@Lester, all the wind is following the low pressure out of the area. Bernoulli's principle.

Sigmund Freud’s Impersonation of Albert Einstein in America by Randy Newman “America, America Step out into the light You're the best dream man has ever dreamed And may all your Christmases be white”

That is one loaded quote Russ.

A Cold War Christmas, chilling

I guess you are going to explain Riemannian manifolds next.

Snide, WELL! I resemble that

If it curves gravity, I'm in Les!

Don't want to hurt no Kangaroos. OK I have been waiting 1-20 to say that.

Just don't swim with kangaroos, I heard that might not go well.

Especially bow legged ones

Lyrics to Christmas in Capetown are Not Broadcast Quality: https://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/r/randy_newman/christmas_in_capetown.html

wait Wut? we are doing Reggae? I may have to go downstairs and flip on the Pow'a amp. Neighbors will be pissed when their Christmas light dim.

Jerry- I knew a stripper who would gyrate to this song. It was a non umm, bikini bar. What a talent she was. Could take her clothes off, but never reveal any of the juicy parts. Reason to live?

Absolutelly! I bet she was a nice girl, too!

19th and Sansom. At least 3 decades ago.

Then she would do this act where she would take a tie off a fellow in the bar, then tie it on like a g-string. And somehow remove her original underwear. How you do dat? Never revealed anything. Other than my insecurity.

Ties were wide, and double knit polyester

OMG, please tell me she tied the tie on with a Double Windsor Knot.

Shoes were high

I think it was a sheepshank

Ah, a tie chewer's tie then. :)

Red Head. Kensington born and bred. I was so in love. She eventually married a law enforcement officer. Strategic move.

she also did a routine where it involved some bubbles. Totally Nude- ( I have been waiting so long to say that) but with the bubbles cloaking the naughty bits.

I bet their Christmas parties are legendary.

yeah I did attend one. Ah, youth is lost on young people

I think the line "you give me reason to live" applies to nearly everyone at some point in life.

Hi John! If you are one of the lucky ones!

Haha, just drop the big one now! Dr. Strangelove!

Yee Haw!!!!!!

So damn good! His version was the best and there were some good ones!

Johnny Cash = always to the point

Newman wrote Old Kentucky home? I don't care either. Unpossible

No fighting in the war room!

Wee Three Records? I remember Gino Wong

Lesson learned: Filter your water.

RFK Jr. Knows why.

Did Sinatra sing anything sarcastic? Did Newman write anything not sarcastic?

NY, NY?

Tweak the persona of the lone romantic. I thought we were having Roo steaks.

Mullally was in Will and Grace

JC, hardly, maybe Toy Story 1 or 2

@Ceneviva Please define your terms. Its Queensbury terms after that.

I don't know this! That's takes Newman music to even another level. Nice! Thanks Jerry!

high-risk strategy that demands rigorous discipline and emotional resilience.

This is a fine example of musicality.

This track shows, ROFL how brilliant Etta James is as well as Randy Newman. I can't believe her interpretations of his music

Randy Newman has God laughing at the peeps

We're all short people from their perspective now.

Yeah!

Not sure about James. Cocker hits it over the fence.

Happy Non Holidays. Don't be so silly Jerry. You light up my life Jerry.

Thank you, Lester. I'll take praise any way I can at any time! Thanks for listening!

Watch the Fanny doc here, PBS subscribers: https://pbs.org/show/fanny-right-rock/

Thanks Jerry, have the best of times all the time. Don't take any wooden Gelt. It's bad for the teeth.

Thank you everybody! Russ, David, JC, RABBI BURSTEINSKI, Mike C, Christine

To all a good night

Don't forget to update the playlist for posterity!

Dan, Rob!

What I love about your show, Jerry, is that its about the music. i am certainly sympathetic to different opinions. Cool But your voice comes directly out of the speaker into my brain. As disturbed as it is. We Love the music. Cn it save humanity? YES yes it can. Godspeed to you Jerry

Haha, it doesn't get better than that! I TRY not to be full of crap and I try to NOT hit people over the head! Thank you!