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« Ask the Expert – pedals for acoustic worship guitar
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Christmas Carol Nightmare

By Marie@Musicademy | December 12, 2011

A seasonal worship trainwreck which we dig out for your listening pleasure each December – it gets better the longer you listen!

We’ve enjoyed reading your comments too.

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I know we’ve posted this before but at over 1,000 Facebook “likes” it’s one of our most popular articles so worthy of a dig through the archives.

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This entry was posted in MusiComedy and tagged Christmas. Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

55 Comments

  1. Simon
    Posted December 4, 2008 at 10:54 am | Permalink

    I absolutely love this track, apparently it is a real recording. I once used this in a cell group meeting, introducing it saying that, although it was a little ragged, the raw emotion was very touching. I cracked after about two minutes because everyone else was trying so hard not to laugh.

  2. Marie Page
    Posted December 4, 2008 at 12:17 pm | Permalink

    Thanks Simon. Let us know if you have any more audio or video gaffes – people love to hear them (they are one of the most popular areas of the blog) but they are fairly difficult to find.

  3. Chris
    Posted December 4, 2008 at 4:47 pm | Permalink

    Wow…It starts off like a lounge act and turns into…something…wow. I can’t stop listening to it.

    This is a good demonstration for my praise teams, however, why I always change the key of songs to better fit a congregational range and why I will never tackle this song.

  4. Dave Sowden
    Posted March 5, 2009 at 12:28 pm | Permalink

    Goodness me! Straight from the “How to murder a song” archives.

    I’ll have half a pint of whatever he’s had! That is, quite simply, awful. It’s given me faith in our music group…

  5. kris
    Posted December 14, 2009 at 9:28 am | Permalink

    i really like it

  6. Rob
    Posted December 14, 2009 at 9:48 am | Permalink

    For the first bar I thought it might be Cliff Richards.

    Totally unprepared for what happens at 2:13!

  7. Bob C
    Posted December 17, 2009 at 11:21 am | Permalink

    Absolutely brilliant – is there an album too??? Keep them coming!!!!

  8. Campbell
    Posted December 17, 2009 at 12:10 pm | Permalink

    Wow – Gave me goosebumps!

  9. Critch
    Posted December 17, 2009 at 1:31 pm | Permalink

    I was having a bit of a low day today until I listened to this – I feel so much better now that I’ve had a good laugh. Isn’t God good. Surely this can’t be for real.

  10. mark brewer
    Posted December 17, 2009 at 2:39 pm | Permalink

    Has anyone heard of “Wing”…

  11. mark brewer
    Posted December 17, 2009 at 2:52 pm | Permalink

    I haven’t stopped laughing yet…

  12. jojo
    Posted December 17, 2009 at 7:30 pm | Permalink

    his he on drugs on drunk

  13. jojo
    Posted December 17, 2009 at 7:33 pm | Permalink

    ahah i can’t stop laughing not because he’s good he sucks !!!

  14. Terry Griffiths
    Posted December 17, 2009 at 8:26 pm | Permalink

    Brilliant, its Tom Brennan.

  15. Shawn
    Posted December 17, 2009 at 9:33 pm | Permalink

    Started off a bit of Carman, slid easily into some Larnelle Harris, moved suddenly to Sandi Patti, peaking at an authentic Queen anthemic overture, settled into a full-bodied “je ne s’ais pas” (or quoi!), and an after-taste of some bar dude I smelled, I mean heard, once.

  16. Shawn
    Posted December 17, 2009 at 9:34 pm | Permalink

    The church is lucky to have him.

  17. Mark
    Posted December 17, 2009 at 10:00 pm | Permalink

    Love it… had me in stiches…

  18. Yvonne
    Posted December 17, 2009 at 11:07 pm | Permalink

    I think that is about how bad I butchered my solo at the church Christmas banquet last weekend, but not on purpose… just fell apart due to nerves!

  19. Mark
    Posted December 18, 2009 at 4:16 pm | Permalink

    Wow! Thankfully, the Lord is much more Gracious than I. That sounds like a typical try-out reject from American Idol. You gotta love the passion, but it reminds me of a bad lounge act. Bless him for trying.

  20. john
    Posted December 18, 2009 at 5:01 pm | Permalink

    great still laughing.
    Reminded me of two things:

    a) This is why I don’t sing in church.

    b) This guy sits behind me everytime we sing a song in church.

  21. DanNB
    Posted December 19, 2009 at 1:48 pm | Permalink

    Having been in the music ministry for longer than I care to tell right now, I can remember a few people who could have rivaled this poor misguided soul. Of course, I’m not thinking of anyone in my current choir–`:}

  22. muiscmom300000000000
    Posted May 8, 2010 at 10:59 pm | Permalink

    Trainwreck is a nice phrase. Man, you had me beating myself up! Could not make it thru…….sorry, it sounds like a trainwreck of really bad music persona impersonators: Elvis with a furball in his throat, Mick Jaggar with one too many drinks, etc…

  23. Cynical
    Posted August 4, 2010 at 2:33 am | Permalink

    susan Boyle eat your heart out

  24. Jason Chollar
    Posted December 18, 2010 at 7:29 pm | Permalink

    Okay already, so tell us where we can go buy this track. I want to pay my dollar and have this track for every christmas. :)

    Pretty please. I’m serious. Can you tell us how to find this version in iTunes or something?

  25. John
    Posted December 19, 2010 at 1:49 am | Permalink

    I did a bit of research on it earlier this year (as it’s always been a classic in our house). Here’s the story behind the recording (which was always intended to be a joke): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiAuyM3gB5U

  26. Ken
    Posted December 20, 2010 at 12:41 pm | Permalink

    This is an amazing version of it, too:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRiYKf19T-k

  27. Scott Carroll
    Posted December 20, 2010 at 8:20 pm | Permalink

    This was done on a lark. It was done after completing a symphonic track for Guy Penrod years ago. The producer Steve Mauldin did it. Check out Youtube. He has an explanation on there.
    Merry Christmas!

  28. Cindy
    Posted December 20, 2010 at 10:42 pm | Permalink

    this is why there is duct tape.

  29. Padre Mickey
    Posted December 21, 2010 at 12:55 am | Permalink

    I’m sorry, but it is the nature of this song. I’ve never heard a version which didn’t cause me pain. Some songs are simply terrible, no matter who sings them and no amount of sincerity is going to help.

  30. TLH
    Posted December 21, 2010 at 12:57 am | Permalink

    OK now y’all have to go to YouTube and look up Jessica Simpson O Holy Night. She utterly tarted that up. Sounded and looked like she was gonna start humping the microphone.

  31. Jill Lillis
    Posted December 21, 2010 at 12:48 pm | Permalink

    Unfortunately, I’ve lived through too many of these types of sessions to find it amusing. Out-of-tune actually makes me physically nauseous, and a get a dull pain in the front of my forehead. What is appalling is that so often, almost NO ONE else even knows what is wrong. I attended a worship practice in which some were given the music in D, some in C, and no one noticed! I was staring aghast at the players and someone stopped and asked what was wrong. I am definitely not the most adept player in the least, but I do have an ear! How can you be a musician and not know you are with a group that is playing simultaneously in two different keys?

  32. Deanna
    Posted December 21, 2010 at 12:53 pm | Permalink

    oooh! that made my bowels move…in a good way. i had been constipated for days.

  33. Andrew Pettey
    Posted December 21, 2010 at 1:42 pm | Permalink

    I think he stands next to me at church!

  34. Dennis Hegland
    Posted December 21, 2010 at 1:56 pm | Permalink

    I haven’t laughed this hard in years! Thank you for a brighter day!

  35. Too Funny
    Posted December 21, 2010 at 5:46 pm | Permalink

    …I just wet my pants……

  36. Daniel Bevan
    Posted December 21, 2010 at 7:48 pm | Permalink

    Outstanding! Reminds me a lot of Adam Sandler in The Wedding Singer….comedy genius… :)

  37. Marisol Perry
    Posted December 22, 2010 at 2:27 am | Permalink

    I think he stands next to me at church!

  38. Joel Windle
    Posted December 22, 2010 at 7:22 pm | Permalink

    This is the greatest thing to happen to the Christmas season since the birth of Jesus.

  39. Maria
    Posted December 23, 2010 at 10:27 am | Permalink

    Oooohhh my ears hurt!!!!

    Surely he did it for a laugh! Brighten my day anyway!

  40. Maria
    Posted December 23, 2010 at 10:29 am | Permalink

    I think I might have to listen to it once more, there has to be one note where he is singing in key.

  41. Jon
    Posted December 28, 2010 at 9:48 am | Permalink

    Dont give up the day job!

  42. Elizabeth
    Posted December 29, 2010 at 12:52 pm | Permalink

    I have to first thank my friend Deb for having this link on her Facebook and the person who put Rob Vince’s link to youtube to watch the original guy who sang it. The reason I want to say Thank You is because I ended up clicking on this amazing 7yr old with the most Angelic voice I’ve ever heard for age. Enjoy! :-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIQl6ygRqhw

  43. Matt
    Posted November 3, 2011 at 8:06 pm | Permalink

    Doing this as a lip syncing act (for the second time) at our church’s Christmas Coffee House (youth ministry fundraiser). This is my favorite Christmas song… not necessarily O Holy Night, but just this recording of it.

  44. Jennifer Fisher
    Posted November 26, 2011 at 7:20 pm | Permalink

    It is a beautiful sound in the ears of the Lord, for it gives him praise & the fellow singing is worshipping his God, which is what we were created to do! I enjoyed it!!=) When was the last time you worshiped with all your heart & soul!!!!!=)

  45. Val Boyers
    Posted December 16, 2011 at 12:35 pm | Permalink

    This has made me cry with laughter – thank you :)

  46. Rowland
    Posted December 16, 2011 at 3:57 pm | Permalink

    If this is what Musicademy calls “singing in harmony” I’ll beg to differ – or maybe I’ll just beg for some earplugs…

  47. Roy Catchpole
    Posted December 16, 2011 at 4:22 pm | Permalink

    Yup! Even the serious angels have gotta enjoy this one.

  48. dmq
    Posted December 16, 2011 at 5:29 pm | Permalink

    definitely someone goofing around. even a full-up autotune would not fix this, lol. in some places it even sounds like adam sandler. this recording does have a serious message though, at that is: unless you are a good singer and have a great accompaniment, it’s best to leave “o holy night” for the experts and out of your song set, LOL!

  49. Bettie
    Posted December 16, 2011 at 8:45 pm | Permalink

    Well, I think he sang just as good as me. But most of all, if it came from his heart, that makes it beautiful in Gods eyes! God Bless him! :-)

  50. Anthony Patrick
    Posted December 17, 2011 at 8:54 am | Permalink

    Out of kindness, shouldn’t his wife have a quiet word in his ears? It was, however, a truly inspired performance.

  51. Daniel
    Posted December 20, 2011 at 12:50 am | Permalink

    It was like chalk inside of my ears. My head rattled as I tried to listen to the end. My 7-yr old son came running in my office. He thought something had happened to me.

    It seems as though it is part of a comedy routine because no one in his or her right mind would record a song of this caliber and believe it to be pleasing to the ear.

  52. Daniel
    Posted December 20, 2011 at 12:55 am | Permalink

    I do have sensitive hearing so many sounds can be troubling to me. However, this person may just be praising our Lord and Savior with all his might. It may be unpleasing to me, but to the Lord it gives Him glory and pleases His soul.

  53. Jessica Letchford
    Posted December 23, 2011 at 1:04 am | Permalink

    ahh that made me laugh sooo hard! It stirred up my cough (good to get it out of my system!) I’m glad it’s a joke – very clever man! I can’t wait to show some friends this! Thanks for sharing!

  54. Joshua
    Posted December 23, 2011 at 4:20 am | Permalink

    You know, I heard an animal make that noise once. I rolled him over and he was dead.

    Seriously, that is so bad it’s brilliant! And for the record, it’s not me singing. No, honestly, it’s not! :P

    But it doesn’t matter how badly you sing; just make a joyful “noise” to the Lord. In this case, a really bad noise.

  55. jerry bricker
    Posted January 2, 2012 at 6:36 pm | Permalink

    yikes!!!!!! yyyiiiiiiiikkkeeeeeeees!!!

6 Trackbacks

  1. By Tweets that mention Christmas Carol Nightmare | Musicademy -- Topsy.com on December 14, 2009 at 9:57 am

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Rob Vince, Alt.Worship. Alt.Worship said: Christmas Carol Nightmare: A seasonal worship trainwreck – it gets beter the longer you liste… http://bit.ly/6UuxSW #god #jesus #christ [...]

  2. By Merry Christmas « on December 18, 2009 at 1:50 pm

    [...] http://www.musicademy.com/2009/12/worship-gaffe-2-christmas-carol-nightmare/ [...]

  3. By Tweets that mention Christmas Carol Nightmare | Musicademy -- Topsy.com on December 17, 2010 at 9:56 am

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Alt.Worship, Marie Page. Marie Page said: This is our very favourite XFactor-style appalling audition meets Christmas http://bit.ly/i7sFES Some very funny comments too [...]

  4. By Another Digital Christmas | Will Cookson's Blog on December 20, 2010 at 12:05 pm

    [...] is also THE BEST WORST singing of a carol. It just gets “better” the longer you listen. A real gem. Hap tip [...]

  5. By The genetics of credulity | Andrew Brown on December 20, 2010 at 3:03 pm

    [...] since single link blogs are an abomination, I will add the following musical performance, passed on by Maggi Dawn. About ten seconds in you can hear a fluttering noise as the Holy Spirit pulls out of its descent [...]

  6. By Julstämning så det slår. Ihjäl en. | Pressyltaredux on December 20, 2010 at 9:03 pm

    [...] Detta hämtade jag från Andrew Browns Guardianblogg. Och det är sant som det sägs: det blir bättre [...]

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