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MY
ROUSES
EVERYDAY
NOVEMBER | DECEMBER 2017
the
Holiday
issue
D
uring the holidays in South Louisi-
ana, snow is unlikely (to say the least),
and even wintry weather isn’t guaran-
teed,but there are still some dependable,festive
traditions that always let you know what time
of year it is.There’s the Celebration in the Oaks
light display at City Park, for one. There’s the
grand opening at the track on Thanksgiving
Day, when locals work up their turkey appe-
tites by showing off their holiday finery. From
Christmas to NewYear’s,restaurants host
Rev-
eillon
dinners, reviving an elegant and magical
19
th
-century dining tradition. And, of course,
there’s Benny Grunch.
A local institution since at least 1990,
when he released his four-song cassette
featuring the signature parody “The 12 Yats
of Christmas,” Benny Grunch works year-
round: the Benny Grunch & the Bunch band
has played Jazz Fest and the French Quarter
Festival, and takes plenty of gigs outside the
holiday season. Carnival time is a busy one,
due to their other big seasonal comedy hit,
“Ain’t No Place to Pee on Mardi Gras Day.”
But Christmastime — which, on the band’s
calendar, starts around late September — is
the true Grunch season, when audiences
clamor for Benny’s extensive songbook of
holiday-themed joke songs with a New
Orleans twist, including “O Little Town of
Destrehan,” “Santa and his Reindeer Used
to Live Right Here,” and of course, the “12
Yats,” the one that started it all.
In the early ’60s, the comedian Allan
Sherman, probably best known for his
hit novelty song “Hello Muddah, Hello
Faddah,” had put out a parody of the classic
carol “The 12 Days of Christmas,” which
did well on Billboard’s special Christmas
chart. As Grunch recalls, it was the wife of
one of his bandmates who remembered the
Sherman tune and suggested they do their
own New Orleans-flavored version.
“The original ‘12 Days of Christmas’ is in
the public domain — it’s probably from
the Middle Ages or something like that,”
Grunch explained.There was no need to pay
to license the melody; all he had to do was
come up with his own countdown.
“And I just started thinking backwards,”
he said. “Twelve dozen Manuel’s tamales.
Eleven — I couldn’t think of anything to go
with eleven. Seven — 17th Street Canal. Six
— six-pack of Dixie. Five fried onion rings.
Three, instead of French hens, French
breads
.
Two — Tujague’s restaurant.” Slowly, he
filled in the rest: eleven Schwegmann’s bags.
How the
“Grunch”
Stole Christmas
by
Alison Fensterstock +
photo courtesy
Benny Grunch & the Bunch