"Christmas at Ground Zero" | ||||
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Single by "Weird Al" Yankovic | ||||
from the album Polka Party! | ||||
B-side | "One of Those Days" | |||
Released | November 1986 | |||
Format | 7" / 12" | |||
Recorded | April 23, 1986 | |||
Genre | Comedy, Christmas carol | |||
Length | 3:08 | |||
Label |
Rock 'n Roll Scotti Brothers |
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Producer(s) | Rick Derringer | |||
"Weird Al" Yankovic singles chronology | ||||
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"Christmas at Ground Zero" is an original song by "Weird Al" Yankovic, the tenth and final track on his 1986 album, Polka Party! and the final single from the album, released just in time for the 1986 Christmas season. The song is a style parody of Phil Spector-produced Christmas songs.
"Christmas at Ground Zero" is an upbeat song that juxtaposes stereotypical Christmas activities with attempts to survive a nuclear holocaust (e.g., Yankovic sings about "dodg[ing] debris as we trim the tree underneath a mushroom cloud"). Musically, the song is a style parody of Phil Spector-produced Christmas songs, complete with "big, glossy Wall of Sound production".
The song was the result of Yankovic's label, Scotti Brothers Records, insisting that Yankovic record a Christmas album. However, after Yankovic presented the song to his label, they relented, because it was "a little different from what they were expecting." After the song was written and recorded, Yankovic wanted to release the song as a commercial single, but Scotti Bros. refused. Undeterred, he used his own money to create a low-budget music video made mostly out of stock footage. Eventually, Scotti Bros. released the song as a promotional single.
The expression "ground zero" was largely connected with nuclear explosions at the time this song was written. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the term was co-opted by the media to refer to the large hole over which the World Trade Center towers that were destroyed in the attacks had stood. Due to the new associations of the title, Yankovic's song received far-reduced airplay since 2001, but continues to appear in novelty programming such as the Dr. Demento show. Yankovic later said: