...and a Japanese transistor radio!

Well, Christmas is eleven short days away, so now is the season when we're bombarded with Christmas music, some brilliant and some overplayed. We're all familiar with the recursive Christmas carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas." Is this rant going to be about the usual thing -- the wisecracks about all these birds making a mess, etc.? No. But first, just a few fun facts.

One favorite question asked in many high school academic bowl tournaments is the number of gifts received in the entire song. (When I was on the scholastic bowl team in high school, this question actually did come up. Our captain turned to me and whispered, "Start adding!") All together, that's 364 -- almost one gift for every day of the year! It's an average of 30 and one-third gifts per month. Here's the complete breakdown:

• First day: 1 gift
• Second day: 3 gifts
• Third day: 6 gifts
• Fourth day: 10 gifts
• Fifth day: 15 gifts
• Sixth day: 21 gifts
• Seventh day: 28 gifts
• Eighth day: 36 gifts
• Ninth day: 45 gifts
• Tenth day: 55 gifts
• Eleventh day: 66 gifts
• Twelfth day: 78 gifts

Now, there ends the whole mystique of "The Twelve Days of Christmas." Those are all the facts you need to know. There's nothing further, really, on which one may reasonably snark.

Sure, there are countless parodies, most of which just replace the gifts with something silly, like terrorism paraphernalia or stereotypical North American cultural items, and just seemingly random thoughts with little supposed-to-be-funny sound bites dropped in. *yawn*

Then there's the late Allan Sherman and his parody, "The Twelve Gifts of Christmas," from his For Swingin' Livers Only album. Yes, it's another parody in which the gifts are changed, and Sherman occasionally interrupts with some snappy remarks. Oh, and Sherman, who's supposed to be receiving all these gifts for Christmas...was Jewish; more on that a bit later. Allan Sherman was a genius when it came to writing song parodies, so much so that he was a major influence on "Weird Al" Yankovic. And "The Twelve Gifts of Christmas" is, besides being probably the only truly good "Twelve Days Of Christmas" parody, a perfect example of his brilliance and how he can leave many of us wondering, with secrets he probably took with him to the grave over thirty years ago.

The one gift that Sherman keeps receiving every day is "a Japanese transistor radio." Here are some things we know about it:

• It's a discontinued Nakashuma Mark IV.
• It comes in a leatherette case with holes for listening through the case.
• It also comes with an earpiece on which the phono plug was somehow bent.

How many times does Allan receive this gift? If you said twelve, you guessed wrong! The song gives no indication on whether he actually received anything on the twelfth day, which is one of the many mysteries of this song. More on this later.
So right now, the count is eleven Japanese transistor radios that we know for sure he received.

Here's what he receives on the following days:

• Second day: Green polka-dot pajamas and the radio
• Third day: A calendar book with the name of his insurance man, the pajamas and the radio.
• Fourth day: A simulated alligator wallet, the calendar book, the pajamas and the radio.
• Fifth day: A statue of a naked lady* with a clock in her stomach, wallet, calendar book, pajamas, radio.

This is where the hard deducible facts end. Even that is a bit hazy, as he doesn't specify how many pairs of pajamas he gets! But after five days have gone by, Allan has the following things:

• Five Japanese transitor radios.
• If we assume ONE pair of pajamas every day, then he has four at this point.
• Three calendar books. And he ain't kidding, either -- these are the exact kinds of things that somehow you find yourself with a whole bunch and wonder, "Where the HELL did I get these from?"
• Two alligator wallets.
• One statue with a clock instead of a digestive system.

So, that's fifteen gifts in all -- although thanks to the mystery of the pajamas, we can only be totally sure of eleven of them. And notice how he only gets, apparently, ONE of each gift every day. But at this point, the song gets a little hairy: presumably to cut out the "Yeah, yeah, I get the point" factor of the song, rather than going through each of the other items, Sherman shortens the wording. He sings, "A hammered aluminum nutcracker and all that other stuff," followed by his chorus singing "And a Japanese transistor radio."

As colloquial as "all that other stuff" sounds, there's a vast mystery behind it: does "all that other stuff" INCLUDE the radio? If it does, then on the sixth day, he gets TWO: "...and all that other stuff, and a Japanese transistor radio." So either he got 21 gifts (the previous fifteen, plus one each per number of days it's been) or 22 gifts if you count the radio -- and again, that's assuming just one pair of pajamas every day. The "all that other stuff," which is sung one time by the chorus (believe me, you haven't lived until you've heard a professional chorus sing the word "stuff"), lasts until the ninth day. So after the eight day, Allan has:

• Eight radios -- or is it eleven? (One extra for each "all that other stuff!")
• Possibly seven pairs of pajamas.
• The ubiquitous calendar book -- six of them.
• Five faux gator wallets.
• Four statues.
• Three nutcrackers.
• Two pink satin pillows that say "San Diego" and have fringe
• An indoor plastic birdbath, in case he decides to turn his house into an aviary

In other words, he has either 36 or 39 gifts, and again, you're assuming that the pajamas are only one pair each day.

Okay, so "all that other stuff" happens until the ninth day. What happens starting that day? He just gets two gifts from this point on: whatever the new gift is, and the radio -- no more "all that other stuff." And this goes on until the eleventh day. So, just to keep a running tally, here's what we have each day, each with the disclaimer about the pajamas:

• A Japanese transistor radio (one gift)
• Green polka-dot pajamas and the radio (two gifts)
• Calendar book with the insurance man's name, the pajamas, and the radio (three gifts)
• Simulated alligator wallet, calendar book, pajamas, radio (four gifts)
• (sung to the tune of "Five golden rings," cramming all the syllables together and singing the words really fast: ) "Astatueofanakedladywithaclock...where her stomach ought to be," the wallet, calendar book, pajamas, and the radio. (Five gifts)
• Hammered aluminum nutcracker, "all that other stuff," the radio (Six -- or seven -- gifts)
• Pink satin pillow that says "San Diego" with fringe all around it, the other stuff, the radio (Seven -- or eight --gifts)
• Indoor plastic birdbath and the other stuff and the radio (Eight or nine gifts)
• A pair of teakwood shower clogs and the radio (Two gifts)
• A chromium combination manicure scissors and cigarette lighter (Two gifts)
• (Again, sung really fast to the tune of the "Five golden rings" line:) "Anautomaticvegetableslicerthatworkswhenyouseeitontelevisionbutnotwhenyougetithome" and the Japanese transistor radio. (Two gifts again)

At this point, Mr. Sherman has received either 42 or 45 gifts, again assuming the thing about the pajamas.

I said the two-gifts-per-day lasts until day 11. But what happens on the twelfth day? Let's go back to my observation of a Jewish guy getting all this stuff for Christmas. I'd assume that if someone was a die-hard practicing Jew, he would not be celebrating Christmas, which probably explains why on the twelfth day, Sherman doesn't say anything about his true love giving him anything. Instead, he sings, and I quote: "On the twelfth day of Christmas, although it may seem strange...on the twelfth day of Christmas I'm going to exchange..." an then he rattles off each of the eleven gifts, singing "And a Japanese transistor radio" with a big flourishing finish.

But there's a problem: at that point, Sherman is apparently still left with either 31 or 34 gifts, because he only mentioned exchanging one of each gift!

When people talk about the big mysteries in music of the 1960s, a lot of things are brought up. What were the real circumstances behind the death of Brian Jones? Did Jim Morrison really die in 1971? Why did Brian Wilson stop work on the Smile album and what was the final vision for it anyway? Are the rumors about John Lennon and Brian Epstein's trip to Spain true? Are the Kinks trying to tell us that Lola was a man? I mean, come on, those aren't the real mysteries! The real mystery is this: how many gifts did Allan Sherman receive for Christmas? Truly it takes a genius to leave the world scrutinizing and wondering over a question so simple.

*Yes, I know that you've always heard it as "A statue of a lady..." Any anal-retentive music snob knows that the song was later edited to make it a bit more friendly. The unaltered version was out as a single and can be found on the Rhino Handmade collection My Son The Box.