Twisted Christmas, Bob Rivers Comedy Group (Atco)

Rivers has been a wacky morning show DJ for years, and he has his own website where you can hear fresh-baked parodies all the time. Back in 1987 he started issuing full albums of Christmas parody songs, and this is the first one. Topical parodies don't always wear well over the long run, so "O Come All Ye Grateful Dead-heads" ("O Come All Ye Faithful") might seem a bit quaint, and that goes for the parts of "The 12 Pains of Christmas" that sound like Archie Bunker, too. But other songs on this two-decade-old collection, like "Didn't I Get This Last Year" ("Do You Hear What I Hear"), "The Restroom Door Said Gentlemen" ("God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen"), "Wreck the Malls," "We Wish You Weren't Living With Us," and "I'm Dressing Up Like Santa (When I Get Out On Parole)" are timeless. The performances are impeccable, contributing to their ability to raise a smile even after all this time. Subsequent Rivers collections are also reviewed on this site.