by Leigh Perry / Toni L.P. Kelner
Over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, I drafted my husband Steve and daughter Valerie to help me produce a half promotional/half seasonal/all silly video of a song I'd written. Or rather, I rewrote. I took the tune to "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" and changed the lyrics to be about Sid the Skeleton from my Family Skeleton series, ending up with "I Want a Sleuthing Skeleton for Christmas." The song and the video are below, but I wanted to explain why I picked this fairly obscure song to mangle.
Three years ago this month, my sister Brenda died. And at the visitation service, as the pastor was speaking about her, my sister Connie's phone went off. The ringtone she'd set for December was "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas."
This is in no way a slam at Connie. She meant no disrespect, and had carefully turned the phone function off, but this was an alarm she'd set for something or another. She was mightily embarrassed, but the fact is, Brenda would have laughed her tail end off at the situation. All of us laughed, or at least smiled. I don't know why Connie picked that song--she was an infant when it was recorded-and though it was a hit in 1953, it's not overly well known these days. But every time I hear that silly song, I think of Brenda and that one funny moment during a very sad week.
I could say that the mingling of death and humor are central to the Family Skeleton books, making the song very appropriate to use, but the fact is, it just makes me happy. I hope my version makes you happy, too.
"I Want A Sleuthing Skeleton For Christmas"
by Leigh Perry
I want a sleuthing skeleton for Christmas
Only a bony guy like Sid will do
Don't want perfume
No fancy pottery
I want a skeleton to help me solve a mystery
I want a sleuthing skeleton for Christmas
I don't think Santa Claus will mind, do you?
He won't have to use
A dirty chimney flue
Just walk Sid through the front door
Then we’ll go and hunt for clues
I can see me now when there’s a murder
Creeping up the stairs
To discuss the alibis
And the whos, the wheres, the whys
Solving crime within our attic lair
I want a sleuthing skeleton for Christmas
Only a bony guy like Sid will do
No cop or spy
Or private detective
I’d rather work with an osteo perspective
And Sid the Skeleton, he likes me too!
(Rocking guitar solo)
Some say a skelly should scare me off but hey
I see Sid a-smiling each and every single day
(Rocking guitar solo)
He’ll live inside my house
I’ll buy him an armoire
We’ll solve the crime
Joke all the time
It’s cozy—it’s not noir
I can see me now when there’s a murder
Creeping up the stairs
To discuss the alibis
And the whos, the wheres, the whys
Solving crime within our attic lair
I want a sleuthing skeleton for Christmas
Only a bony guy like Sid will do
No cop or spy
Or private detective
I’d rather work with a osteo perspective
And Sid the Skeleton, he likes me too!
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