#ThrowbackThursday: “The Chanukah Song” by Adam Sandler

10 Dec, 2015 Clizbeats Staff Articles, Throwback Thursday

by Sean Smith

The holiday season is once again upon us and this week we are in the midst of celebrating the Jewish holiday of Chanukah, an eight day “Festival of Lights” commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

Now while there is no shortage of songs commemorating the Christian holiday of Christmas being played in malls and box stores all over the country, historically there haven’t been too many songs out there which celebrate Chanukah. However, it would seem that there is one famous person who may be on a one-man mission to single-handedly change that fact.

Actor/Comedian Adam Sandler recently released his fourth rendition of “The Chanukah Song” on his Happy Madison Youtube channel. He first debuted the new version of the song at the New York Comedy Festival, later releasing a taped live performance of the track recorded during a show on November 18th in San Diego. The latest version of “The Chanukah Song” has a whole new slew of famous names included. The names rattled off range from the super famous like Drake and Seth Rogan, all the way to the super infamous like Jared from Subway. This is the first time Adam Sandler has updated the holiday song since he released the third version of the track 13 years ago in 2002.

Adam Sandler first unveiled “The Chanukah Song” to the world on the December 3, 1994 episode of Saturday Night Live during the show’s “Weekend Update” sketch. It would later be included on Sandler’s 1995 comedy album What the Hell Happened to Me?. The song’s lyrics are filled with people who are Jewish, or part Jewish, who also celebrate Chanukah. Some of these famous people included in the 1994 original include David Lee Roth, Captain Kirk (William Shatner) & Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Harrison Ford, Rod Carew, and Goldie Hawn.

A second version of the song was released in 1999 with an updated list of famous Jewish people who celebrate the holiday. Some of those names include, Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Lenny Kravitz, Bob Dylan, and Dustin Hoffman.

In 2002 Sandler released a third rendition of the song, again with updated names of famous Jewish stars as part of the soundtrack to his Chanukah themed animated feature Eight Crazy Nights. This third version included the likes of Jerry Lewis, Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Harry Houdini, and Paula Abdul.

So in the midst of celebrating Chanukah and Adam Sandler releasing the fourth version of “The Chanukah Song” in the past few weeks, we take a few minutes this week to remember the previous three renditions of the song released over the years. And from all of us here at Clizbeats, we hope you have a “happy happy happy happy Chanukah!” Enjoy.

Adam Sandler

“The Chanukah Song”

From: What the Hell Happened to Me?

Warner Bros Records