
Hanukkah+ is a Genre-Busting All-Star Cast album that released November 22, 2019. A Take That!/Inverted Trope version of the Everyone Is Christian at Christmas albums some Jewish artists have made, these Hanukkah songs are original and secular, the genres are the Signature Style of their artists and writers, and there is a token "other religious holiday song" at the end of the album... a traditional Passover song.
The album is an experiment hypothesized by Yo La Tengo's Ira Kaplan, and the album's eventual record producers Sam Elwitt and Randall Poster, inspired by Yo La Tengo's secular eight-nights-a-week concerts they held during the holiday. Even if Kaplan didn't have an emotional attachment to Hanukkah outside of these Rule of Fun concerts, would he and his non-Jewish bandmates be able to create an album of original work? Poster was on board, calling Hanukkah his favorite holiday and believed they could successfully make a fun, secular album where every song would find an audience.
Tracklist
- "Oh Hanukkah" – Jack Black
- "Dreidels of Fire" – Adam Green
- "Eight Candles" – Yo La Tengo
- "If It Be Your Will" – HAIM
- "Sing It Now, Sing It Somehow" – The Flaming Lips
- "Hanukkah In '96" – Alex Frankel
- "Give You Everything" – Buzzy Lee
- "Dedication" – Tommy Guerrero
- "Eight Nights A Week" – Loudon Wainwright III
- "Hanukkah Dance" – Watkins Family Hour
- "Sanctuary" – Craig Wedren
- "Chad Gadya (Passover Bonus)" – Jack Black
Tropes
- Concept Album: A Christmas Songs album, but for Hanukkah.
- Cover Version: HAIM cover Leonard Cohen's "If It Be Your Will".
- Everyone Is Christian at Christmas: Loudon Wainwright III's "Eight Nights a Week" references Wainwright not being Jewish yet appearing on this album performing a song he wrote about a religious festival he doesn't celebrate.
- Shout-Out: "Eight Nights a Week" references that it's the Hanukkah equivalent of Irving Berlin writing "White Christmas".
- Silly Love Songs: "Give You Everything", in which Buzzy Lee wishes Hanukkah was longer than eight nights so she can give the listener presents.
- Take That!: The whole album is this to the American Christmas covers album, especially if you're familiar with its tropes.
- Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" is commonly covered for Christmas albums, so another song of his is covered for this album by HAIM.
- Loudon Wainwright III, who isn't Jewish, perfoms a song he made that's vaguely about a holiday he's ignorant about, and even references a famous case of this: Jewish songwriter Irving Berlin writing "White Christmas.
- Some Christmas covers albums feature one Hanukkah song, usually at the end of the track, so this album ends with the Passover song "Chad Gadya".
