8 Days Until Christmas

Building off yesterday’s song, here’s another Christmas tune that proves the holidays aren’t always sugarplums and mistletoe. In 1989, “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight)” was the last song on side two of The Ramones’ “Brain Drain.” Not a bad place for a Christmas song when the album comes out in March.

“Brain Drain” was the album that brought Marky Ramone back into the band, but also was the last one with Dee Dee Ramone. Dee Dee has since said he didn’t play bass on “Brain Drain,” and while he’s in the video for “Pet Semetery,” he’s replaced with C.J. Ramone for “Merry Christmas.”

The girlfriend in the fighting couple is Jessica Lundy, who you might remember as Naomi, Jerry’s girlfriend in season four of “Seinfeld,” the one who laughs like “Elmer Fudd sitting on a juicer.”

Lundy was also Gloria in the ’90s sitcom “Hope & Gloria” – as well as Janet Devereaux, Blanche’s youngest daughter, on “Golden Girls.” In 2016, Lundy won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Performer in Children’s Programming for playing Postal Inspector Amanda Wainwright in the CBS kid show “The Inspectors.”

A few bands have covered “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight),” but as you might guess, it’s hard to match the energy of the original. At least Little Steven & The Disciples Of Soul put a little effort – but just a little – into making a video.

How do you make a Ramones song last longer than five minutes?