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Hanukkah Song All-Stars

In the spirit of the holidays, we pick our favorite Jews from the Hanukkah songs.

December 3, 2007

On the December 3, 1994 episode of Saturday Night Live, hosted by the newly one-named Roseanne, nobody in the audience knew that we were seeing the birth of a new holiday tradition. When Adam Sandler, in his second to last year on the show, appeared with his acoustic guitar to perform his Hanukkah Song, a catchy ditty designed to help Jewish kids feel less overcome by the Christmas-centrism of the season by naming off a number of prominent stars of the Jewish faith, a classic was born. It's next to impossible to craft a carol this catchy without divine inspiration, so we like to think that JHVH was speaking through Sandler as he composed his three paeans to Hanukkah and the Jews that make it great. What follows is a list of eleven of our favorites from the three Hanukkah Songs. Mr. Sandler, if you please...

Adam Sandler at Celebrity Wonder
Adam Sandler at Absolute Now
Adam Sandler at All Movie Photo
Adam Sandler at Moono

Joey Ramone
Joey Ramone

Joey Ramone

The grandfather of punk rock in America, Jeffrey Ross Hyman was a gangly six foot six kid in Forest Hills, Queens suffering from intense OCD and a desire to rock. Starting out as the drummer for the Ramones, Joey switched to vocals soon after the group began playing gigs, and the stripped-down sound of one of history's greatest rock & roll bands was born. His signature vocal style, an untrained mix of '50s style rock & roll and punk rock snarl, inspired dozens of other singers - it's famously said that not many people saw the Ramones play, but every one of them went on to start their own band. After fourteen albums with the Ramones, Joey branched out to other projects, due in part to his feud with guitarist Johnny. Joey Ramone died in 2001 of lymphoma, and a block of East 2nd Street in NYC was renamed Joey Ramone Place in his honor.

See More: You Don't Mess With The Zohan | Adam Sandler | Hanukkah Song | punk rock | The Ramones