Star Wars: A track-by-track love letter to Christmas in the Stars

“Sleigh Ride”

No, C-3PO and R2-D2 do not sing the actual words to “Sleigh Ride” that we know. Would that have been cool? Yes. Alas, there are no sleigh bells jingling, ring-ting-tingling too. Instead, this is the culmination of the whole “Threepio instructs Artoo about music” part of the album.

As it results in Artoo getting angry before whistling out the tune to “Jingle Bells,” it’s kind of worth it. (You see, Threepio springs the opportunity for Artoo to solo it out, and Artoo was not expecting it.)

This is about the closest that Threepio gets to actually singing on the entire album, and suffice it to say that the chorus really helps Threepio get through the musical explanation. Once again, there are some difficult lines here, since the song “Sleigh Ride” has some weird phrasing anyway, and then you add in the talk-singing from Threepio. The result is a bit awkward, and this is where Artoo has an advantage — he can whistle the choruses and the aforementioned “Jingle Bells” line.

Honestly, I don’t miss the original lyrics to “Sleigh Ride.” That would just open up a lot of questions about what planets have sleighs, and how Currier & Ives prints exist in the Star Wars universe. Santa Claus goes far enough, thank you.