The third installment of the
Santa Clause movie franchise starring Tim Allen did not charm film critics, but this soundtrack album demonstrates that, at least, there was some entertaining holiday music threaded through it.
Andy Williams gets a couple of familiar appearances, but it's the rock & roll, as heard in
the Refreshments' "The Real Santa" and
Brian Setzer's "Santa Drives a Hot Rod," that enlivens the proceedings.
Martin Short, cast as villain Jack Frost, has two numbers. His "New York, New York" really should be called "North Pole, North Pole," since it is a rewritten version of the
John Kander-
Fred Ebb theme song for the 1977 movie New York, New York, later a signature song for
Frank Sinatra.
Short hams it up just like
Sinatra, his revised words expressing his desire to supplant Santa. He seems to have done so on his second track, the brief "Come Meet Santa," which has a manic, wacky sound that makes it seem like an outtake from
Danny Elfman's score for The Nightmare Before Christmas. Score composer
George S. Clinton gets to close the disc with a 15-minute summary of his background music, "The Christmas Sweet." It mixes moments of foreboding with plenty of reassuring string parts, and even some buoyant whistling, and alludes to some other Christmas themes. ~ William Ruhlmann