Adam Sandler first performed “The Chanukah Song” on Saturday Night Live in December 1994. As he said during that initial performance, he wrote the song (along with Lewis Morton and Ian Maxtone-Graham) because, as a kid, he felt left out around the holidays because there were only a few songs focused on Chanukah. “In school, there were so many Christmas songs, and all we Jewish kids had was the song ‘Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel,’” he said. Since then, Sandler has recorded four different variations of his hit song and even had it covered by a very famous singer. Let’s take a look at each of them below.
THE FIRST “OFFICIAL” RECORDING
“The Chanukah Song” was released initially on Sandler’s 1996 album What the Hell Happened to Me?, which went on to become the highest-selling comedy album ever recorded. Performed live at UC Santa Barbara, the song contains the same references to Jewish celebrities he used when he sang it on SNL. The main difference between the album version and the SNL version is that the line “don’t smoke marijuana-kah” was changed to “smoke your marijuana-kah.”
PART II
Sandler released his fourth album, Stan and Judy’s Kid, in 2000, and with it came “The Chanukah Song, Part II.” The updated song boasts “a new list of people who are Jewish, just like you and me.” Among the names included this time around are Winona Ryder, Lenny Kravitz, and Dustin “Hoffman-ukah.”
PART 3
The third rendition comes to us courtesy of the soundtrack to Sandler’s 2002 animated film Eight Crazy Nights. Along for the ride on the track are children’s choir The Drei-Dels and Sandler’s long-time collaborator, Rob Schneider. Jerry Lewis, Ben Stiller, and Jack Black are just a few of the names mentioned in this version. It was performed live on SNL later that same year.
PART 4
Recorded live in 2015, Sandler’s fourth and most recent version of “The Chanukah Song” is the only one that’s never appeared on an album of his. Punky Brewster, Stan Lee, and Dr. Drew all get a shout-out, among many others, of course.
NEIL DIAMOND’S COVER
In a twist few saw coming, “Sweet Caroline” singer Neil Diamond recorded a cover version of “The Chanukah Song” for his 2009 album A Cherry Cherry Christmas. He uses the same names that Sandler did in his original version, except he replaces Tom Cruise’s agent with Jesus Christ. As for Diamond’s reason for including it on a Christmas album, he told The Daily Telegraph, “I thought I’d throw one in there for my people, too, because we always feel a little left out around this time of year.”
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