Neil Diamond Covers Adam Sandler's 'Chanukah Song'

It's no secret that when holiday music hits radio, you're going to hear way more songs about Christmas than Chanukah. With Christmas, you get a bevy of classics like 'White Christmas,' 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town,' 'Jingle Bells' and on and on. With Chanukah, you're lucky if you hear more than 'The Dreidel Song.' So, when Neil Diamond -- who's been called the "Jewish Elvis" -- wanted to include a song about the festival lights on his third Christmas album, he turned to an unlikely source: Adam Sandler.

That's right -- on Diamond's upcoming 'A Cherry, Cherry Christmas,' the singer rocks a pretty hilarious and dead-on cover of Sandler's 'The Chanukah Song,' the actor-comedian's list of famous Jews that features such witticisms as "Paul Newman's half Jewish, Goldie Hawn's half too/put them together, what a fine-looking Jew." Diamond even addresses the dearth of Chanukah songs at the beginning of his version, saying, "There are so many beautiful Christmas songs around and so few Chanukah songs, so I thought we'd try this one for you."

The track -- which Spinner stumbled upon here -- was produced by new Guns 'N' Roses guitarist DJ Ashba and is featured alongside two new originals -- the title track and 'Christmas Dream.' Seasonal standards like 'Deck the Halls,' 'Winter Wonderland' and 'Jingle Bell Rock' also make appearances. The disc will be in stores Oct. 13, the same day as Bob Dylan's debut entry into the holiday music market, 'Christmas in the Heart'.

When we checked in with Diamond, he had this simple message for Spinner's readers: "Happy Chanukah, y'all."

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