Twisted Sister has a long history in the world of rock music, and they grew up during an era when MTV videos began to dominate TVs across the country. Dee Snider led the band famous for their make-up, hair and loud hymn, “We are not going to take this.”
The group even created a video with the Zumbi theme that was banned from MTV. Knowing what fans know about the heavy metal band, – and Snider – can seem somewhat unbelievable that their leader is responsible for one of Celine Dion’s greatest Christmas songs.
Part of the Twisted Sister story includes a Christmas album
After ten years of struggle and some separations, Twisted Sister exploded during the early 1980s. Snider established himself as a formidable songwriter and became the face of the band.
The group sold millions of records, but admitted that internal problems led to conflict. They split up again, meeting sometime in the early 2000s, touring and making music.
In 2006, Twisted Sister abandoned A Distorted Christmas, an 11-track album that presented its exclusive approach to classics like “Silver Bells”, “Deck the Halls” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”.
They even released music videos and went on a short tour during the holiday season to end what should have been their career as a band.
But before they got inspired to make their rock version of their Christmas favorites, Snider wrote a song that ended up being a cover for another pop star.
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Dee Snider wrote a song for Celine Dion
In 2014, Snider appeared on Conversation is Jericho podcast to discuss his historical career, his Broadway show, and that time he wrote a track that was later sung by Celine Dion.
According to Ultimate Classic Rock, Snider said he initially wrote it for his wife, who specifically requested a Christmas song. It took a while, but he did it. The dilemma? He said it was out of his reach, so he hired some singers to record it as a gift and originally titled it “God Bless Us Everyone”.
One of the engineers who worked on it – Ric Wake – also worked with Dion. He called Snider a few years later and said that Dion wanted to cover the song, to which Snider replied, “Does she know who wrote it?”
After learning that Dion did not know about his origins, he said to the producer: “Don’t tell her that Satan wrote a Christmas song!”
They kept that information a secret, and she recorded the song under the title “The Magic of Christmas Day”. Snider didn’t care if she changed the title and directed wake to put it on the album. It ended up being a wise decision.
How Snider gives credit to music for helping him
Snider told the podcast presenter that the project sold eight million copies to Dion and that the song was also included on Rosie O’Donnell’s Christmas album. He said that, because of the success, they call his home “The house that Santa Celine built”.
In addition, Snider joked that she heard that he was the writer behind the success years later and “was very confused”. Supposedly, Dion asked, “The one with the makeup? With the bone? “He is grateful for how things ended, as it was a song he wrote that he never intended to go public.