Jonah Hill shares his favourite song and the first CDs he ever bought
The actor Jonah Hill is perhaps primarily known for his early career comedy roles in Superbad, Knocked Up and 21 Jump Street. However, the actor has also performed in more serious roles, such as The Wolf of Wall Street, and has, in recent years, become a well-respected writer and director in Hollywood.
Hill once noted his favourite song when discussing a particularly fond memory with Variety. He said, “My mom sent a mariachi band to play my favourite song, ‘Feliz Navidad’, on one of my birthdays, and surprised my friends and I. Of course, it was fun. It was a mariachi band playing ‘Feliz Navidad’!”
He added, “It was at night, and it was in the winter in New York. I looked in the restaurant, and there were like eight mariachi band players stuffed in that winter little cubby thing. ‘Am I hallucinating right now?’ Then they came in, and they started playing [the song]. It was an amazing gift.
It’s a very kind thing of Hill’s mother to go to the trouble of hiring an entire mariachi band just to play a Christmas song on her son’s birthday. However, Hill also noted, “They didn’t play ‘Happy Birthday’ because my favourite song is ‘Feliz Navidad’, so she only asked them to play ‘Feliz Navidad’.”
The title literally means ‘Merry Christmas’ in Spanish and was written by the Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Jose Feliciano, who first recorded in back in 1970. The lyrics mean “Merry Christmas, a prosperous year and happiness”, which are then followed up with the English words, “I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas from the bottom of my heart.”
Hill then noted the first CDs that he ever bought. He continued, “The first CD I ever bought – gosh – one of the first would be Doggystyle or The Chronic. I grew up on rap music, and a big reason for making Mid90s is it’s like framing hip hop in a film the way how it was with me, the way how the Beatles were to my parents. And how that music is the emotional backbone of my childhood.”
Doggystyle is the debut album of Snoop Dogg, while The Chronic is Dr Dre’s first full-length studio offering. Both albums are considered absolute classics in the world of hip-hop. As for Mid90s, it is Hill’s feature directorial debut and focuses on a young 13-year-old boy who spends his time hanging out with older skaters in Los Angeles.
