X-RATED HOLIDAY JINGLES SPARK SUIT

The owners of the copyrights to some of America's most popular holiday songs sued a musical production company on Tuesday for selling such lewd tunes as "Rudolph The Deep Throat Reindeer" and "Frosty The Pervert."

The suit, filed in U.S. federal court in Manhattan, claimed that Scott Gordon and his Party on Parody Prods. (POPP) used the copyrighted works without authorization and sold them on tapes and CDs called "Matt Rogers' Rated X Mas."

The plaintiffs, which include Haven Gillespie Music Publishing Co. and Warner/Chappell Music Co., allege that the songs are not parodies as claimed by POPP.

"They are simply unauthorized exploitations of plaintiffs' famous holiday songs for cynical commercial gain, with the lyrics of the original works replaced by lewd lyrics," the suit alleged. Many industry insiders were curious to find out exactly how "exploitation," "cynical commercial gain" and "lewd lyrics" could be a bad thing.

POPP began manufacturing and selling the music in 1998 and now distributes over the Internet through Amazon.com and other retail distributors, the suit alleged.

"Rated X Mas" contains eight songs, seven of which are based entirely on music from copyrighted works, the suit alleged. The plaintiffs hold the copyrights for the music in question, which includes "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," "Frosty The Snowman" and "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town."

The suit gives examples of graphic lyrics that turn the happy melodies into tunes about Santa's sexual encounter with Mommy and Rudolph's life as a transvestite.