Wishing all my readers and blogging friends a Merry Christmas! Below are a few tunes to get you in the festive mood. From classics to contemporary Christmas music
Santa Claus is Coming to Town by Perry Como (1951)
White Christmas by Bing Crosby (From White Christmas soundtrack) (1954)
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas by Frank Sinatra (1957)
Jingle Bell Rock by Bobby Helms (1957)
Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee (1958)
Let It Snow! sung by Dean Martin (1959)
Winter Wonderland sung by Dean Martin (1959)
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) sung by Darlene Love (1963)
An Old Christmas Card sung by Jim Reeves (1963)
Someday at Christmas by Stevie Wonder (1967)
Happy Xmas (War Is Over) by John Lennon (1971)
Merry Xmas Everybody by Slade (1973)
Step into Christmas by Elton John (1973)
I Believe In Father Christmas by Greg Lake (1975)
Christmas Must Be Tonight by The Band (1977)
Father Christmas by The Kinks (1977)
December Will Be Magic Again by Kate Bush (1980)
A Winter's Tale by David Essex (1982)
2000 Miles by The Pretenders (1983)
Christmas Countdown (12 days to Christmas) by Frank Kelly (1983)
Do they Know it's Christmas by Band Aid (1984)
Thank God It's Christmas by Queen (1984)
Another Lonely Christmas by Prince (1984)
Merry Christmas Everyone by Shakin' Stevens (1985)
It's Christmas All Over The World sung by Sheena Easton (From 1985's Santa Clause The Movie)
Last Christmas by Wham! (1986)
Driving Home for Christmas by Chris Rea (1986)
It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas (cover) by Johnny Mathis (1986)
Fairytale Of New York (feat. Kirsty MacColl) by The Pogues (1988)
Put A Little Love In Your Heart by Annie Lennox & Al Green (From 1988's Scrooged)
Christmas Must Be Tonight by Robbie Robertson (From 1988's Scrooged)
Mistletoe And Wine by Cliff Richard (1988)
We Should Be Together by Cliff Richard (1991)
All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey (1994)
Stupid Bells by The Handsome Family (2002)
Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End) by The Darkness (2003)
Somewhere Only We Know (Keane cover) by Lily Allen (2013)
On Christmas by Dum Dum Girls (2014)
Alone on Christmas Day by Phoenix (2015)
Love is Everything by Jon Anderson (2018)
Those are my favorites. Now it's your turn, which tunes get you in the Chrismas spirit? Any of the above, or others?
Thanks for this great list! My favorite Christmas song is The Little Drummer Boy.
ReplyDelete@Irene McKenna: You're welcome! The Little Drummer Boy isn't a favorite of mine, but definitely is memorable and unique. Interesting to see the Bowie/Crosby collaboration
DeleteI like a number of these songs, but you missed the greatest of them all: Nat King Cole's The Christmas Song.
ReplyDeleteI also have a soft spot for...
Baby, It's Cold Outside
Christmas in Hollis
Let it Snow
Feliz Navidad
Silent Night (Temptations/Four Tops)
@Wendell Ottley: Thanks for answering the question. Let It Snow is awesome. I wasn’t familiar with Nat King’s Cole’s Christmas Song, is quite mellow and relaxing. I’ll give your other choices a listen as well.
DeleteWow. I honestly didn't think there was anyone not familiar with NKC's Christmas Song. Glad you enjoyed it.
DeleteJust so you get the versions I'm talking about...
Baby It's Cold Outside - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTNheCEUP_A
Christmas in Hollis - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR07r0ZMFb8
Feliz Navidad - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMtuVP8Mj4o
Silent Night - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0mgk0KgI0Q
And added for extra holiday cheer
The Jackson 5 - I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PITCmngiMfA
@Wendell Ottley: Perhaps Nat King’s Cole’s Christmas Song is bigger in the US! I'm from Scandinavia. The main thing is I enjoyed it.
DeleteThanks a lot for sharing the versions you intended for me to hear
That's easy. "Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth" by Bing Crosby and David Bowie and the Peanuts Xmas album. Oh, and I also love this little ditty. :)
ReplyDelete@thevoid99: Nice choices, thanks for joining in! I should check out Peanuts Xmas album.
DeleteThe Eric Idle song is so cynical and fun, I had not heard that one before, probably too much profanity to become a mainstream hit though.
Merry Christmas, Chris! Most of these are favorites of mine as well. So pleased to see Fairytale of New York made the cut, as The Pogues are probably my favorite band of all time. Glad to hear you love Lily Allen's cover of Somewhere Only We Know too.
ReplyDeleteI'd also plug Nat King Cole's The Christmas Song and Christmas in Hollis, but I have a soft spot for Waitresses' Christmas Wrapping, Britney Spears' My Only Wish (This Year), and Kelly Clarkson's My Grown Up Christmas List, even if they're not traditional Christmas tunes. Nora Sagal's cover of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (from The Monuments Men) is very good as well.
@Josh: Merry Christmas to you too, and thanks for taking part! Had no idea you loved The Pogues that much(reminds me I need to check out their albums). I really like Lily Allen's cover, although I’m not sure it’s really a Christmas tune :)
DeleteLots of interesting choices there! I think my fav of them are by The Waitresses, and the Nat King Cole track. Surprised I had not heard Waitresses song before, as I listen to a lot of 80s music.
Nice set of songs. I prefer the classic versions of Christmas songs but I'm warming up to the modern songs as well. You should check the Diana Krall Christmas album. I listen to it every year.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas!!!
@the sound and the screen: Thanks! I could have included a few traditional classical Christmas carols from way way back, such as Silent Night and The First Noel, for this list I decided to go with 20th Century music. I'll give Diana Krall Christmas album a try, sounds great!
DeleteHappy Christmas to you too!
There's so many and my mother is one of those immersion Christmas celebrators where the entire house is decorated in every nook and cranny and Christmas music plays from the instant Thanksgiving ends, NEVER before, until the end of Epiphany on January 6th. So for many, many years obscure and arcane albums and eventually CD's were added to our collection. The result is a huge variety, from Kate Smith's album (it's big and brassy but I love it) though a 98 degrees one which doesn't get much action. In between is everything from a Calypso Christmas (again surprisingly fun) to Christmas fable records.
ReplyDeleteWith all that said I'm more prone to traditional tunes and treatments. Bing features heavily in my favorites as do the Kingston Trio.
The list could be endless but some of my faves:
Silver Bells-Doris Day
Mele Kalikimaka-Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters
The White Snows of Winter-The Kingston Trio
I Heard the Belles on Christmas Day-Kate Smith
Greensleeves-any version
O Little Town of Bethlehem-Barbra Streisand (her entire 1st Christmas album)
Christmas in Killarney-Bing Crosby
The Christmas Song-Nat King Cole
Sleigh Ride-Ella Fitzgerald
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas-Johnny Mathis
Somerset Gloucestershire Wassail-The Kingston Trio (their whole album really)
It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year-Andy Williams
Christmas Island-The Andrews Sisters
White Christmas-Bing Crosby
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear-Rosemary Clooney
I could go on and on but one song I'd be happy to never hear again is the wretched Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time by Paul McCartney. I loath that awful thing.
@joel65913: Really appreciate you sharing that set of songs, a bunch of them I don't know, so I'll enjoy going through them during Christmas.
DeleteFrom your comment, sounds like you are quite the experts on Xmas music in your family!
Greensleeves is beautiful, and can you believe I still haven't watched White Christmas (1954). I love Bing Crosby's White Christmas song though.
I agree Paul McCartney's is annoying :) I was reading an article about the most hated Xmas songs, and apparently Cliff Richard's Mistletoe And Wine (which I don't hate) topped the poll. McCartney's song is 10th:
http://www.nme.com/news/cliff-richard/74358
Merry Christmas Chris! I love the classic Christmas songs like The Christmas Song, It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, White Christmas, etc. but out of the contemporary ones, I love All I Want For Christmas Is You, Do they Know it's Christmas and Last Christmas. They always instantly put me in the Christmas mood!
ReplyDelete@Ruth: Belated Merry Christmas, and thanks for joining in! Those are great choices to get you in the mood for Christmas. Can listen to them year after year :)
DeleteMerry (belated) Christmas, Chris! Hope you had a good one. To answer your question, I could do without most holiday music. Maybe I'm just a grinch but I get tired of hearing the same songs every year. I did get a kick out of Bob Dylan's Christmas album though :D
ReplyDeleteEric @ The Warning Sign: Merry belated Christmas! Thanks, I did have a nice time and hope you did too. I'm not tired of Christmas music yet,give it time and who knows :)
DeleteDidn’t know about the Bob Dylan Christmas album, sounds like I’m missing out there :)
Here are my all-time favorites (in no particular order):
ReplyDeleteHappy Christmas (War Is Over) - John Lennon and Yoko
Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home) - Darlene Love
Do They Know it's Christmas - Bandaid
Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas Time - Paul McCartney
All I Want For Christmas - Mariah Carey
Fairytale of New York - The Pognes (Kristy MacCol)
Oh Come All Ye Faithful - Twisted Sister
Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley
Mele Kalikimaka - Bing Crosby
Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane) - Gene Autry
Christmas Vacation - Mavis Staples
White Christmas - Bing Crosby
Hey Santa Claus - The Moonglows
Little Saint Nick - The Beach Boys
Hark, The Herald Angels Sing - Vince Guaraldi Trio
And I must say I am more of an album listener more than a song picker. Those are my all time favorite:
A Charlie Brown Christmas - Vince Guaraldi Trio
Christmas Album - The Beach Boys
Noël - André Gagnon (1992)
Christmas Album - Elvis
A Swinging Christmas - Ella Fitzgerald
Holiday For Swing - Seth McFarlane
Christmas - Mannheim Steamroller
Christmas Greetings - Mantovani and His Orchestra
The Christmas Album - Paul Mauriat and His Orchestra
Noël aux Grandes Orgues - Gérard Caron
Chante Noël - Fernand Gignac
Well, this is what it is at the top of my head but I also like The Waikikis' for fun and a whole bunch but I would have to make a post about them. I guess.
@Michaël Parent: Awesome! Thanks for doing that. Now I (and others who read the post) have a bunch of new Christmas tunes to enjoy during December
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