Christmas Songs - S&D!!!!

1. "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer"
2. "Frosty the Snowman"
3. "Jingle Fuckin' Bells"

I especially loathe scat-splattered jazzy renderings of Christmas songs as well. Makes me want to shave my head, speak nothing but backwards Latin, become a full thelemite and go live in Bolskine House on Loch Ness.

I'd love to hear the Kinks' "Father Christmas" and Mud's "Lonely This Christmas", yet I don't believe I ever have.

For me:
Vince Guaraldi's "Christmas Time Is Here"... evokes childhood's christmases; beautifully melancholic. Piano playing of levity and gravitas; a spare production... very moving. Love the choral version.

Lew Stone produced 1946 version of "Let It Snow". A less obvious choice than "White Christmas" certainly, though that too inevitably has its place; it was always *there*...

Flaming Lips' "Christmas at the Zoo" is reasonably good I suppose, yeah.

Ashamed to say that Wham's "Last Christmas" has its place in my yuletide affections... I always seem to associate childhood christmases with things like Leslie Bricusse/Anthony Newley's "Thank You Very Much" from the 1971 film musical "Scrooge", starring Albert Finney. This always got shown on TV around the xmas period; I strongly recall watching it at junior school near the holiday and soon after it being on TV. ;-) Really loved the film, and this song in particular brings back so many memories...

Here's a Gone Daddy Finch version. 'Sokay. (Scroll down a bit.)

http://www.gonedaddyfinch.com/gonedaddyfinch/mp3page.html

S: Jona Lewie - "Stop The Cavalry", The Pretenders - "2000 Miles" (which Coldplay have apparently covered, for shame), Shane'n'Kirsty obv, "Last Christmas" oh yeah, Dandy Warhols - "Little Drummer Boy"

D: Cliff urgh. Most Christmas songs are aces tho, just cos it's Christmas innit.

"I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" is such a weird song when sung by Frankie Valli.

Oh, what a laugh it would have been
If Daddy had only seen
Mommy kissing Santa Claus last night

As sung by the Four Seasons this comes across like really surreal, mordant humor. Father walking in on his wife smooching a four-hundred pound mythical figure, and little Frankie sitting in the corner thinking it's all really quite an amusing scene.

Chris Rea - Driving Home For Xmas (The Revenge Re-rub)

hearing the Jackson 5 sing it is weird too because I doubt irl the kids would have ratted their mom out to their abusive dad if they had caught her cheating, especially with a guy like Santa who would have made a pretty awesome stepdad

yeah whenever I hear Michael say "I'm gonna tell my dad!" I just picture Joe Jackson losing his shit.

I just picture Joe Jackson losing his shit.

I was thinking the same thing hearing this song earlier today.

That's really funny that we all have the same comic-horror reaction to this JAckson Five song.

as a side story: my mom went to HS for a year with the Jackson Five, and she told me that one time she and her girlfriend puts wigs on and they went up to Jermaine and one of the other brothers and they sang "ABC" to them as a teasing joke -- my mom says that the Jackson Five weren't considered cool, like, say, Blind Faith (actual example) or whatever -- and that Jermaine took the joke in stride and thought it was funny but that everybody laughed when they did it.

Well since posting on ILM I inevitably link that story with the notion of baby boomer rockism, and vice versa.

Last night I spent another lonely Christmas
Darling, darling, U should've been there
Cuz all the ones I dream about
U are the one that makes my love shout
U see, U are the only one I care 4

Remember the time we swam naked in your father's pool
Boy, he was upset that night
But boy, was that ever cool
Remember that night we played poker 4 money
And U robbed me blind
Remember how U used 2 scream so loud cuz U...
U hated that number 9
Hey, I saw your sister skatin' on the lake this afternoon
Good heaven, how she's grown
She swoons the boy skaters cuz she's so tall
But of all your father's children
All your father's children, baby
U know U are the finest of them all
U are brighter than the northern star and I...

Last night I spent another lonely Christmas
Darling, darling, U, U should've been there
Cuz U see, of all the ones I dream about
U are the one that makes my love shout
U see, U are the only one I care 4, yeah

My mama used 2 say always trust your lover
But now I guess that only applies 2 her
Cuz baby, U promised me
Baby, U promised me U'd never leave
Then U died on the 25th day of December

Oh baby, last night, oh, I spent another lonely, lonely Christmas
Darling, baby, U, U should've been there
Cuz all the ones I dream about
U are the one that makes my love shout
U see, U are the only one I care 4, yeah

Your father said it was pneumonia
Your mother said it was stress
But the doctor said U were dead and I...
I say it's senseless
Every Christmas night 4 7 years now
I drink banana daiquiris till I'm blind
As long as I can hear U smiling, baby
U won't hear my tears
Another lonely Christmas is mine, yeah, mine, yeah
Another lonely Christmas is mine

Last night, yeah, I spent another lonely, lonely Christmas
Darling, darling, U should've been there, yeah
Cuz all the ones I dream about
U are the one that make my love shout
U see, U are the only one I care 4

Another lonely...

Ramones - Merry Christmas
Der Bingle - White Christmas(at one point was the best selling song, period)
the drifters - white christmas (killer version)
George Strait - White Christmas (ditto)
Shonen Knife - Space Christmas

second the request of where to find Can - Silent Night

http://www.mute.biz/can/silentnight.html

Apart from carols (Gaudete, Coventry Carol, and Carol of the Bells in particular), the Christmas song I've listened to most this festive season is Christmas in Jail by The Youngsters.

We had a xmas music channel on this morning while we opened presents and a song came on that made me stop everything and listen, it was so awful -- Diana Ross' version of "My Favorite Things."

thank you Curt1s! s'nice!!

I put together a top ten for my blog. http://sickmouthy.wordpress.com/2010/12/31/my-top-ten-christmas-songs/

Bloody hell, has anyone still got that Can version of Silent Night?!

I have it on vinyl somewhere.

Has anyone got an MP3 of CAN doing Silent Night that they could send me, please? sick mouthy at gmail dot com. Eternal gratitude in return.

I'm like you Nick: halfway through January and I STILL don't feel Christmassy.

I'll send it to you this evening - my reply upthread was a bit pointless, sorry. Any punctuation in your gmail address?

Nope, just the dot before the com.

Thank you!

Bizarrely it was Rio Ferdinand who inspired me to seek out obscure Xmas songs again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPqH-U_Rhe4

Found a slightly remixed version of the Can version of Silent Night, here - http://bananamania.wordpress.com/2010/12/15/can-silent-night-t-keelers-extended-yuletime-treat/ - dude's has very simply and very appropriately doubled it in length, pretty much seamlessly. No more!

I started listening to some Christmas music. Just a few tunes every few days. I realize that more than anything, the feelings I get from the music is this cozy, nostalgia about the 70's and early 80's, more than any sort of real holiday feelings. I don't feel like decorating a tree or a house or going Christmas shopping, just listening to a few songs in a dimly lit room with the volume real low.

It does begin with memories of Lawrence Welk and Andy Williams Christmas specials, the annual cheese ball my mom would make (heavy on the dry sherry) but then quickly turns into this montage of toys, tv shows, hit songs, things I wore, friends I had, the way cars looked, the way people looked, it's all getting further and further away from those times.

I watched an I Love Lucy episode today, one that aired 10.06.1952, and it dawned on me... that was 60 years ago. Sixty years ago used to be 1918!!! EEK!

i listened to these today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RC34N1TfCQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgGvL09QSSQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J_2tKCwu7Q

We're well into Christmas over here! Have a few festive projects coming up (including my first ever DJing-in-public) and I want to prepare in time for once.

Every year I think I've just about heard everything, and every year I'm wrong. Some favourite recent discoveries:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIG9_HgubLA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3uXTPV_X5M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCsa2-WP-iA

Wonder what effect the upcoming Cee Lo Green Xmas record will have on the thread...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCY2JhrwxVs

arrrgh! "For YouTube embedded videos: Simply paste in the URL of the YouTube web page containing the video you wish to embed" why why why does this not work for *me*?

think you should take the "s" out of "https"

thanks anagram!

i think this is worth reposting for ease of reference, i can't believe no one's put it up yet!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCY2JhrwxVs

also this is pretty sick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e25McLH-I04

Thanks, that one's new to me! I haven't really dug into Spanish-language Christmas apart from all the Fania Christmas albums and some Celia Cruz.

I see Calexico cover Mi Burrito Sabanero on their new Christmas album/I see Calexico have a new Christmas album/it's kind of boring

Speaking of Spanish language Christmas, just came to say ¡Feliz Vanidad!

Or even ¡Felisa me muero!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jueRg0H1_Jo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KvWwJ6sh5s

this is the one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncgtgDE253s

The Specials - a message to you rudy

are you confusing that with Do Nothing? (check the jumpers)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhGDdXg1o-Q

hmm....different context same name. it's Rudy 24/7, especially on christmas.

I heard this lovely little song on this year's holiday episode of Sound Opinions. The artist is Allan Hull, who was in 70s folk-rock band called Lindisfarne that I'd never heard of, though this song was from a posthumous 1996 solo album (Hull died in '95).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOSQEMmWh9E

S: François-Auguste Gevaert harmonisation of "Les anges dans nos campagnes"/"Angels We Have Heard on High"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hGYcz5oSFQ

There are a couple of the Starbucks Christmas comps that get a lot of play in our house this time of year. Some of the more enjoyable tracks:

Louis Armstrong with Benny Carter and his Orchestra - Christmas Night in Harlem
The Roches - Good King Wenceslas
Cyndi Lauper & Norah Jones - Home for the Holidays

Christmas songs are terrible dreck for the most part.
I did make a Spotify Playlist of Christmas Songs that Don't Suck that highlights the exceptions.

<iframe src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/11F05Gtve6aUtyRlczdA1v?utm_source=generator&theme=0"; width="100%" height="380" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture"></iframe>

Yikes, thank didn't work!

This should: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/11F05Gtve6aUtyRlczdA1v?si=a46f84052874454c

Nice one two punch at the beginning!

Smithsonian Folkways playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0YG4eIRIiZRrzhMA0fZq6j?si=03ba7c4aad6a49b0&nd=1

:D

Does anyone have a link to, I guess, a “blues/jazz” playlist… like what I would hear growing up on the radio in Washington DC? The kind of thing when you hear five great versions of “Merry Christmas Baby” in the course of a few hours, interspersed with jazz Xmas tunes, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6Ry_YaXss4

Big Christmas in chimney and in rest of house

This sounded good tonight:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0012rgj

Late Junction-y - Claire M Singer, Laura Cannell, Nils Frahm etc ...

Smithsonian Folkways playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0YG4eIRIiZRrzhMA0fZq6j?si=03ba7c4aad6a49b0&nd=1🕸

My Xmas 2021 playlist. Very late this year (too busy ensuring we could all get together this year, Covid-free, to give this much attention). So, rather hastily thrown together last night, then road tested at lunchtime, then tweaked a bit. I think it passes muster now.

Usual mix of old and brand new, with the emphasis on songs/versions that are new to me. Season's greetings to all ILXers.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1bKrVlYDJERlJzNWoRvNF3?si=0445d2bf46bf4045