'Tis The Season:
Christmas Songs
You knew it was coming. This week I'll be looking at all of the songs that only make sense at this time of year, but absolutely complete the holiday season. This week we take a look at the best Christmas songs, complete with a full Spotify playlist for all of your holiday parties.
I can feel old age creeping in during this time of year. I've passed the child-like excitement over presents. I've gone through the young adult's ultra cool passivity towards the season and mocking derisions on the evils of consumerism. Now for the bad part. I can feel that warmth in the belly start to build from the sight of a classic Saturday Evening Post cover. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up a little when I see the promo for It's A Wonderful Life. The smell of wrapping paper and fresh pine almost makes me giddy. Damnit. I'm becoming a suburban adult, pining for the American pastoral Christmas experience. Well, at least I'll always have one bolt left in my 'quiver of cool'; tunes. Like most things, Christmas music can be really good or really, really bad. I still wake up in a cold sweat remembering the grocery store I worked in during my teens. The Christmas playlist repeating the same Perry Cuomo song over and over again. To this day I'm afraid that the first notes of Wings' "Wonderful Christmas Time" will send me into a homicidal frenzy, like a character in The Manchurian Candidate.
Not any more. I will not abide another Christmas wasted on terrible the worst 'classics'. Someone living today would hardly remember that there was a time in the 1960s when it was almost expected that you release a Christmas album. The result was a lot of surprising people making a lot of good Christmas music. Sure, a lot of us are familiar with the Jackson 5 Christmas album. But, did you know that James Brown has a yule-tide record? Two, actually. There's a Beach Boys Christmas record and (perhaps best of all) the Phil Spector Christmas album. But the good holiday cheer wasn't held to the 60s. Willie Nelson, Jethro Tull, Bright Eyes, Arcade Fire, and even Judas Priest's Rob Halford have all made odd but fantastic Christmas albums. This week I'll be taking a look at the best ten modern Christmas songs to spruce up some Festivus spirit. Don't forget to check out our Spotify playlist for all of the great Christmas classics. And away we go...
The List
10. "Who Took The Merry Out Of Christmas" - The Staple Singers
The Staple Singers are maybe one of the most influential crossover gospel groups of all time. They had 26 charting singles over the course of their careers, including two number one hits in the United States ("I'll Take You There" and "Let's Do It Again"). They were inducted into the Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 and awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. Beginning as a group of family singers that toured churches in the South, the patriarch Roebuck "Pops" Staples led his three girls, Pervis, Yvonne, and Mavis, to fame and fortune. The group has a great deal of historical importance as well. Songs like "Will The Cirlce Be Unbroken" and "Freedom Highway" became the soundtrack of the civil rights movement. A famous photo exists of the group holding hands with Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Peter Paul And Mary, and Pete Seeger at the Newport Folk Festival to sing "This Land Is Your Land" (Dylan once actually proposed to Mavis Staples). Pops always considered the group a purely gospel affair and "Who Took The Merry Out Of Christmas" is a pretty good example of that. This great song takes a shot at consumer-oriented holiday celebrations. I'm also a sucker for a good vocal from Pops Staples.
9. "Do They Know It's Christmas" - Band Aid
The 1984 original became the biggest selling single in UK Singles Chart history, selling a million copies in the first week alone. It stayed at Number 1 for five weeks, becoming Christmas number one, and sold more than 3.5 million copies domestically. It remained the highest selling single in UK chart history until 1997, when Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997".
The song fully came to my attention in the mid-90s, when a newly formed VH1 would play the video nonstop for every Christmas season. There is some camp value in this selection, but there is also a lot of heart. I genuinely love this song. If it wasn't for this song being successful, we wouldn't have gotten the fantastic Live Aid concerts and even the hilarious heavy metal response group, Hearing Aid.
8. "Christmas Wrapping" - The Waitresses
The song reached #45 on the UK charts and was subsequently covered by the Spice Girls in 1998, as the B-side of their single "Goodbye" and by the television show Glee sung by the character Brittany for their 2011 Christmas special. I absolutely love Patty Donahue's lead vocal on this song, giving a proper innocence to the song and season.
7. "Father Christmas" - The Kinks
The Kinks' "Father Christmas" comes from fairly humble beginnings. Released as a non-album single in 1977, it tells of a department store Father Christmas (Santa Claus) who is beaten up by a gang of poor kids who tell him to give them money instead of toys, as toys are impractical; and asks that the toys be given "to the little rich boys." At one point, a child asks the narrator to give his/her father a job for Christmas. This is a perfect example of Ray Davies' signature style, exhibiting a scathing criticism of class with a sense of humor. Like a few other Classic Rock figureheads, the guitar-heavy track plays like a response to the burgeoning Punk and Metal movements (not surprisingly, the single's B-Side was "Prince of the Punks"). The song has been covered a number of times by bands including the Gigolo Aunts, Green Day, Warrant, Lit, Bowling For Soup, Save Ferris, Action Action, Everything and OK Go. This is one of the few appearances on the list that I can listen to all year long.
5. "O Tannenbaum" - The Vince Guaraldi Trio
You might think you don't know who Vince Guaraldi is, but trust me, you do. Guaraldi was the jazz pianist behind all of the music that helped make Charlie Brown a part of America's collective conscious. The most famous of his compositions for the cartoon was "Linus And Lucy", but only slightly less so was his soundtrack for A Charlie Brown Christmas. Originally released with the 1965 CBS television program, this fantastic Christmas album had several songs that will forever be etched into the memories of any child born into a television home, including "Christmas Time Is Here" and "Skating". For me, it's Guaraldi's take on the classic German traditional about the beauty of evergreens. This song has always been a favorite among children during Christmas time, but Guaraldi gives the song a new depth, a wistfulness. His slower approach (consistent with many of the California Jazz piano greats) to the song provides it with the space to be truly thoughtful. This is the type of music that I'm thankful for having been burned into my memory.
Now we've come to the part of the list that I can't possibly imagine Christmas without. Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" was released in 1971 as a single by John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir. The song reached number 4 on the UK Singles Chart (where release was delayed until 1972). Ostensibly a protest song about the Vietnam War, it has become a Christmas standard, appearing on several Christmas albums, and was voted the ninth favorite Christmas song in a poll by VH1. The song was re-released in the UK in 1980, shortly after John Lennon's murder, and peaked at number 2.
The lyric is based on a campaign in late 1969 by Lennon and Ono, who rented billboards and posters in eleven major cities around the world that read: "WAR IS OVER! (If You Want It) Happy Christmas from John and Yoko". In 1971, the United States was deeply entrenched in the unpopular Vietnam War. The line "War is over, if you want it, war is over, now!", as sung by the background vocals, was taken directly from the billboards. The melody and chord structure are from the folk standard "Stewball", about a race-horse. Lennon and Ono added the key changes (shifting back and forth between A and D) and the "War is over" counter-melody.
This songs has been covered multiple times by the likes of The Fray, Melissa Etheridge, Celine Dion, and Neil Diamond, but in this case the original is easily the best. This year, as one of America's decade long conflicts has come to a close, "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" takes on a new significance. During his lifetime, Lennon was often taken as a bit of a misanthrope. I think part of the reason this song was became so popular upon his death was because it displays just how much of an optimist Lennon really was. This is his Christmas card for the world. I, for one, can't imagine spending the holiday without it.
The song was available for some years as a bootleg single backed with "Heroes,," which Bowie had also performed on the TV special. In 1982, RCA issued the recording as an official single, complete with the dialogue, arbitrarily placing "Fantastic Voyage" from the Lodger album on the B-side. Bowie was unhappy with this move, which further soured his already strained relationship with RCA, and he left the label soon after. The single debuted on the UK singles chart in November 1982, and climbed to position number three on the chart, boosted by a 12" picture disc release. It has since become a perennial on British Christmas compilation albums, with the TV sequence also a regular on UK nostalgia shows. In the United States, "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" became a staple on radio stations during the Christmas season.
On November 9, 2010, Collector's Choice Music released a 7-inch vinyl edition of "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" on red-colored vinyl in the United States. The flip-side of the single contained a Bing Crosby/Ella Fitzgerald duet of "White Christmas", recorded in 1953. The single was limited to 2,000 copies.
"Little Drummer Boy" has always been my favorite Christmas song. While Bing's performance of the song is obviously not the peak of his abilities, the hastily written add-on lyrics for Bowie are pitch perfect. His movement from gentle to powerful is nothing short of beautiful. If there is anything during the Christmas season that will get stuck in my head, it is most likely that very first Bowie lyric from this song. Without a doubt, this is one of the oddest and best duets of all time.
"Fairytale of New York" was originally planned as a duet by Shane MacGowan and Pogues bassist Cait O'Riordan, but O'Riordan left the band in 1986, before the song was completed. The Pogues were at the time being produced by Kirsty MacColl's then husband Steve Lillywhite, who asked his wife to provide a guide vocal of the female part for a demo version of the song. The Pogues liked MacColl's contribution so much that they asked her to sing the part on the actual recording. The song takes the form of a drunken Irish immigrant man's Christmas Eve reverie about holidays past while sleeping off a binge in a New York City drunk tank. After an inebriated old man also incarcerated in the jail cell sings a passage from the Irish drinking ballad "The Rare Old Mountain Dew", the drunken man (MacGowan) begins to dream about the song's female character. The remainder of the song (which may be an internal monologue) takes the form of a call and response between the couple, their youthful hopes crushed by alcoholism and drug addiction, reminiscing and bickering on Christmas Eve in New York City.
MacColl's melodious singing contrasts with the harshness of MacGowan's voice, and the lyrics are sometimes bittersweet—sometimes purely bitter: "Happy Christmas your arse / I pray God it's our last". The lyrics "Sinatra was swinging" and "cars as big as bars" seem to place the song in the 1950s. However, it is possible that the song is actually set in the early 1980s, when one of Sinatra's last chart hits, his 1980 recording of John Kander and Fred Ebb's theme from the movie New York, New York, was a fixture of New York City airwaves and a standard singalong record in the city's many neighborhood bars. The title, taken from author J. P. Donleavy's novel A Fairy Tale of New York, was chosen after the song had been written and recorded.
Twice MacGowan and MacColl sing, "The boys of the NYPD choir still singing "Galway Bay". The New York Police Department (NYPD) does not have a choir, but it does have a Pipes and Drums unit that is featured in the video for the song. The NYPD Pipes and Drums did not know "Galway Bay" and so played a different song for the music video, and the editor put it in slow motion to fit the beat. The video featured Matt Dillon as the NYPD patrolman who arrests the intoxicated MacGowan.
The song was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland in November 1987 and swiftly became a hit, reaching #1 in the Irish charts. On December 17, 1987, the Pogues and MacColl performed the song on the BBC's popular television show Top of the Pops, and it was propelled to #2 on the official UK Top 75. For the Top of the Pops appearance, the BBC insisted that MacColl's singing of "arse" be replaced with the less offensive "ass", although as she mimed the word MacColl slapped the relevant part of her body to make it clear what was meant.
Although the song finished 1987 as the 48th best seller of the year despite only a single month's sales, it was denied the Christmas #1 spot by the Pet Shop Boys' cover of "Always on My Mind". MacGowan commented on this in his typically forthright manner: "We were beaten by two queens and a drum machine". MacColl later said that she did not feel they were really in competition with the Pet Shop Boys as they were doing a completely different kind of music. The song was re-released by The Pogues in the UK in 1991 (reaching #36), and again in the UK and Ireland for Christmas 2005, reaching #3 in the UK. All proceeds from the latter release were donated towards a mixture of homeless charities and "Justice for Kirsty", a campaign to find out the truth behind Kirsty MacColl's death in 2000. The song has re-entered the Top 40 every December since 2005. It has now made the Top 10 on four separate occasions, including three times in successive years, a feat no other single can match. Its nine visits to the chart now total 49 weeks on the official UK Top 75.
On December 22, 2005, The Pogues performed the song on a Jonathan Ross Christmas special on BBC One in the UK, with the female vocals taken by singer Katie Melua. This was The Pogues' first television performance of the song since 1988.
Personally, I have no recent memory more fond than walking around the empty streets of my Brooklyn neighborhood with this song on repeat. Of all the Pogues' classics (of which, I think there are many) this is clearly my favorite. The rousing chorus is enough to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand. The song itself is a wonderful snapshot of a feeling, place, and time. I love this song at any time of year, but hearing it makes me nostalgic for winter. That reason is enough for this to not just be my favorite Christmas song, but one of my favorite songs of all time.
No synthesizers whatsoever were used during the writing of this column.
Follow me on Twitter @ChrisBell81 and keep the conversation going on our Facebook page.
The Kinks' "Father Christmas" comes from fairly humble beginnings. Released as a non-album single in 1977, it tells of a department store Father Christmas (Santa Claus) who is beaten up by a gang of poor kids who tell him to give them money instead of toys, as toys are impractical; and asks that the toys be given "to the little rich boys." At one point, a child asks the narrator to give his/her father a job for Christmas. This is a perfect example of Ray Davies' signature style, exhibiting a scathing criticism of class with a sense of humor. Like a few other Classic Rock figureheads, the guitar-heavy track plays like a response to the burgeoning Punk and Metal movements (not surprisingly, the single's B-Side was "Prince of the Punks"). The song has been covered a number of times by bands including the Gigolo Aunts, Green Day, Warrant, Lit, Bowling For Soup, Save Ferris, Action Action, Everything and OK Go. This is one of the few appearances on the list that I can listen to all year long.
6. "White Christmas" - Otis Redding
"White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the version sung by Bing Crosby is the best-selling single of all time, with estimated sales in excess of 50 million copies worldwide. While the Bing Crosby version of the song is certainly the one most often tied to "White Christmas", there are countless recordings of the song (at least 62 recordings of note, by my research). Among these include great versions like the Reggae cover from Bob Marley and the Punk send-up from The Stiff Little Fingers.
For me, the definitive recording came from Otis Redding. In 1968, Otis Redding's version of the song was released as a single (posthumously), and reached number 12 on Billboard magazine's special, year-end, weekly Christmas Singles chart in December of 1968. Redding's cover was also featured in the film Love Actually. Anyone familiar with Redding's work past "Sittin' On The Dock of the Bay" knows the life that Otis could blow into a cover song. His covers of "Day Tripper" and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" are among my all-time favorites. Redding's version of "White Christmas" gave the song a new life. Here you get to see the very essence of Soul music.
5. "O Tannenbaum" - The Vince Guaraldi Trio
You might think you don't know who Vince Guaraldi is, but trust me, you do. Guaraldi was the jazz pianist behind all of the music that helped make Charlie Brown a part of America's collective conscious. The most famous of his compositions for the cartoon was "Linus And Lucy", but only slightly less so was his soundtrack for A Charlie Brown Christmas. Originally released with the 1965 CBS television program, this fantastic Christmas album had several songs that will forever be etched into the memories of any child born into a television home, including "Christmas Time Is Here" and "Skating". For me, it's Guaraldi's take on the classic German traditional about the beauty of evergreens. This song has always been a favorite among children during Christmas time, but Guaraldi gives the song a new depth, a wistfulness. His slower approach (consistent with many of the California Jazz piano greats) to the song provides it with the space to be truly thoughtful. This is the type of music that I'm thankful for having been burned into my memory.
4. "Frosty The Snowman" - The Ronettes
Ronnie Spector is one of my favorite singers ever, and one listen to this will let you know why. She has everything it takes to make timeless music; a trained style, a raw vocal talent, and an almost childlike tone in her voice. In 1963, all three Ronettes, along with every other artist who was signed with Phil Spector, helped him complete what I think is the quintessential Christmas LP A Christmas Gift for You. The Ronettes recorded three songs for the album: "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," "Sleigh Ride," and "Frosty the Snowman." All of the artists sang on the album's finale, "Silent Night," which opened with a spoken message from Phil Spector, thanking everyone for buying the record. The record didn't make many waves on the charts upon it's release, but has become the very definition of modern Christmas music since. If you've seen a Christmas movie since 1985, you've heard a song from this record. In addition to the contributions from The Ronettes there were classic tracks like "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" by The Crystals and "Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)" by Darlene Love. "Frosty the Snowman" stands out as my favorite thanks to that amazing voice of Ronnie Spector. Originally recorded by Gene Autry in 1950, this song has been recorded many times, but there are so many reasons to prefer this one that I don't even know where to begin. Let's go with it's role in the Lufthansa heist from Goodfellas?
3. "Happy Xmas (War Is Over) - John Lennon
The lyric is based on a campaign in late 1969 by Lennon and Ono, who rented billboards and posters in eleven major cities around the world that read: "WAR IS OVER! (If You Want It) Happy Christmas from John and Yoko". In 1971, the United States was deeply entrenched in the unpopular Vietnam War. The line "War is over, if you want it, war is over, now!", as sung by the background vocals, was taken directly from the billboards. The melody and chord structure are from the folk standard "Stewball", about a race-horse. Lennon and Ono added the key changes (shifting back and forth between A and D) and the "War is over" counter-melody.
This songs has been covered multiple times by the likes of The Fray, Melissa Etheridge, Celine Dion, and Neil Diamond, but in this case the original is easily the best. This year, as one of America's decade long conflicts has come to a close, "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" takes on a new significance. During his lifetime, Lennon was often taken as a bit of a misanthrope. I think part of the reason this song was became so popular upon his death was because it displays just how much of an optimist Lennon really was. This is his Christmas card for the world. I, for one, can't imagine spending the holiday without it.
2. "Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy" - Bing Crosby and David Bowie
Yet another entry to the list from a childhood spent watching VH1, my surprise at the existence of this song has never faded. Every time I see the televised clip of this duet, there is still a large part of me that is astounded Bing doesn't try to shoe David off with a broom. The track was recorded in September of 1977 for Crosby's then-upcoming television special, Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas. The pair exchanged dialogue about what they do for Christmas before singing "Little Drummer Boy" with a new counterpoint with original lyrics written for the special, "Peace on Earth." Bowie has since recalled that he only appeared on the show because "I just knew my mother liked him." Buz Kohan was not sure that Crosby knew who Bowie was, but Ian Fraser claimed, "I'm pretty sure he did. Bing was no idiot. If he didn't, his kids sure did." Crosby died on October 14, just over a month after recording the special. In the U.S., the show aired on Nov. 30th, 1977 on CBS. According to co-writer Ian Fraser, Bowie balked at singing "Little Drummer Boy"; "I hate this song. Is there something else I could sing?", Fraser recalls Bowie telling him. Fraser, along with songwriter Larry Grossman and the special's scriptwriter, Buz Kohan, then wrote "Peace on Earth" as a counterpoint to "Little Drummer Boy." Crosby performed "Little Drummer Boy," while Bowie sang the new tune "Peace on Earth," which they reportedly performed after less than an hour of rehearsal.
On November 9, 2010, Collector's Choice Music released a 7-inch vinyl edition of "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" on red-colored vinyl in the United States. The flip-side of the single contained a Bing Crosby/Ella Fitzgerald duet of "White Christmas", recorded in 1953. The single was limited to 2,000 copies.
"Little Drummer Boy" has always been my favorite Christmas song. While Bing's performance of the song is obviously not the peak of his abilities, the hastily written add-on lyrics for Bowie are pitch perfect. His movement from gentle to powerful is nothing short of beautiful. If there is anything during the Christmas season that will get stuck in my head, it is most likely that very first Bowie lyric from this song. Without a doubt, this is one of the oddest and best duets of all time.
1. "Fairytale of New York" - The Pogues and Kristy MacColl
MacColl's melodious singing contrasts with the harshness of MacGowan's voice, and the lyrics are sometimes bittersweet—sometimes purely bitter: "Happy Christmas your arse / I pray God it's our last". The lyrics "Sinatra was swinging" and "cars as big as bars" seem to place the song in the 1950s. However, it is possible that the song is actually set in the early 1980s, when one of Sinatra's last chart hits, his 1980 recording of John Kander and Fred Ebb's theme from the movie New York, New York, was a fixture of New York City airwaves and a standard singalong record in the city's many neighborhood bars. The title, taken from author J. P. Donleavy's novel A Fairy Tale of New York, was chosen after the song had been written and recorded.
Twice MacGowan and MacColl sing, "The boys of the NYPD choir still singing "Galway Bay". The New York Police Department (NYPD) does not have a choir, but it does have a Pipes and Drums unit that is featured in the video for the song. The NYPD Pipes and Drums did not know "Galway Bay" and so played a different song for the music video, and the editor put it in slow motion to fit the beat. The video featured Matt Dillon as the NYPD patrolman who arrests the intoxicated MacGowan.
The song was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland in November 1987 and swiftly became a hit, reaching #1 in the Irish charts. On December 17, 1987, the Pogues and MacColl performed the song on the BBC's popular television show Top of the Pops, and it was propelled to #2 on the official UK Top 75. For the Top of the Pops appearance, the BBC insisted that MacColl's singing of "arse" be replaced with the less offensive "ass", although as she mimed the word MacColl slapped the relevant part of her body to make it clear what was meant.
Although the song finished 1987 as the 48th best seller of the year despite only a single month's sales, it was denied the Christmas #1 spot by the Pet Shop Boys' cover of "Always on My Mind". MacGowan commented on this in his typically forthright manner: "We were beaten by two queens and a drum machine". MacColl later said that she did not feel they were really in competition with the Pet Shop Boys as they were doing a completely different kind of music. The song was re-released by The Pogues in the UK in 1991 (reaching #36), and again in the UK and Ireland for Christmas 2005, reaching #3 in the UK. All proceeds from the latter release were donated towards a mixture of homeless charities and "Justice for Kirsty", a campaign to find out the truth behind Kirsty MacColl's death in 2000. The song has re-entered the Top 40 every December since 2005. It has now made the Top 10 on four separate occasions, including three times in successive years, a feat no other single can match. Its nine visits to the chart now total 49 weeks on the official UK Top 75.
On December 22, 2005, The Pogues performed the song on a Jonathan Ross Christmas special on BBC One in the UK, with the female vocals taken by singer Katie Melua. This was The Pogues' first television performance of the song since 1988.
Personally, I have no recent memory more fond than walking around the empty streets of my Brooklyn neighborhood with this song on repeat. Of all the Pogues' classics (of which, I think there are many) this is clearly my favorite. The rousing chorus is enough to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand. The song itself is a wonderful snapshot of a feeling, place, and time. I love this song at any time of year, but hearing it makes me nostalgic for winter. That reason is enough for this to not just be my favorite Christmas song, but one of my favorite songs of all time.
Think I got something wrong? Want to add your own list or nominations? Make sure and leave a comment below. Also, don't forget to check out everything I was considering in our full Spotify playlist.
No synthesizers whatsoever were used during the writing of this column.
Follow me on Twitter @ChrisBell81 and keep the conversation going on our Facebook page.
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