🎄 Holidays! 2015 Annual Christmas/Holiday Music Roundup

[Mike Blakesley]

After reading Harry and Neil's posts I thought of a few others that I like, but they didn't jump to my mind last night:

Amy Grant's "Emmanuel" and "Little Town." This looks like "O Come O Come Emmanuel" and "O Little Town of Bethlehem," but it's not; "Emmanuel" is a different song, and "Little Town" is "Bethlehem" but set to a different melody. I really like both because they're something you don't hear anybody else do, and the other cool thing is that the two songs segue into each other --- segues are almost always cool.

I am kind of in a gray area with Trans Siberian Orchestra. I really like some of their stuff like "Wizards of Winter" and "Appalachian Snowfall," but other songs of theirs just seem overly bombastic and overblown -- which I guess is part of their appeal. I just heard their version of "Carol of the Bells" on the radio....yeah, as Rood would say, "not my cuppa."

The Vince Guaraldi tunes, definitely. Also I like Elton John's "Step Into Christmas." It's not a song I play much but I always enjoy it on the radio. Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime" is a fun listen.

I haven't heard David Foster's version of "Carol of the Bells" -- off to YouTube to check it out.

EDIT: Well that's probably the prettiest instrumental version of the song ever. I like it -- but it suffers from the same thing all instrumental versions of it do -- the melody is too repetitious for an instrumental, so I'll continue to prefer the vocal, choir-only versions.

 

[Rudy]

Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime" is a fun listen.

It used to be for me, but now you hear it at least once in every store you visit. It's sad to hear a formerly lesser known song get overplayed to death.

"Last Christmas" is the same way for me. Now it's overplayed, and every hack Top 40 act has to take a shot at slaughtering it. And they all suck. No emotion whatsoever (very bland) and the same synth background everyone else has. With Autotune as co-producer.

 

[Harry]

Harry, I'd never heard the David Foster version of "Carol of the Bells" before, but I had to go listen to it after reading your list, and I was floored; that is easily the greatest instrumental version of that song I've ever heard, by far!

I first heard that on a radio station that went all-Christmas and was also absolutely floored - only I never got the name of the performer, so it remained a mystery. Then I heard it again at one of those amazing light displays that some homeowners put up at their house and this was the first time it had one of those FM transmitters so you could see the computer synchronization of lights to the music - and they were using this same "Carol Of The Bells" recording.

In the past five years, I finally pinpointed the title and artist and, as far as I could tell, it had been on a CD that was now long out of print (GIFT WRAPPED, SNOWED IN). So my only option at that point was a download from Amazon. I don't do a lot of music downloading, so you know this had to be special for me to buy a file, but I liked it THAT much.

I see that the old 1993 DAVID FOSTER CHRISTMAS ALBUM, essentially a soundtrack to a TV show, is once again available on CD, so perhaps I'll spring for it to get an uncompressed version of the song.

Here's a video that synchronizes the recorded track with the TV show video:


Harry

 

[Harry]

Oh, and how could I forget that I also include tracks from our very own Jay Maynes/Juan Oskar!


Harry

 

[DeeInKY]

Another one that I like is Let It Snow by Dean Martin. As far as Santa Baby I would agree with Rudy that Eartha Kitt is the only one who can sing that. Heard some real tepid version yesterday and it really turned me off. Didn't catch the name of the artist but it was just dullsville.

 

[Rudy]

@Harry You should download the SoundHound app for your phone, or, Google also has a music search feature. Both will name artist, song, album, and the former will also display lyrics if it has them. As long as the phone can clearly hear the music, they'll work.

 

[Harry]

I've got Soundhound now, but didn't back then.

 

[jfiedler17]

Yeah, I'd have to agree that "Last Christmas," "Wonderful Christmastime" and "Step Into Christmas" are all examples of genuinely fun and well-done Christmas records that have just suffered the misfortune of getting too overexposed on the radio in recent years. They're certainly three of the best pop/rock Christmas singles to come out of the '70s and '80s, to be sure. I like the fact that each of them actually went out of their way to make the records sound Christmas-y, if you know what I mean. There's so many Christmas records out there where the artist made virtually no attempt production-or-arrangement-wise to distinguish the records from their usual output. "Run Rudolph Run" is a perfect example of that. It's not a bad Christmas record per se, but take the vocal track off, and it just sounds like any other Chuck Berry record.

 

[Harry]

Saw this on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Records-Something-Festive-Christmas-Compilation/dp/B018B96E38/

...which reminded me of this:

!!!!!

Harry

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I have the XM Christmas channel ("Holly") on at work today. They veer around a lot from really old stuff to more current. One song I really like that I haven't mentioned is "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." As with a lot of these songs, I like it as sung by older artists the best -- they played it by one of the old crooners (not sure who) earlier this morning, and I just now I heard some Whitney Houston-ish soul singer butchering it with 47,000 extra notes. Why do these people think they can "improve" on a classic melody?

Another "oldie" that I forgot about is Burl Ives' "Holly Jolly Christmas." And "I'll Be Home For Christmas." Those both remind me of my grandparents and my early Christmases a lot. Whenever I hear the Burl Ives tune I get reminded of the Rudolph special -- to me he will always be that snowman. I have no idea what the man looked like in real life!

 

[Harry]

Much discussion centers on Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 and "The Christmas Song" from 1968, but very little attention is given to his update of the song in 2005 on a special Target compilation called HOLIDAY JAZZ. Our original thread about it is found here:

http://forum.amcorner.com/threads/exclusive-mendes-track-on-2005-target-holiday-cd.5974/#post-53703

Since the album itself is now long out of print and quite obscure, I've loaded the song to YouTube for a little Christmas present to my Corner buddies.



Harry

 

[AM Matt]

I do have Don McLean "Christmas" CD from 1990 on Curb Records but I do not have Don's "Christmas Dreams" (from 1997 on Hip-O) because the CD is no longer made & out of print. I just heard "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow" on the Music Choice channel "Sounds Of The Seasons" (channel 941 on Charter cable) & I am getting that CD when it comes to Saginaw, MI (36 miles from my home & the closest besides Barnes & Noble in Midland, MI which does not have that CD) & better late than never because I will have to wait till January to get it. Matt Clark Sanford, MI

 

[Chris May]

A few of my favorite Christmas songs/artists for me would have to be (not in any particular order):

1) Jo Stafford - Winter Weather, It Happened In Sun Valley
2) Kay Starr- The Man With The Bag
3) Carpenters - First Snowfall/Let It Snow!, The Christmas Song, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, I'll Be Home For Christmas, It's Christmas Time/Sleep Well Little Children, Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day
4) Vaughn Monroe - Snowy White Snow
5) Andy Williams - It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year, Happy Holiday/The Holiday Season
6) Celine Dion - Oh Holy Night
7) Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas
8) Nat King Cole - The Christmas Song
9) Paul McCartney - Wonderful Christmastime

 

[DeeInKY]

Those clocks would be a good way to make something useful out of an unplayable record.

Heard another awful version of Santa Baby this morning. Sounded like Betty Boop. Ugh!

 

[Rudy]

Heard another awful version of Santa Baby this morning. Sounded like Betty Boop. Ugh!

I'll pass, thank you. Madonna's version is probably halfway between Betty Boop and Eartha Kitt. That is probably as "extreme" as I could tolerate it.

I forgot to mention a few that I will listen to if in the mood.

First of all, I can't take myself too seriously when I listen to Xmas music, so there are times when I play my own compilation of assorted Bob Rivers tracks. Most of my favorites are the remakes of well-known versions of Xmas songs, but parodied to death. Others his group does will set holiday lyrics to pop or rock songs. Like what he did with Black Sabbath's "Iron Man." "I-I a-a-mm-mm S-a-a-n-n-ta Cl-l-a-a-uu-s." Or, putting the lyrics of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" to the music of The Animals' hit "Land of the Rising Sun." Some of it is quite silly, but sometime I need that (especially if I had the need to stay sober ).

They really rip through two Carpenters songs to great effect--they lift two successive songs from the Christmas Portrait LP, "Sleigh Ride" (retitled "Flu Ride"...you can guess which direction that one goes ) and "It's Christmas Time" (which puts a corporate workplace theme into it). There's also a funny mash-up of the Chipmunks Xmas song, followed by the Nat King Cole version of "The Christmas Song" that talks about...ummm...roasting chipmunks. If you've ever wondered how angels came to be put on top of the Xmas tree, give a listen to "Angel / Who Put The Stump" (set to "Who Put The Bomp")...and be edumacated.

On the serious side, here are a few others I didn't yet list:

Ramsey Lewis Trio: The Sound of Christmas -- from the Chess years; easygoing in that Ramsey Lewis sort of way.

Various: Christmas Cocktails (Ultra-Lounge series) -- the mastering sucks (the bass and treble are cranked up, heavy noise reduction), but it compiles a CD's worth of instrumental/lounge tracks from the Capitol/EMI vaults. This was a popular title during the whole lounge music fad of the 90s.

John Pizzarelli: Let's Share Christmas -- jazz guitarist/crooner, Bucky Pizzarelli's son, has had quite a following of his own and he puts a nice spin on familiar tunes.

Peggy Lee: Christmas -- she does a few things differently on this classic Capitol album, which is what appeals to me.

Esquivel!: Merry Xmas -- I can take this one a few tracks at a time. This is actually an anthology of Xmas tracks he recorded that were scattered across a couple of albums. (And "Snowfall" comes from More of Other Worlds, Other Sounds.)

Michael Franks: Watching the Snow -- more of a winter album than a full holiday album, but there are still a couple of tracks that apply, like "I Bought You a Plastic Star (for Your Aluminum Tree)". A good alternative listen.

 

[DeeInKY]

about...ummm...roasting chipmunks

That's just sick. Not so sick that it prevented me from listening to it and sharing though. (I bet it's like Chinese food...an hour later you're hungry again.)

 

[Rudy]

That's just sick. Not so sick that it prevented me from listening to it and sharing though. (I bet it's like Chinese food...an hour later you're hungry again.)

"....and they ooooh so tiny!"

Yeah, just silly fun there. I have to be in the mood for it, but when I am....look out. I have like 12 hours left in the day to get everything done here, and had to spend almost two hours chasing down some demi-glace to make dinner tomorrow. (There are no "gourmet" shops on this side of town--had to go clear out to Sur La Table at a mall to get the one I wanted.) It might be a Bob Rivers and Sangria night here.

 

[jfiedler17]

Rudy, I wasn't familiar with most of those Bob Rivers songs you mentioned until I read your post and went to look them up on YouTube, but those are hilarious! That one with "O Little Town ..." set to the "House of the Rising Sun" music probably made me laugh the hardest, if just for the complete randomness of the concept. (Definitely not two songs I would ever think to mix together! ) "Chipmunks Roasting ..." reminds me a lot of an obscure non-holiday novelty record I once heard called "Hamster Love" (I don't remember who does it, but it's on one of the Dr. Demento compilations from Rhino) that is a brutal - but brutally funny - sendup (about, um, cooking hamsters) of Captain & Tennile's "Muskrat Love."

That Michael Franks album does make for a great listen this time of year. "Watching the Snow" and "Said the Snowflake" are my favorites on there.

One song that hasn't been mentioned yet that I do tend to hear sporadically on Christmas-radio programming on the holidays but doesn't seem to wear on me nearly as much as a lot of the others is Kenny Loggins' "Celebrate Me Home." It's not technically a Christmas song per se, so I have a tendency to forget about that one when I'm throwing together a Christmas mix CD, but it just works really well as part of a holiday mix and I always find it really calming and enjoyable to listen to whenever I hear it. It's another one of those holiday songs that's especially relaxing to listen to in the car when it's snowing outside.

By the way, I'd just like to say that, as far as A&M's own holiday output goes, I've really enjoyed the videos on the main page highlighting some of A&M's holiday tracks over the years. Considering that a lot of A&M's holiday music has come out in the form of rare non-LP singles, I've never heard a lot of these cuts before (i.e. Claudine Longet's "I Don't Intend to Spend ...", Shawn Phillips' "A Christmas Song"), so it's been fun to finally hear a lot of these for the first time! (Incidentally, another A&M Christmas non-LP 45 I like that you never hear on the radio and hasn't been brought up on this thread yet is the Payola$' "Christmas Is Coming." I forgot to include that one in my earlier list.)

 

[Rudy]

I've really enjoyed the videos on the main page highlighting some of A&M's holiday tracks over the years.

I haven't yet taken any heat for the Merry Styxmas post today...

 

[DeeInKY]

Just heard a song that confused me when I was a kid. In Up on the Housetop" where the line is "up on the housetop reindeer pause" I thought they meant "paws" and I thought that was strange because reindeer have hooves not paws.

 

[jazzdre]

Hello my A&M friends out there! I know; it's been awhile since I've been here, but I got very busy, and I had a slow working computer. Now, everything's alright! I'm not as busy anymore, and I have a new computer! So, be expecting me to drop in more often! Anyway, I kinda agree with the Captain and Rudy: these last few Christmas seasons ain't been doing it for me like they used to.The overwhelming commercialization of the season coupled with the very tragic happenings of this year have kind of hurt it for me this time around. They are also right about the glut of Christmas songs/cds coming out as of late: they are really tiresome and boring; over produced extravaganzas with little or no feeling;just to say 'I made a Christmas cd to fulfill that clause in my contract.'

That's why I stick to my collections of oldies but goodies. My favorites are Rotary Connection's PEACE, made in the crazy year of 1968;reflecting the turmoil of that era, but mixing it with the optimism of the holiday season.(sadly the only reason this group is remembered at all is because of lead singer, the late and very great Minnie Riperton.) Another one is A Groovin' Jazz Christmas put out by a small label by the name of Gold Circle 14 years ago. It's primarily smooth jazz musicians such as Jeff Lorber, Doc Powell, Soul Ballet, and some other obscure artists. My favorites on this cd is Soul Ballet's take on "I'l Be Home For Christmas" which is done in an Electronic groove acid jazz manner, and a singer by the name of Kathleen Bertrand;her version of "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" is very reverential and very beautiful.

Other cds in my collection are Fourplay's holiday cd called SNOWBOUND. It's alright and I hate to sound like a critic here, but the playing here is pleasant, but not one of fire; it's like James, Carlton, East and Mason are going thru the motions just to get through this album; so there's nothing here really. Their take on Donald Fagan's "Snowbound" is a bit interesting though.Next is another various artists cd: GRP's Christmas Collection with artists that were on the label at the time:Russ Freeman, Voyceboxing, New York Voices, George Howard, Arturo Sandoval, Patti Austin, etc. Now here there's more fire! The performances here are more first rate; standouts for me are Patti Austin's moving version of "Christmas Time is Here", Arturo Sandoval's version of "Oh Come All Ye Faithful", Voyceboxing's version of "Let there Be Peace On Earth" and Nelson Rangell's take on "Let It Snow". Another cd that gets play is Encoded Music's Tis The Season, another various artists compilation. It is a combination of smooth jazz musicians and R&B vocalists such as Maysa(from Incognito),Howard Hewitt, Candy Dulfer, and The Whispers who do a beautiful version of Richard and Karen's "Merry Christmas Darling".

Also, Polygram's(before they became Universal) R&B holiday collection Leading Men Of Christmas gets its play here as well. It's a compilation of R&B male singers take on holiday classics such as Brook Benton, The Temptations, The Four Tops, and believe it or not, James Brown's version of The Christmas Song. Also on the cd is former A&M artist Jeffrey Osbourne who does a gorgeous version of "Oh Holy Night"; the criminally underrated Will Downing, who does an absolutely beautiful version of "Christmas Time Is Here" and the master himself Marvin Gaye doing a jazz funk instrumental(!) titiled Christmas In The City. It's Marvin himself playing all the keyboards and the background musicians are probably the Funk Brothers, but lemme tell ya, he really did capture an urban Christmas with this tune! It was done in 1972;probably around the time he was doing the soundtrack for "Trouble Man"(Speaking of Marvin, listen to this:believe it or not, believe it or not, BELIEVE IT OR NOT: he was thinking of joining...A&M RECORDS!!! That's right ; Gil Friesen made overtures to Marvin to consider joining the label!! Marvin Gaye on A&M!! It boggles the mind!! If you don't believe me, pick up Jan Gaye's(ex wife of Marvin's)book on their relationship titled AFTER THE DANCE:My Life With Marvin Gaye. It's right there!!) There's also Columbia/Sony's 1990 VA compilation A Jazzy Wonderland with Harry Connick, Branford and Wynton Marsalis, Nancy Wilson, Tony Bennett, Dexter Gordon, Terrence Blanchard, and the late and great Richard Tee with his version of Jingle Bells/A Partridge in a Pear Tree, complete with a rap!

Shortly before he left us, Grover Washington Jr put out a holiday cd called BREATH OF HEAVEN, and is a taste of Heaven! On the title tune(which was written by A&M artist Amy Grant) Grover employed R&B songstress Lisa Fischer to sing on the tune. His version of the Christmas Waltz is sweet, simple and straight to the point.Of course, no A&M fan's cd collection would be complete without the great one's holiday cd:Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass' Christmas Album! In fact, that was the first cd that I put on at the beginning of the season! It never ceases to entertain, and much mention must be made of Shorty Rogers' immense contributions to the album, complete with his vocal and string arrangements. There's more cds that I have, but I think I'll end it here. Sorry to be so long winded, but I did have a lot to say. Anyway, to all of you out there:MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A BLESSED NEW YEAR!!
jazzdre

 

[jfiedler17]

Ooh, I forgot about Patti Austin's version of "Christmas Time Is Here"! You're right, jazzdre; that's a really good one. (As is Grover Washington Jr.'s take on "Breath of Heaven." Very underrated cut.)

I never knew that before about A&M having tried to sign Gaye! Very cool! At the same time, I can't say I'm surprised by that, either, if only because there's so many countless other interesting "what if ...?" tidbits in the man's life story. I've always been a bit intrigued by the number of cancelled LPs (i.e. Love Man) and singles that Gaye recorded over the years that were apparently completed but just got shelved for one reason or another - you could probably fill an entire boxed set - or two! - with the amount of unreleased material he made that never found its way onto a proper studio album in his lifetime. (Even much of his '70s output that did get properly released to the public has tended to be somewhat overlooked or forgotten about over time, both his non-LP singles like "You're the Man" or even full albums from that decade like In Our Lifetime or the Trouble Man soundtrack.) I also recently read somewhere that he was actually supposed to serve as the host of an episode of Saturday Night Live right around the time that "Sexual Healing" earned him his first-ever Grammy awards but he had to cancel at the last minute, which led to the show having to scramble for a replacement host (if I remember right, it ended up being Howard Hesseman from WKRP.) That certainly would have been really interesting, to see Gaye host that show, so it's a real shame they were never able to reschedule that.

 

[Rudy]

I remembered another favorite of mine. It isn't a holiday CD per se, but the Nutcracker Suite always seems to be associated with the holidays. Shorty Rogers did an entire LP in 1960 on RCA ("like, nutty" the cover says ) of tunes from Nutcracker. My auto-post did not fire off earlier today on the amcorner.com site, but I found the entire album scattered among various tracks on YouTube. I've always liked Shorty's easygoing west coast sound, and this album is no exception.

At the moment, I'm playing a 4+ hour playlist on Tidal. Wish there was a way to share it (unless I recreate it in Spotify). But it pulls together favorites from all of the albums and songs I listed above. Once I put it on shuffle, it's a nice mix.

 

[Dave]

My 5-record set (don't know why I thought there were 6) of THE READER'S DIGEST HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS, put out by RCA Records Special Products got its annual play...

Think I need to put together my Christmas list of artists I'm long-overdue for adding to my collection, such as The Everly Brothers Best Of on Barnaby, and maybe a good-sized retrospective on at least two CD's by Roy Orbision... I'm a fan of those guys & have acquired a few of their songs on some Various Artists sets I've acquired to get my Pat Boone fix on, as expensive as getting "something Pat sung 1 song on" has gotten...


-- Dave

 

[DeeInKY]

I hope I'm not the only person around here who is old enough to remember listening to this with their parents on New Year's Eve...