Oh xmas tune, oh xmas tune...

[slightly]

Please go well with all our xmas food!

 

I thought it would be nice if we could all share our favourite winter holiday music. No restrictions - any denomination, style, era, tempo, temperament, etc.

 

I'll kick of by sharing just three from my favourite song-songwriter, the handsome and questioningly bisexual Mr Sufjan Stevens:

 

 

 

[+ Funguy]

How about:

 

Santa Baby ............Eartha Kitt

(I picture Lance in his red skivvies)

 

Christmas - Baby Please Come Home ...............Darlene Love

[+ nycman]

I know there's more snow, up in Colorado, than my roof will ever see,

but tender Tennessee Christmas....is the only Christmas for me....

 

 

If ANY of you bitches call me sentimental...I will kick your ass.!

[+ WilliamM]

[+ nycman]

Fuck it ....as long as I'm letting my Southern roots show.....

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOGZJvNa8S4

[+ WilliamM]

 

Judy Garland was the first person to sing this song...in "Meet Me in St. Louis."

 

This is from "The Judy Garland Show," a hour Sunday night variety on CBS during the 1963-1964 season.

[+ quoththeraven]

I said in another thread that I'm a traditionalist, and I am. But these songs also make me want to dance. Christmas is supposed to be good news, no?

 

Riu riu chiu, The Boston Camerata, from my favorite Christmas album, A Renaissance Christmas

Gaudete, Steeleye Span (the Boston Camerata does a great version too, but Steeleye Span's is the one I'm most familiar with)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjU3TPyH7YQ

[Despardo]

A good friend and I have a contest every December to see which of us can make it through to Christmas Day without having to listen to the dreaded Little Drummer Boy even once! This incredible feat has become significantly easier since I retired from office work and do virtually all of my shopping on Amazon. So, last year, my friend Don was doing great and headed for a win. It was December 22, and he had somehow completely avoided the miserable drum kid. Unfortunately, Don had to go in for an MRI. While strapped onto a gurney, equipped with headphones to "calm" him, and inserted into the metal tube, what does he hear? Talk about a captive audience.

 

[mike carey]

Gaudete, Steeleye Span

Part of the soundtrack of my youth! The unmistakable voice of Maddy Prior! Wow, she's 69 years old now.

[+ quoththeraven]

Part of the soundtrack of my youth! The unmistakable voice of Maddy Prior! Wow, she's 69 years old now.

 

Now you're making me feel old!

[bostonman]

A good friend and I have a contest every December to see which of us can make it through to Christmas Day without having to listen to the dreaded Little Drummer Boy even once!

 

Not to turn this into a "Christmas song HATING thread" lol, but I so agree with you. One more "pa ruppa pum pum" and I swear I'm gonna do something violent...

 

But while we're on the subject of songs we like to diss, I'll throw in a perennial favorite which has one of the most insipid lyrics of the season:

 

"Have a holly jolly Christmas,

And in case you didn't hear..."

 

In case we didn't hear???? Burl, darling, you've been crooning "have a holly jolly christmas" at us over and over again - if we haven't heard it by now, you might as well give up...

 

I can't help but thinking that this lyric was a first draft line (in the biz, we call them "dummy lyrics") that never got replaced.

[Nvr2Thick]

It's not Christmas for me until I play The Roches a capella rendition of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus. The best live version I could find was from their out of date site, from SNL in 1979:

 

http://www.roches.com/television/snl79.html

 

You will probably have to click on the iPod icon to get it to play. If that doesn't work there are a few other versions out there including this one from Night at the Improv in 1982:

 

 

Their entire 1990 Christmas album, We Three Kings, is pretty cool too though it does not include the Hallelujah Chorus.

[bostonman]

It's not Christmas for me until I play The Roches a capella rendition of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus.

 

Thank you for this - I haven't heard this in years! So much fun!

 

As someone who has always been interested in vocal arranging, even back then (I would have been 15 at the time of the SNL appearance), I marvel how they were able to make it sound so complete with only 3 parts instead of 4.

 

Another modern take on a Messiah excerpt - This was from something I saw on TV years ago called "The Young Messiah," which was a "christian contemporary" take on the score. Most of it was pretty unremarkable, except for this playful rendition of the first tenor aria by a group called First Call - I still find it a fun, irresistible "cover." (Though, unlike the Roches, it's pretty clear that there are actually more than 3 vocal lines going on here - not sure if they're lipsynching completely or singing over a backup track - but, so be it.)

 

[Nvr2Thick]

Thank you for this - I haven't heard this in years! So much fun!

 

As someone who has always been interested in vocal arranging, even back then (I would have been 15 at the time of the SNL appearance), I marvel how they were able to make it sound so complete with only 3 parts instead of 4.

 

Another modern take on a Messiah excerpt - This was from something I saw on TV years ago called "The Young Messiah," which was a "christian contemporary" take on the score. Most of it was pretty unremarkable, except for this playful rendition of the first tenor aria by a group called First Call - I still find it a fun, irresistible "cover." (Though, unlike the Roches, it's pretty clear that there are actually more than 3 vocal lines going on here - not sure if they're lipsynching completely or singing over a backup track - but, so be it.)

 

 

I agree. It's an interesting piece and I would have liked to hear a live performance. Christian Contemporary is often a bit behind the times, and both the '80s arrangement and the performers' look was stretching that era by 1989. I did, however, find some raw rehearsal footage for this show.

 

[Nvr2Thick]

I know there's more snow, up in Colorado, than my roof will ever see,

but tender Tennessee Christmas....is the only Christmas for me....

 

 

If ANY of you bitches call me sentimental...I will kick your ass.!

 

Thank you for posting this. One of my favorite Christmas performances was Amy Grant singing Emmanuel for one of those Kennedy Center Christmas concerts hosted for the president. I think it was in the late '80s or early '90s. Grant was backed by an orchestra and choir. Her singing and the arrangement were powerful and moving. I was very anti-Country at that time, but I sought out that song on the first of Grant's many Christmas Albums, "A Christmas Album" from 1983. I was disappointed to find that the album version sounded like an '80s pop song. It appears that "Tennessee Christmas" was from that same album, but fortunately with a more restrained and less dated arrangement. Every now and then I search for that live version. I don't find anything that comes close, and especially not her cringe-worthy live duets with songwriter Michael W. Smith.

[+ WilliamM]

 

 

 

RIP Greg Lake of Emerson lake and Palmer. He passed away earlier this month of cancer. I like the original version of this song better. But I wanted to pay tribute to Mr. Lake.

[Nvr2Thick]

 

 

 

RIP Greg Lake of Emerson lake and Palmer. He passed away earlier this month of cancer. I like the original version of this song better. But I wanted to pay tribute to Mt. Lake.

 

I wish you a hopeful Christmas

I wish you a brave new year

All anguish, pain and sadness

Leave your heart and let your road be clear

They said there'll be snow at Christmas

They said there'll be peace on earth

Hallelujah, Noel be it heaven or hell

The Christmas we get we deserve

[maninsoma]

South Park (Mr. Hankey featuring Kenny) - The Most Offensive Song Ever. The title isn't an understatement. Don't listen if you are Christian unless you don't mind a little sacrilege.

 

[maninsoma]

And in case you can't decipher Kenny and want to hear the offensive lyrics clearly, here's a version entirely sung by Mr. Hankey.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvQBbra_o1Q

[tyro]

I like Dan Fogelberg's Christmas album a lot. There's also Carrie Newcomer's "A Long Christmas Dinner." Maybe I'm just getting Scrooge-ish, but if I never hear the Christmas songs of my youth, I won't miss them.

T

[+ Truereview]

Well, I raved about them in the other xmas music thread, but I recently heard them sing Hallelujah and loved it.

Enjoy Pentatonix

[BasketBaller]

I said in another thread that I'm a traditionalist, and I am. But these songs also make me want to dance. Christmas is supposed to be good news, no?

 

Riu riu chiu, The Boston Camerata, from my favorite Christmas album, A Renaissance Christmas

 

I was flabbergasted whern someone shared this on Facebook last year. It's quite good!

[+ nycman]

I was flabbergasted whern someone shared this on Facebook last year. It's quite good!

 

They were actually quite talented and never got the credit they deserved.

 

And of course, Davy Jones was just dreamy!