Tag: Christmas

X is for Xmas music (ABC W)

Crosby had a Christmas special, which aired AFTER HE DIED and he had Ziggy Stardust on?

johncagecarollers

It’s been long established that the term Xmas is not an insult to Christians, but rather that the X actually represents the cross, as I’ve noted here and undoubtedly elsewhere.

This is is going to be a list of some of my favorite Xmas music NOT otherwise represented in this blog this month, with links to each. Of course, “Christmas” songs are peculiar beasts, some of which don’t even mention the holiday – Let It Snow (X3) or Jingle Bells being obvious choices. And let’s not even talk about the theological implications.

Hamildolph – Eclipse 6 (a new one for me)

Christmastime is Here – Vince Guaraldi

Good King Wenceslas – Ames Brothers

Little Saint Nick – Beach Boys

Purple Snowflakes – Marvin Gaye. I song I had not heard until this season, yet I had, sort of.

The Christmas Song – Nat King Cole. One of my wife’s favorites, and Nat always reminds me of my mom

Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – Darlene Love. Way better than the U2 version on A Very Special Christmas 1.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town – the Jackson 5

Linus and Lucy – Vince Guaraldi

This Christmas – Donny Hathaway – I miss Donny Hathaway

Snoopy’s Christmas – the reason I took such great exception to the Snoopy v Osama record is that it wasn’t THIS Snoopy

Child of Winter – Beach Boys. A 1974 single I discovered on one of those early 1970s Warner Brothers Loss Leaders

Mele Kalikimaka -Bing Crosby with the Andrews Sisters, which I think is a hoot

Christmas Wrapping – The Waitresses, which reminds me of my pop music listening renaissance in the early 1980s

The Wexford Carol – Yo-Yo Ma, Alison Krauss

The Christmas Waltz – Frank Sinatra, which is on some 4 CD Capitol singles box set

Getting Ready For Christmas Day – Paul Simon, from his 2011 album

Every valley shall be exalted – Lizz Lee and Chris Willis (with Mike E.) from Handel’s Messiah: A Soulful Celebration

The Mistletoe and Me – Isaac Hayes – and I miss Isaac

Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth -Bing Crosby and David Bowie This was strange. Crosby had a Christmas special, which aired AFTER HE DIED and he had Ziggy Stardust on? Now, Bowie’s gone too.

Father Christmas -The Kinks

River – Joni Mitchell. Hey, it namechecks Christmas, and it reminds me of my late friend Donna

What Christmas Means To Me – Stevie Wonder; Paul Young does a decent version on A Very Special Christmas 2, but it doesn’t hold an Advent candle to the original.

R.O. Blechman – CBS Christmas Message (1966)

The Bells of Christmas – Julie Andrews, from a Firestone (tire company) LP I still own. There’s an extended version of this which is less good

Winter Snow – Booker T & the MGs (starts at 2:30)

Slightly off topic:

In defense of Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime”

World’s First AI-generated Christmas Song Is the Stuff of Nightmares

Honest Trailers – Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)

The Korean War on Christmas

ABC Wednesday – Round 19

Music Throwback Saturday: Gene Autry

I’ve never seen any of Gene Autry’s films!

gene_autryWhen baseball’s American League expanded from eight to 10 teams for the 1961 season, all I knew of Gene Autry was that he was the guy who owned the team initially called the Los Angeles Angels, later referred to, when it moved to suburban Anaheim in 1966, as the California Angels, then the Anaheim Angels. (The other team was the new Washington Senators, after the old team became the Minnesota Twins.)

But then I discovered this was the same fellow who performed not one, but three Christmas classics. Here Comes Santa Claus (Down Santa Claus Lane) was written by Autry, with music composed by Oakley Haldeman. It got to #9 on the pop charts in 1947 and to #5 early in 1948 on the country charts, then to #4 country later that year.

The song was covered by several artists, notably Doris Day (1949), Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters (1950), Elvis Presley (1957), and Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans (1963), the latter for that famous Phil Spector Christmas album.

The first cowboy singing star of the movies – I’ve never seen any of his films! – had his biggest hit with Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, performed with the Pinafores, which was #1 for eight weeks on a special kid’s music chart in 1949, and also hit #1 on the pop and country chart that year. It recharted for another three years, and again after Gene Autry died in 1998.

The final Christmas hit was Frosty the Snow Man, performed with the Cass County Boys. it got to #4 country and #7 pop in 1950, and #2 on the kids chart the following year. His success with just these three songs put him at #2 on the chart of the most successful Christmas singles artists, behind only Bing Crosby, at least through 2004.

He was inducted into the Country Hall of Fame, mostly for his non-Christmas music.

Listen to songs by Gene Autry:

Here Comes Santa Claus (Down Santa Claus Lane) here or here

Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer here or here

Frosty the Snow Man here or here

Music Throwback Saturday: White Christmas

“The version sung by Bing Crosby is the best-selling single of all time, with estimated sales in excess of 100 million copies worldwide.”

whitechristmas-decca18429aThere are, as far as I can ascertain, only two versions of perennial favorite White Christmas that charted on both the pop and the rhythm & blues charts.

One was the version by the Drifters, which got to #2 on the R&B charts in 1954 and returned to the top 12 the next two years. It also got up to #80 on the pop charts in 1955, and showed up on the lower parts of the pop charts the next few years. There were also special Christmas charts where the song showed up in the 1960s.

The other version was by an obscure crooner named Bing Crosby. In 1942, his version topped the pop charts a staggering 11 weeks and led the R&B charts for three weeks. The song hit the Top 10 in both charts in 1943. It re-entered the pop charts every year from then until 1951, and again from 1953 to 1962 before the Christmas carts were instituted in 1963 and dominated for many years.

There was a version recorded in 1947 by Crosby, which supplanted the iteration from Holiday Inn, the 1942 movie, because “the original masters had been worn out from all the pressings.”

From Wikipedia: Irving Berlin “often stayed up all night writing — he told his secretary, ‘Grab your pen and take down this song. I just wrote the best song I’ve ever written — heck, I just wrote the best song that anybody’s ever written!’

Here are movie facts from the 1954 movie White Christmas, starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye.

“The version sung by Bing Crosby is the best-selling single of all time, with estimated sales in excess of 100 million copies worldwide.”

Listen to
Bing Crosby 1942 here
Bing Crosby in the movie Holiday Inn (1942) here
Bing Crosby 1947 here
Bing Crosby & Danny Kaye, from the 1954 movie here

The Drifters here or here

A Beatles Christmas, in memory of John Lennon

johnyoko-merryxmasAs Christmas approached in 1980, the year John Lennon died, the song of his that made me most melancholy, other than the suddenly ironic (Just Like) Starting Over, was Merry Xmas (War Is Over). When someone has been advocating for peace, and is shot down by a fan, it just boggled the mind.

And so this is Xmas (war is over)
For weak and for strong (if you want it)
For rich and the poor ones (war is over)
The world is so wrong (if you want it)
And so happy Xmas (war is over)
For black and for white (if you want it)
For yellow and red ones (war is over)
Let’s stop all the fight (now)

A very Merry Xmas
And a happy New Year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear

I was going to post some of those Beatles Christmas 45s, which I have collected on an LP, but, thankfully, someone had already uploaded The Beatles – Complete Christmas Records, which came out every year from 1963 to 1969. Collectively, the cuts reflect the increasingly greater sophistication of the band’s music, as well as the eventually fractured nature of the group.

Even better, I discovered that someone else has made available The History of the Beatles’ Christmas, including everything from Merry Xmas to Wonderful Christmastime by Paul McCartney to Ding Dong by George Harrison to some obscure Ringo song, plus those Beatles Christmas cuts, even the edited version of Christmastime is Here Again that came out at the time of the Beatles Anthology albums.

I’ve also come across a cover band called The Fab Four, which performs Christmas carols in the style of Beatles songs. The whole double CD you can find HERE. My favorite song on the album is the final one, Jingle Bells, performed in the style of the Beatles’ Tomorrow Never Knows. It shows the versatility of that last song on Revolver.

And for reasons that will become obvious, Come Together, a Christmas video for Swedish multinational clothing retailer, H&M. It was directed by Wes Anderson, and stars Adrien Brody.

Oh, yeah – All I Want For Christmas Is A Beatle – Dora Bryan (1963)

V is for A Very Special Christmas

Since the release of the first A Very Special Christmas album in 1987, the series has raised over $100 million for Special Olympics, more than any other benefit series.

very-special-xmas-cd-cover-pI decided to do a second V post this week, the latter focusing on A Very Special Christmas, because:

1) My friend Carla had only recently heard a song from that first album, and didn’t know about the compilations

2) It is St. Nicholas Day, and I needed an excuse to put some more holiday music herein

3) It’s Wednesday, at least in some hemisphere

A Very Special Christmas is “the title of an ongoing series of Christmas music compilation albums that benefit Special Olympics,” and I own the first seven albums. It was “the brainchild of music producer Jimmy Iovine, who wanted to produce a Christmas album as a memorial to his father. The idea of the record benefiting Special Olympics was suggested by Iovine’s wife Vicki, as she was a volunteer for the organization.

“Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, the founders of A&M Records, along with Bobby Shriver, helped the Iovines realize the project. Since the release of the first album in 1987, the series has raised over $100 million for Special Olympics, more than any other benefit series. The album cover art is designed by artist Keith Haring.”

I’ve linked to each of the titles AND artists below (except Natalie Merchant, for whom I found only one acceptable version).

A Very Special Christmas (1987) – the original, and still my favorite. A few songs swiped the arrangements of Phil Spector’s Christmas album of a quarter of a century earlier.

1. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town – The Pointer Sisters
2. Winter Wonderland – Eurythmics
3. Do You Hear What I Hear? – Whitney Houston
4. Merry Christmas Baby – Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band – Live track
7. Gabriel’s Message – Sting
8. Christmas in Hollis– Run-D.M.C.
10. Santa Baby – Madonna; Done previously by Eartha Kitt
14. The Coventry Carol – Alison Moyet

A Very Special Christmas 2 (1992)

1. Christmas All Over Again – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, written by Petty
16. What Child Is This? – Vanessa Williams

A Very Special Christmas 3 (1997) – ah, these are coming out every five years

3. Children Go Where I Send Thee – Natalie Merchant
8. Oíche Chiún – Enya. Almost every AVSC album has Silent Night, and this is my favorite version
16. We Three Kings – Patti Smith

A Very Special Christmas Live (1999) – or maybe not. “The album was recorded live in Washington, D.C. in December 1998 at a benefit party held by then-President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of Special Olympics.”

A Very Special Christmas 5 (2001) – “Several of the album’s tracks were recorded live in Washington, D.C. in December 2000 at a benefit concert hosted by then-President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton.”

A Very Special Acoustic Christmas (2003) – “As opposed to earlier editions that contained a wide variety of musical styles, this version… featured primarily Country and Bluegrass artists.” I found this only a season or two ago.

A Very Special Christmas 7 (2009) – and there are others, related to the theme, and benefiting the Special Olympics, which I don’t have (yet) such as Jazz to the World (1995) and World Christmas (1996). Maybe next year, I’ll list tracks from the later albums.

ABC Wednesday – Round 19

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