Remember me saying that I had that big ol’ iPod full of empty space, just waiting for the right music to come along and fill it up? That was before I remembered that the holidays are upon us. And you’d better believe that a bona fide Christmas junkie like me has, erm, a few Christmas CDs laying around…
By the time I finished adding these to my iPod, it was well over half full!
My top ten favourite Christmas songs from this well-padded collection:
- Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth – David Bowie and Bing Crosby
- Baby, It’s Cold Outside – Dina Shore
- Do They Know It’s Christmas? – Band Aid (what can I say, I’m a child of the 80s at heart)
- Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – U2
- Santa Baby – Eartha Kitt (This is also Simon’s favourite – he likes the “ba-doum, ba-doum”s)
- O Holy Night – Luciano Pavarotti
- I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm – Dean Martin – although the Ella and Louis version is also excellent
- I Believe in Father Christmas – Honeymoon Suite
- O Tannenbaum – Vince Guaraldi Trio
- Twelve Days of Christmas – Bob and Doug McKenzie (I know, I know, but it still makes me laugh)
A decidedly secular collection, in retrospect. I do love traditional carols, too, but more to sing them than to listen to recordings of them. And I’m seriously thinking of downloading the Trans Siberian Orchestra’s Christmas Eve/Sarajevo.
What are your favourite seasonal songs?
You know, Patty Loveless has a great Christmas CD – her voice really suits the genre. And I like the Cocktail Lounge renditions of Christmas songs too. And we have a huge fan of the Jingle Cats around here (eyes sidle toward the little blond girl eating her yogurt at the coffee table).
Honeymoon Suite? Child of the Eighties indeed. (shudders)
I’m with you on the christmas music! i LOVE it!!
my favourite song is “rockin around the Christmas tree”
The Carpenters “Christmas Portrait” CD has 21 wonderful songs, all of which I love. My absolute fave is #11, “Merry Christmas Darling.”
I must also mention the entire fab Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack CD (featuring Vince Guaraldi and The Peanuts).
Forget Christmas time, I have the Bowie/Crosby duet on my all time favourite list……………love it!
Me, I love the traditional choral stuff. Give me a good rousing round of Adeste Fideles anytime.
I’m not hugely religious, but when I get religious, I’m a Liturgy Geek, apparently.
So yeah, traditional hymns and carols, preferably done relatively straight on (no messing with the basic style). Tight harmonies are a major plus.
I like the older ones more than the newer, the baroque more than the classical, and anything out of the modern “Christian Pop” makes me gag.
Favorites? “The Angel Gabriel,” “Coventry Carol,” “Angels we ahve heard on high,” “It came upon a midnight clear,” and the lot. Not a huge fan of “Silent NIght.”
Versions? I fell in love with Sixpence None the Richer when I heard thier “Midnight Clear,” The Roches have some really lovely ones (thank you Itunes), and the lead singer of Crash Test Dummies does a mean “We Three Kings.’ Sarah Maclachlan can sing my carols anytime, as can Maddy Prior, the Barenaked Ladies, or Susanne Vega.
Whoever is singing it had better keep up the tempo though. None of htose songs were written as dirges. And any Mariah-Careyesque attemps to show off by adding all kinds of vocal flutter crap? Cut it out. Sing like a Benedictine monk and you’ll make me happy.
Side note: There’s a verse of IT came Upon a Midnight Clear that never, ever gets sung anymore. It even got left out of the 1982 hymnal. I think its highly appropriate, now more than ever:
“Yet with the woes of sin and strife
the world has suffered long;
beneath the heavenly hymn have rolled
two thousand years of wrong;
and warring humankind hears not
the tidings which they bring;
O hush the noise and cease your strife
and hear the angels sing!
Just clicked over CBC Newsworld and saw the story about recalled toys with your blog prominently displayed. Very cool.
My absolute favorite is ‘Louisiana Christmas Day’ by Aaron Neville. You should check out his Christmas CD. It’s great. I also like ‘Candle in the Window’ by Alabama.
Hey, thanks for the info about the CBC mention, Mad and Chantal! A reporter had contacted me last week but we couldn’t hook up to do the interview – nice of her to feature my blog. I’ve taken a quick look, but can’t find it online. Still, cool. thanks!
My current faves are (still) the followinf CD’s:
– Vince Guaraldi
– Harry Connick Jr. (both)
– Barenaked Ladies
– Bing Crosby
just to name a few…
and there is a radio station we get here that comes from the us 92.9 which is playing Christmas music 24/7 for the entire month! I think I was able to get it in my car while in Ottawa – test it out!
I love your list. I would also add “All I Want For Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey for speed walking off those holiday cookies and then that one by Paul McCartney “Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas Time” – just a fun song. I don’t really know if those are the titles, could just be the refrains. And I think Amy Grant does a great Christmas album because even I can sing along to her stuff and that’s saying a lot. To be able to sing a long is a crucial element in a Christmas song.
Um…the Boney M Christmas album…! Why is this not on your list of top tens?? It’s waaaay cool!
Yes, I’m actually serious about that. It’s not Christmas without Boney M.