3

Comments

Sure this time of year comes bringing gifts, Santa, sweets, and even Jesus. All wonderful, but what really distinguishes this season is the music. It’s the one time outside of a summer campfire that people feel released to sing together, and can roughly agree on the playlist.

I started to make a list of the best Christmas songs, but it divided itself into two lists – best renditions of classics, and fun/weird/unusual songs (which will pop up tomorrow). I’ve avoided the temptation to do a third list of Worst songs – just go into any shopping mall to get that.

1.Blue Christmas – Elvis. Only Elvis could do this.

2. Go Tell It on the Mountain – Mahalia Jackson. Every time I’m in a group of white folk destroying this (albeit in a spirit of great Joy), I whisper a silent apology to Mahalia.

3. Mary Did You Know – Clay Aiken. Who knew American Idol would produce a true crooner?

4. Hallelujah chorus – from a 1992 gathering of soul-pop artists, including Patti Austin, Tevin Campbell, Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones, Take 6, Howard Hewett, and Dianne Reeves, who took a pop-song approach to Handel’s classic Christmas oratorio. Handel’s wonderful melodies are updated with synthesizers, drum machines, and slick pop production from Quincy Jones and Take 6’s Mervyn Warren. The whole album is fantastic.

5. Santa Claus is Coming to Town – Bruce Springsteen. Like it or hate it, The Boss is one of few artists who manages to put his own stamp on Christmas classics.

6. Happy Christmas (The War is Over) – John Lennon. A simple, powerful message that should be heard year-round.

7. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire) – Written by Mel Torme, performed here by Nat “King” Cole, the chord progressions would make it a classic even without the great words.

8. Little Drummer Boy – David Bowie, Bing Cosby. Wherever this combination of songs or performers came from, it works (once you get past the banter).

9. Do They Know it’s Christmas – Band Aid. One of the first times top artists came together to raise consciousness. I love (ironically) how sad it’s portrayed that “there won’t be snow in Africa this Christmastime” – not true for some parts of the massive continent, and not a necessary part of Christmas. But it’s poetic and well-intentioned.

10. White Christmas – Bing Cosby. Even though I’ve known few white Christmases growing up on the “Wet Coast”, this still sets the standard vision. Bing’s harmonizing whistle in the middle is especially enchanting.

An honorable mention goes to Do You Hear What I Hear.

(I really wanted to post the parents’ choir from my elementary school, with Mrs. Barbarie frantically changing pages on the piano at that dramatic moment when it shifts keys for the final verse. It was the best harmony I could have ever imagined. This Martina McBride cover can’t shake a stick at our moms and dads)

[Photo by ||!prliignore12||]