Now as anyone who knows me knows I love Christmas! The whole Christmas season! Now, please don’t ask why. Know one quite knows the reason! (that rhyme is Trademark & Copyright Dr. Seuss). I’m big fan of Christmassy things and I especially like Christmas songs. And when I say I like Christmas songs, I don’t like them in a way that I don’t hate them I actually love them. Just check my favourite music in my old Myspace page if you don’t believe me. I often buy and listen to Christmas music out of season. I tell you this not so I appear to be some sort of ridiculous faux-eccentric, but rather to show that I am uniquely qualified to tell you about some of my favourite Christmas tunes. And please note I will be playing you a selection of these tunes before tomorrow’s Tombola of Fun show beginning at 7:30pm.
For me a Christmas tune has to at the very least mention Christmas (or something Christmassy) in order to qualify as an actual Christmas song. A Christmas No. 1 would not necessarily qualify as a Christmas record unless it also mentioned something Christmas related. For example I don’t consider East 17‘s Stay Another Day to be a Christmas record just because it was a Christmas No. 1, and the band dressed as Eskimo’s in the video.
Similarly I don’t consider Frankie Goes To Hollywood‘s The Power of Love a Christmas song (despite the video) for the same reasoning. However the exception that proves the rule for me is David Essex‘s A Winters Tale. To be fair it’s not a Christmas song anymore than The Power of Love is, but I do like it enough to play it tomorrow.
I guess the same also goes for Dean Martin‘s Baby, It’s Cold Outside.
As an expert I can tell you that the best Christmas album is definitely Nat King Cole‘s. His version of The Christmas Song is the best ever. It also feature’s the brilliantly sad The Little Boy Who Santa Claus Forgot.
But my favorite Christmas song is almost certainly Little Drummer Boy/Peace On Earth by Bing Crosby and David Bowie. It was Bing Crosby’s final TV appearance. He died weeks after the recording. A lot of people find it almost too much, but it never fails to make me feel Christmassy, and that’s why I love it. A lot of Bowie fans seem to hate it too but they also hate his sixties recordings so they’re all mental.
Also expect to here these other Christmas gems:
Santa Claus Goes Straight to the Ghetto by James Brown
What Do the Lonely Do At Christmas by The Emotions
White Christmas by Elvis Presley
Winter Wonderland by Darlene Love
Jingle Bells by Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass
Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight) by The Ramones
Christmas in Herald Square by Tony Bennett
Christmas All Over Again by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by Doris Day
My Christmas Card To You by The Partridge Family
Sleigh Ride by The Ronettes
Backdoor Santa by Clarence Carter
…and perhaps some other surprises. See you at 7:30pm tomorrow for the music and 8pm for the show.
Merry Christmas.
Tags: Show 3
The East 17 song also has bells towards the end. Surely that qualifies it? I think mentioning cold or winter is good enough. It’s quite sad being 100 miles away from all my christmas records this winter. I miss them. I only have 106 Xmas tracks on my iTunes. Scant.
I have a great live version of Santa Claus is Coming to Town by Bruce Springsteen if you want it for your Christmas ipod mix…
That live version is a b-side on a Bruce 7″ I have at home. Quite fun with the crowd at the beginning, even if I’m not much of a one for The Bawss.
I can’t believe I’m going to miss this.
(Ditto the comments on Bruce’s Xmas offering. Class)
A Winters Tale is truly awful.
I completely forgot that one of last nights acts Josh Widdicombe even has material questioning the validity of “Stay Another Day” as a Christmas record. I still don’t think it is though. There’s even a non-xmas related video for it and that’s still got the bells on:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=V4jLfCjlYD0
P.S. “A Winters Tale” is cool