Christmas Music

[Dudley]

I have two very favorite Christmas albums.

One is THE VENTURES CHRISTMAS ALBUM. Yup, those surf guitar gods doing Christmas music THEIR way. For instance, with RUDOLPH THE RED NOSED REINDEER, they start it off with the guitar intro from The Beatles I FEEL FINE.

TEQUILA, WHOOLY BULLY, and other great rock and roll rhythm styles are also used TEQUILLA is used for FROSTY THE SNOW MAN, WHOOLEY BULLY for SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN..heavy guitar reverb...lots of deep echoey twang.

The perfect rock and roll cure for too many surgary strings and ballads.

The other one is HUEY PIANO SMITH AND THE CLOWNS..'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Huey is from New Orleans..and this album was cut just like rhythmn and blues New Orleans style. Word was at the time that it sold beans do to the overtly boozey nature of the record..I remember first hearing about it in a review by Jay Cocks, who used to say that the only thing missing was someone yelling for everyone to shut up and the sound of bottles smashing in the back alley.

Both are around on Cd now if you look, for years and years they were a rare collectors item...and worth tracking down..the Cd release of Huey even comes with just the music tracks after the record would normally finish, so you can sing along if you want.

consider the possilbilities..

[EvilMel]

I like the Ventures stuff. They have some awesome songs.



I haven't heard of the other stuff though.



I like the really standard stuff...Run rudolph, rockin' around the christmas tree...etc. But I also like this guy Bob Rivers...he makes some of the funniest songs ever.

[MHooch]

Now, you guys MUST admit that one song we ALL could not do without at Christmastime is.....Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer...brings tears to my eyes everytime!!!LOL!!! :Hooch collapses in hysterical giggles:

[littledollclaudia]

And now from the Great White North,



"On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me..beer.." "there needs to be more there, eh?" "What? Oh, a beeer in a tree."



"5 golden touques..4 pounds of back bacon, 3 French toast, 2 turtlenecks and a beeer in a treee." "That beer's empty, you hoser."



Ah, Doug and Bob McKenzie..

[Dudley]

time to reveal the SCOPE of my age.

I played BOTH when I was stil in radio. when digital meant my watch. The MacKenzie Brothers, and GRAMMA. On 45's...

Another big lp for me..THE PHIL SPECTOR CHRISTMAS ALBUM. With a kick out the jams work over of SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN.

[GreenElf]

When I think of Christmas music I think of the albums and mix matched CD I create myself but I know a big one for my sister in law and her friends is the Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers Xmas album (which I don't have) but understand its a big seller. Its funny because my sister in law and her friend went to Korea a few years back to teach English and the Dolly Parton/Kenny Rogers Xmas album were a must to have when they went. Some of the store bought albums I can think I have right off the top of my head are: Boney M, Burl Ives, Raggae Christmas, Sesame Street Xmas, Veggie Tales( I know I have more but can't think of them right now) hmmm.... then a whole wack of mix Christmas music...

[MHooch]

Last year I bought a couple of jazz Christmas CD's. They are instrumental christmas tunes done in a jazz style. Very nice for sitting in the dark on the sofa, necking ...I mean....watching the Christmas tree lights, yep, THAT'S what I meant to say!!

[Dudley]

Which brings us to another of my faves...

WYNTON MARSALIS "Crescent City Christmas Card"

Jazz styled between the KIND OF BLUE sessions and the Ellington small groups..close your eyes, and you can almost know what it would have sounded like for Miles and Bill Evans to work something like this together. Almost..perfect for those small get togethers where you serve the salmon pasta and the iced tea, and the doctor from Thailand stands beside you looking out on the roof tops and says:'This is a beautiful country...'

[Dudley]

Hey, G.E., here's my mix and match Christmas music....put it together a few years ago..my Aunt was feeling poorly at the time and could barely talk anymore..so I made a 90 minute tape that would have it all..every great Christmas song and selections from your favorite t.v. shows and movies...you might want to ADD to it, but the idea was that there wasn't anything you could TAKE AWAY...songs listed where selected by BILLBOARD magazine ranking..or my family would still be going back and forth about who should be on...their numbers were what decided what would go on...tried the songs mixed and matched together like jig saw puzzle pieces and this is the order it wound up in...everybody in the family got a copy for Christmas one year...

CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS theme

ELVIS PRESLEY Blue Christmas

HARRY SIMEONE CHORALE Little Drummer Boy

BING CROSBY White Christmas

LEROY ANDERSON Sleigh Ride

JUDY GARLAND Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

excert from "A Christmas Carol (1951)" Scrooge surprizing Cratchet and the closing speech.

CHIPMUNKS The Christmas Song

JOSE FELICIANO Feliz Navidad

BRENDA LEE Rocken' Around the Christmas Tree

BOBBY HELMS Jingle Bell Rock

ELVIS PRESLEY I'll Be Home for Christmas

BEACH BOYS Little Saint Nick

WINGS Wonderful Christmas Time

BING CROSBY/ DAVIID BOWIE Little Drummer Boy (t.v. special)

PERRY COMO Home for the Holidays

excerpt from "It's a Wonderful Life" starts with Jimmy Stewart saying;"Harry..." and runs to the end..

NAT KING COLE The Christmas Song

FRANK SINATRA Mistletoe and Holly

JOHNNY MATHIS Sleigh Ride

HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS theme

HARRY BELAFONTE Mary's Boy Child

BURL IVES Holly Jolly Christmas

ANDY WILLAMS Let it Snow

BING CROSBY Silent Night

FRANK SINATRA The Christmas Waltz

excerpt from "Miracle on 34th Street" court room scene with the mail.

GENE AUTRY Here Comes Santa Claus

JOHN LENNON Happy Christmas

R0NETTES I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

ELMO AND PASTY Gramma Got Run Over by a Reindeer

ANDY WILLIAMS It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

[Dudley]

Now, as I made that tape you see above, there was stuff of my own I had to keep off..and gradually a second tape evolved, one that was called CHRISTMAS COOL...BLUES JAZZ AND RETRO FOR THE HOLIDAYS.

You would turn out the lights and watch the snow fall in the darkness and remember her..what was it that Gershwin wrote? "The only girl I think of with regret?" Yeah.

TONY BENNETT Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

LOUIS ARMSTRONG Zat You, Santa Claus? Armstrong INVENTED modern American music. And he never got a Christmas tree until his marriage. Think about that..as his wife said:"Someone should have bought a tree for him before I did..."

DUKE ELLINGTON Jingle Bells. Ellington is one of the top five American composers. Period. And his band was the biggest monument to one man's mind ever created. Hear what he does with this to start to learn his vocabulary.

BENNY GOODMAN/PEGGY LEE I Love the Winter Weather.

GLENN MILLER Snowfall

LOUIS ARMSTRONG White Christmas

DUKE ELLINGTON Sugar Plum Fairy

LOUIS PRIMA What Would Santa Claus Say? Voice of King Louie, in Jungle Book, who had his own band that verged on rock and roll..

ART CARNEY 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. Absolute genius. Does this sort of rap/bop/beatnik version with a drum kit behind him and what sounds like one breath...copies exchange hands at a kings ransom now in the original 45...but available for much less on CD.

CARMEN MACRAE Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire. Not the lady with the fruit on her head, but one of the best voices in Jazz.

LOUIS ARMSTRONG Christmas Time in New Orleans.

MOONGLOWS Hey, Santa Claus. You hear it during NATIONAL LAMPOONS CHRISTMAS VACATION, just before Clarke buys the lingerie.

HUEY PIANO SMITH & THE CLOWNS Silent Night. Half gassed boogie woogie at Vee Jay Records..

COUNT BASIE Good Morning Blues. Jimmy Rushing didn't get what he wanted for Christmas and is singing the blues.

DRIFTERS White Christmas. Heard in THE SANTA CLAUSE, HOME ALONE.

CHARLES BROWN Baby Come Home for Christmas. The Eagles did a remake..this is the original west coast cool piano blues version.

MABEL SCOTT Boogie Woogie Santa Claus. Louis Jordan (the black band leader, not the french guy in movies) is one of the lost originators of rock and roll..his steady rocken' blues were dug by all the founding fathers of the music..this is pretty close to what the band sounded like.

ORIOLES Lonely Christmas. Remember 'Crying in the Chapel'? By Elvis? These guys did it first.

CADILLACS Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. The Coasters were bigger and funnier, but for once these guys gave them a run for their money. Amazing harmony and backbeat.

CHUCK BERRY Run Rudolph Run. Bon Jovi did this song for A VERY SPECIAL CHRISTMAS.

AMOS MILBURN Let's Make Christmas Merry Baby. Another west coast piano blues guy, sometime I'll tell you a really cool story about him..

SISTER ROSETTA THARPE Silent Night. Right up there with Mahalia Jackson in terms of black gospel. Never as big, so never had to make as many accomodations to the system. Raw and bleeding blues, really.

BROOKE BENTON This Time of Year. One of Elvis' favorite singers. Did 'Rainy Night in Georgia'.

RONETTES Santa Claus is Coming to Town. See the entry for THE PHIL SPECTOR CHRISTMAS ALBUM.

CHARLES BROWN Merry Christmas Baby.

STATUES White Christmas. Aching, beautiful delicate harmonies, from a long forgotten doo wop group.

FIVE KEYS It's Christmas Time. Slightly more remembered then THE STATUES, just as beautiful in their own way. Find a CD collection called DREAM ON for further research.

STEVIE WONDER Some Day at Christmas. Barely made the cut in 2001 when I made the tape..then 9/11 happened and a chill went down my spine..

IMPRESSIONS Amen. Rock and Roll and Christmas salvation in three minutes. Jerry Butler at his best.

[littledollclaudia]

Mmm, yes "watching" the Christmas lights. Winter Wonderland never sounded so good..

[MHooch]

AHHHH...Santa Claus is Comin' to Town....I saw Springsteen in Dec of 2003 in Charlotte NC, they ended with that song....I didn't stop smiling for days!!!

[Dudley]

another song that made it to A VERY SPECIAL CHRISTMAS, if memory serves..another good CD to get...

[EvilMel]

I've heard that one too...sounds awesome!

[Snow-flake]

I totally love Bob and Doug Mackenzie.





I have a CD by Amy Grant I listen to all the time, and one from N'Sync from a few years ago that has some really nice songs on it-One of my Favorites is: Kiss me at Midnight.