Thank you AsianGrrrl for a new and glorious companionable version of my favorite carol:
When advances in teleportation-booth technology permit the Balloon Juice community to get together for the holidays, we can pretend we’ll sound like this. (Hey, I have a very nice singing voice, just no ear for the right pitch.)
We may go out for Chinese food, because the Spousal Unit is lollygagging about taking off for his familial obligations in upper lower Michigan. Please be nice — meaning: no “Little Drummer Boy”.
Yutsano
When I was in college they brought in a gospel director as a guest conductor for us once. I don’t know how she did it, but she got our voices to sound unlike anything we had produced before. The feeling was truly phenomenal. I also learned a ton about the gospel choir culture and the history of African-American musical history. I wish now I could remember what church she’s the director for in Seattle, I wouldn’t mind hearing her choir again.
MelodyMaker
merry chistmas!
adding: somebody plowed the alley wide enough for a Jetta. Thanks. Bell Chorus is my fav. SNL did a really lame/funny thing with it back in the Jan Hooks days. looking…
RedKitten
Yeah…no. You don’t want me singing. Ever.
donovong
I don’t understand – why would anybody WANT to carry a tune in a bucket?
smiley
Merry Christmas/ [insert your celebration here] everyone. Have a great new year also. Too.
Linkmeister
I’ve been posting YouTube-d Christmas songs since the 10th at my place. Start here and roll forward.
Patrick Nielsen Hayden posted a whole set of Christmas titles here, and down in the comments one of his readers put together a playlist of the songs at LaLa.com.
JK
Christmas Time Is Here – Vince Guaraldi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjtniSxl2zI
Keith G
Oh Come All Ye Faithful from Pomplamoose via Sully
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNBUaw2RT4A&feature=player_embedded
SiubhanDuinne
I mostly agree with you, Anne Laurie, about “Little Drummer Boy.” (I think I was ruined for good and all on one of the Xmas episodes of the old Dick Van Dyke Show, where the always-dreadful-anyhow Richie gave a vomit-inducing saccharine performance of LDB.)
But there’s one exception, and I alluded to it yesterday morning when someone (geg6 maybe?) mentioned Bravo’s West Wing marathon, and the first episode up was the one where Toby and Mrs. Landingham go to Arlington for the funeral of a homeless vet on Christmas Eve, and the crisp military precision of the service and crack of the rifle salutes contrast most movingly with a children’s choir back at the WH singing LDB. It’s beautifully done; I’ve seen that episode maybe 20 times and it always brings me to tears.
But otherwise, yeah, LDB can DIAF.
jeffreyw
“In the past, there was a general understanding, a sort of implicit clause in the rules of American politics, that major parties would at least pretend to distance themselves from irrational extremists,” Krugman said. “But those rules are no longer operative. No, Virginia, at this point there is no sanity clause.”
damn good mr. jam
Christmas Wish – NRBQ
SiubhanDuinne
@jeffreyw: LOL, I read that this morning and just about spit coffee all over the BlackBerry. I really like Krugman especially when he does funny shit like that.
JK
7 O’Clock News/Silent Night – Simon and Garfunkel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZazHqdNeXA&feature=related
South of I-10
Baby, It’s Cold Outside
Bruuuuce
Three special ones online:
The Hallelujah Chorus, Darkover Grand Council 2007(?). Our last year singing with the pool in the atrium; it has since been filled and replaced by a floor :-(
Zat You, Santa Claus?, Louis Armstrong
and a true story:
Christmas in the Trenches, John McCutcheon
and a thought about one that isn’t. I wish it were, though: the episode of M*A*S*H that ends with Dona Nobis Pacem; that version is very special, and never fails to leave me dripping with tears.
Light for your days and warmth for your nights, and may your heart overflow with both.
RedKitten
I can’t even listen to “Little Drummer Boy” anymore without laughing ever since Peter Griffin changed one of the lyrics to “I have a gift for you — it’s up in my bum!”
asiangrrlMN
Wahoo! I made the front page of BJ. I have now arrived. And, since that is the only Christmas carol I like–here in the Celtic Woman version.
Josh Groban.
And, two of the three tenors.
wasabi gasp
A Christmas Duel – The Hives & Cyndi Lauper
SiubhanDuinne
@RedKitten: Okay, now I’m spitting wine everywhere. Never heard that lyric change before. No matter how cool and mature I like to think I am, I guess at heart I’m as sophomoric and crass as they come.
Brachiator
JOSÉ CARRERAS – GLORIA (MISA CRIOLLA)
Haarlem Voices – “This Little Babe” Britten
Eartha Kitt, Santa Baby New Faces of 52
Mwangangi
@asiangrrlMN:
Sorry, wandered off. To answer your question…
Christman Interpretations – Boyz II Men
Track list:
Silent Night – (Intro)
Let It Snow
Share Love
You’re Not Alone
Joyous Song, A
Why Christmas
Cold December Nights
Do They Know
Who Would Have Thought
Silent Night
Anya
I love Nat King Cole’s version of Oh Holly Night!
href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4uP32mnAjY”>
burnspbesq
Last night when I was deploying gifts and getting the Kid’s new Playstation 3 set up in the family room after Spouse and Kid had gone to bed, I had “A Dave Brubeck Christmas” on.
This morning when we were exchanging and opening gifts, we had “The Messiah” on (a great recent recording by the Dunedin Consort).
My other favorite Christmas records are “Phil Spector’s Christmas Album” and this.
Corner Stone
@RedKitten: “I brought these gifts for you they’re up in my bum…”
burnspbesq
A little Darlene Love is always in order.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ7iyRJrFg8&feature=related
West of the Cascades
@SiubhanDuinne: I had coffee all over the monitor too – my first thought was “Krugman +5.”
O Holy Night pretty much rocks as carols go and that’s a great, great version. Thanks, Anne!
wilfred
The Drifters, only danceable version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzDR2-awAFM&feature=related
Montysano
From the Chieftains’ wonderful Bells of Dublin album: Jackson Browne’s “Rebel Jesus”.
….So I bid you pleasure and I bid you cheer
From a heathen and a pagan
On the side of the rebel Jesus
That’s pretty much where I’m at.
RedKitten
@Corner Stone: That IS the right lyric, isn’t it? I was just going from memory, but yours sounds more like the right one.
R-Jud
@JK: I always liked “Skating” from A Charlie Brown Christmas best. Until I had to play it for a recital when I was twelve, which ruined it for me until this year, because the middle jazzy bit was a pain to learn.
I find that having a kid celebrating her first Christmas has made me a lot less jaded about holiday stuff.
Mithras
@Yutsano
Perhaps it was Rev. Pat Wright of the Total Experience Gospel Choir? She’s a force for good and beauty.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kofkq2fay4w
Jim Pharo
White people are funny!
Lovely video. Makes you wonder why we can’t be better the other 364….
asiangrrlMN
@Mithras: She’s amazing. Thank you for sharing that.
@Anya: Simply lovely. I’m adding it to my faves.