Another Xmas song, from JPK. I like this one.
Beach Boys, “Little Saint Nick” (1963)
I think only one person mentioned this the other day in DougJ’s Christmas music thread, so maybe I’m OK here (apologies to BrYanS). I do love the Beach Boys all up and down their catalog (and never mind the occasional misbegotten politics, better not to dwell). They may seem among the least likely to deliver on the Christmas fare in Southern California, and all that, but I really go for this spry corruption of “Little Deuce Coupe,” which seems to me happy and jaunty in just the ways that Christmas music is supposed to be. It never fails to put a glow on my darkest December days, that’s for sure. Wikipedia: “Despite a media-hushed Christmas in mourning for recently assassinated President John F. Kennedy, the single went into the Top Tens of Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, Milwaukee, Vancouver and Washington DC.” Beatlemania was not far behind.
Also too, how about a discussion of greatest Christmas album ever. I will go with Stevie Wonder’s Someday At Christmas.
Yutsano
OOPS!! Format problems!
c u n d gulag
Greatest Christmas album?
That’s easy – “Alvin and the Chipmunks!”
DougJ
@Yutsano:
I’m on a new browser and it defaults to Visual, not html!
Fixed it.
DanielX
Gotta go with The Roches…We Three Kings
lamh35
Doug J we should just get married now, cause by gawd Stevie Wonder’s Christmas album is by far one of my favorites, but so is Stevie.
Um, I know it’s heard in darn near every Christmas commercial, film, tv move etc, but I LOVE “That’s What Christmas Means To Me” and “One Little Christmas Tree” still makes me feel both warm and fuzzy, but also emotional.
Oh and Stevie’s version of “Ave Maria” gives me ear-gasms whenever I hear it.
Maude
How many drugs do you think the Beach Boys were taking when that picture was taken?
Yutsano
@DougJ: I got skeered there that the blog got broked. All is well now.
One of my favorite winter songs. Technically from a Christmas album, but love it just on its face.
dj spellchecka
here’s the fantastic version of little st nick by dr. teeth and the electric mayhem from one of my top christmas albums ever. [seriously]
John Denver & The Muppets-Little Saint Nick
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDkRvfo8jVE
DougJ
@lamh35:
I also love “That’s What Christmas Means To Me”.
What’s great about the Stevie Wonder Christmas album is that it’s contemporary and socially conscious, while still being fun and listenable.
Linda Featheringill
I heard Burl Ives doing “Have a Jolly Christmas” and it made me feel good. Then I realized that it probably would make you feel nauseous and immediately felt even better. Maybe there is a Santa Claus.
:-)
MikeJ
Here’s the albums I dig out:
The Beatles xmas singles
Bela Fleck & the Flecktones – Jingle All the Way
Frank Sinatra – The Christmas Collection
Christmas with the Rat Pack
St Etienne – A Glimpse of Stocking
Motown xmas
Just Can’t Get Enough – New Wave Xmas (Los Lobos, TMBG, Chris Stamey, XTC, Pretenders)
Still looking for the dB’s xmas single.
Mnemosyne
The Stevie Wonder Christmas album is currently a $5 download at Amazon.com.
Just sayin’.
SBJules
The Beach boys “run, run reindeer” song is my favorite. Love their harmonies, always.
pete
If you put a gun to my head, I’d have to go with A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector.
Steeplejack
@DougJ:
Glad you revived the Christmas music discussion. I was way too late to the last one.
Sort of in line with “Little Saint Nick,” I have always thought of the Trade Winds’ “New York’s a Lonely Town” as a quasi-Christmas song, or at least a seasonally appropriate song. Think it has to do with the heavy use of the “Sleigh Ride” bells in the background.
Don’t know if it’s the best Christmas album, but my favorite is still Vince Guaraldi’s A Charlie Brown Christmas. Relentlessly old-school, I know.
Suffern ACE
I like Elvis’ first Christmas album.
Yutsano
@Steeplejack: They make it look easy. It ain’t.
lamh35
As I’ve said in the past I’m an R&B girl. So my favorite Christmas albums are all with an R&B flavor.
Contemporary R&B: Luthor Vandross – This Is Christmas (1995). It’s Luther, he’s singing and I can actually listen to “Every Year, Every Christmas” even during non-Holiday times.
Contemporary Gospel: BeBe & CeCe Winans – First Christmas (1993). Their version of “The First Noel” is fantastic.
Classic Pop/R&B??? – Nat King Cole – Christmas Album. A Voice like Velvet. Between “Christmas Song”, “Joy To The World” and “Caroling, Caroling” I don’t know what’s my fav, but it’s one CD during Christmas Time that I don’t mind hearing on a loop.
Oldie R&B – Motown Christmas. By far my favorite I guess. I kid you not, I love every song on it. I dare anyone NOT to love The Temptations “Silent Night”, the BEST version of that song like ever, IMHO…lol.
Zach
Was working at Starbucks the other day and they almost ruined this song for me by playing it 5 times in and hour. Luckily, it’s awesome enough to withstand that kind of abuse.
master c
yes to Phil Spector’s album [that was funny Pete] and all Elvis Christmas stuff.
Zach
Q: Is there a good, old surf-guitar Christmas record?
Just Googled and found the Ventures Christmas – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAngoXIRZ5E – anything else?
Edit: WTF this is awesome. Talk-box effects existed in 1965?
Steeplejack
@Yutsano:
Great version!
Now I am searching high and low for what I realized is my favorite Christmas album–a “mix” CD I burned years ago of jazz versions of Christmas songs. I can’t even remember most of the songs on it now, but it was killer. Finished up with John Coltrane’s 10-minute version of “Greensleeves.”
@lamh35:
Oh, yeah, and it also had Lou Rawls doing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”
Jager
@pete: That would be a gun in your mouth. Just enough to chip your teeth a little.
I wonder if Phil gets to wear his high heeled boots in the pen?
Steeplejack
FYWP! Comment dropped through the moderation trapdoor, and I have no idea why.
Oh, wait–maybe too many links. I forget that “reply” links count too. Damn your eyes, WP!
Mnemosyne
@Zach:
You might like “Tis the Season for Los Straitjackets” by (yes) Los Straitjackets. I think I got that one from Amazon, too.
I also have the Booker T. & the MGs Christmas album. I tend to like instrumentals, I guess.
burnspbesq
After “Phil Spector’s Christmas Album,” which is indescribably delicious, I tend to go to Bruce Cockburn’s “Christmas.” There’s also an anthology called “Christmas Guitars” that’s pretty interesting.
And there’s always this.
Mnemosyne
@Steeplejack:
I just got moderated for no apparent reason. I didn’t even have too many links.
burnspbesq
@lamh35:
If that’s the way you roll, you may want to check this out.
Aaron Neville, Soulful Christmas
Steeplejack
John Fahey’s Christmas album The New Possibility (1968) is an excellent one for background listening. And I mean “background” in the best possible sense. Good for parties, dinner, etc. Song snippets at the link.
Steeplejack
[Stripped-down version of my moderated comment]
@Yutsano:
Great version!
Now I am searching high and low for what I realized is my favorite Christmas album—a “mix” CD I burned years ago of jazz versions of Christmas songs. I can’t even remember most of the songs on it now, but it was killer. Finished up with John Coltrane’s 10-minute version of “Greensleeves.”
@lamh35:
Oh, yeah, and it also had Lou Rawls doing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”
lamh35
@burnspbesq:
N’awlins born and raised…I knew how to say “the Neville brothers rock” before I learned to say “momma and dadda”…lol.
Aaron Neville’s “Please Come Home For Christmas” is played in every house in NOLA on Christmas day at least once!
srv
@lamh35:
Hah! an ear-gasm for everyone: Stevie sings Ave Maria.
pete
The album category is hard, because lots of them have dead air included. Nat King Cole is classic but James Brown’s Funky Christmas is a bit disappointing (though I haven’t replayed it for this thread), and even Elvis’s is padded out with (great) non-Xmas gospel material. Can’t let the thread go by without linking this, though.
JPL
The Holly and the Ivy is a favorite of mine but I enjoy all the Carols from Clare College. The holiday season is also the time to listen to The Nutcracker.
lamh35
@srv:
Bucket List Item #1,000,000,000,001 – See Stevie Wonder, Prince and Morris Day and The Time in concert.
Oh and “someday at Christmas” is timeless. Lyrics, sadly STILL fits today.
Steeplejack
Holy shnikeys! How could I forget Willie Nelson’s Pretty Paper? Excellent Christmas album with straight-ahead (not country) arrangements behind Nelson’s leathery voice.
JerryN
A long out of print album from the early ’90s call A Lump Of Coal is pretty good. HooDoo Gurus, Crash Test Dummies, but especially Henry Rollins reading Twas The Night Before Christmas.
lamh35
@burnspbesq:
If the Marsalis family is NOLA jazz royalty, then the Neville family are down-home, dirty soul, bluesy royalty. If you are from the “ghetto” in NOLA (like I am) your brain might like the Marsalis’, but your heart and soul belongs to the Neville family…lol.
srv
Given news that Etta James is terminally ill, a little of her Christmas spirit: Merry Christmas Baby
Clapton’s Cryin Christmas Tears
Svensker
@Yutsano:
It’s such a beautiful song. Gord’s original version is spine tingling but it’s hard to find for some obscure reason. Always makes me shed a sweet tear.
Trooptrap Tripetrope
Gotta go with the original soundtrack album of A Charlie Brown Christmas. All the tracks are great, but Guaraldi’s “Christmastime Is Here” perfectly captures the slight touch of melancholy that is invariably part of Christmas for me.
Yutsano
@Svensker: Hold that thought…
I love musical interpretation.
burnspbesq
@lamh35:
I’ve been on that bandwagon since “Cabbage Alley.” I played in a band in high school with a guy whose sister went to what was then known as Sophie Newcomb College, and she brought the records home for him.
BD of MN
perhaps my snark valve is permanently stuck wide open (I blame BJ, Charles Pierce and Doghouse Riley mostly), but I have a burned CD of the various South Park Christmas songs that gets played regularly in the mommy van.
Big grins ensue…
Santa and Jesus Lounge duet
Steeplejack
@Svensker:
Here you go.
Svensker
@lamh35:
Living in Los Angeles in the early 80s I was privileged to see the Nevilles with the Wild Tchoupitoulas in a small venue. I’d never heard the Nevilles and they were absolutely electrifying. Wow. I’ll never forget that night.
In other musical news, Enchanted Carols, which is traditional music played on Victorian music boxes, hand bells and other strange and wonderful instruments, is one of my favorites. So cheery yet nostalgic. And you sure don’t hear it every day!
Svensker
@Yutsano:
Hey, you found it! I musta looked last year before it was uploaded. The other Gord versions are done much later when his voice was really going.
Thanks!
ETA, also, too @Steeplejack: :)
Steeplejack
@Svensker, @Yutsano:
Not seasonal, but possibly my favorite Lightfoot song: “Apology.”
Yutsano
@Svensker: I also see no harm in a Canadian doing a cover of a Canadian’s work. They may have even collaborated on it.
TimC
@dj spellchecka:
This version is also my favorite as well. And I second the notion of this being one of the best x-mas albums ever.
piratedan
Mannheim Steamroller, maybe I have no taste, but its gets me in the spirit
Yutsano
@efgoldman: Holy cwap dude! You heal up and we’ll manage things around here. My grandfather just had a stroke, and even at 90 has regained almost all the function he had before. They’ve made some marvelous progress over the last few years here.
And all neurologists suck. Every. Single. Last. One. Of. Them.
burnspbesq
How about a little Marvin Gaye?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM8Se8L0_So&feature=related
Steeplejack
@efgoldman:
Man, that’s harsh! Here’s to your quick and complete recovery.
pete
@efgoldman: Welcome back, great to hear that you’ve improved, keep on keeping on and we look forward to reading you in the new year.
srv
@efgoldman: Take care, we don’t need any more regulars disappearin.
scav
Depends utterly on the momentary whim but I do tend to return to The Boston Camerata’s An American Christmas and to Joan Baez’s Noel (for intensely nostalgic reasons). Clearly, the more serious whims here. Silly this year seems to be these from ISIHAC. After that it gets chaotic. Brave Combo, Lounge, King’s College, Bells, Music Boxes. . . A definitive absence of Little Drummer Boys and Silver Bells, but other chestnuts in moderation.
Tim (The Other One)
This Is Christmas: A Complete Collection Of The Alfred S. Burt Carols by The Voices of Jimmy Joyce. (not just his voice, it’s a choir of top L.A. studio singers.)Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Burt
http://www.alfredburtcarols.com/
Svensker
@efgoldman:
Good grief! Glad to hear you are doing well, but gee whiz. All the best for continued recovery. Hugs.
DougJ
@lamh35:
I can’t get into the Marsali, except for Bradford. I can’t put my finger on why, but I just don’t like Wynton’s playing that much.
Also too, I have friends who have worked with them and they the Marsali are phenomenal assholes
Svensker
@Yutsano:
No problem with anyone doing a cover of anyone’s song — as long as it’s good. :) Music is meant to be shared.
@Steeplejack:
Nice one! Gord was really good. We were recently in Orillia Ontario (very pretty place) which turned out to be Lightfoot’s hometown, where he sang in the church choir and aced the pole vault.
JPL
@efgoldman: Just wow. Heal quickly and your typing is better than most, including mine.
I love your list of holiday music.
Peter VE
Phil Spector – A Christmas Gift to You
The Roches – We Three Kings
Cyndi Lauper – Merry Christmas…Have A Nice Life!
Steeplejack
@Svensker:
“Apology” is from Sunday Concert (1969), which captures Lightfoot at his best. You can still get it in a two-fer set with Early Lightfoot.
Bonus: “The Ballad of the Yarmouth Castle” is a hundred times better than “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
You can hear song snippets at this other link, but I think the set above is the better deal.
Cat Lady
The Messiah. I have the Trevor Pinnock version with the English Concert Choir from Archiv. It’s the only thing I can listen to after a gentle wonderful soul and long time friend tells you his myeloma is Stage III and mostly in his spine.
:(
Cat Lady
@efgoldman:
[::hugs::] This year has been a fucking bitch.
planetjanet
The greatest Christmas album ever was John Denver and the Muppets. I love Animal shouting “Run, Run, Reindeer” of the chorus of “Little Saint Nick”. “When the River Meets the Sea” brings tears to my eyes.
Dee Loralei
@efgoldman: Best of luck to you for a speedy and full recovery.
reflectionephemeral
A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector and The Beach Boys Christmas Album are my two favorites.
The first side of the Beach Boys’ album is songs like “Little Saint Nick”, early Brian-sounding original pop songs with great melodies, and the second side features an orchestra on classics. Maybe I just have a high cheesiness tolerance, but I love the harmonies on the second side, like in “We Three Kings of Orient Are”.
red dog
Harry Belafonte has an album with “Go tell it on the mountain” the best of them all
quannlace
\The Chieftains, ‘Bells of Dublin.”
Svensker
@Cat Lady:
So sorry. Messiah does help. Big hugs.
mattH
Charlie Brown Christmas for sure. Only song missing is Little Birdie, even though that’s Thanksgiving.
JPK
Late to the comment stream as usual…
@Maude: My guess is a lot, to use the technical term.
@efgoldman: Glad to hear you are on the mend. Thanks for your musical suggestions!
Ralph Spoilsport
.fuck christmas. FEAR (1983?)
billd
culled from childhood memories of my father’s album collection….
burl ives (the one with “Santa Mouse”)
joan baez Noel (musical arrangements by Peter Schickele, the musicologist beghind PDQ Bach)
jose feleciano’s first xmas record (yellow, with a bow on the cover) Feliz Navidad
and for classical music, the most gorgeous string music is from CHRISTMAS CONCERTOS. Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Herbert von Karajan. DGG 2530 070 (L2-35).
Suzan
Even Santa Gets the Blues. Hands down. Includes:
I Want You With Me At Christmas – Jesse Belvin
LA Christmas Blues – Hadda Brooks
So Glad You Were Born – Isaac Hayes
and others
MarkJ
I love Carols from Christmas, Volumes 1 and 2 – it’s a very large collection of classic carols being sung by the Royal College of Music Chamber Choir under the direction of Sir David Willcocks, and it is absolutely great. It’s unfortunately out of print but is available at Amazon.
On the pop side of things Ella Fitzgerald’s “Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas” is never mentioned among the greats, but should be. I’d rank it up there with the classic Bing recordings, Sinatra, or Nat King Cole’s classic.
One single from the ’80s that should be mentioned: The Pretenders’ 2000 Miles is a great Christmas song.