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Christmas Music - Page 2

post #51 of 112
12/7/08 at 12:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Z-Man View Post
There used to be these cassettes that came out every year of local Athens bands doing Christmas songs, and there was some really good stuff on those. Porn Orchard did a parody of that thing where David Bowie comes over to Bing Crosbly's house and they chat and sing White Christmas, only it was Tom Waits and Peter Murphy (with an echo effect on "Peter Murphy's" voice the whole time), and they sang a really depressing song (I only remember the last line of the chorus, "This holiday season is just one more reason to die").
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3gwbDcMY5I
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post #52 of 112
12/7/08 at 12:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Dickson View Post
Carol of the Bells is one of the most sinister supposedly-festive songs ever. It's the Jaws theme of Christmas carols.
Actually, I believe it was John Williams who first harnessed it's creepy power in his score for Home Alone, which is one of the better horror film scores ever written.
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post #53 of 112
12/7/08 at 1:58pm
As far Xmas standards, this still can not be beat


Particularly "O Christmas Tree" sung by Nat in German
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post #54 of 112
12/7/08 at 10:30pm
Marlee MacLeod's "No Vacancy" is my favorite Christmas song. It's a little hard to track down, but it's worth the effort. Here's a cover from Youtube. It loses something without without her voice, but the lyric "you can say be of good cheer, but my dear, I won't without a damn good reason" is untouchable.
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post #55 of 112
12/7/08 at 10:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Z-Man View Post
There used to be these cassettes that came out every year of local Athens bands doing Christmas songs, and there was some really good stuff on those. Porn Orchard did a parody of that thing where David Bowie comes over to Bing Crosbly's house and they chat and sing White Christmas, only it was Tom Waits and Peter Murphy (with an echo effect on "Peter Murphy's" voice the whole time), and they sang a really depressing song (I only remember the last line of the chorus, "This holiday season is just one more reason to die"). Some of that stuff might be on CD, but I don't think that one is.
Shit! Z-man, the Marlee MacLeod song I posted about is from the same collection. Both of them are on the "The Mother of All Flagpole Christmas Albums" compilation. I've got a copy of that around here somewhere. Time to go dig through some CDs...
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post #56 of 112
12/8/08 at 1:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post
Wow, that's totally it, although they left off the intro/skit. Boy, they really get the Waits guitar sound perfect! If anyone can come up with an mp3 of the whole thing, I'd be very grateful.
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post #57 of 112
12/8/08 at 10:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gaybe Sapien View Post
Oh come on, it's all about Christmas in Hollis.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Judas Booth View Post
This album is a lot more fun than it should be. Do a youtube search for the version of 'O Come All Ye Faithful' and you'll get an idea of what it's like:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Dickson View Post
And while I'm far from religious, pretty much any version of this song never fails to make me wonder if maybe I'm wrong.
I'll second all these. That Twisted Sister album is genius, and Josh Groban's voice is so beautiful it makes me feel like a big girl.

I know it's cliché, but I love TSO's (or Savatage's, whichever you prefer) version of Carol of the Bells, Christmas Eve in Sarajevo.
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post #58 of 112
12/10/08 at 1:33pm
Who does the standard version of "Sleigh Ride?" Or is there a standard version?
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post #59 of 112
12/10/08 at 1:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Z-Man View Post
Who does the standard version of "Sleigh Ride?" Or is there a standard version?
I don't know that there's a "standard" one. When I was growing up, the one you seemed to hear the most was by Arthur Fiedler and The Boston Pops Orchestra. Probably the best-known vocal version is by The Ronettes, on Phil Spector's A Christmas Gift For You album.

I'm partial to the versions by Squirrel Nut Zippers and The Ventures.
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post #60 of 112
12/10/08 at 2:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeb View Post
I don't know that there's a "standard" one. When I was growing up, the one you seemed to hear the most was by Arthur Fiedler and The Boston Pops Orchestra. Probably the best-known vocal version is by The Ronettes, on Phil Spector's A Christmas Gift For You album.

I'm partial to the versions by Squirrel Nut Zippers and The Ventures.
The annoying DJ on the annoying Christmas station they have here on at work just announced the version that's currently playing as being by Leroy Anderson. I know that he wrote it, so it might just be a reference to that, but the Wikipedia entry suggests that he recorded a version of it, as well. Might just be the Boston Pops one, though.
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post #61 of 112
12/10/08 at 2:24pm
I want a vocal version, because I love the lyrics. It's probably the only traditional Christmas carol that I actually think is a great song. As it happens, right after your post [edit: Jeb's post, not Dave's], I heard the Ronnette's version on a podcast I was listening to, and they leave out the best parts of the lyrics (stuff like "There's a happy feeling nothing in the world can buy/When they pass around the coffee and the pumpkin pie/When the snow falls it looks like some shit from Courier & Ives"...I can't remember the exact words, but you get the idea), and they make it too smoothe. I want a version with that whiplash in there. And I know I've heard the Bing Crosby version, and he does some kind of jive-y thing with it. I just want a traditional-sounding vocal version of "Sleigh Ride". You'd think there would be some ur-version, like Bing for "White Christmas" or Gene Autry for "Rudolph."
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post #62 of 112
12/10/08 at 3:27pm
I wonder if the fact that it was first written and recorded as an instrumental piece, with lyrics added later, is part of the reason there’s no “definitive” vocal version.

Besides Der Bingle, The Andrews Sisters did an early version (the first vocal version, IIRC), and I think that both Johnny Mathis’ and Mitch Miller’s versions charted. Harry Connick Jr.’s version is pretty good—the band arrangement’s a little busy, but his vocal is fairly straightforward; it’s on the first of his three Christmas albums, When My Heart Finds Christmas (which also features my favorite recent original Christmas song: “Must Have Been Ol’ Santa Claus”).
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post #63 of 112
12/10/08 at 3:48pm
Andrews Sisters sounds like what I'm looking for. I'll see if I can find that one. Thanks.
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post #64 of 112
12/10/08 at 4:10pm
This subject begins and ends with John Denver & The Muppets. Toss in Bing Crosby, especially for Christmas In Killarney, and you're all set.
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post #65 of 112
12/10/08 at 4:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Z-Man View Post
I want a vocal version, because I love the lyrics. It's probably the only traditional Christmas carol that I actually think is a great song. As it happens, right after your post [edit: Jeb's post, not Dave's], I heard the Ronnette's version on a podcast I was listening to, and they leave out the best parts of the lyrics (stuff like "There's a happy feeling nothing in the world can buy/When they pass around the coffee and the pumpkin pie/When the snow falls it looks like some shit from Courier & Ives"...I can't remember the exact words, but you get the idea), and they make it too smoothe.
Mark Steyn-the malthusian neocon pundit-wrote a nice article on this subject here. I got to do the trumpet whinny in my high school band performance-one of the highlights of my career.
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post #66 of 112
12/10/08 at 4:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stormin View Post
This subject begins and ends with John Denver & The Muppets. Toss in Bing Crosby, especially for Christmas In Killarney, and you're all set.
I just digitized that album this weekend. It's actually pretty lame. I ended up only keeping three songs from it.
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post #67 of 112
12/10/08 at 4:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stormin View Post
This subject begins and ends with John Denver & The Muppets.
Yep. I had the record as a kid, bought the CD in my 20s and have the whole thing loaded up on my iPod right now. It never gets old. Piggy doing the Ba-dum-dum-dums in THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS is one of the defining sounds of the holidays to me.
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post #68 of 112
12/11/08 at 7:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by John Shade View Post
Mark Steyn-the malthusian neocon pundit-wrote a nice article on this subject here. I got to do the trumpet whinny in my high school band performance-one of the highlights of my career.

That's a good piece, thanks.

I think we should all remember, as we try to ignore the background music at the mall, that one of the many things for which we owe a debt to Jon Favreau is making "Baby It's Cold Outside" into a Christmas standard.
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post #69 of 112
12/11/08 at 8:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Ripoll View Post
The Staples I work at has begun to play only Christmas music. Which is pain. But it's an odd mix of Christmas music. It's weird to hear a Smashing Pumpkins christmas song (does this exist, or did I imagine it? it sounded just like them)
Smashing Pumpkins - Christmastime

I'm a fan. I've also always liked The Waitresses' Christmas Wrapping.
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post #70 of 112
12/12/08 at 1:01am
I always knew that "Baby, It's Cold Outside" was the definitive Christmas date-rape song, but I just today realized that it contains the line "Say, what's in my drink?" Holy shit.
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post #71 of 112
12/12/08 at 4:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Ripoll View Post
I always knew that "Baby, It's Cold Outside" was the definitive Christmas date-rape song, but I just today realized that it contains the line "Say, what's in my drink?" Holy shit.
In that context, the really creepy version is by Al Hirt and Ann-Margaret, cut when she was about 22 and he was in his 40's.

I also kinda like Dino's, since he doesn't have a partner-- just him and a roomful of backup singers.
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post #72 of 112
12/12/08 at 11:47am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeb View Post
In that context, the really creepy version is by Al Hirt and Ann-Margaret, cut when she was about 22 and he was in his 40's.
It doesn't help that Al Hirt looks like Mephisto. My first exposure to the song featured Louis Armstrong telling Velma Middleton that her "lips look delicious." Just gross.
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post #73 of 112
12/12/08 at 11:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Ripoll View Post
I always knew that "Baby, It's Cold Outside" was the definitive Christmas date-rape song, but I just today realized that it contains the line "Say, what's in my drink?" Holy shit.
Thank you! I've always thought the same thing. Here's this guy making advances on a girl who keeps trying to keep her distance. The guy is just relentless and then you have the "what's in this drink" line.


But, the girl does ask to borrow the guys comb. That's just gross.
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post #74 of 112
12/12/08 at 1:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Ripoll View Post
I always knew that "Baby, It's Cold Outside" was the definitive Christmas date-rape song, but I just today realized that it contains the line "Say, what's in my drink?" Holy shit.
Yeah, I was thinking about that while I was listening to it. In contemporary context, it's easy to think of them as co-conspirators, but that song must go back to, what, the 50's at least. And when you consider the power imbalance between genders from that era, it starts to sound pretty sinister. (And I guess it's hard to seperate the song from it's time, with all that stuff about her family and people talking and such.)

But melodically, it's just an amazing composition. The two voices sound like two saxophones soloing in a jazz combo.
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post #75 of 112
12/15/08 at 11:56pm
What, no H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society?

No I Saw Mommy Kissing Yog-Sothoth?

No It's Beginning To Look Like Fish-Men?

Carol Of The Old Ones?

Oh, Cthulhu? Dagon Tabernacle Choir, anyone?

It can't just be me...
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post #76 of 112
12/17/08 at 6:40pm
Thread Starter 
Those Lovecraftian Carols are amazing, where did you find them?

Someone gave me a 'A Christmas Gift For You' over the weekend and I really can't stop listening to it. I burned it onto my MP3 player and the 'wall of sound' technique or whatever that Specter is famous for makes the songs so catchy and full on when listening through headphones. It feels like you're head is about explode from the loveliness.
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post #77 of 112
12/17/08 at 11:44pm
The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society (www.cthulhulives.org) are multimedia artists who produce RPG accessories and props, radio plays, direct-to-DVD movies, and more. Their holiday albums have been favorites of mine for years.
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post #78 of 112
12/18/08 at 12:28am
Hey, you know what...

FUCK CHRISTMAS MUSIC.
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post #79 of 112
12/18/08 at 5:38pm
Aww, now you're just being curmudgeonly.

Y'Golonac will fucking teach you to be merry!
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post #80 of 112
12/18/08 at 6:01pm
A John Waters Christmas has one of my favorite Christmas songs
Santa Claus Is A Black man - AKIM & The Teddy Vann Production Company
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp_iB8Nd8Os
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post #81 of 112
12/22/08 at 1:41am
Best Christmas song you've never heard: What I Want For Christmas by Nicole Blackman, from A Christmas Present for you from Zero Hour. Now out of print.

Runner-up: Not a song, but the LP of Truman Capote reading "A Christmas Memory."

http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Christ...9920917&sr=1-1

Most underrated Christmas song: Christmas in Prison by John Prine.

Best standard Christmas song with a double meaning that's not "Baby It's Cold Outside"*: I got to go with the inherent sarcasm and misery in "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas." No matter who's performing this song, the arrangement almost always undercuts the lyrics. See Rosemary Clooney for a great example of this.

*When performed right, this song is less date-rape anthem and more knowing flirtation. Just saying.
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post #82 of 112
12/22/08 at 4:16am
The first job I ever had was working in a warehouse that sold above-ground pools and hot tubs, and in wintertime they sold fake Christmas trees. The manager would play ONE SINGLE Christmas music tape on the PA system in a loop for the entire shift. That tape? The Beach Boys' Christmas Album. That fucking first song still makes me want to murder someone with an aluminum pole from a fake Christmas tree.
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post #83 of 112
12/22/08 at 5:09pm
Last night I was doing some white knuckle driving amidst a convoy of giant snow-heaving machines (the word, plow, does not do justice to these behemoths) on a desolate slush-covered highway. My radio accompaniment was the Sonics’ Santa Claus. Perfect.
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post #84 of 112
12/22/08 at 5:18pm
I posted this is another thread but there are some really great downloadable Christmas songs and playlists HERE.
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post #85 of 112
12/22/08 at 8:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stormin View Post
This subject begins and ends with John Denver & The Muppets.
This is one of those albums that was played quite often during my childhood. The Electric Mayhem Band doing "Little Saint Nick" stands out most in my mind.

On a different note, I found this video today and it is a cute tribute to both the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials and Frank Sinatra.

http://www.poeghostal.com/2008/12/ol...s-is-back.html
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post #86 of 112
12/22/08 at 10:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by John Shade View Post
Mark Steyn-the malthusian neocon pundit-wrote a nice article on this subject here. I got to do the trumpet whinny in my high school band performance-one of the highlights of my career.
Great article. And it's likely the most I've seen written about the Anderson song. EVER! For myself, it's hilarious to share such an unlikely fondness with someone who pretty much floats around the same rung as mAnn Coulter on my hate ladder.

And for what it's worth, I consider Johnny Mathis' vocal version to be pretty much the best. It's got the perfect tempo, lush orchestration and he manages to sing the words with an almost inhuman clarity.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Rheokhu View Post
What, no H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society?

Carol Of The Old Ones?

It can't just be me...

It's not. I love sneaking that Carol of the Old Ones into homemade christmas cd's to play at family holiday endurathons. Without fail, just before it ends someone says "Wait...what the hell?"
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post #87 of 112
12/22/08 at 10:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RathBandu View Post

Best standard Christmas song with a double meaning that's not "Baby It's Cold Outside"*: I got to go with the inherent sarcasm and misery in "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas." No matter who's performing this song, the arrangement almost always undercuts the lyrics. See Rosemary Clooney for a great example of this.
And, of course, there's the original couplet, cut for the Garland version: "Have yourself a merry little Christmas / It may be your last..."
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post #88 of 112
12/22/08 at 10:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by John Shade View Post
Last night I was doing some white knuckle driving amidst a convoy of giant snow-heaving machines (the word, plow, does not do justice to these behemoths) on a desolate slush-covered highway. My radio accompaniment was the Sonics’ Santa Claus. Perfect.
Well, you can never go wrong with The Sonics, any time of year.
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post #89 of 112
12/23/08 at 4:19am
There is this compilation CD that my mom owns filled with joke/profane takes on Xmas songs that we always listen to while driving to Grandma's house. It's been a bit of a tradition since I was a kid. Our personal fav is Wreck The Malls. My mom is usually a pretty proper lady, but turn this on and she turns into a different person
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post #90 of 112
12/13/09 at 6:29pm
Apparently Ringo ruined Beatle songs even after the band broke up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za7JMbkUhkQ
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post #91 of 112
12/13/09 at 7:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dross View Post
I've also always liked The Waitresses' Christmas Wrapping.
Same here. It's one of the few songs on our work mix - Christmas themed or otherwise - that I truly enjoy. See also, the Eels' "Everything's Gonna Be Cool This Christmas."
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post #92 of 112
12/14/09 at 2:45am
As far as lighter tracks go, you absolutely cannot beat Dominic.
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post #93 of 112
12/15/09 at 7:41pm
You cannot stop Bob Dylan. You can only hope to contain him.
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post #94 of 112
12/15/09 at 10:46pm
You can't get much funkier than the Staple Singers' 'Who took the Merry out of Christmas?'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTdHBtqIbKI
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post #95 of 112
12/16/09 at 1:46am
"Do They Know It's Christmas" as covered by Aimee Mann, Weird Al and too many comedians to count.

http://vimeo.com/7590670
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post #96 of 112
12/16/09 at 12:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeb View Post
You cannot stop Bob Dylan. You can only hope to contain him.
Yeah, I'm loving Christmas in the Heart. It's surprisingly traditional.
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post #97 of 112
12/16/09 at 12:16pm
I remember being mocked when I posted Twisted Sisters's A Twisted Christmas 3-4 years ago. Glad to see Judas mentionning it again. I love that one.
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post #98 of 112
12/16/09 at 12:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by JPL View Post
"Do They Know It's Christmas" as covered by Aimee Mann, Weird Al and too many comedians to count.

http://vimeo.com/7590670
This is GREAT
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post #99 of 112
12/16/09 at 12:52pm
We had some people over for lunch on Sunday and had the two Brian Setzer Orchestra Christmas cds going. If you want something rocking and upbeat for a Christmas party, you really can't go wrong with these.
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post #100 of 112
12/17/09 at 5:02am
Quote:
Originally Posted by John Shade View Post
Last night I was doing some white knuckle driving amidst a convoy of giant snow-heaving machines (the word, plow, does not do justice to these behemoths) on a desolate slush-covered highway. My radio accompaniment was the Sonics’ Santa Claus. Perfect.
This + "A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector" are the only Christmas records that matter
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