4. Darlene Love, “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ7iyRJrFg8
On the same album as “Frosty,” Darlene Love’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” earned its classic status the hard way. Love, another Spector-produced singer, has since enjoyed a career on Broadway. But it’s this song that has endured, where a girl pines for her far-away beloved to make it home before the holiday season is over. Love began appearing on “Late Night with David Letterman” to perform the song at Christmas time in 1986, a tradition that held until last year’s writers’ strike. The song has taken on added relevance in recent years with many families of servicemen and women separated over the holidays by wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. You’ll have chills running down your spine by the time the final verses blast through your speakers, I guarantee it.
Wait…Frosty the Snowman is supposed to be the mutant product of nuclear fallout? Like Godzilla??? This blows my mind.
Also, while I do like the “Love Actually” version of “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” there’s still a special place in my heart for the Mariah version. It’s become an annual sing-along event in my office. No joke. Did I mention I work for the government?
Great list. Like Mark, I also really love the shit out of Mariah’s version of “All I Want for Christmas is You” (but I’m in general a huge fan of pre-1997 uptempo Mariah singles).
My personal favorite is “Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth” by Bing Crosby and David Bowie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9KpNznVLlY, from Crosby’s 1977 Christmas Special. Crosby sounds great, Bowie’s counterpoint (written for this recording) is beautiful, and the silly patter before the clip is priceless (and is exactly the sort of thing that Colbert riffed on perfectly in “A Colbert Christmas).
Great list. I submit Fairytale of New York by the Pogues, though have been told on occasion that it “doesn’t really count.”
If that were the case 24Frames, then dozens of Christmas songs wouldn’t count. I wholeheartedly agree with you on Fairytale of New York.
I nominate The Eagles’ “Please Come Home For Christmas”
I second Fairytale of New York. When I saw the title, it was the first and only song that came to mind.
“Alfie the Christmas Tree” and “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” by John Denver and The Muppets. The latter amazingly by John and Rowlf.
or
“My Little Drum” and “Christmastime is Here” by The Vince Guaraldi Trio for A Charlie Brown Christmas.
Thank you for putting “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” on your list. You have brought a sense of validation to the perverseness in me that likes kitschy, strange, and slightly dark stuff.
Having said that, I am a big fan of the traditional Christmas songs, and not generally into holiday songs about the death of a close relative (the writers of “The Christmas Shoes” should be flogged). But for some reason, I just love the heck out of this dumb song. It is it’s irreverence and silliness that gets me, and I smirk every time it gets to the part about grandpa showing that he’s holding up okay by “drinking beer and playing cards with cousin Mel”.
In the same vein as “All I Want for Christmas” from Love Actually, I must also submit, “Christmas is All Around,” by Billy Mack (Bill Nighy.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWjl80WFBzY