[Today, December 24, 2008, is Christmas Music Day on OTI. Here’s a holiday guest post from Trevor Siegler. Let us know what you think in the comments! —Ed.]
Many songs simply suck the Christmas spirit out of you, especially if you’re stuck in a customer-service job where it’s piped in 24/7 between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.
But there are some holiday tunes that rise above the pack, some golden nuggets in a field full of overdone horse manure. I’ll keep the disgusting metaphors to a minimum and simply list the six seasonal songs that always fill me with Christmas spirit no matter how often “Jingle Bells” is on repeat.
1. Nat King Cole, “The Christmas Song”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oj3jixMGaw
Written by Mel Torme and recorded by Cole’s band in 1946, this beloved classic has become the most covered holiday song of all time. But like most songs covered ad nauseum, the original is usually the best. Cole’s version (re-recorded twice, in 1953 and again in 1961) has an odd melancholy to it that helps to undercut the overly gooey and upbeat tenor of many other established classics (only the original “White Christmas” has the same sense of barely restrained despair underneath the holiday pleasantries). A simple arrangement with sweeping strings and Cole’s distinctive voice make the song the perfect alternative to overwrought retreads by God knows how many one-hit wonders and “American Idol” rejects. It’s the perfect Christmas song for an entire bar’s worth of lonely drunks on Christmas Eve as well as a family gathering from near and far around the fireplace on Christmas Day.
2. Mariah Carey/Olivia Olson, “All I Want for Christmas Is You”
Now for the exception to the covers-vs.-originals rule. In 1994, “All I Want for Christmas Is You” was yet another example of Mariah Carey ruining a perfectly good song with her bombastic vocal approach. Many dogs have lost their hearing as a direct result of Ms. Carey’s body of work over the years, and “All I Want” seemed like a cover song even though it was co-written by Carey. Fast-forward to 2003’s “Love Actually,” where the song was reborn as a performance during the film’s pivotal Christmas school concert. A kid named Olivia Olson (with the backing of the school band and choir) rescued the song from the clutches of Mariah’s ego-mania with a spirited version that makes the original suffer by comparison. If you’re not moved in particular by the acapella beginning of the song, well, you have no Christmas spirit to speak of.
3. The Ronettes, “Frosty the Snowman”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwlGDTlCQ6o
A Phil Spector creation, the Ronettes flourished in the post-Elvis, pre-Beatles pop environment of the early 1960s. Recorded as part of a Spector-helmed Christmas album, “Frosty the Snowman” is transformed from a simple ditty into a soaring symphony thanks in no small part to the “Wall of Sound” recording style that Spector perfected. The album it was recorded for, “A Christmas Gift to You,” had the misfortune of being released on November 22, 1963, the day that JFK was shot (try as they might, conspiracy theorists have not been able to tie gun-nut Phil to the murder). Originally composed as an anti-nuclear proliferation song (Frosty was said to be a product of nuclear waste mingling with the snow), the song has endured as a Christmas classic that implores a spirit of cooperation and friendship amid the crass commercialism that often overtakes the holiday season. The Ronettes certainly delivered on that promise with this song as well as their entire record catalog.
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.
5. John Lennon, “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)”
Completing the Phil Spector Christmas trifecta is this Lennon solo song, recorded in 1971 as a protest to the Vietnam War and to suffering in general. Taking the title from a slogan that he and partner Yoko Ono used in 1969, John Lennon recorded the song with actual children recruited to join in on the chorus. Lennon pointedly asks listeners “what have you done” in the previous year, because from where he sits they haven’t done enough to help those less fortunate. A far gentler protest song than some of his other works, “Happy Xmas” became one of Lennon’s epitaphs in the wake of his December 1980 assassination. Though it’s been covered by way too many artists that have no right to do so (Celine Dion even got in on the act, further giving proof that she is the Anti-Christ of music), this simple plea to do right by those less fortunate during the Christmas season is still powerful enough to move even the hardest-hearted listener (I’m looking at you, Bill O’Reilly).
6. Elmo and Patsy, “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPaGQEskSKM
If this were based on a tragic true story (ex: “Edna Kay Young of St. Louis never knew what hit her when she went walking home on Christmas Eve, but the hoofprints in her back led police to suspect a certain jolly man dressed in red”), it would be a much cooler origin story than any other Christmas song. Alas, “Grandma Got Run Over” is simply a clever novelty song recorded by the married duo of Elmo and Patsy Shorpshire in 1979. By 1984, the song was such a staple that the duo re-recorded it. Elmo went solo and helped keep the song alive by participating in an animated special based on the song in 2000 (because the world was finally ready for such a thing, apparently), in which Grandma lived to tell the tale and point the finger at gold-digging Cousin Mel. The song continues to have a special place in Christmas-music lore, for Elmo’s bizarre singing and for the story of how the family coped with Grandma’s passing (should they keep her gifts or send them back?). You can offer scientific proof that there’s no such thing as Santa, but as for me and Grandpa, we believe. Merry Christmas, y’all.
So what do you think, are these songs classics or classically bad Christmas songs? What songs did I miss? Feel free to make your case for your favorite holiday tune.
Email Trevor at tlseigl at yahoo dot com.