RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Media What are your top ten favorite Christmas songs?

'Tis the season for listening to Christmas music! So... which ones do you prefer? The traditional favorites? The more contemporary non-traditional songs? The comedic? The irreverent?

List 'em off!

Andy Williams: The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Eric Cartman: O Holy Night (both versions)

Run DMC: Christmas In Hollis

(I can't spell this name): You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch

Waitresses or Save Ferris: Christmas Wrapping

Pogues & Kirsty MacColl: Fairytale Of New York

Mr. Hankey & Kenny: The Most Offensive Song In The World

Band-Aid: Do They Know It's Christmas?

Muppets & John Denver: 12 Days Of Christmas

Sting: Gabriel's Message

(I reserve the right to make changes...)

Generally I hate christmas songs (although I do tolerate some of the better ones by bands like Wizzard & Slade),but there are two christmas songs I can happily play all year round:

1)Pogues/Kirsty Macoll-Fairytale of New York
(any song that sings about scum bags,maggots & cheap lousy faggots,has gotta be great)
2)Billy Idol-Yelling at the christmas tree
(a new addition this year,but the song just makes me think of me)

Shit! I forgot Billy Idol!!! That's one of my new favorites, and props to NWM for introducing it to me.

When I was a small boy
Here in London town
Season snow was falling on the ground
All the friends and family
Here on Christmas Eve
Gathered round to dress the Christmas tree

Daddy’s down at the pub
Full of Christmas cheer
Probably won’t come home until next year

The Christmas bells are ringing
And the carolers are singing
My daddy he don’t hear them
He’s yelling at the Christmas tree
Santa’s balls are jingling
Mommy’s hips are wiggling
My daddy don’t hear ‘em
He’s yellin’, he’s yellin’ at the Christmas tree

Uncle is a spokesman
Granny likes a joke
But no one loves when daddy stumbles home

But he don’t fall asleep
Oh the night was getting black
You see, oh god, Dad had too much jack
Oh Lord . . .

Every year it’s the same old thing
Like Rudolph’s red nose
Telling the story will never get old

The Christmas bells are ringing
And the carolers are singing
My daddy, he don’t hear them
He’s yelling at the Christmas tree
Santa’s balls are jingling
Mommy’s hips are wiggling
But daddy, he don’t hear ‘em
He’s yellin’, he’s yellin’ at the Christmas tree

Alright now, yeah
Mm mm mm

Santa came down the chimney
Then he ran upstairs
Jumped in bed with mommy, she didn’t care

Across the room with the fruitcake
Oh the wreath came off the door
If these are holidays
I can’t take no more!

Every year it’s the same old thing
Like Rudolph’s red nose
Telling the story never will get old

The Christmas bells are ringing
And the carolers are singing
My daddy he don’t hear them
He’s yelling at the Christmas tree
Santa’s balls are jingling
Mommy’s hips are wiggling
My daddy don’t hear ‘em
He’s yellin’ at the Christmas tree

Santa’s balls are jingling
Mommy’s hips are wiggling
My daddy don’t hear ‘em
He’s yellin’, he’s yellin’ at the Christmas tree

Alright now yeah
Mm mm mm

Yellin’ at the Christmas tree
He’s yellin’ at the Christmas tree
He’s yellin’ at the Christmas tree
He’s sleeping in the Christmas tree.

One of the best modern ones is the Pogues classic Irish ballad of love and loss at Christmastime:
"Fairytale of New York":

It was Christmas Eve, babe
In the drunk tank
An old man said to me,
"Won't see another one"
And then he sang a song,
"The Rare Ole' Mountain Dew"
I turned my face away
And dreamed about you

Got on the lucky one
Came in at 18-to-1
I've got a feeling
This year's for me and you
So Happy Christmas
I love you, baby
I can see a better time
When all our dreams come true

When you first took my hand
On that cold Christmas Eve
You promised me Broadway was waiting for me

You were handsome
You were pretty
Queen of New York City
When the band finished playing
The crowd howled for more

Sinatra was swinging
All the drunks they were singing
We kissed on the corner
Then danced through the night

You're a bum
You're a punk
You're an old slut on junk
Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed
You scumbag, you maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas? Your arse
I pray God it's our last

I could have been someone
Well so could anyone
You took my dreams from me
When I first found you
I kept them with me babe
I put them with my own
Can't make it all alone
I've built my dreams around you

And the boys from the NYPD Choir
Were singing "Galway Bay"
As the bells were ringing out
For Christmas Day

Happy Christmas-John Lennon
Chipmunks Christmas Song

Carol of the Bells

What Child is This?

Do you Hear What I Hear?

Handel's Halehujah chorus (as done on the Handel's Messiah, a soulful Celebration album, a bit more so than the traditional version. at least these days)

Oh Holy Night



more to come as I think of them...

stop following me, Batwoman!

In random order:

• O Holy Night
• O Come, O Come Immanuel
• God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
• Angels We Have Heard on High
• It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
• Carol of the Bells
• You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch
• Blue Christmas
• Greensleeves (What Child Is This?)
• Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth

In honor of the holiday, this year I put together a mix CD called "Angry Drunken Christmas."

The songs on it are as follows:

1. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen--T-bone Burnett This is probably the most traditional song on the mix, a sparse, acoustic, take on the classic song. I put it on here because I wanted to star with something not too blatent. However, even when he sings something from the heart, T-Bone Burnett (a devout Christian) sounds sarcastic, snarky and pissed off.
2. Fairytale of New York--the Pogues: This is one of the songs that started the concept. See above for a description of why.
3. Christmas Song--Warren Zevon: If "Fairytale" hints at the possibility of redemotion, this version of the Christmas Song doesn't get the hint. The late, great, Warren Zevon recorded this only a few months before dying of inoperable lung cancer, and it shows. According to the [url=http://michaelwolff.com/news/default.htmliner notes[/url], "he came into the studio dressed for the occasion in a beautiful gray suit, totally prepared to give his all. He had a back story for each song. For Mel Torme’s “The Christmas Song”, Warren told me he was the divorced father at the bar on Christmas Eve wo wasn’t allowed to see his kids."
4. Christmas From a Hooker in Minneapolis--Tom Waits: It's a song about getting a Christmas card. From a Hooker. In Minneapolis. By Tom Waits. What else needs to be said?
5. River-Robert Downey, Jr.: There are other versions of this Joni Mitchell song. But given Downey's own history with the bottle, drugs and guns, it seemd the most appropriate for this mix. This song is from an "Ally McBeal" soundtrack, and may be, along with Lucy Liu, the only worthwhile things to come out of that damn show.
6. Mr. Grinch--Mojo Nixon and the Toad Liquors: Sure, the definitive version is on the Grinch cartoon. But Mojo Nixon sounds totally ripped when he sings this version. And he ends the song muttering that the Grinch should "go to hell," something the Whos never dared say.
7. Christmas Eve Can Kill You---the Everly Brothers:One critic said this song "has enough bad vibes to last till next summer."
8. Silent Night (7:00 News)--Simon and Garfunkel: recorded at the height of unrest during Vietnam, the song is probably not drunken, but its angry. So I put it on. Besides both Mrs. G and the G daughters are big S&G fans so I threw them a bone.
9. Murder of the Lawson Family--Dave Alvin: A man murders his family on Christmas Eve. You can't tell me anger and liquor weren't involved.
10. Ave Maria--Warren Zevon: The other Warren Zevon Christmas Song. Acccording to the liner notes, "on “Ave Maria”, he was the soundtrack under a hit in a Martin Scorsese movie."
11. Christmas Morning--Lyle Lovett: As near I can tell, this song is about a man who's sitting at home in an easy chair on Christmas morning, thinking about how his wife dicked him over. I picture a glass of Maker's Mark in his hand while he ponders that.
12. Christmas Ball Blues--Leon Redbone: Everything Leon Redbone sings sounds drunk. It seemed to round out the mix nicely.

I tried to keep the sound reasonably consistent. Nothing too country. Nothing too rock. Basically, I wanted a CD that would sound at home in a smokey bar or a living room.

I gave copies to my wife, kids and friends at work.

"That Was the Worst Christmas Ever!" by Sufjan Stevens

I only like the one where the dogs bark jingle bells.

I like that one, too, Jaburg...

And Jingle Bell Rock....

Do You Hear What I hear

The Drummer Boy song...

Silent Night

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

Oh Christmas Tree

Those are my very faves.

The Handsome Family--"So Much Wine"

I didn't have much to say
On Christmas Day
When you throw all your clothes in the snow
When you burnt your hair
Knocked over a chair
I just tried to stay out of your way
but when you fell asleep
with blood on your teeth
I got in my car and drove away

Interesting story in the Washington Post about the David Bowie/Bing Crosby version of "Little Drummer Boy"

The notion of pairing the resolutely white-bread Crosby with the exquisitely offbeat Bowie apparently was the brainchild of the TV special's producers, Gary Smith and Dwight Hemion, according to Ian Fraser, who co-wrote (with Larry Grossman) the song's music and arranged it.

Crosby was in Great Britain on a concert tour, and the theme of the TV special was Christmas in England. Bowie was one of several British guest stars (the model Twiggy and "Oliver!" star Ron Moody also appeared). Booking Bowie made logistical sense, since the special was taped near his home in London, at the Elstree Studios. As perhaps an added inducement, the producers agreed to air the arty video of Bowie's then-current single, "Heroes" (Crosby introduced it).

It's unclear, however, whether Crosby had any idea who Bowie was. Buz Kohan, who wrote the special and worked with Fraser and Grossman on the music, says he was never sure Crosby knew anything about Bowie's work. Fraser has a slightly different memory: "I'm pretty sure he did [know]. Bing was no idiot. If he didn't, his kids sure did."

Kohan worked some of the intergenerational awkwardness into his script. In a little skit that precedes the singing, Crosby greets Bowie at the door of what looks like Dracula's castle (actually, it's a set that's supposed to be Crosby's rented London home). The conceit is that Bowie is dropping by a friend's house and finds Crosby at home one snowy afternoon.

They banter for a bit and then get around to a piano. Bowie casually picks out a piece of sheet music of "The Little Drummer Boy" and declares, "This is my son's favorite."

The original plan had been for Bowie and Crosby to sing just "Little Drummer Boy." But "David came in and said: 'I hate this song. Is there something else I could sing?' " Fraser said. "We didn't know quite what to do."

Fraser, Kohan and Grossman left the set and found a piano in the studios' basement. In about 75 minutes, they wrote "Peace on Earth," an original tune, and worked out an arrangement that weaved together the two songs. Bowie and Crosby nailed the performance with less than an hour of rehearsal.

And that was almost that. "We never expected to hear about it again," Kohan said.

But after the recording circulated as a bootleg for several years, RCA decided to issue it as a single in 1982. It has since been packaged and repackaged in Christmas compilation albums and released as a DVD.

Currently listening to the BB King Christmas album

BB King rocks!

BB's great that's true.

I remember a special on HBO 20 years ago with BB King and Eric Clapton where the two just started jamming on a blues song and by the end, with all due respect to Clapton, you could see that King blew him out of the water.

I saw video clips of that one! Awesome! I have a bunch of BB King's cd's and audio cassettes. He's in his 80's and still can rock the house down!

Now listening to the Johnny Cash Christmas album.

I'm a big fan of the new Sarah McLachlan Christmas CD. They've been playing it over the PA at work and I think it's just great.

Howdy ho!

I'm Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo
Seasons greetings to all of you
Let's sing songs and dance and play
Now before I melt away

Here's a game I like to play
Stick me in your mouth and try to say
Howdy ho ho yum yum yum
Christmas time has come