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Holiday Music: Christmas, Halloween, Hanukkah, and more!


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Back in the Fametracker (ask your parents) days, one of the posters agreed to send me a CD of his annual Christmas mix.  It's got many of the titles mentioned above on it and it remains one of my favorite holiday albums to this day.

 

Thanks, Boston area Fametracker guy!

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I just realized that I haven't heard the version of "Jingle Bells" that consists of dogs barking the notes yet this year. You know the one:

Arf arf arf

Arf arf arf

Arf yip woof woof arf

 

Usually one of the local stations will have used it in a news report or something by now.

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I don't know if this song is old,

 

Yeah, that's a Bob Rivers classic; "twisted tunes" were his thing, and he did an album of Christmas parodies in the '80s (and I think went on to put out several more).

Edited by Bastet
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On 11/7/2016 at 5:18 PM, magicdog said:

The Christmas music channels are already up and running on Dish.  Been running for about a week now.

The channel on Comcast/Xfinity started November 2. I love Christmas music, but I don't think I can listen to it this year since they combined the channels. It used to be "Christmas Classics" and "Contemporary Christmas", and I would stay with the classics because I can't listen to the likes of Taylor Swift ruining "Last Christmas" and the outright awfulness of Mariah Carey's remake of "All I Want for Christmas" with Justin Beiber that made me hate her original version.

I guess I'll be sticking to the Christmas playlist on my mp3 player.

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On 12/4/2015 at 2:29 PM, AimingforYoko said:

I'm surprised nobody's linked this one, recorded just before Der Bingle's death in 1977:

 

 

And now David is gone, as well.  This is one of my favorites.

I'm surprised at all the hate for "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." In context, it's from WWII, and I love it for the melancholy.

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Vince Vance and the Valients' "All I Want for Christmas is You" is amazing!  I thought it was doo-w** and discovered that it charted on the Country chart.  This isn't the same as Mariah Carey's song is it?  I can't stand that one.

Also love Celtic Thunder's "Christmas 1914."  I was dusting with that song on in the background when I heard it for the first time.  I stopped dusting and listened and was in tears by the end of the song.  Of course one of the main vocalists, George Donaldson, died in 2014, so it's that much more poignant when he sings of going back to the war the next day, "and I killed the boy that sang in No Man's Land."  Lovely reminder of how generosity can overcome conflict.  I also love "A Soldier's Silent Night."  I guess I'm just emo that way.

Adore "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" by Judy Garland.  Cannot tolerate "The Christmas Song" by anyone, but especially not by the original singer Mel Torme.  Really like "A Marshmallow World" by Dean Martin, and "Holly Jolly Christmas" by Burl Ives.  And that instrumental "Sleigh Ride" by Leroy Anderson.

It would not be a holiday music forum without mentioning "Christmas Shoes."  I first heard that when I was trapped as a receptionist and could not change the channel.  I was laughing hysterically by the end of the song - it was the most manipulative piece of dreck I have ever heard.  Fans evidently believe it is touching.  Touching what I don't know.

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My favorite Christmas song is Joy to the World sung by either Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston. I loathe The Christmas Shoes song. It's my least favorite song holidays or not. I have several Christmas stations on Pandora and I switch between them.

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1 hour ago, ennui said:

I heard a great song as I was driving in to work today ... Straight No Chaser, 12 Days of Christmas. It's not new, but I'd never heard it before. Loved it! 

Look up "Christmas Can-Can" and "Text Me A Merry Christmas (with Kristen Bell)", by them, too!

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On 11/19/2016 at 4:24 PM, ennui said:

I'm surprised at all the hate for "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." In context, it's from WWII, and I love it for the melancholy.

It was meant to be even more melancholy, but Judy Garland wanted them to cheer it up since she sings it to a child in the movie. Some of the original lyrics were "Have yourself a merry little Christmas, it may be your last" (in the movie the family is moving to New York.

Apparently Sinatra changed the line "until then we'll have to muddle through somehow" to "hang a shining star upon the highest bough" when he sang it.

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I like The Pretenders' version of "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas". It's just sort of calm and soothing. (Of course it was on the first-ever volume of "A Very Special Christmas", and with one or two other exceptions, there was a lot of rocked-out versions of songs [my favorite volume, even if the Bon Jovi track was quietly changed over the years] , so it was nice to slow things down...)

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And speaking of holiday music, one of the most unusual Christmas albums I have come across is a Christmas CD done by....Twisted Sister. Yes, Twisted Sister. And they cover a bunch of old Christmas tunes. It's definitely not for everyone, but it seemed to be covered with affection, and I actually like the very pumped-up "Silver Bells".

If you're an Amazon Prime member, you can sample/stream it for free.

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Someone put the entire album up on YouTube as well. "Silver Bells" and "O Come All Ye Faithful" aren't bad. The videos are pretty funny as well.

Why is "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music considered a Christmas song by some radio stations? Besides the line "snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes" there's nothing about the song that mentions anything pertaining to winter, let alone Christmas, at all.

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18 hours ago, Popples said:

Why is "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music considered a Christmas song by some radio stations? Besides the line "snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes" there's nothing about the song that mentions anything pertaining to winter, let alone Christmas, at all.

Because the song is actually the singer's wish list of gifts? No idea, it's like how over in the UK East 17's Stay Another Day is considered a Christmas song all because it went to #1 during the Christmas of '94, they wear white winter coats in the film clip and there are bells/chimes in the song.

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Just read on Wikipedia that The Supremes released a version of My Favourite Things from their Christmas album and apparently it was big during that year's season, so I guess that's how that song became a Christmas song.

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I dunno.  I mean, I "get" the song's message, and we can all agree about the commercialism of Christmas, but that doesn't mean that the religious aspects are forgotten or overlooked.  

In short, I still believe in Santa Claus.  Don't spoil it!

Edited by Ohwell
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Ah, "Christmas Wrapping"! Good one, @MyAimIsTrue! The Waitresses also sang the theme song for the one and done season of Square Pegs eons ago in the early '80s, which gave Sarah Jessica Parker her start. If I recall, the group appeared on an episode and sang the theme.

Sadly, Patty Donahue, the lead singer, died of cancer way back in '96. But I like this song, too!

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I was a senior in high school the season 'Square Pegs' aired and I loved it, and could totally relate since I was a square peg myself.  Jami Gertz also got her start on that show.  I had a Waitresses album (on vinyl, of course) that had the 'Square Pegs' theme song as well as "I Know What Boys Like.'

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1 hour ago, BatmanBeatles said:

My brother forever ruined Mannheim Steamroller Christmas music for me. He said the synthesizers make it sound like instructional videos from the 80's and 90's.

I still adore their version of Silent Night/Still Nacht. Beautiful instrumental and even kind of sad.

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On 12/25/2016 at 6:29 PM, Twilight Man said:

Did you know that Eartha Kitt (Santa Baby) also passed away on Christmas a few years back as well??

As did James Brown, 10 years ago yesterday. My mother made me call my brother to tell him the news, and it wasn't like he was a huge fan of his. It was a really awkward conversation, "Merry Christmas, James Brown is dead." My mother is really strange when it comes to celebrity deaths, like she'll have a severe attitude if I don't tell her.

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On 12/20/2016 at 3:13 AM, WendyCR72 said:

Ah, "Christmas Wrapping"! Good one, @MyAimIsTrue!

My favorite! And my second favorite from Run DMC is posted way up thread by @AimingforYoko

(I just popped into this thread today, and figured I might as well chime in now rather than waiting another 11 months before it would be timely again.)

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I have to give a shout out to an underappreciated Christmas song, "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear". The First Lady of both Country Music and my avatar does a particularly great version:

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