Hip Christmas

Welcome To Hip Christmas! I think you'll enjoy my dysfunctionally vast web archive dedicated to holiday music that rocks, rolls, swings, and twangs. If you do, please support me by shopping at Amazon, Apple Music, and Sheet Music Plus! Regardless, the best of the season to you - no matter what month it is! [about me]

What Was New In 2024? Last year's new Christmas albums included lots of vinyl reissues, big names like Jennifer Hudson and Little Big Town, indie darlings like Dean & Britta and Phantom Planet, a full-length Tower Of Power album, a new collection from the Carpenters, and yet another Bear Family compilation. I've completed my annual obsessive, quixotic attempt to keep up with it all, including my Top 10 Albums and Top 25 Singles. [gimme gimme]

The Christmas Jukebox. My online Christmas music player is bulging with over 900 hip tunes - and counting! You can listen to the music I write about - the coolest, weirdest, and loudest holiday songs ever, all while enjoying my inimitable prose - or not! [press play]

My Face, Your Book. There's a lot of holiday hilarity going on over at Facebook, in case you can't get enough on my website - or vice versa. Check out the Hip Christmas page, and follow me for maximum holiday fun all year long. No Russian trolls, please. I also post cool cover art on Instagram and Pinterest. [follow me]

Christmas Is Going To The Dogs. The beloved 1966 TV special How The Grinch Stole Christmas included barely three songs, but one of them is an all-time classic. In the years since, it's been covered dozens of times, and the TV show spawned two movies, a Broadway musical, a raft of merchandise, and a lot more music. [read more]

Christmas Time's A-Coming. Long ago, country music was called "hillbilly" music, and nobody took offense. Rhino Records' Hillbilly Holiday tells the story of Christmas music during the golden age of Nashville, and by embracing the old appellation, it makes a statement: The best country music never denies its roots. [read more]

I Can't Help Myself. The Four Tops were the biggest Motown act to never record a Christmas album - until 1995 when they briefly returned to the label to cut Christmas Here With You. It's a solid album, but it doesn't have that magic Motown sound that made songs leap out of tiny transistor radios and into our hearts. [read more]

The King of Cool. My favorite thing about Dean Martin's 1959 concept album, A Winter Romance, has always been the cover. Get a load of Dino's trademark, two-timing leer... It's a good album - not a great one - but Martin sounds like he's having fun, more full of horny vigor (or spiked punch) than pious reflection on the season. [read more]

What A Wonderful Christmas. Surprisingly, jazz icon Louis Armstrong never released a Christmas album during his long, long career. But, he did cut a number of holiday singles and album tracks - enough to nearly fill up a long player. Nobody's ever compiled them all, though a couple of otherwise fine albums have come very close. [learn more]

I Dig Thee, Lord Jesus. The swing revival gave rise to a vast array of reissues, ranging across jazz, easy listening, and a whole pack of rats. Rhino Records' Swingin' Christmas (2001) was one of the best, including all-time classics by Kay Starr and Louis Armstrong, plus an unbelievable piece of latter-day kitsch called "That Swingin' Manger." [read more]

Not So Easy Listening. The 90's lounge revival spurred a frenzy for all things swank and spawned an appreciation for vintage pop music outside the realm of rock - and a boatload of reissues to cash in on the craze. For the enthusiast, Croon And Swoon is a fine introduction to classic holiday pop, and for the dabbler it's a one-stop shop. [read more]

Far Out Christmas Blues. Just before the CD era, Savoy Jazz released an album called Mr. Santa's Boogie, an odd, often fabulous mix of obscure blues and jive - but just a little bit of jazz. It got reissued and rejiggered twice again, but it always remained an eclectic and essential part of my Christmas collection. [read more]

Tortured Carols. Punk and new wave helped pull Christmas music back from the brink, embracing the genre with great abandon and irreverence, helping spur the revival that continues unabated to this day. Rhino's New Wave Xmas collects 17 of the musically lighter moments, including classics by the Pogues, Pretenders, and Squeeze. [read more]

My Wish List. It wouldn't be a record collector's website unless I published my wish list - Christmas songs I'm still hunting down, and songs for which I'd happily barter from my relatively vast treasure chest. If you have a copy of any of these rare goodies, let's talk! [read more]

The Saddest Time Of The Year. Yuletunes (1991) is a power pop collection that often sounds more like an indolent Big Star ballad than a raucous Raspberries rocker. Most songs dwell on the melancholy aspects of the holiday season, even when the music feels joyous and jangly. Artists include the Shoes, Matthew Sweet, and Material Issue. [read more]

Snowman Magic. Power pop icon Dwight Twilley scored a handful of classic hits during his long career including "I'm On Fire" (1975) and "Girls" (1984). He kinda capped it off with Have A Twilley Christmas (2004), a charming and eclectic EP that, over the next few years, would be expanded into a full album. [read more]

Exactly How Is This Stuff "Hip"? The music on Nickelodeon's Classic Cartoon Christmas series isn't very hip, but it's, um, hip adjacent. Every generation since the Boomers grew up watching Rudolph, Frosty, and Charlie Brown, and those cartoons - and their soundtracks - influenced the art they would make. [read more]

When You Say Lou... I loves me some Lou Rawls. Boy, can he sing, and he enjoyed Christmas music enough to cut three albums of the stuff. His 20-track Merry Christmas Baby surveys all three and is a better value than any particular one - though his first album, Merry Christmas Ho! Ho! Ho! (1967), is easily the best of the lot. [read more]

Bronx Bomber. Back in the 50's, Dion & The Belmonts accounted for some of the most thrilling white doo wop around - "The Wander," Runaround Sue," and many more. By the time Dion recorded Rock n' Roll Christmas, he'd gone through many changes and emerged as an elder statesman of the New York rock scene. [read more]

A Christmas Gift For You. Every year, I offer free MP3's from my voluminous collection - all unavailable easily or legitimately in the music marketplace. In 2024, I revisited the legendary, exceedingly rare Flagpole Christmas albums, filling in some gaping holes and sprucing up the sound quality. [listen or download]

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