Top 40 Christmas Oldies

...according to About.com

Top 40 Christmas Oldies

1. Jingle Bell Rock (Bobby Helms, 1957) [close]
   Decca 9-30513 b/w "Captain Santa Claus (And His Reindeer Space Patrol)"
   Highest chart position: #6 US (1957)
   Recorded October 1957, Nashville, TN
   
   Nowadays, many people think of him as a one-hit wonder (those who don't remember "My Special Angel," anyway) but Bobby Helms was quite the crossover country star back in 1957, a child prodigy who was playing the Grand Ole Opry at 17 and who'd already scored one huge C&W smash with "Fraulein" before dropping his two big pop hits. This Christmas classic, produced by Owen Bradley, featured country-jazz pickin' legend Hank "Sugarfoot" Garland on guitar (he also plays those tasty licks on Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree"). Indeed, before his death, Garland filed suit against the record label, claiming that he and Helms, not Joe Beal and Jim Boothe, wrote the song. Eyewitness accounts say that Helms was reluctant to record the novelty, which is regarded as the very first rock and roll Christmas song. Either way, it stands the test of time - it's hit the Billboard charts a record six times since, as recently as last season, and is second in popularity only to "White Christmas," with 120 million copies sold. More incredible still is that the 45 even made it to Number Six that first year, despite having been released only two days before Christmas! [buy]
2. Blue Christmas (Elvis Presley, 1957) [close]
   RCA 447-0720 b/w "Wooden Heart"
   Highest chart position: #1 US (1964)
   Recorded September 5, 1957,
   Hollywood, CA
   
   Although many assume it was written for Elvis, like most of his hits were, "Blue Christmas" actually dates all the way back to 1949, when Russ Morgan, Hugo Winterhalter, and Ernest Tubb all had hits with it. (The next year, Billy Eckstein scored with it as well.) And while it was included as a track on 1957's Elvis Christmas Album, it inexplicably never saw the light of day as a single until seven years later - promo copies were issued only to DJs in '57, and only as a way to promote the entire album. Nevertheless, it rocketed straight to Number One at a time when the British Invasion, changing tastes, and lackluster performances were starting to make the King persona non grata in the Top Ten. His bluesy rendition - a great way to pun on the title, really - is still considered the standard, backed as it is by the Jordanaires, singer Millie Kirkham (the female voice you hear on the track), and the classic RCA backup band of Scotty Moore, Bill Black, and D.J. Fontana. Nailed in three takes, even! [buy]
3. Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree (Brenda Lee, 1958) [close]
   Decca 9-30776 b/w "Papa Noel"
   Highest chart position: #14 US (1960)
   Recorded October 19, 1958, Nashville, TN
   
   This cool little pop-rockabilly Christmas card should have been the single that introduced Little Miss Dynamite to the Top 40 masses, but it didn't - recorded in October 1958 and released that same year, it did nothing at the time. Or, for that matter, the year after that. But when Brenda Lee finally cracked the pop market in 1960 with "Sweet Nothin's" and "I'm Sorry," the time was ripe, and this seasonal number shot up the charts. Even so, it missed the top ten by a few notches, but it charted for two years afterward, and has since become one of the most popular Christmas songs ever - 8 million copies sold in its first thirty years. One last note: the songwriter behind this novelty was Johnny Marks, who must be the king of Christmas songwriters - he's got no less than four songs credited to him on our countdown ("Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer," "A Holly Jolly Christmas," "Run Run Rudolph," and this one)! [buy]
4. Please Come Home For Christmas (Charles Brown, 1960) [close]
   King 5405 b/w "Christmas Comes But Once a Year" (Amos Milburn)
   Highest chart position: #21 R&B (1960), #78 Pop (1961)
   Recorded September 21, 1960, Cincinnati, OH
   
   Charles Brown is remembered for many accomplishments - among them, introducing the smooth, jazz-inflected "West Coast Blues" sound on his 1945 smash "Driftin' Blues," and recording what some consider to be the first Christmas R&B song with 1947's "Merry Christmas Baby," which has since been covered by scores of rock and blues artists. But this is the better Yuletide song, recorded for Cincinnati's King label and recently gaining exponentially in popularity over its own bland covers (including the Eagles, who took their version to the Top 40 in 1978). With its Greek Chorus of church bells, Brown's low-key but still palpable sadness, the world's sweetest and most economically profound guitar solo, and ironically uplifting ending, this song has become a R&B standard for those fighting off holiday depression. In fact, even though it was recorded in Cincinnati, generations of New Orleanians have somehow embraced this song as their own: to many in the city, Christmas just isn't Christmas until these bells start ringing. [buy]
5. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) (Darlene Love, 1963) [close]
   Philles 119 b/w "Harry And Milt Meet Hal B."
   Highest chart position: none (1963)
   Recorded August 1963, Los Angeles, CA
   
   As the one original song on what may be the greatest Christmas rock album of all time, this had to make the cut, even if the album and single therein didn't even make a dent on the pop charts in late 1963. (Radio played only the most somber, quiet, and reverent holiday music in the weeks after the JFK assassination.) Originally, this song - one of the saddest and most plaintive pleas in Xmas music history, although you'd never know it from the arrangement - was meant to be sung by Ronnie Spector, but when she couldn't quite put it across, Darlene Love was called in for what should have been her long-deserved starmaking hit single. Written by the famous Barry-Greenwich team and given the Wall of Sound treatment, it stands as a testimonial to the Teen Tycoon and his (Wrecking) crew at the height of their powers. In fact, Spector enjoyed Leon Russell's piano part near the end so much, he ran into the studio and gave him a hundred bucks on the spot. Talk about a Christmas bonus! [buy]
6. White Christmas (The Drifters, 1954) [close]
   Atlantic 1048 b/w "The Bells Of St. Mary's"
   Highest chart position: #2 R&B (1954)
   Recorded February 4, 1954, New York, NY
   
   Unlike most Christmas classics, which are recorded in the summer or fall, this one was actually waxed the previous winter, partly because that's when twin leaders Bill Pinkney (bass) and Clyde McPhatter (tenor) thought of the arrangement, but possibly also because Atlantic was worried about how composer Irving Berlin would react to this decidedly unorthodox treatment of The Biggest Hit Of All Time. They needn't have worried, as it turned out - he loved it. So did the public, who brought this seasonal smash back to the radio more often in its time than any other song on our countdown: seven appearances on the pop and rhythm and blues charts from 1954-1962, including two separate entries in the R&B Top Ten. Unfortunately, Elvis himself was enamored of this version, and when he released his similar take on the standard, Berlin was so upset he actively fought to prevent its release. Which only proves what a polarizing influence The King really was. [buy]
7. Run Rudolph Run (Chuck Berry, 1958) [close]
   Chess 1714 b/w "Merry Christmas Baby"
   Highest chart position: #69 US (1958)
   Recorded August 1958, Chicago, IL
   
   Although it's now co-credited to Johnny Marks, that almost certainly has to do with Chuck's unlicensed use of Marks' classic Rudolph character - this is pure Berry, plain and simple, a straight rocker in the style of his "Sweet Little Rock And Roller" or "Little Queenie." This song, which tanked on release but has gained a huge following over the years, especially among Chuck fanatics, is the first known rock and roll song to mention the word "freeway" (a new concept in '58). It also evinces a typically Fifties brand of American commercialism - the boy in his song is dying for a rock and roll guitar for Christmas. And it's certainly the only holiday classic to add a tenth reindeer to the mix, warning Rudolph that "Randolph ain't too far behind." Randolph? Who's Randolph? [buy]
8. Santa Baby (Eartha Kitt, 1953) [close]
   RCA 475502 b/w "Under The Bridges Of Paris"
   Highest chart position: #4 US (1953)
   Recorded July 1953, New York, NY
   
   Eartha Kitt was already a respected dancer, film star, and Broadway actress when RCA gave her a recording contract in 1953 - but finding a song that would fit her incredibly sultry voice without getting banned from radio was a difficult task in those conservative times. The label solved the problem in two ways: "C'est Si Bon," a come-on which sported French lyrics that made it sound naughtier than it was, and "Santa Baby," a novelty song (co-written by Joan Javits, niece of US Senator Jacob) about a girl who's apparently been really good all year. Eartha's voice was almost uncomfortably erotic, but the words she wrapped it around proved cute enough to get past the censors. And while "C'est Si Bon" made her a recording star in the summer of 1953, "Santa Baby" ensured her iconic status forever. [buy]
9. The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You) (Nat King Cole, 1946) [close]
   "The Christmas Song," Nat King Cole Capitol 311 (78) b/w "In The Cool Of Evening"
   Highest chart position: #3 US (1946)
   Recorded May 1946, Hollywood, CA
   
   There are no less than four versions of this standard recorded by Cole from 1946 to 1961, some credited to his King Cole Trio and some to himself solo. Whichever version you listen to is largely academic, since this Mel Tormé-penned hit is similar in each incarnation. As for the song's inception, the 19-year-old Tormé visited the Los Angeles home of songwriting partner Bob Wells in the middle of a scorching July and saw the opening lines written on a pad. Turns out Wells was just trying to write down images that would cool him off, but Tormé insisted that this was a standard in the making. Half an hour later, he was proven right. [buy]
10. White Christmas (Bing Crosby, 1947) [close]
    Decca 23778 (78) b/w "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"
    Highest chart position: #1 US (1942, 1945, 1946)
    Recorded March 19, 1947, Hollywood, CA
    
    Songwriter Irving Berlin knew he had something special the morning after he completed work on this song, declaring it "the best song anybody's ever written." It's certainly the most popular song anyone's ever written or recorded, though the original lyrics had an extraneous verse that revealed the subject as a Los Angeleno pining for the snow back home. Wisely, Berlin lopped it off, leaving just the chorus - though written just before the US entered WWII, it eventually took off into the stratosphere after lonely, homesick GIs found it evoked the exact mood they were experiencing. How popular is this song? Well, the version you're used to hearing isn't even the original... the pressing plant had so many orders for the first 1942 recording that, just five years later, the master was virtually destroyed from overuse! So Bing, his vocalists, and orchestra headed back into the studio to replicate it perfectly. [buy]
11. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (Gene Autry, 1949) [close]
    Columbia 38610 (78) b/w "If It Doesn't Snow On Christmas"
    Highest chart position: #1, one week (1949)
    Recorded June 27, 1949, Hollywood, CA
    
    Funny how so many of our treasured Christmas stories are the direct result of advertising campaigns. When the massively popular Montgomery Ward chain of department stores needed a coloring book of their own to sell at Christmas, they bought up a story copywriter Robert L. May had written for his daughter, supposedly based on his own outcast experiences as a scrawny kid. The public ate it up, and May's brother-in-law Johnny Marks eventually crafted a song around the tale. Cowboy crooner Autry had to be convinced to wax the original in 1949, but it turned out to be a good decision: as far as holiday favorites go, only "White Christmas" has sold more copies. [buy]
12. The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late) (David Seville & the Chipmunks, 1958) [close]
    

    Liberty 55168 b/w "Almost Good"
    Highest chart position: #1, four weeks (1958)
    Recorded July 1964, New York, NY

    Supposedly, songwriter David Saville (who'd already scored a hit writing Rosemary Clooney's "Come On-A My House" with playwright William Saroyan) was inspired to write this charming/annoying novelty after his son, Adam, kept asking him when Christmas would get here. It's likely that Seville, who'd already hit the charts on his own with "Witch Doctor," wanted to find a way to utilize his tape-speeding routine again the way he did on the follow-up, "The Bird On My Head." This time, he invented three characters to lead in song - Alvin, Simon, and Theodore (named after his label's record executives). The rest is history. [buy]

13. A Holly Jolly Christmas (Burl Ives, 1964) [close]
    Decca 31695 b/w "Snow For Johnny"
    Highest chart position: #13 US (1964)
    Recorded July 1964, New York, NY
    
    Songwriter Johnny Marks had already created a modern-day Christmas classic with "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer," a song that proved so popular the stop-motion animators over at Rankin-Bass decided to create a half-hour TV special around it in order to expand on the new myth. Grandfatherly folk icon Burl Ives was brought in for star power, to play the narrator, Sam the Snowman, and take over several songs originally slated for the character of Yukon Cornelius. One was "Silver And Gold"; the other was this seasonal perennial, one of the happiest and most infectious Christmas songs to ever crack the Top 40. [buy]
14. Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town (Bruce Springsteen, 1975) [close]
    Columbia 38-05728; b-side of "My Hometown"
    Highest chart position: #6 US (1985)
    Recorded December 12, 1975, Greenvale, NY (C.W. Post College)
    
    As history's greatest bar band, the E Street Band naturally likes to drag out the crowd-pleasers, which in this case means a holiday favorite or two. Add to that Springsteen's oft-stated love for Spectorian production, and it makes sense that they'd cover the Ronettes' arrangement of this classic (first sung by Eddie Cantor way back in 1934!). Given that The Boss was at his absolute performance peak around the time, it was a wise choice - but this song, like his earlier "Fever," was originally a bootleg copy, and a hit on rock stations years before it was officially released. The E Street Band swings it more than the Spector version, (and ups the drama somehow even further), but you really have to love Bruce working the audience best of all: "Everyone out there been good this year? Ohhh, that's not many! You guys are in trouble!" [buy]
15. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (Judy Garland, 1944) [close]
    Decca DA-3360 (78) b/w "The Boy Next Door"
    Highest chart position: #2 US (1945)
    Recorded April 20, 1944, Hollywood, CA
    
    During World War II, the Christmas holiday became a totem of sorts for homesick sailors thousands of miles from their homeland, shivering in a foxhole. So there are several Christmas classics from this period that seek to keep the home fires burning, as it were, most notably two Bing Crosby perennials: "I'll Be Home For Christmas" ("if only in my dreams") and, natch, Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" (originally written about a snowless holiday in Los Angeles, but never you mind). Most potentially depressing of them all - and therefore most poignant - is this song, first popularized by Judy in the 1943 film Meet Me In St. Louis. The first couplet, which follows the title with the line "It may be your last," was loathed by Garland, especially seeing as how she was singing it to a little girl in the film. It was since changed to "Let your heart be light." Much later, Frank Sinatra persuaded the songwriter to change the second-to-last line, "Until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow," to "Hang a shining star upon the highest bough." But that second change was probably unnecessary; the real message of the song is that Christmas comes and goes whether things are perfect or horrible, and so you may as well enjoy the holiday while you have it. (In fact, James Taylor's version, featuring the original "muddled" lyrics, got lots of airplay the Christmas after the 9/11 attacks.) [buy]
16. Sleigh Ride (The Ventures, 1965) [close]
    from the album "The Ventures Christmas Album," Dolton BLP 2038
    Highest chart position: #9 US (1965)
    Recorded October 1965, Seattle, WA
    
    You may prefer your original Arthur Fiedler instrumental version, or Johnny Mathis' famous vocal run, or even the Spectorized version by the Ronettes, with its famous "Ring-a-ling-a-ling Ding-dong-ding" backups, but this version by the Ventures must be the best rock instrumental version ever recorded, cleverly morphing in and out of their signature hit, "Walk, Don't Run." In fact, this version of "Walk" rocks a little harder and is a little more self-assured than its original, making this a good example of how to kill two Christmas geese with one stone, as it were. Yet it still manages to evoke the Christmas spirit, sleigh bells and all, even if this is more suited to taking "the road before us" in a '32 Ford Coupe. And if you enjoy this, wait till you hear the Ventures Christmas Album versions of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" being birthed from The Beatles' "I Feel Fine," or "Frosty The Snowman" coming out of a fifth of "Tequila"! [buy]
17. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) (John Lennon and Yoko Ono, 1971) [close]
    Apple 1842 b/w "Listen, The Snow Is Falling"
    Highest chart position: #3 US (1971); #2 UK (1980)
    Recorded October 28th, 1971, New York, NY
    
    Released in the US in 1971 (and a year later in Britain due to publishing issues), this big-shouldered holiday ballad has a history that goes back a few hundred years: the English folk ballad "Skewball," about a race between two horses, was later brought into the American South as "Stewball," where folk act the Greenbriar Boys altered it for their 1958 rendition. It's most likely here that John picked up, unconsciously or not, the melody for this holiday favorite, which is pumped up to superhuman size by legendary rock producer Phil Spector, as per John's wish that he get to replicate the sound of Phil's classic A Christmas Gift For You album of 1963. The sentiment, however, was wholly original - a virtual repeat of the couple's 1969 Christmas slogan that insisted the right to wage war could be taken away from a government virtually overnight. It's a sentiment that has, like the melody, somehow become fashionable all over again. [buy]
18. Step Into Christmas (Elton John, 1973) [close]
    MCA 65018 (US), DJS 290 (UK); b/w "Ho! Ho! Ho! (Who'd Be A Turkey At Christmas)"
    Highest chart position: #24 UK (1973)
    Recorded November 1973, London, England
    
    Originally, Captain Fantastic wanted to thank his fans for being so good to him in 1973 - perhaps the most successful year any one artist ever had, outside of Michael Jackson ten years later - by releasing a fans-only joke record, something intimate and fun and frivolous like the Beatles had done every year with their famous fan club-exclusive discs. Then Elton's writing partner, Bernie Taupin, suggested "we do a good one," according to Elton himself, "and spoilt everything." The resultant single, rush-recorded and released for the season, ironically made barely a dent in the UK charts (and no noise whatsoever in the States), but that was due largely to John's already-total domination of the radio, not any lack of quality in the single. Indeed, Elton was at his creative peak in '73, and if you like that classic Seventies Elton sound, you're well advised to "hop aboard the turntable," or, these days, iTunes window, and step into Christmas with him. [buy]
19. Merry Christmas Baby (Otis Redding, 1968) [close]
    b-side of "White Christmas," Atco 6631
    Highest chart position: #9 US R&B (1968)
    Recorded February 8, 1967, Memphis, TN
    
    Charles Brown first scored with this, considered by many to be the ultimate blues Christmas song, so it only makes sense that Otis, rawest of the Sixties soul singers, should be the one to cover it best. However, Redding's raw emotions weren't all tortured, and this is that rarity in the blues genre: a genuinely happy song. So there's also a great bit of joy here; Brown sounded sated and smooth, but Otis sounds like he wants to testify about what a great holiday he's been having (and, more to the point, the wonderfully generous girl in his life), literally laughing about all her, um, "presents." [buy]
20. Frosty The Snowman (The Ronettes, 1963) [close]
    from the album "A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector," Philles 4005
    Highest chart position: #13 US (1963)
    Recorded August 1963, Los Angeles, CA
    
    There are countless recorded versions of this standard, written by Jack Rollins and Steve Nelson in 1950 as a direct attempt to create a new "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer." But it was with Phil Spector's famous patented "Wall Of Sound" that this Snowman really came to life - it somehow rocks, with the famous L.A. "Wrecking Crew" sessionmen walloping away and Ronnie Spector herself applying her sultry voice (yet, this time, adding a distinct Brenda Lee-style nasality, possibly to drive home the seasonal selling points). It's also the song the boys celebrate the Lufthansa heist to in Goodfellas. [ buy]
21. The Little Drummer Boy (Harry Simeone Chorale, 1958) [close]
    20th Century Fox 121 b/w "Die Lorelei"
    Highest chart position: #13 US & UK (1958)
    Recorded October 1958, New York, NY
    
    The Bing Crosby / David Bowie version of this classic, from a mid-Seventies Christmas special, remains the favorite these days, but the pop-culture joke (and the stagy post-hippie love vibes of the added song) wears more thin every year. This 1958 version, while not the original, is still the standard, having hit the Top 40 for five straight Christmases in a row (a record unequaled in modern chart history - not even Bing could pull that off). It has something to do with the loveliness of the tune, taken from ancient Czech folksong, and the unique view of the Nativity, translated back in 1941. But Simeone's chorales were always known for their holiness, and since this is a holy song about a holy moment, it fits - Harry even recorded this one in a Greenwich Village cathedral to give it the proper hushed respect. [buy]
22. Christmas Medley (Salsoul Orchestra, 1976) [close]
    Salsoul 12D-2053 b/w "New Year's Medley"
    Highest chart position: #38 R&B (1977); #48 Pop (1978)
    Recorded October 6, 1976, New York, NY
    
    Okay, maybe you still hate disco. But would it help to know that Salsoul Orchestra leader Vincent Montana, Jr. started out as a Philly jazzbo, jamming with Bird and Getz and Sarah Vaughan, before forming this orchestral blend of funk, soul, and Latin rhythms? No? Not even if you knew that Montana and many of the Orchestra's mainstays were responsible for the "Philly Soul" sound on classic Spinners and O'Jays cuts? Well, then you'll have to leave the room when this monster is played, a 12-minute, 13-song juggernaut that practically demands your jolliness, and a perennial candidate for Best Christmas Medley of All Time. (And, as the original sleeve proclaimed, you can dance your ass off to it.) [buy]
23. This Christmas (Donny Hathaway, 1970) [close]
    Atco 6799; b-side of "Be There"
    Highest chart position: #11 US (1972)
    Recorded July 1970, New York, NY
    
    At this point, it's practically the official modern R&B Christmas anthem, but when first released in 1970, it went almost completely ignored - a typical fate for Hathaway, a criminally underappreciated soul-jazz artist whose biggest notice came on the peripheral of other, bigger successes (his duets with Roberta Flack on "Where Is The Love" and "The Closer I Get To You," his theme song for the TV show Maude, hip-hop's endless sampling of "The Ghetto," countless artists' covers of his original "A Song For You"). But since his questionable, tragic early demise in 1979, this song has become his main calling card, and it's easy to see why: not only is it the first major Christmas tune to not even attempt crossover success outside its market, it sparkles with the promise of not only the season, but of new love. ("Hang all the mistletoe / I'm gonna get to know you better.") [buy]
24. Pretty Paper (Roy Orbison, 1963) [close]
    Monument 803 b/w "Beautiful Dreamer"
    Highest chart position: #15 US (1963), #6 UK (1964)
    Recorded September 1963, Nashville, TN
    
    Trust Willie Nelson, then a successful songwriter but relatively unknown performer, to pen a Christmas classic that puts the focus on those who can't afford the basic luxuries of the season; trust the Big O, then in his monumental Monument prime, to make the sentiment seem holiday-friendly anyway. Of course, the first verse is a red herring that shuts your mind off: "Pretty paper, pretty ribbons of blue / wrap your presents to your darling from you," but we can also thank / blame that big countrypolitan sound for lulling us into complacency. Then again, when you finally do discover the message, the pretty aural paper around this package gives the song much of its ironic thrust. [buy]
25. Christmas Time Is Here (Vince Guaraldi Trio, 1965) [close]
    from the original soundtrack album "A Charlie Brown Christmas," Fantasy 8431
    Highest chart position: #68 Digital (2005)
    Recorded July 1965, San Francisco, CA
    
    Pick your choice of either the vocal version (with this veteran jazz pianist backed by the cast of the Peanuts special) or the more ambitious, more thoughtful six-minute instrumental version - either way, this is the perfect soundtrack to not just those lovably neurotic children, but the season itself. Vince's trio is stubbornly rhythmic yet always relaxed, making this a great comedown for the after-festivities, when the annoying relatives are gone, the screechy kids have burned themselves out, and you're reflecting in front of the fire. "Oh, that we could always see / such spirit through the year," indeed. (Also used in the movie The Royal Tenenbaums and as the "sad" theme on the TV show Arrested Development.) [buy]
26. Christmas Comes But Once A Year (Amos Milburn, 1960) [close]
    King 5405; b-side of Charles Brown's "Please Come Home For Christmas"
    Highest chart position: #21 R&B (1960), #78 Pop (1961)
    Recorded September 21, 1960, Cincinnati, OH
    
    Some Christmas songs ignore the commercial madness and secular trappings that get built up around the holiday ("Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime"), some decry it (Roy Orbison's "Pretty Paper") and some embrace it ("Silver Bells," recorded by just about everybody). But this single, the b-side of what may well be the greatest Christmas 45 of all time, takes an bluesman's (that is, honest) approach to the season: this is all a lot of work, but we may as well enjoy it now. The music matches that feeling note for note, a West Coast-style blues from the original "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" man that goes down as smooth as that last Jack-and-Coke you have just after you're done assembling and inserting batteries into everything. [buy]
27. Little Saint Nick (Beach Boys, 1963) [close]
    Capitol 5096 b/w "The Lord's Prayer"
    Highest chart position: #3 (1963)
    Recorded October 20, 1963, Los Angeles, CA
    
    This unlikely Christmas ditty, created by a group associated with a bunch of things you can never do in the wintertime, would seem like a novelty if not for the sheer authority with which Brian Wilson was starting to command in the studio - here, jolly old St. Nicholas works on his cherry ride all year so that he can show off to the ho-dads at Christmastime. This is the same territory Cheech and Chong would cover for la raza some years later in "Santa Claus And His Old Lady," right down to the description of said sleigh as "Candy Apple Red." Funny stuff, but it turns out that the Spectorian production of Wilson and the Four Freshman-inspired harmonies of the Boys work perfectly for Christmas music - proven by the original album this appears on, which devotes a whole side to traditional Christmas carols. Even hot-rodders love the holiday mainstays. [buy]
28. Merry Xmas Everybody (Slade, 1973) [close]
    Polydor 2058 422 b/w "Don't Blame Me"
    Highest chart position: #1 UK (1973)
    Recorded July 1973, New York, NY
    
    In the UK, as some of you know, having the Number One song on Christmas is a financial windfall and a prestigious honor indeed. Most folks don't know, however, that the annual sales contest was kicked off in 1973, when rival glam warriors Slade and Wizzard decided to have it out with competing holiday singles. Not only did Slade (best known stateside for the original version of Quiet Riot's "Cum On Feel The Noize") win this particular battle, the modern beerhall chant in question has become a holiday standard on the order of "White Christmas," at least in old Blighty. Ironic, then, that the song was actually recorded in the middle of the summer, in New York City - and featuring John Lennon's harmonium! [buy]
29. Someday at Christmas (Stevie Wonder, 1966) [close]
    Tamla 54142 b/w "The Miracles of Christmas"
    Highest chart position: #24 (1966)
    Recorded August 1966, Detroit, MI
    
    Leave it to Stevie Wonder - just then starting to throw the "Little" moniker off his career and find his own, nearly-adult voice - to beat even John Lennon to the Christmas anti-war song. It wasn't exactly commercial to do such a thing in '66, either, even with the Vietnam backlash gaining momentum, but the words (which Stevie didn't write) also name check poverty, hunger, and equality, tying pretty much all of the Sixties movements together into the Christian ideal the season is supposed to represent. A little naive, perhaps, and painted in broad strokes - but then, so was Lennon's "Imagine." And it's similarly levelheaded about how long Utopia might take, describing it as something that "May be not in time for you and me." Heavy stuff for a 16-year-old, even a genius one. [buy]
30. Feliz Navidad (Jose Feliciano, 1970) [close]
    RCA 447 0936 b/w "The Little Drummer Boy"
    Highest chart position: #70 (1998)
    Recorded August 1970, Los Angeles
    
    Decades before folks got upset at the idea of singing the US National Anthem in Spanish, Puerto Rican jazz-folk legend Jose Feliciano caused a major stir with his rendition at the '68 World Series in Detroit. Not because he performed it in Spanish - he didn't. But his smooth, sexy style was alien enough. Nevertheless, he soon brought America around to that style, first with his bizarre rendition of the Doors' "Light My Fire" and then with this original bilingual wish for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. RCA shelved the album of Jose-filtered holiday favorites this was supposed to be the leadoff single for - probably for fear of offending Middle America all over again - but it's gotten so much airplay since then that when the CD was finally released in 1998, this song made the charts anyway. [buy]
31. Santa Claus Is Watching You (Ray Stevens, 1962) [close]
    Mercury 72058 b/w "Loved And Lost"
    Highest chart position: #45 US (1962)
    Recorded June 26, 1962, Nashville, TN
    
    In the Fifties, the novelty records genre and the Christmas music genre were often subsets of one another - the chance to lampoon the commercialized, Santafied holiday was perfectly balanced with the need to observe, with quiet dignity, the holiest of holy days. That made for a very polarized listening experience: would anyone be able to record a song like this, the Yuletide follow-up to the equally impolitic "Ahab The Arab," which hit earlier that year, and not be accused of mocking the sacred? Hard to say, but Stevens Fifties' style - an exaggerated parody of rockabilly music and hepcat slang, replete with morning-zoo voices - fits the silliness and hyperparanoia of childhood like a big cartoon glove; witness the children running around screaming "He's everywhere! He's everywhere!" To quote Calvin (the comic icon, not the theologian): "Santa Claus: Kindly old elf, or CIA spook?" [buy]
32. It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas (Perry Como, 1951) [close]
    RCA Victor 47-4314 / 20-4314 b/w "There Is No Christmas Like a Home Christmas"
    Highest chart position: #12 US (1951)
    Recorded September 18, 1951, New York City, NY
    
    It's been largely forgotten to history, but Perry Como was once synonymous with Christmas - from 1948 to 1994 (!), he hosted several Yuletide TV specials that ranked up there with Bing Crosby and Andy Williams' as the epitome of holiday warmth. And you could hardly pick a better persona to sing about the holiday: with his gentle voice, laid-back style, genial mood, and everpresent cardigan sweaters, he was the living embodiment of the Christmas we wish we had, the calm, destressed, joyous celebration. He's so smooth he's barely there. This standard, composed by The Music Man author Meredith Willson back in 1951, has since been covered by hundreds, including Bing himself and Johnny Mathis. But the song is forever Como. [buy]
33. Wonderful Christmastime (Paul McCartney, 1979) [close]
    Columbia 1-11162 / Parlophone R6029 b/w "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reggae"
    Highest chart position: #6 UK (1979)
    Recorded July 1979, Glasgow, Scotland
    
    Like a lot of Christmas songs, you either love this one or hate it... leave it to Paul to make a holiday favorite that actually ups the ante on cheeriness, and his traditionalist streak is borne out in the "ding dong, ding dong" chorus of phony schoolchildren (one that actually betters former bandmate George's own song of the same name). It's also dated, like a lot of Christmas songs - this was recorded during the sessions for Paul's McCartney II album, where he once again retreated to his farm and laid down all the tracks himself, but this time he was experimenting with the new electropop movement, which is why that weird boinging sound crops up through the song. The instrument in question, by the way, is a primitive analog synth called a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, which you might also recognize from Kim Carnes' "Bette Davis Eyes" and the Doobie Brothers' "What A Fool Believes." [buy]
34. Merry Christmas Darling (The Carpenters, 1970) [close]
    A&M 1236 b/w "Mr. Guder"
    Highest chart position: #45 UK (1970)
    Recorded June 1970, August 1978, Hollywood, CA
    
    If this sounds like an artifact from an earlier time, it sort of is - this gentle, warm ballad of longing was actually written back in 1946 by one Frank Pooler, a lovestruck young teen who went on to become musical director at California State University at Long Beach. When brother-sister duo Karen and Richard Carpenter attended "The Beach" in the mid-Sixties, their instructor Pooler played the song for them, remarking that he'd never been happy with the melody. Richard reworked it and re-recorded it in 1970, and it was rush-released for the holidays, but not a huge hit. Over the years, it's become a standard, however, due perhaps in part to a re-recording of Karen's lead vocal in 1978 - apparently she was dissatisfied with her dry run, too. [buy]
35. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (Jimmy Boyd, 1952) [close]
    Columbia MJV-152 b/w "Thumbelina"
    Highest chart position: #1 Pop (1952)
    Recorded July 15, 1952, Hollywood, CA
    
    Jimmy Boyd was arguably the singing child star of the early 1950s, a country-pop artist in the style of Teresa Brewer (and, later, Brenda Lee) who influenced everyone from Kris Kristofferson to Bobby Darin. Yet it's this 1952 hit he's most remembered for, a cute novelty given him by Mitch Miller at Columbia about a kid who can't understand why Mommy is cheating on Daddy with Santa! It seems innocuous now, but the Catholic Church actually managed to get this one banned in several major markets (including that old standby, Boston), claiming that the implication - however mistaken - was all wrong for a religious holiday. It took a special conference between the 13-year-old Boyd and the Council of Churches to clear the song in those markets, where it finally enjoyed success year after year. [buy]
36. All I Want For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth) (Spike Jones, 1949) [close]
    RCA 47-4315 b/w "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer"
    Highest chart position: #1 Pop (1949)
    Recorded December 6, 1948, Hollywood, CA
    
    When, on December 5, 1944, music teacher Don Gardner asked his elementary-school class what they wanted for Christmas, he couldn't help but notice that most of them were lisping, the result of a few front "baby teeth" missing. Inspired, he dashed off this song, which despite having been written in only half an hour, remains known (and covered) over 60 years later. Gardner himself found the song silly, but that's sort of the point: to hear a cute kid (or, in Spike Jones' original hit recording, a grownup pretending to be a cute kid) lisping about how he can't whistle... well, like all institutions, it sort of demands you bring something of yourself to it. George Strait and Mariah Carey did, in their cover versions, but Nat King Cole in particular swings it royally on his! [buy]
37. Mary's Boy Child (Harry Belafonte, 1956) [close]
    RCA 47-6735 b/w "Venezuela"
    Highest chart position: #12 Pop (1956)
    Recorded July 20, 1956, Hollywood, CA
    
    Although it was presented in a "Negro" dialect, in keeping with Belafonte's early image as a calypso islander, this gentle, wonderfully understated hymn was actually written by the Julliard-trained songwriter Jester Hairston, who would later popularize the African-American spiritual "Amen" during the civil rights movement. Like that perennial, this one survives due to its sheer simplicity: it's a quiet retelling of the birth of Jesus, including the manger and how he got there. And while it only reached #12 in the US, "Mary's Boy Child" was a massive hit in the UK, sitting atop the charts for nine weeks and inspiring an even bigger, stranger dance version in the late Seventies by the group Boney M. [buy]
38. What Are You Doing New Year's Eve? (The Orioles, 1949) [close]
    Jubilee 5017 b/w "(It's Gonna Be A) Lonely Christmas"
    Highest chart position: #9 Pop (1949)
    Recorded September 25, 1949, Baltimore, Maryland
    
    Maybe it is much too early in the game, as the song says, to call this a Christmas number, especially when there are already so few songs dedicated to the last day of the year. But the two holidays were already inextricably linked when Sonny Til and company cut this prime slice of vocal group heaven back in the late forties. Even if you aren't aware just how historically important the Orioles were in bridging the gap between the Ink Spots and the Drifters, say, anyone can still appreciate the need to start angling for your New Year's date at the Christmas celebration. And who could refuse such a smooth offer? [buy]
39. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! (Dean Martin, 1959) [close]
    from the album "A Winter Romance," Capitol (S)T-1285
    Recorded August 6, 1959, Hollywood, CA
    
    It's not actually a Christmas song at all, this swingin' Sammy Cahn number about bundling up with your snow bunny of choice when the weather gets too rough. But it's been around now for a half-century in so many versions - from Vaughn Monroe's 1946 original to Jessica Simpson's recent travesty - that it seems like a holiday classic, even to those of us from warmer climes. And who better to issue such a seductive, martini-hour version of the offer than the swingingest member of the Rat Pack? Sure, "Baby, It's Cold Outside" works almost as well, but you need two to really pull that off... besides, that seems more like an emotional tug of war than this friendly (but maybe not so innocent) observation. [buy]
40. Christmas Time Is Here Again (The Beatles, 1967) [close]
    UK: Parlophone R6422 / US: Apple NR-58497; b-side to "Free As A Bird"
    Recorded December 6, 1966 and November 28, 1967 in London, England
    
    Oddly enough, one of the most positive bands to ever grace their airwaves never recorded an official Christmas song per se, even though most of their pop contemporaries - from the Beach Boys to the Four Seasons - did. Perhaps it had something to do with John's dim view of religion, but then how do we explain his eventual desire to "make a Phil Spector Christmas record" with "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)"? Who knows. Maybe the band were too busy making their annual fan club Christmas records, largely improvised affairs featuring snatches of improvised skits and silly off-the-cuff jams.
    
    It's the 1967 fan club record (unavailable to the general public) that this giddy little ditty comes from; it's not much of a song, granted, but the Fab Four and everyone's favorite time of the year are such a natural fit, who cares? Especially with Ringo slamming away, all four of the lads wishing us a Merry Crimble, and John closing, as only he could do, with a nonsense poem that sounds at once daft and heartfelt? We can thank the release of the '95 Anthology single "Free As A Bird" for rescuing this song, cutting out most of the extemporaneous bits, and making a single out of it. In its own way, this b-side is as much of an event as the "reunion" on the flip. Full of good cheer, this! [buy]

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