Songs & Singles: H

• Hallelujah, Oh Yeah (Claudia Barrie, aka Claudja Barry, 1973)
• Hang An Ornament (Grandaddy & Band of Horses, 2014)
• Hang Them On The Tree (June Christy, 1961)
• Hang Up The Baby's Stocking (Lulu Belle & Scotty, 1964)
• Hanukkah And Christmas Hand In Hand (Huffamoose, circa 2003)
• Hanukkah Homeboy (Doc Mo Shé, 1992)
• Hanukkah Stomp (The Tambourines & Weekend Voodoo, 2023)
• Happiest Christmas Tree
  • Nat King Cole (1959)
  • Carly Jamison (2014)
• Happiest Time Of The Year (Candypants, 2003) [close]

  Candypants were a quirky, short-lived, Los Angeles-based indie pop group led by vocalist Lisa Jenio, who had previously sung with the Pussywillows, the Negro Problem, and the Stool Pigeons. Outside of a few odd tracks, the group released just one album - a self-titled effort in 2000 on Sympathy For The Record Industry - and one single. And, they waited three years to release it - "The Happiest Time Of The Year," a marvelous Christmas song on limited edition 7-inch red vinyl.

  Produced by Darian Sahanaja (Wondermints, Brian Wilson), "The Happiest Time Of The Year" is a moody original song telling the tale of Lisa's lonely Christmas. "Away in a manger is where I'd rather be," she moans, "so I don't have to see that stupid Christmas tree." Almost as good, "The Happiest Time Of The Year" is backed with a spirited cover of "Cold, Cold Winter," an obscure Pixies Three track (b-side of "442 Glenwood Avenue," a 1963 single).

  Regardless, it's impossible to ignore the fact that the artwork of both releases featured Jenio's sassy backside swathed in sexy underwear - and the LP version also featured her frontside! It's also hard to miss that on "The Happiest Time Of The Year" she's holding a sprig of mistletoe above her ass. Draw your own conclusions....

  "The Happiest Time Of The Year" remained a hipper-than-thou vinyl rarity until 2017, when the band released it to Amazon and other digital outlets - albeit without its delectable cover art. In 2020, Candypants regrouped to release some new singles, followed by the reissue of "The Happiest Time Of The Year" on Bandcamp - with its original sleeve restored, but without its great b-side. Intrepid consumers will have to put the pieces together themselves.

• Happiest Time Of The Year (Helen Love, 1993)
• Happy Birthday, Jesus (Carolyn Hester, 1983)
• Happy Birthday, Guadalupe! (The Killers, 2009)
• Happy Birthday To You, Our Lord (Ray Price, 1969)
• Happy Christmas (Pretenders, 1995)
• Happy Christmas (Toots & The Maytals, 1972)
• Happy Christmas (Washington & Clarke, 1974)
• Happy Christmas 1969 (Beatles, 1969)
• Happy Christmas (War Is Over) - see Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
• Happy Hanukkah (Matisyahu, 2012)
• Happy Holiday
  • Bing Crosby (1942)
  • Peggy Lee (1965)
• Happy Holiday (Marcella Detroit of Shakespeare's Sister, 2011)
• Happy Holiday/The Holiday Season (medley) (Andy Williams, 1963)
• Happy Holidays (Robbie Robertson, 2019)
• Happy Holidays (Ohio Players, 1975)
• Happy Holidays To You (Whispers, 1978)
• Happy Holidays Y'all (Robert Earl Keen, 1998)
• Happy Holidaze (The Tubes, 1982)
• Happy New Year (ABBA, 1980)
• Happy New Year (Nat King Cole, 1964)
• Happy New Year (Lightnin' Hopkins, 1953)
• Happy New Year (Spike Jones & His City Slickers, 1948)
• Happy New Year Baby (Jo-Ann Campbell, 1958) [close]

  Jo Ann Campbell's 1958 Gone Records single "Happy New Year Baby" is very early example of the bright "Brill Building" pop that would dominate the radio a few years hence - before being blown out of the water by the Beatles. It sounds a lot like what we now call the "girl group" sound, sans the group. It's also one of the earliest recorded songs written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, who could arguably be accused of ripping off the Tune Weavers' 1957 hit, "Happy, Happy Birthday Baby." Of course, Dodie Stevens actually adapted that song as "Merry, Merry Christmas Baby" in 1960.

  "Happy New Year Baby" came out about the same time that Sedaka launched his solo career with "The Diary," a Top 20 hit. "Happy New Year Baby," however, was a flop, though Jo Ann Campbell would go on to have a few minor hits, including "(I'm The Girl From) Wolverton Mountain," an answer song to Claude King's big 1962 hit, and appear in a two music-oriented teen movies.

  Campbell married Troy Seals in 1964, and they briefly recorded together for Atlantic, but she soon retired from the music business. Troy was a cousin of Jimmy Seals and Dan Seals, both of whom would score lots of hits in the 1970's as members of Seals & Crofts and England Dan & John Ford Coley, respectively. Troy, meanwhile, maintained a long career as a producer, singer, and, especially, songwriter. He helped write the #1 country hits "Seven Spanish Angels" (Ray Charles and Willie Nelson, 1984) and "Lost in the Fifties Tonight" (Ronnie Milsap, 1986), and he placed hundreds of songs with artists as illustrious and varied as James Brown, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eric Clapton, Tammy Waylon Jennings, Millie Jackson, and Eric Clapton.

  "Happy New Year Baby" got included as a bonus track on the CD reissue of Jo Ann Campbell's 1959 End Records album I'm Nobody's Baby. Gone and End were both subsidiaries of Roulette Records, and you can also find "Happy New Year Baby" on the fine 1998 Roulette compilation Christmas Past. And, the song also appears on Bear Family's excellent Boogie Woogie Country Girl - which makes the good case for Campbell as an important missing link in the history of rock 'n' roll.

• Happy New Year Baby (Johnny Otis, 1947)
• Happy New Year Blues (Blind Lemon Jefferson, 1928)
• Happy New Year Darling (Lonnie Johnson, 1947)
• Happy New Year Next Year (Violent Femmes, 2015)
• Happy New Year To You! (The Qualities, 1956)
• Happy Reindeer (Dancer Prancer & Nervous, 1959)
• Happy Santa Claus (Billy Rancher & The Unreal Gods, 1981)
• Happy This Christmas (Mick Hucknall, 2011)
• Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
  • Alarm (1990)
  • Boxmasters featuring Billy Bob Thornton (2007)
  • Cranes (1995)
  • Melissa Ferrick (2009)
  • The Fray (2006)
  • Glass Tiger & Brigitte Boisjoli (2019)
  • Andrew Gold (2008)
  • John Holt (1986)
  • John & Yoko & The Plastic Ono Band (1971) Top 100 Song [close]

    Über-producer Phil Spector (read more) developed a cozy relationship with the Beatles, and after salvaging the band's final work as Let It Be, he worked with both George Harrison and John Lennon on their initial solo records. Spector was subsequently at the helm when rock's most controversial couple - Lennon and his wife, avant garde artist Yoko Ono - waxed their resplendent "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)." Given the volatile political environment and the couple's controversial recent work (such as Lennon's scathing Imagine LP), "Happy Xmas" (note the missing "Christ") was a salve for both the record buying public and a war-weary world. Released only as a single (backed with Yoko's "Listen The Snow Is Falling"), "Happy Xmas" is rarely included on Christmas collections; it is, however, available on most Lennon greatest hits packages, including Lennon Legend (1998). It is also captured on Vigotone's fab Beatles boot, Ultimate Christmas Collection (1998). [back to list]

  • Maroon 5 (2007)
  • Alanis Morissette (2020)
  • Yoko Ono & Flaming Lips (2014)
  • Polyphonic Spree (2004)
  • Sense Field (2002)
  • Shinedown (2010)
  • Wet Wet Wet (2021)
• Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
  • Chet Atkins (1961)
  • The Fall (1994)
  • Los Straitjackets (2011)
  • Styrenes (1999)
• The Hat I Got for Christmas Is Too Beeg (Mel Blanc, 1959)
• Hating You For Christmas (Everclear, 1997) [close]

  Everclear's vitriolic holiday missive "Hating You For Christmas" is - in many ways - exactly what I want in a Christmas song. That is, it is first and foremost a good song, and a good example of what the artist is capable of - in fact, it's a rewrite of the aggressively melodic title track of Everclear's third album, So Much For The Afterglow (1997). That the lyrics address the holidays is of secondary concern. Like the band's best work, "Hating You For Christmas" is loud, catchy, emotionally indulgent, and monumentally pissed off. Beginning with a sarcastic "Thanks for the Christmas card," singer/songwriter Art Alexakis imagines running into his former girlfriend at the mall. Pleasantries aside, he unloads a pile of pent-up rage on the poor lass - at her new boyfriend, her new job, her new apartment, her newfound happiness, and his own wretched, ineffectual memories of lost sexual and domestic bliss. Poor Art is left sitting around their old apartment, wallowing in self-loathing. Happy holidays!

  Everclear launched their career at Tim/Kerr Records, a Portland-based indie, but their records would soon be distributed through a joint venture with major label Capitol Records. The band had previously contributed a silly cover of Eartha Kitt's "Santa Baby" to a 1996 Los Angeles radio compilation called Kevin & Bean's Christmastime In The LBC, and it pops up routinely on albums like Alternative Rock Xmas. "Santa Baby" was also included in 1997 on an EP called Fruitcake produced by both Capitol and Tim/Kerr and distributed through the Coalition Of Independent Music Stores. But, Tim/Kerr's association with Capitol was coming to an end, and So Much For The Afterglow would be released solely through Capitol.

  For years "Hating You For Christmas" was never included on a Christmas album and never released as a single, except on a rare 7-inch jukebox issue. Instead, it was hidden at the end of the 13th track on So Much For The Afterglow, "Like A California King." When a digital edition of the album was finally released, the track was officially listed for the first time, thus making it available separately for download and streaming. In 2005, "Hating You For Christmas" appeared on a pretty nifty Canadian Christmas compilation, Plugged In For The Holidays, but it remains otherwise kind of rare.

• Have A Very Merry Christmas (Sun Kings, 2009)
• Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
  • Gregory Abbott (2014)
  • Tori Amos (1998)
  • Tony Bennett (1968)
  • Toni Braxton & Babyface (2013)
  • Phoebe Bridgers (2017)
  • Carpenters (1978)
  • Cat Power (2013)
  • Coldplay (2001)
  • Keisha Cole (2008)
  • John Denver & The Muppets (1979)
  • Greg Dulli (2018)
  • Fear (2011)
  • Julia Forham (2010)
  • Judy Garland (1944)
  • Happenings (1967)
  • Jackson 5 (1970)
  • Freedy Johnston (1994)
  • Little Big Town (2011)
  • Local H (1997)
  • Aimee Mann (2004)
  • Johnny Mathis (1969)
  • Kelly Osbourne (2003)
  • Steve Perry (2018)
  • Pretenders (1987)
  • Lou Rawls (1967) Top 100 Song
  • Sam Smith (2014)
  • Cliffie Stone (1947)
  • James Taylor (2002)
  • Mickey Thomas (2023)
  • Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots (2009)
  • Wet Wet Wet (2021)
  • Margaret Whiting (1949)
  • Wild Child (2019)
  • Lucinda Williams (2014)
  • Victoria Williams (1993)
  • Renée Zellweger & Rufus Wainwright (2019)
• Hawaiian Christmas Song (Jackofficers, 1990)
• He'll Be Coming Down The Chimney (Gene Autry, 1951)
• He's A Chubby Little Fellow (Gene Autry, 1951)
• Heartbreak Holiday (Josh Rouse, 2019)
• Heat Miser (from "Year Without A Santa Claus") (George S. Irving, 1974)
• Hello Christmas (Dion with Amy Grant, 2020)
• Hello Mr. New Year (Coolbreezers, 1957)
• Hello Santa Claus (Cecil Gant, 1950)
• Helluva Christmas (Tearaways, 2017)
• Here Comes Christmas (Remington Super 60, 2006)
• Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)
  • Gene Autry (1947) Top 100 Song
  • Bobb B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans (1963)
  • Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters (1949)
  • Doris Day (1949)
  • Esquivel with The Skip Jacks (1959)
  • Red Foley (1949)
  • Ben Kweller (2014)
  • Los Straitjackets (2002)
  • Elvis Presley (1957)
  • Dwight Yoakam (1997)
• Here Comes The Season Again (Neil Finn, 2023)
• Here Is Christmas
  • Heart (1989)
  • Lillian Axe (1992)
• Here Is My Heart For Christmas (Louis Armstrong, 1970)
• Here We Go, It's Christmas Time (Mike Viola, 2018)
• Here's A Kiss For Christmas (The Christmas Seal Song) (Sammy Davis, Jr., 1963)
• Here's What I Want On Christmas Day (Justin Love, 1984)
• Hey America (James Brown, 1970)
• Hey Lord (Suicide, 1981)
• Hey Mr. Christmas
  • Showaddywaddy (1974)
  • Vice Squad (2017)
• Hey Mr. Santa Claus (Difuser, 2012)
• Hey Mrs. Santa Claus! (Satin Chaps featuring Tony Starlight, 2014)
• Hey Santa (Flaps Down, 1994)
• Hey Santa! (Chris Isaak, 2004)
• Hey Santa (Cindy Lawson, 2022_
• Hey Santa! (Hannah Peel & Tunng, 2010)
• Hey! Santa
  • UK Subs (1987)
  • Kevin "Bloody" Wilson (1986)
• Hey Santa (I'm Not Sharin' My Baby This Christmas) (Royal Crown Revue, 1992)
• Hey Santa Claus (Chesterfield Kings, 2004)
• Hey Santa Claus (Moonglows, 1953) Top 100 Song
• Hey Skinny Santa! (Louis Prima Jr. & The Witnesses, 2021)
• Hi Fashion Christmas (Dillinger & The Brentford Harmonics, circa 1973)
• High For Christmas (Mother Fucker 666, 1996)
• Him and Christmas (Red Sky July featuring Graham Gouldman, 2017)
• Ho Ho Ho (Liz Phair, 2014)
• Ho Ho Ho (A Bow and Nothing More) (Smoking Flowers, 2010)
• Ho Ho Ho Hum (James Apollo, 2014)
• Ho Ho Ho! (Who'd Be A Turkey At Christmas) (Elton John, 1973)
• Hobby Lobby Christmas (Pony Death Ride, 2018)
• Hold It Back (The Christmas Song) (Beautiful South, 1995)
• Hold Up Holidays (Selena Garcia, 2014)
• Hold Your Tongue and Say Apple (MxPx, 2021)
• Holiday (Lil Nas X, 2020)
• Holiday (Richard Marx, 2020)
• Holiday Cramps (Hellacopters, 1999)
• Holiday For Teens (Paul & Paula, 1963)
• Holiday Hootenanny (Paul & Paula, 1963)
• Holiday Mood (Apples In Stereo, 2006)
• Holiday On Skis (Caiola & Ortolani, 1967)
• Holiday Road (from "National Lampoon's Vacation")
  • Zac Brown Band (2019)
  • Lindsey Buckingham (1983)
• Holiday Rock (Neon Trees, 2021)
• Holiday Song (Lisa Loeb, 2012)
• Holiday Spirit (The dB's, 1993) Top 100 Song [close]
  When Chris Stamey's 1985 Coyote EP, Christmas Time, was fleshed out in 1993 to a full-length East Side Digital album, one of the new songs was the dB's "Holiday Spirit." Stamey was a member of the dB's - and arguably the foundation of their high-concept power pop. But, the "Holiday Spirit" was written and sung by Peter Holsapple, the pop-savvy counterweight to Stamey's artsy eccentricity. In his hands, "Holiday Spirit" became an immediate Generation X yuletide anthem: ironic, irreverent, self-obsessed. "I've got that holiday spirit - Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" Holsapple screams over jangling guitars and a maniacal, pounding beat. In just one minute and twenty-six seconds, the band crams in three verses and three choruses of unrelenting sarcasm and sexual innuendo. Then, suddenly, it's over - efficient and brilliant, like Santa Claus himself. Christmas Time would be revised twice again, first by Collector's Choice in 2006 and then by Omnivore in 2015, but "Holiday Spirit" was wisely retained both times. [back to list]
• Holiday (What Do You Want?) (Mike Doughty with Rosanne Cash, 2011)
• Holiday-ish (Regrettes, 2019)
• Holidays R' Hell (Tuscadero, 1995)
• Holidaze (Starlings, TN, 2012)
• Holidaze (Stratocruiser, 2007)
• The Holly and the Ivy (Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits and his daughter Natalie Noone) (2007)
• Holly Jolly Christmas (from "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer")
  • Burl Ives (1964) [close]

    Burl Ives isn't very hip, a fact written into history when he turned on his fellow lefties by cooperating with the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952. As a result, he avoided blacklisting, and he went on to record a lot of holiday music during his long career, including Christmas Eve With Burl Ives (Decca, 1957), Have A Holly Jolly Christmas (Decca, 1965), and Burl Ives' Christmas Album (Columbia, 1968). Most famously, he starred as Sam Snowman in the 1964 cartoon special Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer. Johnny Marks, who wrote the title song in 1949, created a lot of new music for the show, and Ives' reading of "A Holly Jolly Christmas" is the most famous of the new songs. The hit single - released the same year - is a totally different recording with a very different arrangement, and it also served as the title song on his Decca LP, Have A Holly Jolly Christmas, the following year. Both versions can be found on one of several Best Of Burl Ives Christmas collections. Ives' three songs from the show are also found on Nickelodeon's A Classic Cartoon Christmas but, of course, a lot of folks would just go for the original TV soundtrack...

  • Old 97's (1995)
• Holly Jolly Hollywood (Wedding Present & Simone White, 2008)
• Holly Leaves And Christmas Trees (Elvis Presley, 1971)
• Holy Shit, It's Christmas! (Deer Tick, 2010)
• Holy Shit, It's Christmas! (Hot Dogs, 2004) [close]

  The Hot Dogs are obscure punk rockers from Portland, Maine, and I found their amusing little song "Holy Shit, It's Christmas" through CD Baby - which eventually stopped selling music to the public, but the five-track EP is now widely available for download. Musically, "Holy Shit, It's Christmas" sounds like the Christmas record the Dead Milkmen never (but should have) made - hard-charging, tightly-wound punk (or, as the band puts it, "loud rock at unsafe speeds"). Lyrically, the song tells the story of a depraved, drunken father who disappoints his family. "I put too much rum in the egg nog this year," laments singer Jeff Badger, and he passes out instead of playing Santa. Waking with a hangover on Christmas morning, he pleads, "Would you kids stop singing 'Deck The Halls'? Run upstairs and get Daddy's Tylenol!" With no presents to offer his children, Badger puts the blame on Saint Nick, and proffers this lame apology instead: "Sorry 'bout the stocking, here's a sock. Sorry 'bout the frosting, here's some caulk." Holy shit, indeed. (Unlikely as it might seem, this is not the same song as the one Deer Tick recorded in 2010.)

• Home For Christmas (Kate Bush, 1992)
• Home For Christmas (Danity Kane, 2006)
• Home For Christmas (Kenny Laguna, 1979)
• Home For Christmas (Last Train Home, 1997)
• Home For Christmas (The Shanes, 2011)
• Home For The Holidays (The dB's, 1987)
• Home For The Holidays (Mother's Wish For Christmas) (Richard Marks, 1969)
• Home On Christmas Day (Captain Elmo McKenzie & The Roosters, 1974)
• Homo Christmas (Pansy Division, 1992) [close]

  As one of the first openly gay punk bands, San Francisco's Pansy Division practically invented queercore. Their nail-on-the-head anthem "Homo Christmas" couldn't be louder or prouder of its sexual proclivities (or more explicit in its desires). The song is addressed to a youngster who, like many gay men, struggles for acceptance. "Your family won't give you encouragement," singer Jon Ginoli warbles, then offers, "let me give you sexual nourishment." That's as dignified as it gets, as the rest of the song finds Ginoli and his musical boy toy "licking nipples, licking nuts, putting candy canes up each other's butts." The singer commiserates, "You'll probably get sweaters, underwear, and socks, but what you really want for Christmas is a nice hard cock." Christmas is about getting what one wants, and my guess is that Ginoli grants his lover's wish - several times.

  "Homo Christmas" is from Pansy Division's 1992 debut Lookout 7-inch EP, Fem In A Black Leather Jacket, and it later appeared on Rhino's Punk Rock Christmas (1995) and the band's Essential Pansy Division (2006).

• Homemade Christmas Card (Allen & The Lads, 1966)
• Hooray For Santa Claus (from "Santa Claus Conquers The Martians")
  • Milton DeLugg & The Little Eskimos (1964)
  • Fleshtones (2008)
  • Sloppy Seconds (1992)
• Hope This Christmas (Shybits featuring Eddie Argo, 2022)
• The Hottest Christmas Eve Ever (Dan Wilson, 2014)
• How Beautiful (Heart, 1997)
• How Can Santa Come To Puerto Rico? (Ricky Vera & Steve Allen, 1953)
• How Could This Be Christmas? (Mandy Moore, 2020)
• How Do You Lie To Your Child About Santa? (Eugene Mirman and Lucy Wainwright Roche, 2022)
• How I Hate To See Christmas Come Around (Jimmy Witherspoon, 1947) Top 100 Song
• How Lovely Is Christmas (Bing Crosby, 1957)
• How To Make Gravy
  • Neil Finn & Paul Kelly (2013)
  • Paul Kelly (1996)
• Humans Are Not Worth Saving (Merry Christmas) (Michael M, 2020)
• Hurry Up Hurry Up Santa Claus (Al Jardine, 2017)

[top of page]