Songs & Singles - R - Hip Christmas Music (www.hipchristmas.com)

This index lists the essential songs (not all the songs) contained on the albums reviewed in Hip Christmas, plus singles, album tracks, or one-hit wonders not otherwise included on those albums. Whenever possible, the artist's name is linked to my review of the best Christmas album (not necessarily the only or original album) on which to find the song.

Barring that, the names will be linked to a place where you may buy the song (usually Amazon). If there's no link, it means that, to my knowledge, the song is not available on CD or MP3. Of course, the list will expand as I write more reviews. And, nothing's perfect - especially me and my crazy list. Please send additions, corrections, criticisms, and suggestions via email.

Rain On Christmas (David Sanborn, 1982)
Rain, Sleet, Snow (Paul Revere & The Raiders, 1967)
Rappin' Christmas (Cold Crew, 1982)
Real Meaning Of Christmas (Nino & The Ebb Tides, 1958)
Rebel Jesus
- Jackson Brown (1997)
- The Chieftains with Jackson Brown (1991)
- Ivan & Alyosha (2011)
- Violets (1994)
Red Bird (Lisa Mychols & Super 8, 2020)
Red Bows (For A Blue Girl) (JD McPherson, 2019)
Red Christmas (Insane Clown Posse, 1994)
Red Lights (Merry Christmas) (Dreams So Real, 1988)
Red Suit (Josh Rouse, 2019)
Reggae Christmas (Bryan Adams, 1985) [close]

Yes, Bryan Adams - the Canadian rocker of renowned mediocrity - cut a holiday record I cherish. "Reggae Christmas" is, in fact, best remembered as the b-side to a truly excrable ballad, "Christmas Time." Adams and company, however, really have a blast on the faux rasta flip, and it's a record that I think you'll cherish, too. "Reggae Christmas" was originally issued as a fan club bonus single in 1984, and this rare issue is the one pictured. It was released one year later as the b-side to "Christmas Time" (click to see), and this is the most common version - and relatively easy to find on festive green-vinyl! Then, that single was issued yet again in 1986 with yet another new picture sleeve (click to see). "Christmas Time" has been issued on CD several times, including on Polygram's short-but-sweet Rock 'n' Roll Christmas Vol. 2 (1998). "Reggae Christmas," however, was only issued on CD once - and then on an incredibly scarce Japanese 3-inch CD in the same configuration as the 1985 "Christmas Time" single. Many years later, however, it was finally compiled on Adams' digital Christmas EP (2020).
Reggae Christmas Eve In Transylvania (Count Floyd, aka Joe Flaherty, 1982)
Reggae Christmas Medley (Shinehead, 1989)
Regina Caeli (The Three O'Clock, 1986)
Reindeer Boogie (Hank Snow, 1953) Top 100 Song
Remember (Christmas) (Nilsson, 1972)
Remember Love On Christmas Day (Thornetta Davis, 2009)
Revolution Wonderland (The Weeklings, 2017)
Ring A Merry Bell (June Christy, 1961)
Ring Out Solstice Bells (Jethro Tull, 1976)
Ring Those Christmas Bells (Peggy Lee, 1953)
Ringing Bells On Christmas Day (Lisa Mychols, 2019)
Ringing In A Brand New Year (Billy Ward & His Dominoes, 1953)
Ringing The Bells For Jim (Johnny Cash, 1963)
Ringo Bells (Three Blonde Mice, 1964)
Rise Up Shepherds And Follow (Lisa Rhodes, 1984)
Ríu Chíu (The Monkees, 1967) [close]

The four Monkees performed this song a cappella on the Christmas 1967 episode of their trendsetting televison show. In fact, the studio recording - but not the TV show - featured producer Chip Douglas with Monkees Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork, and Davy Jones. The traditional Spanish carol had been selected by Douglas, who had earlier performed it himself with the Modern Folk Quartet. "Riu Chiu" was not commercially released, however, until Rhino's Missing Links Vol. 2 (1990), and later the label also included it on Billboard Family Christmas Classics (1995). Years later, "Riu Chiu" was cleaned up and remixed as a bonus track on the 2007 deluxe reissue of Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. (1967), and that version was included as a bonus track on an edition of the Monkees' Christmas Party (2018) initially sold only at Target stores.
River
- Sara Bareilles (2008)
- Rosanne Cash (1995)
- Ellie Goulding (2019)
- Jillette Johnson (2014)
- Aimee Mann (2005)
- Joni Mitchell (1971)
- Margo Price (2020)
Rock 'n' Roll Christmas (The Connection, 2011)
Rock 'n' Roll It's Christmas Time! (Bay City Rollers, 2014)
Rock 'n' Roll Santa (Michael Des Barres, 2012)
Rock 'n' Roll Santa (Little Joey Farr, 1960)
Rock 'n' Roll Santa Claus (Huey "Piano" Smith & The Clowns, 1962)
Rock 'n' Roll-y Poly Santa Claus (Lillian Briggs, 1955)
Rock and Roll Around The Christmas Tree (Merry Elves, 1964)
Rock and Roll Christmas (Cordell Jackson, 1956)
Rock and Roll Christmas (George Thorogood & The Destroyers, 1983) Top 100 Song
Rock and Roll In Christmas (Billy Burnette, 2011)
Rock and Roll Santa (5.6.7.8's, 2003)
Rock and Roll Santa Claus (Babs Gonzales, 1957)
Rock Around The Christmas Tree (Jack Harrell, 1957)
Rock The Christmas Cheer! (Bongos, 2023)
Rock This Christmas Down (Lita Ford & Cherie Currie, 2013)
Rockabilly Christmas (Johnny Cue, circa 1981)
Rockabilly Christmas Ball (Dwight Twilley, 2004)
Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree
- Ann-Margret with Sonny Landreth (2021)
- Becky Barksdale (2001)
- Justin Bieber (2020)
- Taylor Dayne (2021)
- Dion (1993)
- Nicki French (1995)
- Bill Haley & His Comets (1968) [close]
  
  Long after Bill Haley & His Comets helped kick-start the rock 'n' roll juggernaut with songs like "Rock The Joint" (1952), "Crazy Man Crazy" (1953), and "Rock Around The Clock" (1954), the band was briefly signed to United Artists in 1968. Their tenure produced just one unsuccessful single, "That's How I Got To Memphis," released in 1969 (and written by Tom T. Hall, by the way). But, they recorded more songs for United Artists - a fact revealed in 1992 by the EMI compilation Legends Of Christmas Past.
  
  The album includes two recordings by Bill Haley & His Comets that had been gathering dust in the vaults since 1968, no doubt intended for a holiday single that never happened. The tracks are fairly pedestrian covers of Bobby Helms' "Jingle Bell Rock" and Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree," but their historical significance makes up for it since they represent the only Christmas songs that Haley ever recorded with the Comets, formally speaking. Haley had, in fact, previously recorded a Christmas single back in 1951 for a little label called, appropriately, Holiday Records. But, it was credited to Bill Haley & The Saddlemen - and it consisted of two country weepers, "I Don't Want To Be Alone For Christmas" and "A Year Ago This Christmas." Shortly thereafter, the band renamed themselves the Comets and, well, the rest is rock 'n' roll history.
  
  Other than Legends Of Christmas Past, Haley's two United Artists holiday tracks have seldom been reissued. "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" - the better of the two - is also found on Capitol's Ultra-Lounge Christmas Cocktails 4, the final, digital-only volume of Capitol's landmark lounge series. Both songs also appear on a very rare German CD called Merry Christmas compiling 18 Haley-related holiday tracks including scratchy vinyl transfers of the Holiday sides and two tracks by "Bill Haley's Comets" recorded live in 1997, long after Haley's death in 1981.
- Brenda Lee (1958) Top 100 Song
- Mel (Smith) & Kim (Wilde) (1987)
- Partridge Family (1971)
- Ronnie Spector & Darlene Love (1992)
- Vice Squad (2010)
Rockin' Bells (Bill Robbin, 1960)
Rockin' Christmas Time [close]

Steve Brown started out as guitarist for hair metal band Trixter, who came out of Paramus, New Jersey to score modest success with their self-titled 1990 debut album. But, they couldn't build on that success as metal got stomped nearly to death (and largely subsumed) by insurgent grunge and alternative rock. Trixter was over, pretty much, by the mid-90's, but Steve Brown - an enthusiastic, unironic, unapologetic rocker - stuck with it. He recorded "Rockin' Christmas Time" in 2003 with 40ft. Ringo, a new band he formed with fellow former Trixter P.J. Farley - though it appears to have been released only to radio stations and fans as a holiday promotion. In 2009, Brown reissued the exact same recording under his own name so, technically speaking, it was a reissue, not a new release - though Brown never said so in his publicity materials. Anyway, I'm no fan of hair metal (or "glam metal," as its proponents like to call it), but by this time Brown had shorn his shlong and cranked up the pop, and "Rockin' Christmas Time," well, rocks. Dude!

Perhaps due to Brown's persistence, Trixter's reputation seems to have been burnished by time. In 2000, they were voted No. 29 on VH-1's Top 40 Hair Band Countdown - despite having never scored a major hit album or single. In 2008, they reunited and began touring and recording again. And then, in 2021, Brown issued "Rockin' Christmas Time" yet again with a new CD single and charmingly low budget video.
- Steve Brown (2009)
- 40ft. Ringo (2003)
Rocking Carol (New Order, 1982)
Rockin' "J" Bells (Little Bobby Rey & His Band, 1959)
Rockin' Little Christmas (Deborah Allen, 1984)
Rockin' Little Christmas (Carlene Carter, 1994)
Rockin' 'n' Rollin' With Santa Claus (Hepsters, 1955)
Rockin' Ol' Christmas (Christian Serpas & Ghost Town, 2014)
Rockin' On Top of the World (from "Polar Express") (Steven Tyler, 2004)
Rockin' Santa Claus (Martels, 1959)
Rockin' Santa Claus (Moods, 1960)
Rockin' Through The Holidays (Charlie Faye & the Fayettes, 2021)
(Rockin') Winter Wonderland (Fabulous Thunderbirds, 1983) Top 100 Song
Rollin' Into Christmas (Bay City Rollers, 2021)
Rootin' Tootin' Santa Claus
- Tex Beneke (1951)
- Tennessee Ernie Ford (1951)
Round Christmas Time (Smoking Trees, 2014)
Rub-A-Dum-Dum (Yobs, 1979)
Ruby Left a Present Underneath the Christmas Tree (Too Much Joy, 2002)
Rudolph The Manic Reindeer (Los Lobos, 1988)
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reggae (Paul McCartney, 1975)
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
- Gene Autry (1949)
- Cadillacs (1956)
- Ray Charles (1985)
- Bing Crosby (1950)
- Crystals (1963)
- John Denver (1975)
- DMX (2016)
- Five For Fighting (2010)
- Red Foley (1950)
- Harlem Parlour Music Club (2010)
- Corey Hart (1985)
- Lena Horne (1966)
- Burl Ives (1964)
- Jack Johnson & The Roots (2013)
- Daniel Johnston (1994)
- Lemmy Kilmister & Billy Gibbons & Dave Grohl (2008)
- Krayolas (2007)
- Arthur Lyman (1963)
- Billy May (1954) [close]
  
  Billy May is best known as a composer of movie and TV themes ("Batman" is the most famous) and as a bandleader who accompanied a who's who of vocalists including Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, and Peggy Lee. But, May also put out records under his own name, and his wild mambo reinvention of "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" demonstrates both his genius as an arranger and his well-regarded sense of humor. Billy May used a lot of humorous devices in his arrangements, and he often collaborated with comedian Stan Freberg. On "Rudolph," May's brassy, tropical arrangement is helped along by drummer Alvin Stoller's interjections, alternating between comic imitations of Carmen Miranda and Jerry Lewis.
  
  May recorded his "Rudolph" on October 4, 1953, but it was not released until 1954 (no idea why) when it appeared both as a Capitol single b/w "Loop-De-Loop Mambo" and on the collection Merry Christmas To You! (Capitol 9028, 1954). In the digital age, it has appeared on a number of compilations, most notably Rhino's Mambo Santa Mambo and Capitol's Christmas Kisses and Ultra-Lounge Christmas Cocktails.
- Melodeers (1960)
- Les Paul & Mary Ford (1955)
- Kenny Wayne Shepherd (1999)
- Smithereens (1992)
- Temptations (1968) Top 100 Song
- Hank Thompson (1964)
- Ventures (1965) Top 100 Song
- Yobs (1991)
Rudolph's Ruin (Wildebeests, 2000)
Run Rudolph Run
- Bryan Adams (1987)
- Chuck Berry (1958) Top 100 Song
- Bomb Squadron (1996)
- Brinsley Schwarz (1973)
- Luke Bryan (2008)
- Rocky Burnette (2008)
- Dr. Feelgood (2006)
- Dramarama (1992)
- Ducks Deluxe (1975)
- Dave Edmunds (1982)
- Dave Edmunds with Plum Crazy (1972)
- Samantha Fish (2019)
- Fleshtones (2008)
- Foghat (1978)
- Humpers (1993)
- Mary Karlzen (original version, 1994)
- Mary Karlzen (new version, 2003)
- Keith Richards (1978)
- Swon Brothers (2014)
- KT Tunstall and Chris Leonard (2021)
- Vice Squad (2015)
- Whitney Wolanin (2013)
- Dwight Yoakam (1997)
- Yobs (1977)
Run With The Fox (Chris Squire & Alan White, 1981)
Runaway Christmas (Pencil Test, 1997)

[top of page]