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Christmas Songs & Singles. This index lists the essential songs (not all the songs) contained on the albums reviewed in my Christmas section, 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 any CD. 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.
- A Soalin' (Peter
Paul & Mary, 1962)
The
popular folk trio adapted this
gentle, intricate tune from the traditional "Wassailing
Song," incorporating "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" as a countermelody. "A
Soalin'" tells the sad story of a hungry lad at Christmas, singing for food,
drink, or a little money - but if listener has none, "then God bless you." Extracted
from the group's 1963 album Moving, "A
Soalin'" charted briefly (#15 on the Billboard Christmas chart) and became
a staple of their live show. However, the original song has never appeared
on a Christmas album, and it has been anthologized in the U.S. only once - on
Peter Paul & Mary's boxed set, Carry
On (2004). The trio reprised their performance on both In
Concert (1964) and A
Holiday Celebration (1992)
- Admit That It's
Christmas (You've Got To) (Zest
Of Yore, 2003)
- After New Year's Eve (Heartbeats,
1957)
- Ain't No Santa (Trick
Daddy, 2002)
A
resounding "Bah! Humbug!" if there ever was one, Trick Daddy's "Ain't
No Santa" makes
a case for Kris Kringle as the creation of a racist society to pacify oppressed,
ethnic minorities. Think what you will, but the Trickster's Christmas dreams
are bleak, indeed. He envisions a world dominated by racist cops, ineffectual
politicians, and clueless educators - and precious little opportunity for guys
like him. Forced into crime, he pleads "I hope God would forgive me after
I spent it on his children." Mr. Daddy concludes, "There damn sure
ain't no Santa Claus," adding in true gangsta style, "If you think
I'm gonna change, you can kiss my ass." "Ain't No Santa" is available
only on Trick Daddy's album Thug
Holiday which, despite appearances, is not a Christmas album.
- All Alone On Christmas (Darlene Love,
1992)
- All I Want For Christmas (Ray Charles,
1986)
- All I Want For Christmas (Shonen
Knife, 1999)
Written
and recorded with Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, Shonen Knife's "All I Want
For Christmas" expresses the time-honored sentiment of making the holiday
season less materialistic, more loving. Moore's strange, sweet words prompted
singer Naoko Yamano to exclaim, "I felt his warm mind when I read the lyrics," though
she renders them nearly unintelligible with her heavy Japanese accent. "All
I Want For Christmas" has never appeared on a CD outside of Japan. Initially,
it was released in three radically different mixes on a specially-packaged CD
single. Later, the "normal" version was included on the Japanese
Shonen Knife compilation Millennium
Edition (2001). The band had previously released another holiday song, "Space
Christmas" (1991), later compiled on their CD, The
Birds And The B-Sides (1996).
- All I Want For Christmas (Timbuk
3, 1987)
- All I Want For Christmas Is A Beatle (Dora
Bryan, 1963)
This British novelty is one of several Christmas songs spawned by the Beatlemania
phenomenon that began in 1963 (read more).
What makes this one special is the fact that it actually predates the
Beatles' invasion of America, which commenced with the Fab Four's appearance
on The Ed Sullivan Show in February, 1964. Musically speaking, Bryan's "Beatle" is
a quaint, cute ditty, not a rocker befitting the band in question. Warbling the
song in an accent somewhere betwixt Eliza Doolittle and Angela Lansbury, Bryan
tells her mum, "I don't care whichever one she gets me - Ringo, John, Paul,
George, they're all the same." Geez.... Never issued on CD.
- All I Want For Christmas (Is A Little Bit Of Music) (Huey "Piano" Smith & The
Clowns, 1962)
- All I Want For Christmas (Is My Girl) (New
Edition, 1985)
- All I Want For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth)
- All I Want For Christmas Is You (Foghat,
1981)
- All I Wanted Was A Skateboard (Super Deluxe,
1995)
- All That I Want (The Weepies, 2004)
- Almost Christmas Time (Dwight Twilley, 2005)
- Alone On New Year's Eve (Manhattans,
1966)
- Always Winter Never Christmas (XTC,
1991)
This
home recording by Andy Partridge was originally released on a cassette, Window
Box given to attendees at the 1991 XTC Music & Friends Convention in
Barrie, Ontario. Later, the song was more widely released as a b-side on the Ballad
Of Peter Pumpkinhead CD single (1992). XTC is best remembered for their 1983
single, "Thanks For Christmas" b/w "Countdown To Christmas Party
Time," released under the pseudonym Three Wise Men; both sides are included
on Rag & Bone
Buffet (1990).
- And To All A Good Night (Five
Chinese Brothers, 1997)
- The Angel And The Little Blue Bell (Brenda
Lee, 1964)
- Angel Eyes (Emmylou Harris, 1979)
- Angels We Have Heard On High
- Roches
(1990)
- Angels We Have Heard On High (Rondelles,
1999)
Beginning
as a lo-fi, DIY, riot grrl sensation, Albuquerque's Rondelles have polished
their act almost into the realm of power pop - and they're better off for it.
The band's
no-frills take on the traditional "Angels" is more the latter than
the former, however, featuring perhaps the most rudimentary guitar solo in
the history of the known universe. Included on Shined
Nickels and Loose Change (2001), an odds-n-sods collection, the track originated
on a CD included with the 'zine Cool Beans (issue
#11).
- Another Beatles Christmas Record (Beatles,
1964)
- Another Christmas (Fuzzy Navels, 2007)
- Another Christmas (Yobs, 1979)
- Another Christmas Song (Jethro Tull,
1984)
- Another Lonely Christmas (Prince,
1984)
Released
as the b-side of "I Would Die 4 U," a Top 10 single from Purple
Rain (1984), this song - highlighted by the Purple One's deathless threat
to "drink banana daiquiris till I go blind" - reached #5 on the Billboard
Christmas charts that year. Available in an extended version on the 12-inch single,
and also compiled on the Warner Brother's vinyl promotional album Yulesville (1988).
Though, "Another Lonely Christmas" has never been included on a commercially
released Christmas CD, Prince included it on his 3-CD retrospective, The
Hits/The B-Sides (1993).
- Another Lonely Christmas (Belton, Richard, circa 1970)
- Another Perfect Christmas
(Jim
LuBrant, 2002)
- Another Rock 'n' Roll Christmas (Gary
Glitter, 1984)
- Are You Ready For Christmas (Luther n'
BBB's, 1987)
- At The Christmas Ball (Bessie Smith
with Louis Armstrong, 1925)
- Aulde Lang Syne
- Ave Maria
- Chris Cornell with Eleven
(1997)
- Ave Maria (Nina
Hagen, 1989)
Called "the
Mother of Punk," semi-operatic princess Nina Hagen has conducted a career
quite unlike any other, resembling none except - and this is a stretch - a
Teutonic Grace Jones. Hagen's dignified, heavily-synthesized, rock rendition
of Schubert's "Ave
Maria" (sung in the original German) is fairly typical of her artistic
approach, engendering - as Ira
Robbins puts it - "a total lack of self-consciousness in both delivery
and subject matter." The song was released only in Europe as a track
from her eponymous
1989 album and as a b-side on the CD
single of "Michail, Michail (Gorbachev
Rap)."
- Sugarboom (1994)
- Away In A Manger
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