Oh, the look on their faces when the first track started playing was soooo worth the time and effort it took tracking those songs down.
But now this has got me thinking (it is *so* time for me to learn how to make polls – I will try to work on that this afternoon). What are the best and worst Christmas songs ever?
My vote for best would be Run DMC ‘Christmas Is’. It’s upbeat, the theme is charity, and you can’t beat a song that sings the praises of collard greens. James Brown’s ‘Santa Go Straight to the Ghetto’ is excellent for similar reasons.
Worst is still ‘Purple Snowflakes’, but it’s also so bad that if you listen to it a couple of times, your brain will try to convince you that it’s almost good.
Conversely, everything ever done by the Chipmunks has the opposite effect: on first hearing, they seem cute and kitchy, but after a second and at all subsequent times, the sound of their tiny, screeching rodent voices becomes unbearably excruciating.
I wonder, did the Spice Girls ever make a Christmas album?
How about David Hasslehoff? I bet he’s done ‘O Tannenbaum’.
Shatner? The Mini Pops? ???
That is so true about the chipmunks… I put “Christmas Time is Here” on my mega holiday mix and yeah, I skip it a lot of the time.
My fave holiday song is Riu Chiu sang by the Monkees. So lovely.
But you *know* I’m going to look it up tonight when I get home from the office. Can’t listen to streaming stuff here, but I searched the lyrics and translated them; very beautiful words. I hope the tune matches.
River, roaring river, guard our homes in safety,
God has kept the black wolf from our lamb, our lady.
God has kept the black wolf from our lamb, our lady.
Raging mad to bite her, there the wolf did steal,
But our God almighty defended her with zeal.
Pure he wished to keep her so she could never sin,
That first sin of man never touched the virgin sainted.
River, roaring river…
He who’s now begotten is our mighty monarch,
Christ, our holy father, in human flesh embodied.
He has brough atonement by being born so humble,
Though he is immortal, as mortal was created.
River, roaring river…
I just heard a Christmas remake of “YMCA” in the KayBee toys this morning. I honestly have no idea how it went, it was so terrible that my ears gave out.
Believe it or not, the Spice Girls covered the Waitresses’ “Christmas Wrapping,” changing a lot of the lyrics but keeping the same general thing going on 🙂
Howdy. Found you through a N. Gaiman posting. Your journal’s quite interesting and I have to add anyone who shares Beaker as an interest with me.
Best Christmas Song:
Fairytale of New York – The Pogues
This one is far and away and beyond the shadow of a doubt the Best Christmas Song in the history of the universe, and could very well make a run at Simply Best Song Ever.
Honorable Mentions:
Christmas Card From a Hooker In Minneapolis – Tom Waits
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas – John Denver & Rowlf the Dog
I don’t know about worst because there is really too much to choose from.
-DL
I think `The Little Drummer Boy’ (any and all versions with one exception) has finally won out in my`which is worse’ contest – narrowly beating `O Christmas Tree’ just for sheer repetition.
Obviously I’m missing out on some of the new ones – and I do have a *whole CD* worth of songs that I can’t listen to without having decidedly un-festive thoughts, but the drummer boy is unquestionably the worst of the `classics’.
C
hahahaha
my mom always cracks up when she hears the song “little drummer boy,” because when sung in that special filipino way (“para pa mumpum” instead of “parumpumpumpum”), you’re actually singing about people visiting the whorehouse instead of the baby Jesus. this, coming from oh-so-Catholic filipinos….hmm….