We got snow in the Upper Midwest over the weekend, so now not only does the calendar say it’s the Christmas season, it actually looks like the Christmas season outside. So here’s our first Christmas shuffle playlist:
“My Favorite Things”/Kenny Burrell/Have Yourself a Soulful Little Christmas. Man, do I love this album, which I have previously called the swingingest Christmas album of all time. I am not wild about “My Favorite Things,” and I wonder why, when it doesn’t mention Christmas, it’s considered a Christmas song, but this version is pretty cool.
“Away in a Manger”/Bobby Womack/The Christmas Album. This is one of the first Christmas songs you learn in Sunday school, so every time I hear this, I always find myself thinking back to those tentative, off-key renditions I used to be part of during the Sunday school Christmas programs. Womack does it about as well as anyone can, though, on his Christmas album released in 2000.
“Let it Snow”/John Legend/Sounds of the Season. What I’ve heard of John Legend I really like. This is from a limited-edition CD sold at Target last Christmas, and is extremely fine.
“Prelude on the Huron Carol”/Liona Boyd/A Guitar for Christmas. From one of the heavy-rotation Christmas CDs at our house every year, “The Huron Carol” is apparently the first Canadian Christmas carol, written by a Jesuit missionary up in the Great White North, circa 1642.
“Feliz Navidad”/Jose Feliciano. An inescapable holiday perennial that always reminds me of those WLS Christmas shows. (Note to those of you waiting to hear excerpts—hang in there; I’m hoping to get one up later this week.)
“Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town”/Ramsey Lewis Trio/The Sound of Christmas. You may have read about this album at AM, Then FM last week. (If not, go and do.) Lewis gives this jolly holiday song a bluesy twist, making it my favorite version.
“Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow”/Chicago/Chicago XXV: The Christmas Album. There’s a lot to dislike on this album—two numbers featuring a children’s choir, for example—but this is one of the better tracks. The album was originally released in 1995 and then released again in a reconfigured version with extra tracks in 2002. I didn’t realize until today that it was produced by the E Street Band’s Roy Bittan.
“Baby It’s Cold Outside”/Jimmy Smith and Wes Montgomery/Jimmy and Wes: the Dynamic Duo. This tune is usually done as a vocal duet between a girl who’s trying to go home and a man who’s trying to get her to stay, and it almost always comes off as slightly creepy. Smith and Montgomery do it as an instrumental duet between Hammond B3 and guitar, which is much better.
“Ole Santa”/Mighty Blues Kings/A Mighty Blue Christmas. I have praised this album recently as one that will start a Christmas party to smokin’. This, however, is a ballad, perfect for after the party’s over and it’s just you and your sweetie, finishing the last of the wine by the light of the Christmas tree.
“Home for the Holidays”/Living Strings/The Spirit of Christmas. I’m going to do an entire post on this album sometime before Christmas is here and gone. Although it would seem an unlikely candidate for Best Christmas Album Ever, it’s at least in the semifinals.
Each Monday from now ’til Christmas, we’ll hit “shuffle” on the Christmas playlist and see what comes out.
“Let it Snow”/John Legend (buy it here)
Filed under: Christmas | Tagged: Making a list and checking it twice
That Chicago Christmas album is pretty good. I agree with you about the 2 songs with the children’s choir. The other track on it that I absolutely loathe is “Feliz Navidad,” (I love the original) how/why they took a rather upbeat and fun classic and made it sound like a funeral dirge is beyond me!
The 2002 re-release with the extra tracks is pretty good too. I especially enjoyed the Bill Champlin penned “Bethlehem.” And although I didn’t care much for it at first, “This Christmas” has grown on me.
I was going to post something about the Chicago song but Perplexio stole everything I was going to say. I agree with his thoughts completely.
[...] Our friend JB over at The Hits Just Keep On Comin’ mentioned our first cut the other day as he started doin’ the Christmas shuffle. [...]