Like last year (when we did Volumes 1, 2, and 3) I’ll put the laptop Christmas stash on “shuffle” once a week and we’ll see what comes out.
“The Christmas Song”/Gerri DiMaggio with Richard Davis and Paul Hastil/My Holiday Wish. From a compilation featuring Madison-area musicians, this is a summit meeting of local jazz royalty—especially Davis, now a University of Wisconsin professor of music, a towering figure in jazz and classical music, but who also played on Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks and Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run.
“O Little Town of Bethlehem”-”Christmas Blues”/Willie Nelson/Pretty Paper. At our house, we can’t imagine the holiday season without this album. Hear “Christmas Blues” here.
“A Parade of Toy Soldiers”/Liona Boyd/A Guitar for Christmas. Another essential, which we discovered 25 years ago (a Christmas I’ll be writing about later this month). I was so impressed by the album that I sneaked the radio station’s copy of it home one night so I could tape it.
“Little Drummer Boy”/Duke Pearson/Merry Ole Soul. During the very first Christmas season of this blog’s existence, I suggested that all vocal versions of “The Little Drummer Boy” except for the original by the Harry Simeone Chorale (which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, by the way) are to be avoided. Many instrumental versions are fine, however, including this one, in which pianist Pearson jousts with a drummer who is alternately martial and swingin’. (Merry Ole Soul, from 1969, is one of the best Christmas albums in my collection.)
“O Tannenbaum”/Gerald Albright/40 Years: A Charlie Brown Christmas. If you don’t own the original A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack by the Vince Guaraldi Trio, I don’t think we should see each other anymore. The 40th anniversary tribute by a who’s-who of smooth jazz players is less essential, but pleasant enough.
“Kitty Cats Christmas”/Leon Redbone/Christmas Island. This song is slightly less cheesy than its title would indicate, although this recording commits the cardinal sin of employing a children’s chorus, which we do not dig around here, even at Christmastime. However, Redbone’s odd vocal honk is so disarming that I forgive him.
“In Dulci Jubilo”/Mike Oldfield/The Platinum Collection. Better known to some (to lapsed Methodists such as I, at any rate) as “Good Christian Men Rejoice,” this was an actual hit single in the UK, reaching Number 4 at Christmas of 1975.
You hardly ever hear anybody play the recorder anymore.
“Someday at Christmas”/Stevie Wonder/Someday at Christmas.
Someday all our dreams will come to be
Someday in a world where men are free
Maybe not in time for you and me
But someday at Christmastime
Another year has passed and we’re still waiting, although this year, with a new sheriff about to take over the American government, perhaps there’s a possibility of a glimmer of a ghost of a chance that we might be a tiny bit closer to the idyll. Dream along with Stevie and me here.
“Winter Wonderland”/Ramsey Lewis Trio/Sound of Christmas. I discovered this album last year via AM, Then FM, where Jeff is doing another extensive series of Christmas posts this year. It’s recommended listening all around.
“Another Beatles Christmas Record”/The Beatles. This is the second of the fan-club recordings the Beatles released each year of the 1960s. We wrote about ‘em here last year, and Bill Melville of WNEW.com wrote about ‘em earlier this week.
I could have posted any of these songs, but only one will make my traffic statistics skyrocket, and I’m a whore like everybody else. Get it now because it’s coming down in 48 hours.
check out these 1965 Beatles Christmas outtakes!
hohoho fab!
The Oldfield cut was quite interesting & even enjoyable but in the back of my mind I just couldn’t erase the spooky baritone of the narrator intoning from time to time,”Guitar…..recorder……tambourine…..slightly distorted guitar……”