Christmas Music Free for All

Christmas just isn't Christmas without Father Christmas by The Kinks and Santa and His Old Lady by Cheech and Chong.

Here's some links, one of which has downloadable mix albums.

http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/2007/11/29/4695323-sun.html

http://www.scott-o-rama.com/2007/11/29/its-here-scotts-holiday-album-for-2007/


There was also a site I found last year that had a ton of songs to download. If I can find it I'll post the link.

 

I can't believe there's a page and a half and no one has mentioned the greatest of them all:

The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole

As a matter of fact, y'all do yourselves a holiday favor and just by any Nat King Cole Christmas CD you can find.

And from the days of youth and growing up, it just wasn't Christmas without Mom and Dad wearing the grooves out on the Mitch Miller Christmas albums.

 

You're old.

 

Don't forget Robert Earl Keen's touching "Merry Christmas from the Family."

("Send somebody to the Quik-Pak store -- we need some ice and an extension cord; a can of bean dip, some Diet Sprites; a box of tampons, some Salem Lites.")

 

Simply one of the most magnificent pieces of music ever written.


For something (almost) completely different...

Outstanding performance, and one I still look forward to on PBS every year.

 

No Use For A Name does an amazing cover of it, too.

 

Personal favorites....

Boston Pops Christmas Album (get the one with the two songs from Home Alone on it).
Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Andy Williams all did great stuff. Bing's "Beginning to look a lot like Christmas" takes me back.
Two party staples: the original Rockin Around the Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee and Jingle Bell Rock by Bobby Helms.

 

My favorite, by far. But there's an entire Christmas album out there called "Maybe This Christmas" that is fabulous. A great mix of traditional Xmas tunes and originals sung by some pretty cool artists. Here's the track listing if you're interested in hunting it down:

1. Winter Wonderland - Phantom Planet
2. Maybe This Christmas - Ron Sexsmith
3. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Coldplay
4. Green Sleeves - Vanessa Carlton
5. Blue Christmas - Bright Eyes
6. Happy Christmas (War Is Over) - Sense Field
7. 12/23/95 - Jimmy Eat World
8. Rudolph - Jack Johnson
9. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Barenaked Ladies with Sarah McLachlan
10. Bizarre Christmas Incident - Ben Folds
11. What a Year for a New Year - Dan Wilson
12. Sweet Secret - Neil Finn
13. Snow - Loreena McKennitt

 

Why Jimmy Eat World named a Christmas tune after Festivus, I'll never know.

 

For the Canadian SportsJournalists.commers, your own Bruce Cockburn has one of the best Christmas albums ever.



The John Fahey collections ("The New Possibility" and "Christmas") are terrific as well.

Out on the internet, there are some mp3s of a Beatles soundalike band doing versions of "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" (transmuted through "I Saw Her Standing There,"), "Jingle Bell Rock" ("Please Please Me,") and an absolutely spot-on "White Christmas"/"Ticket to Ride" I would swear had to have been recorded at Abbey Road itself (complete with backup/harmony quotes from "Happy Xmas/War Is Over," that you've got to imagine John Lennon would have gotten a smile out of).

I've always been partial to "2000 Miles" by the Pretenders, too.

In the glory days of Apster-Napstay, I used to just surf for hours downloading Christmas stuff. I have a couple CDs burned full of Christmas songs. A lot of it's crap, but a lot is pretty good.

"Run Run Rudolph" (both the Chuck Berry original and the Keith Richards cover) is pretty fun.

 

I suggest getting the Home Alone Christmas CD. Very good.

Also suggest the Whiffenpoofs version of "O Holy Night" which was used in a West Wing episode.