Holiday Songs That Don’t Suck
Cool tunes that make the season merrier (or at least more tolerable)
SongStack
Okay, I’ll confess: I have a thing for Christmas and holiday songs. Blame my youth as a Whiskeypalian choir boy who sang the part of the the Boy Nicolas in the Benjamin Britten cantata “Saint Nicolas.” Note that I was chosen not so much for the quality of my voice as my projection.
Mind you, Christmas was a mixed blessing for me as a lad due to, first, the time when, at four years old, I crawled under the Christmas tree and toppled it over, and my Dad went ballistic. And being born two weeks after Christmas (when I was supposed to be born; late as usual). With an older brother who was born just a few days before Christmas, He’d always get a big birthday gift and another one for Christmas. But for me it was almost always, “We’re getting you one big gift for Christmas and your birthday.” My simmering resentment finally receded when I realized as an adult that the family gift budget had been tapped out big time just prior to the day I was born.
That day, January 7, is also known as Russian Christmas, or more formally, Eastern Orthodox Christmas. Anyone who wishes to anoint me as their persnal Lord and savior of their immortal soul is welcome to do so.
Similarly, holiday music is a mixed bag for me. Some of it is so saccharine and schmaltzy I wanna hurl. And you can’t escape them when you’re out shopping. But other recordings imbue me with comfort and joy, and I’ve collected many of them in the playlist below, followed by a few big favorites here to woo you into listening to the whole schmear (gotta get some Yiddish in here, as this year, Hanukah begins on December 25th).
Holiday Highlights
“Christmas Wrapping” by The Waitresses: A perfect tune for any of us who may want to say “Bah Humbug,” but still harbor hope for a happy holiday ending to the season. The year it came out, 1981, was in the midst of the punk/new wave years. The song's sound and sentiments are a fitting representation of those times.
The above ‘81 holidays were while I lived in the Big Apple. Which leads me to the deliciously bittersweet “Christmas in New York” from Rodney Crowell. Note that the playlist also has “Christmas in Hollis” and “Christmas in Brooklyn.” I may live in Texas, but NYC is my spiritual home.
The best Christmas songs deserve the finest singers. Hence Otis Redding delivering the R&B chestnut “Merry Christmas Baby.”
As long as we’re talking R&B, it doesn’t get any better than The Staple Singers wondering “Who Took The Merry Out of Christmas.”
The gospel tradition of call and response adds soulful sauce to Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn’s sprightly rendition of “Mary Had A Baby.”
I’d call “Christmas Must Be Tonight,” written by Robbie Robertson and sung by Rick Danko of The Band, a gift for the ages.
And if you need some merriment to battle the Christmas blahs, Kacey Musgraves’ take on “I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas” should bring some delight to your spirit.
More merry vibes from Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks as they boogie-woogie on “Santa’s Gotta Choo Choo.”
The notion underneath “Muhammad Ali (The Meaning of Christmas)” by my late and much-missed friend Greg Trooper – a Muslim blessing the Christian holy day – appeals to my sensibilities. Pray for peace in the Middle East
And as the final sample from my “75 for 12/25” playlist, the masters of cosmic border music, Calexico, deliver a sublime “Green Grows The Holly.”
Bonus Christmas Album Touts
There’s also a number of Christmas LPs I love from start to finish. Atop that list is, first, Seven Gates: A Christmas Album by Ben Keith & Friends. The masterful steel guitar and multi-instrumentalist Keith is joined by such friends as Neil Young, Johnny Cash, Nicolette Larson, J.J. Cale and Mickey Raphael.
Standing head and shoulders with it is The Bells of Dublin by The Chieftains. Only natural given my Irish ancestry and such guests on the disc as Elvis Costello, Marianne Fauthfull, Nanci Griffith, Rickie Lee Jones, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, and Burgess Meredith. Plus Jackson Browne singing his song about the Jesus I believe in.
Wishing you all a Happy Holidays. And if the season isn’t merry for you, I hope, like this music, it doesn’t suck.