I started doing a song a day for Advent (November 28 this year through Christmas Eve) and then the 12 days of Christmas (Christmas Day through Jan 6) on Twitter (http://twitter.com/AskMoxie or just read my tweets as they feed through the right side column here). I'll update here so you can see the entire list of songs.
Day 20: "Angels We Have Heard On High" by Committed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55A8YGoPI9A Best group on this season's The Sing-Off, and this arrangement is crystalline and beautiful. 1:25 is gorgeous.
Day 19: "Dominick the Donkey" by Lou Monte. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik_kznmI324&feature=related Best Xmas novelty song ever.
Day 18: "All I Want For Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXQViqx6GMY You know you want to sing along.
Day 17: "Love Came Down At Christmas" by Jars of Clay. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIr5th0d44Y&feature=fvw Hilarious video featuring a flying Christmas taco.
Day 16: "Must Be Santa" by Brave Combo.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnc076s4jt4 The video is just too funny. If you can get all the way to 1:00 without thinking this is the best version of this song ever, then I will never buy you a Jaegermeister shot.
Day 15: "Hark The Herald Angels Sing" by Take 6. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWMmIzk4onw I've loved Take 6 for years. Their vocal harmonies are incredible, and their whole "He Is Christmas" album is a classic.
Day 14: "Sleigh Ride" by Andre Kostelanetz. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPwalrOSB3I This version was on some random Christmas collection record my parents had when I was a kid, so the fast pace and horse whinny at the end (along with that huge countermelody in the last verse) WAS the song "Sleigh Ride." For years and years I searched for this version, and now here it is on YouTube. A Christmas miracle.
Day 13: "La Peregrinacion" from Ariel Ramirez's "Navidad Nuestra." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdHKuT3WW5U This whole piece is amazing, but this song in particular really affects me. I wrote a piece years ago about the lyrics: http://tinyurl.com/22rqg4m
Day 12: "Sweet Little Jesus Boy" by Mahalia Jackson. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Uh4U0VPASE This is the Christmas album of my childhood, and it feels like Christmas is really coming when I play this song.
Day 11: "We Want To See Santa Do The Mambo" by Big John Greer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTONwTXTtwg Really. We want to see Santa do the mambo.
10: "Put The Lights On The Tree" by Sufjan Stevens. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gKzXlqsOeE A sweet, whimsical, lovely song that goes crazy worshipfully chaotic in the middle.
9: "Es Ist Ein Rose Entsprungen" by Nana Mouskouri. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-prg5D-bJo December 6 is German St. Nicholas Day, and this is my favorite German carol. In English it's "Lo, How a Rose Is Blooming."
8: "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence" by Fernando Ortega. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wl4u8lnDQs This song is sad and eerie and beautiful, and Ortega's performance is reverent and simple and lovely. I really love his whole awed, worshipful Christmas album.
7: "Holly Jolly Christmas" by Burl Ives. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sooHzHHh4kM Just classic. This whole Burl Ives Christmas album is awesome and fun for kids and adults.
6: "This Christmas" by Donny Hathaway. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj1mVUEHeUE I have many comments about this song: 1) See, George Michael? It DOES get better. 2) Someone in the comments of the YouTube video called it "The Black National Christmas Anthem" and that made me crack up. 3) Chris Brown and Trey Songz and their lame covers can bite me. 4) No, really, why would anyone try to redo this? Donny Hathaway : This Christmas :: Mel Torme : The Christmas Song. Everyone else go home. 5) Maybe I'll make a mix called "Sexy Christmas" and put this on it every other song.
5: "Last Christmas" by Wham!. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8gmARGvPlI "But if you kissed me now I know you'd fool me again." Yeah.
4: "Gabriel's Message" by Sting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF2BzUDeTkY Wow, what a creepy, intense, mysterious song. And completely fitting. How else to tell the story of a big scary angel visiting an ordinary teenager to tell her she's pregnant with a divine baby and asking if she'll accept? This is the mystery of Christmas.
3: "Little Saint Nick" by The Beach Boys. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSynDh_K0EE Just plain fun. Does it really matter that it's really "Little Deuce Coupe" with Xmasfied lyrics? Not to me.
2: "Blue Christmas" by Miles Davis (not the Elvis song). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-dPUXSWoew This song is so Miles, so blue, and so perfect for getting perspective in the middle of uber-consumerism.
Advent Day 1: "O Come O Come Emmanuel" by Joan Baez. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wq3Tv3c20I This is the simplest, most reverent version of the song I've heard. Joan's Christmas album is gorgeous, and was my mother's favorite when I was growing up, so this song has always meant the start of Advent to me.
LOVE the list so far! Can't wait to see the rest.
Posted by: the milliner | December 02, 2010 at 12:21 PM
Lovely! Aren't Christmas songs fabulous??
I remember my grandmother putting on Elvis' "Blue Christmas" on a road trip we took in the middle of August. It's not a Christmas song for me, but it's a lovely memory...
Posted by: Tina | December 02, 2010 at 12:52 PM
"Last Christmas" by Wham! happens to be one of my all-time favorites. One of my other holiday faves from the 80s is "Do They Know Its Christmas?" by Midge Ure, especially the part where Bono loudly busts out with "Well tonight, thank God it's them instead of yooouuuuu!!!" Cracks me up every time.
Posted by: hush | December 02, 2010 at 02:48 PM
@ hush - I think I bought the extended 12 inch vinyl of "Do they Know Its Christmas". Yes, I am old.
My parents had a Nat King Cole Christmas album they used to play. If I can find a copy on cd I plan on making my sister weepy on Christmas by giving it to her. We are getting used to Christmas without them now that they are gone, but little elements like this are helping us to hold on and connect those days with the new holiday memories with our kiddos.
Posted by: Elaine | December 02, 2010 at 04:02 PM
i made a big, lush, crazy itunes christmas mix, with pop to rock to classical to religious music. i love it & it gets lots of play in december!
Posted by: marci | December 02, 2010 at 06:03 PM
I love Gabriel's Message but prefer the Marillion version to Sting's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuY6b616qgQ
Posted by: Minty | December 02, 2010 at 08:32 PM
ooh, this rocks. thanks so much for the pointer to Joan Baez's version. We used to sing this for Advent in my Catholic school and I LOVED it because it's not the typical cheery Christmas song. (And I'm not even a Christian.)
Posted by: ARC | December 03, 2010 at 01:02 AM
LOVE this! Thank you. Music is big in our house this year for Christmas...it's getting us in the mood. So strange to look outside and see palm trees and blue skies. So we are creating a winter wonderland insde. Isn't christmas music wonderful?
Posted by: Lizzie | December 03, 2010 at 03:01 AM
I was thinking this morning that I needed 10 cc's of Christmas Cheer, STAT! Then, BAM! Run DMC's "Christmas in Hollis" came on. All was merry and bright after that.
Posted by: SarcastiCarrie | December 03, 2010 at 08:28 AM
Love it! Thanks
Posted by: Maxzmama | December 03, 2010 at 09:56 AM
I have "Last Christmas" stuck in my head now. Aieee!
Posted by: Slim | December 06, 2010 at 09:55 AM
I want the Ask Moxie Christmas Pandora station please.
Everything's Gonna Be Cool This Christmas meant a lot to me at one point in the esoteric category.
And @Hush, I have often wondered how big Bono's cringe is every time he hears that song now that he's more educated on the continent! Cracks me up too. Feed the people--stay alive!
Posted by: MemeGRL | December 07, 2010 at 01:39 PM
Bob Dylan - "Must Be Santa" - check it on youtube. Quite a romp!
I'm not really religious, but I enjoyed Olivia Newton-John's cover of Ave Maria.
Posted by: SarcastiCarrie | December 08, 2010 at 02:46 PM
One of my fav's is Mary's Boy Child by Boney Em. And Santa Claus is Coming to Town by the Pointer Sisters. Ooooh and Winter Wonderland by Annie Lennox (or was it the Eurythmics?). I could go on and on... loving this list though.
Oh, and anything by Bing Crosby, of course.
Posted by: Melba | December 10, 2010 at 04:38 PM
One of my favorite Christmas hymns is O Holy Night. I found this absolutely gorgeous version by Tracy Chapman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAqTP0mNvs0
Posted by: Erin | December 15, 2010 at 07:01 PM
My husband adores "Dominic the Italian Christmas Donkey". He nearly ran teh car off the road when it came on the XM Holly station. He thought he had hallucinated the whole thing!
Can I give a vote for Eydie Gorme and Steve Lawrence doing "Baby It's Cold Outside"? 97% less smarmy than the Dean Martin version.
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