Every year we hear the exact same Christmas music. Will there ever be any new Christmas music or is it a complete set? I am not asking about people doing the old songs in different styles , but creating original ones. I think it is the only genre that never seems to change at all.
The Killers have been releasing an original Christmas song every year for a good decade now, so there’s that.
Christmas Shoes was new.
There are all kinds of Christmas songs created all the time. You never hear them on classic Christmas music playlists because they aren’t classics. Yet. It takes a while for them to become classics. There are plenty of “new” classic Christmas songs, if we define “new” as “didn’t exist when I was a kid”. So anything written after 1990 counts as new.
Fleet Foxes released White Winter Hymnal in 2008, and it’s been covered several times already. It’s more in the “seasonal” category than explicitly Christmas, though, but disqualifying for that would get rid of about 1/3 of “Christmas” songs.
Is Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas” the last/newest heavy rotation Christmas song?
Hate to say it but this is the first song I thought of too.
Looked at another way… People are writing new Christmas songs every year. What is the latest or newest song that you would *want *to become a classic?
Christmas Shoes? Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer? Christmas at Ground Zero?
Look on YouTube for “The Little Bolero Drummer Boy”. It’s not exactly new, but it’s recent and innovative.
“Mary, Did you Know” was written in 1991, and is already very nearly a classic.
I would have to nominate Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmas Time.
It gets regular play on any station that is going to play Christmas Tunes and seems to be well accepted by all ages, plus it is a pretty good tune.
Ok, it is about 8 years old, but in the world of Christmas songs it is practically a newborn.
It was released in 1980.
According to Wiki Wonderful Christmastime was released in 1979.
I was in a business this afternoon that was playing classic Christmas songs by current artists and several I liked a lot were by Colbie Caillat. I’ve had a soft spot for her voice ever since she became popular but these were especially nice. Might have to buy a few.
And oh, yeah, for the two or three smooth jazz fans here, here’s one from Paul Hardcastle that I posted last year right after it came out. May have to make it a yearly tradition.
(Sorry, WordMan ;))
Or as Colbert sang in “Another Christmas Song” - “They play for a month, Ad infinitum. One day it struck me someone must write 'em.”
That reminds me, I need to watch that Christmas Special again. It won a Grammy in 2008.
Some of the newer songs from the John Denver/Muppets special have become classics in our house. That was, what, about 1979?
Thank You!
I love the mouseover - An “American tradition” is anything that happened to a baby boomer twice.
Not listed yet: “We Need a Little Christmas.”
Each year, there are dozens* of new Christmas albums released, and some of them include at least one or two new songs. As with most genres, how much new stuff you hear personally depends on where you are, whom you hang around with, and whether you’re a passive listener or an active seeker-outer.
*(may be an exaggeration, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s literally true)
Three songs first recorded in 2012 written by someone you love- ME!!! Your good friend bienville!!!
They’re not in “heavy rotation” yet. Let’s see what we can do to change that!
YouTube links:
[ul]
[li]Family Thanksgiving, Family Christmas[/li][li]That Early Winter Sundown[/li][li]Spending The Holidays With People I Love[/li][/ul]
Enjoy!!!