Best - “Other People’s Children” by Meg Davis.
Worst - “Angels We Have Heard On High Rap” from Kirk Cameron’s movie "Saving Christmas.
Maybe the best and the worst? I just found out it existed a few days ago. The Fall performing Hark! the Herald Angels Sing
It totally fits with the adage: Every Fall record sounds completely different, but every Fall record sounds undeniably like a Fall record.
PS: Yes, Discord, I wanna bump it. Christmas comes but once a year!
Christmas music is more divisive than even A Horse With No Name!
I love the Chipmunks! ALVIN! O-kay.
Our local classical music station is playing orchestrated versions of a lot of modern songs (Rudolph as if it were composed by Mozart, that sort of thing), and they even did a version of Christmas Don’t be Late. That was…weird.
There are several “worst” songs that are on my short list of favorites, and some favorites here that should be piurged from our collective memory. (Springsteen? Seriously? That song sucks so bad, even Bruce is laughing at how bad it is).
It all probably depends on where you were or what your mood was when you first heard them.
I still sing all the classics with the parody lyrics we made up in grade school.
Holy crap, I love me some Fall, but that was tough sledding.
… which actually got plenty of airplay back in Xmas of '73 in the UK. That rarest of things - a hit single in Latin.
j
Christmas Shoes is not only the worst Christmas song ever made, it’s a strong contender for the worst song ever recorded.
TBH I can’t stand most Christmas songs but for me the absolute worst is “Wonderful Christmas Time”.
I do, however, like Joni Mitchell’s “River” and Dan Fogelberg’s “Same Old Lang Syne”
and I love Vince Guaraldi’s music for “A Charlie Brown Christmas”.
Two brilliant Christmas songs that make it almost seem okay:
White wine in the sun - Tim Minchin
How to make gravy - Paul Kelly
And today has become an unofficial Gravy Day, for people who like the song.
I am a chorister, so I tend to like something with a bit of harmony. My favourites:
Choral:
Bethlehem Down
Shepherd’s Carol (not the Shepherds’ Farewell though that is great too)
Other carols:
In the Bleak Midwinter
It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
Christmas popular songs:
Driving Home for Christmas
2000 miles
Fairytale of New York
Stop the Cavalry
actually my favorite xmas album is by bad religion…when i bought it for my nephew i totally expected nothing but mr graffins talent for snark and parody to dominate … but they played the lyrics straight (except american jesus) … its all just done to hardcore punk music
Worst: Twelve Days of Christmas
Best: O Holy Night
Favorite: Frosty the Bluesman
Kate Miller-Hideke’s version is superior IMO.
Hi Velo, Joni and Guaraldi are very nice, and a weekend ago I would have had no problem with your disdain for Wonderful Christmas Time. But.
Two days ago my 26 y.o. daughter (who is a Beatles fan) asked me if I liked that song. I shook my head and said, Nah, too simplistic, too repetitive, doo doo doo doo wonderful Christmas time, doo doo doo doo wonderful Christmas time.
And apparently she had been listening to it recently: “The keyboards are interesting.”
So, a few hours later I visited Youtube and gave a listen. The keyboards were 80s-ish synths, but they did have several fun bits during the song. The bridge sequence about, “The choir of children sing” was another bit of fun.
I can still understand why someone views it as a net negative, but for the time being I’m seeing it as a net positive. B’god it’s a Christmas miracle.
Best:
The Holly and the Ivy
Carol of the Bells
Good King Wenceslas
We Three Kings
Worst:
Do they know it’s Christmas
Thanks. That version was gorgeous!
There’s also no substitute for “Adeste Fideles”, which is “O Come All Ye Faithful” in Latin, especially if Pavarotti was singing.
From King’s:
Best version of In the Bleak Midwinter
Best version of Ding Dong Merrily on High
That is definitely something I will have to check out sometime Baal, bearing in mind that I got lambasted in another thread in which I said that I don’t like Paul McCartney’s singing (it didn’t go over well at all)
Probably my favorite, it amuses me when I hear it in the stores, and most folks don’t have a clue what it’s saying.
My candidate for worst Christmas song is one not yet mentioned, and one I (thankfully) never heard until about five years ago, even though it’s from 1957.
Even Frank Sinatra can’t save the utterly insipid “Mistletoe And Holly”. This song has the awful rhyme:
Oh by gosh, by golly
It’s time for mistletoe and holly
Which is topped by the even worse rhyme in the next stanza:
Oh by gosh by Jingle
It’s time for carols and Kris Kringle
These crap lyrics are delivered by Frank in a slow, lugubrious manner.
Ugh.
Another vote for “I believe in Father Christmas” by ELP as one of the best. The other is “Grandma got run over by a reindeer”. Honorable mention for “walking 'round in women’s underwear”.
Worst: “I’ve got some presents for Santa”. Too trashy.