Damn coding. :mad:
(Fixed it! You just put a /b instead of a /i. Glad to know someone else does that.–Veb)
[Edited by TVeblen on 11-24-2001 at 07:51 PM]
I don’t like Christmas much anyway so the intense saturation of carols, etc. just compounds the fracture. That said, I can enjoy the classical stuff in limited doses.
Of the purely happy/sappy kind, I rather enjoy Little Drummer Boy if listening to the car radio where I can warble along. I can’t sing worth beans OR remember lyrics so it’s easy to let fly with the endless “ba-rum-pa-pum-pums.”
And the parodies crack me up, probably because the endless hoopla annoys me so. Walking around in women’s underwear and the 12 days parodies break me up every time. (“She’s a bitch! I hate her!” “I don’t even KNOW these people!”)
For some reason modern mainstream carols grate on me the most, like Winter wonderland and (Burl Ives?) Holly jolly Christmas. They’re like being force fed with fruitcake: artifical, bland and too sweet.
Grinchily,
Veb
Have you heard their take on Handel’s “Hallelujah” chorus? It hurts…it hurts so much…
(I do, however, like their Renaissance stuff, so I guess I can forgive them. Still, it hurts…)
Anyway, I like the lesser-known medieval sort of Christmas songs – “The Coventry Carol” (perhaps the most depressing Christmas song ever; it’s about the Slaughter of the Innocents), “The Holly and the Ivy,” “The Boar’s Head Carol,” that sort of thing. Oh, and “I Wonder as I Wander” if you have a really amazing soprano…
(Also, I’m assuming the OP is talking about carols and not big classical hoohahs like Messiah, which I love and adore, or stuff like Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, which is also fantastic, and a lot of fun to sing…)
Least favorite: I’m not a big fan of the well-known, secular, Santa Claus type of song as a general rule; the worst, though, has to be either the dreadful Chipmunk song, or “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas,” which sticks in your head for days on end, and is positively maddening.
My favorite Christmas songs can be found on either of two CDs: The Chieftans’ The Bells of Dublin and Phil Spector’s A Christmas Gift for You. My favorite songs from these are:
“Sleigh Ride,” by the Ronettes
“Parade of the Wooden Soldiers” by The Crystals (my dog likes this one)
“Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” by Darlene Love
“The Wexford Carol” by Nanci Griffith
“The Rebel Jesus” by Jackson Browne
I hate to hear NOEL, NOEL.
It’s so damn repetative, and it gets stuck in my head.
Favorites:
Carol of the Bells
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (this one is so sad)
Welcome Christmas (from the Grinch)
You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch
Christmas Time Is Here (Charlie Brown)
The Christmas Song
O Holy Night (by Eric Cartman)
What Child Is this (Mahalia Jackson version)
Fairytale of New York (Pogues)
Favorite:
Most of the religious carols, the older, the better. Especially
The holly and the ivy
The Wexford carol
The Coventry carol
Angels we have heard on high
Least favorite:
Most of the secular carols, esp. the ones from the 50’s, by the likes of Bing Crosby. Winter wonderland, White Christmas, Holly jolly Christmas, and (oh horrors) Frosty the snowman.
and
The little drummer boy
Oh, how could I forget…
Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
…as sung by Brenda Lee? Actually gets me in the Christmas spirit. Really. I’m serious. Also…
Blue Christmas by Elvis Presley
and, even better than those two put together…
Christmas in Prison by John Prine (which is a great song any time of the year)
Peace Unearthed,
TN*hippie
All the music from the The Nutcracker ballet is just gorgeous.
Someone mentioned You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch. I like that one too. Such fun lyrics.
Nothing really grates on my nerves too badly, but I would prefer not listening to overtly secular music.
Favorites:
“Silent Night”
“O Come All Ye Faithful”
“Joy to the World”
“Angels We Have Heard On High”
“I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day”
“O Holy Night”
“Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer” (why, oh why, won’t they do this in church!)
“I Saw Daddy Kissing Santa Claus” (ok, I know! it’s my own version :D)
Least Favorites:
“The First Nowell”
“O Little Town of Bethlehem”
“We Three Kings of Orient Are”
“The Little Drummer Boy”
“The Chipmunk Song” ( damn rodents, get some dynamite and get rid of em for good!)
I love Christmas carols. I spent several hours driving to and from my Dad’s house for Thanksgiving this weekend singing along to them. Some favorites include “Oh Holy Night”, “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem”, “The First Noel,” and “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.” I like good instrumentals, too — I’ve already worn out one copy of “A Canadian Brass Christmas” and I’m working on a second.
What do I hate?
“The Twelve Pains of Christmas” — It seems filled with negativity and hate, which I don’t want to hear at Christmas. (On the other hand, I think “Walking 'Round in Women’s Underwear” is hilarious.) “Grandma Got Run Over by A Reindeer” was cute the first time or two, but is torture by December 5th.
I have a low tolerance for “The Little Drummer Boy”, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”, and “Jingle Bell Rock.” I don’t like Springsteen’s “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” because he screws around with the existing tune and phrasing.
I hate when performers feel they have to inject their stylings into classic songs. I mean, c’mon — they made it to classic status because they were attractive tunes to begin with — we don’t need them all gummed up with all the personal garbage. “Si -hi-hi-lent night. Oh yeah, I mean it was a silent night, baby. Ho-o-ly night. Ho - o - o - - oly night, uhm hum…”
The absolutely worst example of this is Barbra Streisand’s “Jingle Bells” with the ridiculously rushed phrasing and other crap she injects. What an abomination.
(However, the Barenaked Ladies/Sarah Maclachlan (?) collaboration on the “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings of Orient Are” medley is pretty neat. Though it does vary a bit from the original tunes, it seems to respect them more than some of the other “star” versions of carols.)
I have to add a strong endorsement for the “Charlie Brown Christmas” soundtrack CD. The songs are universally excellent, and the performance by the Vince Gueraldi Trio is awesome. It’s a Christmas staple here, and gets played over and over again.
If Charlie Brown never existed, this album could stand on its own as a great Jazz Christmas album.
Favorites:
God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen (I’ll second the BNL version)
Carol of the Bells
We Three Kings (especially the Claymation Christmas version, sung by claymation camels wearing topsiders!)
Do You Hear What I Hear
Good King Wenceslas
The Coventry Carol
Sleigh Ride (Boston Pops!)
Little Drummer Boy (yeah, bite me)
You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch (“You’re a crooked jerky jockey and you drive a crooked hoss, Mr. Gri-INCH!”)
Trim Up the Tree
that weirdass song the Whos sing when they’re gathered around the tree at the end
The Holly and the Ivy
Breath of Heaven (Amy Grant - I don’t usually go in for her, but this is a gorgeous, if sappy, song)
Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella
everything from “A Raffi Christmas” (ah, nostalgia)
Adeste Fidelis
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
the Heat Miser and Snow Miser songs
Least Favorite:
Feliz Navidad! God, the pain…
Mannheim Steamroller does some great Christmas music. I also have a tape of Linda Russell doing Renaissance and Colonial Christmas music. Hammer dulcimers and stuff. It’s great, especially as background music while we’re trimming the tree.
Lo, How A Rose E’er Blooming is great. We sing it every year at the Candlelight Service. I’ve got the bass part memorized.
There is also a choral piece called Christmas Day, IIRC. We haven’t sung it in a while, but it strings together a bunch of traditional sacred Christmas songs. Very nice.
Of course, Nat King Cole’s version of Mel Torme’s The Christmas Song is right up there, as is Der Bingle’s White Christmas.
For Craptacular[sub]TM[/sub] seasonal songs, I’d have to second the barking dogs and the Chipmunk’s Christmas song, which – lucky ME!!! – was the number one hit the day I was born. Which explains a lot, if you know me.
Favourite
Angels We Have Heard On High - especially its ‘Gloria’ chorus which I love singing at Christmas Mass.
Least
Last Christmas by Wham! - ‘this year…I’ll give it to someone special’ arrrgh!
I generally don’t like any Christmas carols. That I am Jewish has a lot to do with it, since I don’t particularly enjoy having a holiday forced on me.
That said, there is one I do like. It’s Do They Know It’s Christmas by Band-Aid, the mid-80s supergroup formed by Bob Geldof.
I also find it somewhat vexing when Jewish singers (Barbra Streisand comes to mind) do Christmas albums. CHRISTMAS IS NOT YOUR HOLIDAY! GAH! (Sorry about the outburst. Nothing gets my goat more than an obviously Jewish singer going after some quick bux by doing a Christmas album. It just seems disingenuous, y’know?)
Robin
I also like Merry Christmas, I Don’t Wanna Fight Tonight by the Ramones.
I like most Christmas songs, although there are versions I could do without.
I have never heard any Manheim Steamroller songs because I don’t care for the name Manheim Steamroller.
What, no one loves/hates Santa Baby, ala Eartha or Madonna? How can you not have an opinion on that one.
Personally, I like it.
There have been plenty of great songs listed here, but I forgot to include one:
We Need a Little Christmas, from Mame.