Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Virtually every version I’ve ever heard does the same cool arrangement: the “Joyful all…” part is sung in unison, then goes back to harmony for “ye nations rise”. And it sounds awesome. Once in Royal David’s City…the version with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir + orchestra. Gives me chills. Gesu Bambino How Great Our Joy
On the secular, Christmas “carol” side… Sleigh Ride and Winter Wonderland…neither of which actually mention Christmas.
And the Temptations rendition of **Rudolph **is hecka cool.
Darlene Love, Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
“O Holy Night” for a true carol. It always transports me back to Christmas evenings, when I’d often find myself curled up in one of the rarely-used chairs in our “formal” sitting room, reading a new book or playing with a new toy, and listening to carols on the stereo.
On the secular side, it’s “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and I can brook no disagreement. It’s just a masterpiece. It captures everything that matters in a sweet song that has somehow never grown stale or cloying.
Also, I have to give some praise to George Winston’s album “December.” Beautifully evocative.
“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is a bitter, cynical song, not a sweet one. I take it you’ve never seen Meet me in St. Louis, where it comes from?
I have. It’s bittersweet, not cynical. It’s a song sung by a sad adult trying to comfort a child.
I take it you’re writing from the dimension where Big had an alternate ending, the Berenstein Bears delighted children, and Judy Garland actually sang the cynical original version instead of the much kinder rewrite?
I have a problem with “What Child Is This?”, for a rather silly reason. This carol (little-known here in the UK) is of course set to the tune “Greensleeves”. Creation of tune and original, secular words thereof: generally attributed to our King Henry VIII. I see a scenario of that irascible monarch being furious at the hijacking of his perfectly good love song, for a soppy bloody Christmas carol; and having the perpetrator clapped in the Tower, and given a dose of the rack to drive the lesson home…
O Holy Night for the imagery, Carol of the Bells for the music.
Found a Christmas music channel on Roku the other day. One of the first songs it played was the previously unknown to me You Ain’t Getting Shit for Christmas, but I don’t think that’s a proper carol.
O Little Town of Bethlehem
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
because you can sing the words of either song to the tune of either song.
*technically an Advent carol, but since we mostly sing Christmas carols during Advent anyway…
If the song doesn’t need to be old, “Mary, Did You Know?” is wonderful. The level of poignancy is tripled when you realize the lyrics were written by one of the goofiest comedians around, Mark Lowry.
I like so many carols and songs that I can’t necessarily name a favorite. Being a musician makes it harder: do I like that song because I like it, or because I perform it? Mr CK has arranged a version of “Carol of the Bells” that blends in “O Come O Come Emmanuel” this year.
Straight No Chaser’s version of “We Three Kings” that incorporates the theme from “Mission Impossible” is also a great.
I like Pentatonix, but not that one. I think most Christmas music can be reinterpreted with wonderful results. But not Carol of the Bells. Carol of the Bells is a perfect carol with a perfect arrangement. The Boston Pops video linked does it right. Any, and I mean ANY deviation from that arrangement totally destroys it.
And even better was that when the whole “YES I KNEW!! The angel told me!.” thing was going around Mr. Lowry thought it was hilarious and shared it on his Facebook page.