Best is Mary’s Boy Child by Boney M
Worst is Simply having a wonderful Christmas time by Paul McCartney.
I tend to like most Christmas music, but with a focus on the more traditional (because guess who associates Christmas with their childhood!). So agree with your first 3 “best”, but I would also pick all of the “worst” category except “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”, which expresses the happy holiday theme “I know you want to leave, but I won’t let you”. :rolleyes: There was a news story about a US radio station that refuses to play it, but it turns out that’s not an isolated incident. In Canada, the nationwide CBC Radio network has announced they won’t be playing it either.
One non-traditional Christmas song I’ll happily add to my “favorites” list is the title theme from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Back in my working days I’d always arrange for extra time off at Christmas, and on Christmas Eve I’d arrive home, looking forward to around two weeks off and lots of festive holiday cheer, and throw this movie into the DVD player.
Couple unmentioned favorites
Calling on Mary - Aimee Mann
It’s Christmas (And I Hate You) - Paloma Faith & Josh Weller
I Believe in Father Christmas - Greg Lake
Agreed, Greg Lake’s Father Christimas is another modern one that makes my list. Also John Lennon’s So This Is Christmas. And an obscure one that probably many haven’t heard, Rebel Jesus. Very country, that one, which is not my favorite genre at all, but I like the lyrics.
This one leads the “wretched worst” pack by so much that it’s almost impossible for me to pick a “second worst”. Grandma got run over by a reindeer is a very distant second.
Best
1 Carol of the Bells - Love the Gary Hoey one
2. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - The Dean Martin version is superb in it’s lounge lizard style
3. Blue Christmas by Elvis
Best: Anything from The Vince Guaraldi album “A Charlie Brown Christmas”
The worst for me is anything that is not from the Vince Guaraldi album “A Charlie Brown Christmas”
Best:
Traditional: God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen
Worst: (unless you appreciate ocker strine, in which case reverse the order!)
Kevin Bloody Wilson "Christmas Song"NSFW
Agree with you on the best, but don’t agree with you on the worst, for which I nominate Little Drummer Boy.
Best: I Saw Daddy Kissing Santa Claus.
Worst: Christmas Shoes. The kid’s mother is dying, and instead of sitting by her side, he’s out shopping for new fuck-me pumps for her to wear when meeting Jesus. And you know he just sells the shoes to buy drugs.
Best: Do They Know It’s Christmas by Band Aid
Worst: Feliz Navidad. Sorry, I don’t speak Spanish, and I don’t turn on an English radio station to hear a song that I can’t understand.
You’re entitled to your opinion of course, but you realize the majority of that song is in English, right?
This has got to be a put on, right?
The entirety of the Spanish in the entire song consists of:
Feliz navidad
Prospero año y felicidad
Of course, the entirety of the English in that song consists of:
I/We wanna wish you a merry Christmas
From the bottom of my/our heart
It’s not a very deep song.
If we can pick New Year songs, I love “You’re Still Standing” on the Christmas album by Jorma Kaukonen, late of the Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna.
The chorus includes a repetition of “Let’s all drink a toast,” but towards the end it segues into “Let’s all take a dose.”
Panis Angelicus is not in any way Christmas related. It’s actually part of the liturgy of the Feast of Corpus Christi, which comes about two months after Easter.
There are a LOT of Catholic songs that end up being sung around Christmas time in this country, because singing Latin songs somehow evokes Christmas among Protestants who don’t know any better. :dubious:
My best:
“O Magnum Mysterium” ~Morten Lauridsen
“Mary, Did You Know?” ~Lowery & Greene Preferably the wonderful version by Pentatonix.
“Cantique de Noël” ~Cappeau & Adam Here it is sung in both the original French, and in the English adaptation by Roberto Alagna. It’s a song that requires a properly trained voice, IMO.
“In the Bleak Midwinter” ~Rossetti (lyrics) I prefer the Darke setting, butthe Holst setting isn’t exactly awful, either. (Gotta say, one of these years I’m heading to King’s College to hear that choir!)
“Silent Night” ~Mohr & Gruber It is so lovely, whether done as a show stopper, or as a simple carol.
My worst:
Too numerous to name. Anything that is stupidly trite, or attempts to trivialize the holiday. Lots of crap that falls in that category.
Special Mention:
“Walkin’ Round in Women’s Underwear” ~Rivers Hey, really good comedy is always appreciated!
I post this version of O Holy Night by Mom and Daddy most every year. Some say it goes too far, but I like the frenetic powerful screaming of the words - an authentic deep struggle to wrap around the meaning and mystery of that magical night when Christ was born.
Love: it’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
Hate: So This Is Christmas