shockingly itS a pretty straight Xmas album
Here’s a sort of silly one called Angelo Rosenbaum. It’s very much a Broadway show tune, but every year I like to hear about Angelo’s journey to happiness.
the Kevin & Bean morning show on KROQ in Los Angeles used to release Christmas cassettes and then, starting in 1997, CDs, featuring KROQ bands interspersed with comedy bits (“And now a Christmas wish from Henry Winkler.” “Stop calling me f***in’ Fonzie, alright?”). Some of those tracks were really terrific, like Save Ferris’ rewrite of “Christmas Wrapping” and Sugar Ray w/ The Wilson Sisters covering “Little Saint Nick.”
And it may not be totally unknown, as they did make a video for it, but I’ve always liked the Ramones’ “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight Tonight).”
I don’t know if it’s all that lesser known, since it was featured in a holiday commercial campaign a couple years back, but I’ve always kind of liked The Waitresses’ Christmas Wrapping:
For something a little different, how about a song that celebrates the pagan origins of
Christmas?
Screw the hippopotamus, I want an elephant! This is from an album I got as a kid. Peter Pan Caroleers I Want an Elephant for Christmas - YouTube
One radio station I worked for played “The First Noel” by Karla Bonoff, a singer-songwriter from the 1980s. Though not an obscure song by any means, hers is a beautiful rendition that is rarely heard.
“A-Soalin’” by Peter, Paul and Mary and “Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabela,” an instrumental played on piano by Liz Story, are two songs I always sneaked in, though they were not on the station’s playlist, just because I enjoyed hearing them. Interestingly, listeners not familiar with either often called asking about both songs.
I must admit that I love the song, but Steeleye Span’s version and their version of Latin pronunciation is proper “fingernails on chalkboard” horrific to me. I prefer something a little…tidier:
I’ve got lots of offbeat Christmas songs I could add here but I’ll stick with one of the more beautiful ones, by The Roches:
I Want An Alien For Christmas / Fountains Of Wayne
“December will be Magic Again”, by Kate Bush:
“The Cowboy’s Christmas Ball” by The Killers is a nice little earworm.
Two diametrically opposed pieces
1.) Russian Christmas Music by Alfred Reed. According to Wikipedia, it’s “one of the most performed pieces of concert band literature”. Nevertheless, I spent years searching for a recording of it, in vain. The only recording I knew of it was the one that my high school band made. It was actually pretty damned good, with few errors.
Now I can find it in several places on YouTube. Here’s a good recording of it, below. Despite what Wikipedia says, I’ve never seen (or even heard of, outside the internet) another performance of the piece, a nd have never heard it broadcast, nor on vinyl, casette, or CD (aside from the one vinyl record we performed). It’s worth listening to, at least once. Especially if you’ve been overwhelmed by Christmas music you’ve heard a zillion times before. (For some reason, some YouTube versions – like the one made by the US Army band – are not the complete piece)
2.) Bob Rivers’ album A Twisted Christmas, in particular, the recording of O Little Town of Bethlehem done to the tune of House of the Rising Sun. Wonderfully twisted.
It’s a mash-up but I love the Barenaked Ladies/Sarah McLachlan mash-up here:
Again, heard it first at work.
The only Xmas album that ever gets played around here is “The New Possibility” by John Fahey.
Otherwise, I agree with Tracey Thorn, who wrote:
“Every day’s like Christmas day without you
It’s cold and there’s nothing to do.”
Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin’
This song from two years ago apparently hasn’t caught on; I learned about it in a thread on here and still like it.
Not surprising, but this is quite common to hear on Canadian radio stations.
I remember hearing a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “River” on the radio and wondering who sang it. Turns out it was Robert Downey Jr! (Maybe not lesser-known, but I didn’t know it at the time.)
This is one I stood on the fence about mentioning for a bit. It starts with sleigh bells and other jingly percussion, and has a 24 member choral ensemble. But it’s pretty dang frenetic and psychedelic for Christmas music, and it’s that way for pretty much 20 minutes of it. It calms down in the second half, though.
Then I realized it was recorded on Dec 24th. So, maybe it’s Christmas music for those who prefer to view their tree while loaded on mushrooms and weed? If so, I’m fine with that. It’s good, and it at least starts Christmas-y.
'course, I’m fine with thinking of Santa being named Annual Gift Man and him living on the moon. So YMMV.
I love A Soalin’ by Peter, Paul & Mary. I don’t hear it very often.