THE BEST CHRISTMAS SONGS EVER! (Says I). Part Two

The 1000 Voices Choir of Parkville, Missouri, via the Parkville High School View.

And we're back with day two of my list of the Best Christmas Songs ever as chosen by me using whatever methods I just made up! (Actually, I did use a rubric for the ranking process that was fairly time consuming and very boring, but I'll spare you those details.)  Click through to see the next five songs in our countdown, and if you missed the first day and want to start at the beginning, click here.



20. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel: By far the oldest song on this list, the original Latin text (Veni, veni, Immanuel) dates back at least to the 13th century and possibly before, and the melody is derived from an 8th century Gregorian chant.  The English translation we sing today comes from the mid 1800s.

It's the slowest and most dour of the list, and a tricky needle to thread for a lot of bands.  Too bouncy and you lose the sense of the sacredness; too somber, or muck with the arrangement too much, it loses the underlying sense of hope and everyone needs a stiff drink by the end of it.

But when it's done well, it can be just staggeringly beautiful, the refrain "Rejoice, Rejoice" right up there with some moments much higher up in this list.  This is one of the best versions I've been able to find:




19. Happy Holiday:  And now for something completely different and my chance to display my obscure film knowledge.  In 1940, Paramount Pictures signed Irving Berlin on to do an original musical about an inn that opens only on holidays, with songs specially composed for each of them.  Holiday Inn was released in 1942 and starred Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire as romantic rivals, and includes 12 original songs, each associate with a different holiday, including an unfortunate black face minstrel number for Lincoln's birthday, and this one.

Happy Holiday in the film is actually sung at midnight on New Years Day in the movie, as the set up to the coming year, but these days it's migrated backward in the calendar since it can cover all the various Winter holidays at once.  I couldn't find it in embeddable form, but you can see it in its original setting, sung by Bing Crosby and Marjorie Reynolds here.

Holiday Inn also introduced another song, coming up later on this list.  Take a wild guess.

18.  The First Noel: This song is freaking infuriating.  There are at least three common versions of the lyrics out there, and sometimes different versions are combined to form whole new bastard versions.  It's also not a song that you can just sing one verse and be done with, it feels truncated when you do that. Gah.

It's from the 1700s or so, and English through and through, despite that stupid French word in the title.  (There's a Cornish version that goes "Oh Well, Oh Well, the angel did say" which is brilliant if you ask me.)

Anyway, here's Natalie Cole, rather elegantly skipping the refrain a couple times.



17.  Deck the Halls: Pop quiz.  What do all these people have in common?

Anthony Hopkins

Catherine Zeta-Jones

Bertrand Russell

Answer:  They're all awesome, and they're all Welsh.

Wales also has this flag, with the badass dragon.

And a town with this name, the longest one-word place name in Europe:
      Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch - meaning "Saint Mary's Church in a hollow of white hazel near the swirling whrilpool of the church of Saint Tysilio with a red cave."

Clearly, everything that comes from Wales is awesome.  "Deck the Halls" comes from Wales, therefore, "Deck the Halls" is awesome.  The logic is irrefutable!



16. O Holy Night:  Here's another song that really depends on who's singing.  Most times, it's fine, kind of innocuous, "First Noel" to a different tune.  But in the hands of someone really talented, who really connects with the audience, that first "Fall on your knees" can actually drop you.

Also, the later verses include some bits that push the liberation and equality aspects of the Christian ideal that other songs sometimes leave out.  "Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother / And in his name all oppression shall cease."  I like that, it calls back to the bit in Isaiah 63 about breaking every yoke and lifting every burden.

Here's a good one:


That's it for today.  Come back tomorrow for our next five songs, featuring a bunch of angels, a bunch of bells, and more Bing.

And to see yesterday's five, click here.